Juan de Marcos González thinks his music is like a drug.
“It’s a kind of cultural cocaine,” he said. “People fall in love with Cuban music.”
De Marcos and his band, the Afro-Cuban All Stars, will perform at the Hult Center on Friday night on the fourth stop of their first U.S. tour in six years.
“Afro-Cuban music is a rock ‘n’ roll of the Caribbean. It’s a powerful music that mixes elements of jazz with tropical music in complex musical terms,” de Marcos said, explaining his sound. “Whenever you hear the Cuban music, you move your hips.”
Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars
WHEN: | 7:30 p.m. Friday |
WHERE: | Silva Hall at the Hult Center |
ADMISSION: | Tickets are $18 to $36 and available at hultcenter.org. |
MORE INFO: | afrocubanallstarsustour.com |
The Shedd Institute, which has a goal to promote a wide variety of music and address the needs of various music constituencies in the community, is sponsoring the group’s performance.
“We look at diversity of music for one thing, and we’re looking at who are some really important people,” said Ginevra Ralph, co-founder and director of education at the Shedd Institute. “In this case, we’re looking at fulfilling some of our mission around Latino music and when you’ve got someone like Juan de Marcos González coming, that’s really the best.”
De Marcos has received considerable international acclaim throughout his career and was an instrumental force in the organization and recording of the “Buena Vista Social Club” record, which reunited some of the most prominent Cuban musicians of the 20th century and won a Grammy in 1998.
But de Marcos has been unable to play in the U.S. since his last nationwide tour in 2003 because of the political climate.
“After 2003, the Bush government said that no Cuban musicians could play the U.S.,” de Marcos said. “We couldn’t come, but this year we are coming back.”
The current line-up of de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars features a diverse array of 15 stage performers, including some of the original members of the Buena Vista Social Club.
“The Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club are very similar, but now the band is younger,” de Marcos said.
According to de Marcos, the performance will be a kind of journey through the history of Cuban music, combining all kinds of styles and mixing influences to create an infectious, rich blend highlighting the musicianship of the group.
“We will be using all the remarkable styles, from traditional to contemporary, to showcase musicianship,” de Marcos said. “This is the cream of Cuban music, featuring some of the best Cuban music stars.”
De Marcos has made it his mission to help revive the popularity of Cuban music. He often talks about the height of popularity of Cuban music in the U.S. in the 1950s, where it was featured in numerous film soundtracks and popular venues, and his goal of helping Afro-Cuban music reach that level again.
“Cuban music has been out of the market for more than 50 years because of political reasons. Right now, my mission is to try to show the diversity of Cuban music to the world and show that we’re still here, and we’re still on top,” de Marcos said.
De Marcos said that, despite its relatively small size, Cuba is a culturally huge country, with more than 75 different styles of popular music. He explained that diversity is the key feature of Cuban music, and of his performance. De Marcos plans to use around 150 different musicians on his next album, including many from a variety of age groups and backgrounds, like in the Afro-Cuban All Stars tour.
“I like the mix of generations and styles on the same track or album, so no one gets left behind. It’s very good environment for music projects and the arts in general,” he said.
Similarly, de Marcos’ next project is an album he envisions as “Breaking the Rules.” It would feature Cuban musicians and others from around the world, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Mexico.
“This tour is the first step,” he said. “The second step will be an album released next year, and the third step will be a second American tour.”
Ralph and the Shedd Institute encourage everyone to attend Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars, regardless of their prior knowledge of or exposure to Afro-Cuban music.
“If you know them, you get to see them live. If you don’t know them, one of the hallmarks we’re trying to say is: Take a risk. We’re bringing the best. Even if you don’t like it, you’ve reacted to somebody important. It’s worth the risk, and it will be terrific music,” Ralph said.
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