These unique musical time travelers are straight out of the 1940s and the early 1950s, their style reflecting a repertoire culled mostly from the preceding three decades. This is Cuban retro music performed as if it was written yesterday and yesterday was 1952.
The quintet’s identity owes something to Santa Clara, a stylish town far enough from Havana to retain its own culture. The huge revolutionary importance of Santa Clara, where Che Guevara’s guerrillas defeated Batista’s forces and panicked him into fleeing Cuba and where Che’s remains have been reverently entombed, has imported pride, self-confidence and cultural freedoms to the poorest of its people. Although the province of Villa Clara has produced some of the great names in Cuban musical history, Los Fakires became its big stars, regarded with reverence and great affection by the population.
Juan José Bringues – saxophone and leader
Born into a passionately musical family in Holguin, Cuba in 1929, Bringues was a pianist by age six and a clarinetist by eight. A professional saxophone player at 18, he went on to play with some of the great Cuban bands of the 1950s. After performing on the clarinet, Chinese cornet, piano and double bass, he returned to his first love, the sax, with Los Fakires big band and was responsible for bringing the other together to create the extraordinary son quintet that is Los Fakires today.
José Remie – guitar
Remie, the quiet, dignified, silver-haired and mustachioed guitar virtuoso, (known in Santa Clara as sonrisa or sunrise for his wonderful smile with its knee-weakening effect on his many female fans) was born in 1937, the son of a Jamaican immigrant mother who introduced him to music in the Pentecostal church. He grew up speaking English and humming Jamaican calypsos. The unusual tuning of his guitar is one of the contributors to the unique sound of Los Fakires.
Martin Chavez (Cascarita) – lead singer
Cascarita, named for his extraordinary deeply-ravined face, is the tiny, energetic, half-Chinese singer, guiro and claves player, who laughs and scampers round the stage like a teenager. Some friends call him ET. He was born, like Bringues, into a deeply musical family. Where did he get his face? “From my mother, who was Chinese and a Cuban friend of my father.” And his amazing rum and tobacco voice? “Well, I knew practically from birth that I would be a singer. As a child I was singing, singing, singing all the time, everywhere. I formed my first group at school; my father, a tres player, and his friends, almost all musicians, encouraged me a lot.” Before joining Los Fakires, Cascarita was already widely known in Cuba for his performances with the big stars of the 50s, including Miguelito Cuni, Beny Mor? and Compay Segundo.
Rafael Valdés (Felo) – second voice
Born in Santa Clara in 1929, Felo was working as a professional musician for half a century, in cabarets and festivals throughout the island, before joining Los Fakires. His warm, laid-back, honeyed tones contrast with Cascarita?s hoarser sound. His specialty as soloist is emotion ? charged ?afros? such as the wonderful ?Siguaraya.?
Gilberto Abreu – bongo
The baby of the group, Gilberto studied at several music academies and started performing professionally at the age of 15, subsequently gaining wide experience with several well known groups before joining the original Los Fakires big band in 1981. A gifted bongo and paila player, his also a mean drummer and trompetista and with Bringues, co-arranger of many Fakires standards.
Discography:
Los Fakires (Universal, 2002)
Son de Cuba (Caribe Productions, 2006)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
