By Mario Tarradell / The Dallas Morning News. 07/27/2000
Albita is on a mission again. The acclaimed Cuban singer-songwriter is back to honoring her musical roots, the sound of her homeland, after a brief detour.
Son,the one-name artist's debut for independent label Times Square Records, is a pivotal album. Artistically, the CD is a spirited trek through Cuba's "son," a rhythmic, syncopated style that is the root of salsa. Albita's originals mingle with son classics in a setting brimming with
real musicians and capped by the singer's throaty, passionate voice.
"The idea was to recapture, to make a record directly aimed at the heart of Cuban music roots," she says from her Miami home. "The previous record was a more mixed album, a record where for the first time I interpreted other genres such as merengue and vallenato. It was a very
interesting experience because I had never sung those styles before. But I wanted to retake the Albita concept, which is to work within the Cuban roots."
The "previous record" Albita refers to is 1997's Una Mujer Como Yo,an eclectic, merengue-heavy album clearly aimed at expanding her devoted but diminishing audience. It, too, was a significant effort. But not for the obvious reasons.
Una Mujer Como Yo became her third and final album for Crescent Moon/Epic, the imprint run by friend and producer Emilio Estefan Jr. It's also her most controversial project. The public's knee-jerk reaction was to point at the dreaded sell-out factor. Albita, staunch purveyor of Cuba's rich
rhythms, had succumbed to label pressure and made a more commercial record.
Albita disagrees vehemently.
"Nobody put a gun to my head and forced me to do anything," she says firmly. "Everything I did, I did it knowing what I was doing. Perhaps I was discovering new worlds, experimenting. You also have to be open to the suggestions of people who have been in the market for 30, 40
years. You have to be open to many things. I tried it, it didn't interest me, so I decided to go back to me. But in all my records there was Cuban music. I never abandoned it."
Son,originally recorded for Sony, was rejected by the label. Albita was able to legally buy back the album, and since she produced it herself there was no creative middle man to consult.
"The point was, precisely, to try to demonstrate that there's nothing old or new," she says of the songs on Son."The music is one. And when it's music like son, which is the style I dedicate this album to, it's such good music that it survives and transcends eras. It transcends
the frontiers of space, of time, of geography."
The same can be said for the "30-something" Albita Rodriguez, who dropped her last name early in her professional career. From an early age, she felt an artistic pull in disparate directions. She was raised with the sounds of punto guajiro, the music of the Cuban farmer. It was largely
improvised music, strong in lyrics and poetry. As a teenager, she developed her song-writing skills as a guitar-toting troubadour. Finally, Albita performed in a Cuban cabaret for three years, six nights a week.
"I had a musical formation that had little in common with what was happening with the other artists in the island," she remembers. "I had those three mixtures, very strange, and that gave me a very ample foundation. I am so grateful for that today. Sometimes people try to box me
and it's very hard for them."
Albita defies categorization. Take, for example, her stateside debut, 1995's No Se Parece a Nada. Musically, the record moves from salsa scorchers such as "Que Manera de Quererte" to percussive slammers like "Mi Guaguanco" and the lush, orchestrated ballad "Bolero Para
Nostalgiar."
But, realistically, No Se Parece a Nada was renown as much for its music as it was for its striking black-and-white cover photography. There's Albita dressed in an androgynous Marlene Dietrich-style suit, two-toned shoes and French beret.
"That idea came from Ingrid Casares and Emilio Estefan," she explains. "I'm not sure why they wanted a Marlene Dietrich look. Maybe it was because I don't look like your typical Latin woman. I'm short, pretty diminutive. It was an idea, perhaps one that I wasn't so crazy about. I
let myself be led."
Albita lives and learns. She's happy with the personal, dedicated treatment she's received at Times Square Records. It's a far cry from the huge business conglomerate atmosphere of Sony. But for her, the bottom line remains the same.
"The most important thing is to keep making music," she says. "If you tell me that many like my music, I want that. But if you tell me that fame comes with long autograph lines, endless photo shoots and paparazzi sneaking into my house, that I don't want. I just want Cuban music
to triumph."
© 2000 The Dallas Morning News |