Sur Caribe Attracts Young Cuban Audiences

(Prensa Latina – Cumbancha) Havana, Cuba – The Havana Music House (Casa de la Musica) was once again a full house. This time, the attraction was Sur Caribe, which brought a young audience that seemed to have no limits for dancing, and followers of this Cuban musical group which became the top seller of the EGREM recording company in the year 2000. Previously its popularity was limited to the eastern part of the Island.

Sur Caribe is an important part of the rebirth of a phenomenon: to see young people dance Cuban music in couples. Their latest CD titled Sur Caribe….Con To has introduced a variant of Cuban “son” combined with the conga from Santiago de Cuba.

Its director Ricardo Leyva Caballero, also composer and arranger, joined his destiny to this group in 1987. “It has been a long and difficult process, but it’s not our first recording. However, it is the first that has had national promotion. For the rest of the country, it’s been a discovery. The first printing was sold out, and they had to make a re-edition,” said Leyva, who plays the piano and is graduated from the Cuban arts schools, like the rest of the band members, and does not forget who influenced him. “Juan Formell, because of his arrangements, was the one who motivated me most. I also feel motivated by Felix B. Caignet, who I followed as a composer, the magic of troubadour music, and its lyrics; that is why there are no vulgar lyrics in our songs. And I think that’s where everything comes from.”