Reviews

Here's a musical institution with few rivals. For 80 years Septeto Habanero (they were originally a sextet) have been playing the son of Cuba, keeping it alive, helping it grow, keeping it fresh. They handed down the sound to generation after generation, through social and economic hard times--the dictator Machado considered son subversive--and good times; the current regime encourages cultural development and made the band "professional musicians" with a state income and support. The group developed the country music of Oriente, added brass in the late '20s, went to New York to record in the '30s, and became a cultural icon in the '80s as the cultural freeze between New York and Havana began to thaw. The sound has not changed radically from those old recordings made in New York, and this 1997 session shows the current band to be rock solid and true to the tradition laid down eight decades ago. Smooth, precise and full of soul, Septeto Habanero carries on.
--Louis Gibson