The Countrypolitan Case of the Uptown Latin Sound

Music today from Cuba... and occasional Cubans in New York. This is another case of the Uptown Latin Sound, my genre bucket devoted to jazz-influenced and cosmopolitan sounds, generally from Havana...

But there is a twist to today's show: my focus this time is on the "big city" music of Santiago and other regional capitals... but not Havana. Although much of the music here was certainly recorded in Havana, the musicians and the musical traditions come from outside the capital.

This music shows the pop touches and the production quality of big city recordings, but the music all has its roots in the Cuban countryside. We will hear country sounds like guajira, alongside rootsy urban sounds like guaguanco, all given a little extra polish for sophisticated urban ears. Even the biggest of orchestral arrangements heard today are laid over musical frameworks taken from outside of Havana.

Several songs today from the recent Machito compilation "El Rey del Mambo" on Grosso! Records, as well as selections from one of Machito's earliest recording gigs with Cuarteto Caney.