• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 05 / 09 / 2011

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By JON PARELES. Published: May 8, 2011. Rhythm serves both gods and lovers in the music of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, the venerable Cuban group that returned to New York City last week for the first time since 2002 with concerts at Symphony Space. Presented by the World Music Institute, the three shows were part of the citywide ¡Sí Cuba! festival.

Chad Batka for The New York Times. The 15 drummers, singers and dancers of Los Muñequitos, which was formed in 1952 by dockworkers in the city of Matanzas, maintain deep Afro-Cuban traditions of incantation and party music. The religious customs, brought by slaves, still hold the languages and movements of their African origins; the secular ones, rumbas that are at the root of salsa and other Latin pop, are syncretically Afro-Cuban. In the hands of Los Muñequitos these traditions are as kinetic as any music in the world.

Los Muñequitos has survived generational changes. The lineup now includes children of its founding members, and the group is high-tech enough to use wireless headset microphones for a few songs. There was an interlude featuring a fusion that Los Muñequitos has long been experimenting with: rumba-tap, with three dancers in glittery hats and tap shoes joined by a guest tap dancer, Max Pollak. At one point the singers paid tribute to New York City, briefly singing the hook of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” But the core of the band’s repertory was intact.

The pieces often started with a lone instrument, perhaps a few taps of the clave — two, then three — and quickly multiplied. There were syncopations low and high from congas and cowbells, cajón (box drum) and guagua (bamboo slit drum), delineating three-against-two rhythms that were simply unstoppable. The drumming crackled and pattered around sustained voices, a full-throated call-and-response of lead singer — the hearty, grainy Rafael Navarro (El Niño) Pujado or the clarion-voiced José Andro Mello Bosch — and a harmony chorus, unswerving amid the rhythmic barrage.

The concert began with invocations of orishas, deities from the African pantheon, and their dances: the mischievous Elegua with dancers in red and black; the powerful Oya as a crowned female warrior; and the healer Babalu-aye, with dancers in purple performing cleansing rituals. Then came dances from the Abakua, originally a secret male society modeled on its African forebear whose rituals were once strictly private. They included men in striped costumes with straw ornaments, with their faces hidden behind black fabric, strutting and shimmying.

Later there were rumbas in old traditional rhythms: yambú, guaguancó, columbia. The dancing was casual: couples flirting, pursuing, swaggering and thrusting. The music sounded more open ended, with improvisatory lead vocals answered by eager group refrains. In and around them was the drumming, with the drummers flinging around endless variations on age-old beats: tireless, precise, euphoric.

It was the final concert for the season of the World Music Institute, and the last one before the retirement of its founder, Robert Browning. For the finale Los Muñequitos brought onstage audience members and Mr. Browning as well, dapper in a white suit and dancing his exit.

The ¡Sí Cuba! Festival runs through June 16 at locations around New York City; sicuba.org/en.


Source: www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/arts/music/los-munequitos-de-matanzas-at-si-c...