domingo, 24 de agosto de 2008

Daniel Ponce


Vía la antropóloga Ariana Hernández-Reguant: Fidel's eyeglasses... buen blog de música cubana y brasilera (la botella de ketchup rota por el piso habla claro del contenido), en este caso comentando New York Now! el primer álbum del conguero Daniel Ponce, con grupo estelar de la época (entre ellos el desaparecido cantante Regino Tellechea).

Decía esto el New York Times de Daniel, en 1983: Daniel Ponce, the Cuban conga drummer who arrived in New York City in 1980, has been a leading mover and shaper in a fascinating crossfertilization of Cuban traditional, ritual and popular music with jazz and funk strains. His set Thursday careened along like a locomotive threatening to jump the track. It would slow down to focus on an individual element such as Mario Rivera's flute and trumpet playing, or Orlando (Puntilla) Rios's command of Yoruba polyrhythms. Then the first-rate band would fall back into the groove and off the music would go again. ¡Que tiempos aquellos en la Gran Manzana!