X Alfonso | |
|---|---|
 X Alfonso. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Havana, Cuba |
| Genres | Fusión Hip hop Son Cubano Afro-rock |
| Years active | 1990–present |
X-Alfonso (born c. 1974 as Equis Alfonso) is a Cuban hip hop and afro-rock musician, who played with Audioslave in a concert in Havana on May 7, 2005 in "Tribuna Anti-imperialista".
X Alfonso has been playing music since he was seven years old, “ When I was around 16 or 17, I started playing jazz and fusion music, working with troubadours and putting together my own arrangements and recordings.” X Alfonso started his career with a group called Estado de Animo while he was still at the music school. From early 1990s, when he graduated, he joined the Cuban group Síntesis led by his parents Carlos Alfonso and Ele Valdès, as singer and composer or co-composer. “I arrived just as the group’s keyboard player was leaving, so I started off playing keyboards. Then I found myself on percussion and vocals. That’s how I learned to play the instruments, through necessity.” The group started as a vocal quartet, then turned to symphonic rock before going on to explore a fusion between Afro-Cuban music—Cuban roots—and contemporary music. X Alfonso explains: “my music has always revolved around roots and exploration. That’s what I’m always trying to convey; I draw on folklore, on Cuba.” X Alfonso made six records with “Síntesis” and has released four records of his own and is now working on releasing his fifth. X Alfonso started his solo career in 1998. His first record “Mundo Real” in 2000 is a mix of jazz and fusion. The second “X moré” is more hip-hop, based on a blend of Big Band hits from the forties and the fifties. The third “Delirium Tremens” is more progressive, combining African drums, symphonic orchestra and flamenco. The fourth, “Civilización”, pulls together material from the first three records, and the fifth is a new record: “I’m currently working on “Revoluxion” (with an X). “Revoluxion” reflects a different style and another aspect of Cuban folklore, rumba, drawing on Afro-Cuban culture through a mix of rumba and funk, which is what I'm into now.” He is cousins with comedian Joey Diaz.
As a video clip maker, he is one of the most awarded artists at the Lucas Awards in Cuba. In 2008-2009 he directed the documentary Sin título, about the daily universe of Cuban artists and conceived the Cuban Art Factory (FAC, in Spanish), which as of 2010 becomes a brand new space with transmedia vocation and where emerging young artists (musicians, filmmakers, painters, dancers) converge with others with a longer career. Since 2015, and with X Alfonso in front, FAC has become one of the most important cultural projects in the country, with an artistic proposal, an environment and an audience that have made it worthy of being considered one of the one hundred best places in the world, according to TIME magazine.
In 2010 he received the title of Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF for his artistic work with and for children. [1]
His 2022 album, Ancestros Sinfónico, was listed in NPR's staff picks for the best albums of the year. [2]
X Alfonso finds that today’s new Cuban generation is made of fusion, like his music, “Cubans today are a mix of Spanish, African, English, French, Chinese... A melting pot that has a lot to offer to the pages of history.” And it's this culture that X Alfonso tries to show in his music. “The people who come to see me are rappers, rockers, salseros, young, old.... I have a really broad audience because of the range of music I cover. I try to reflect all of this as a musician, drawing on different rhythms, melodies and harmonies. I’m always amazed to find myself exploring one area then something completely different—total opposites—and when I mix the two together it seems totally normal.”
What interests X Alfonso about Cuba is the people, the people in the streets and the generations of young artists putting their art out there. “I’m basically working with street talent, and I try to show that Havana and Cuba have a whole lot to offer, like every country. It goes far beyond a simple performance.”
The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba. Since the early 20th century the term has been used in different countries to refer to distinct styles of music and dance, most of which are only tangentially related to the original Cuban rumba, if at all. The vague etymological origin of the term rumba, as well as its interchangeable use with guaracha in settings such as bufo theatre, is largely responsible for such worldwide polysemy of the term. In addition, "rumba" was the primary marketing term for Cuban music in North America, as well as West and Central Africa, during much of the 20th century, before the rise of mambo, pachanga and salsa.
The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional music in the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century.
The clave is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organization in Brazilian and Cuban music. In Spanish, clave literally means key, clef, code, or keystone. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, rumba, conga, son, mambo, salsa, songo, timba and Afro-Cuban jazz. The five-stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Cuban rhythms. The study of rhythmic methodology, especially in the context of Afro-Cuban music, and how it influences the mood of a piece is known as clave theory.
Arsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the tres, as well as the tumbadora, and he specialized in son, rumba and other Afro-Cuban music styles. In the 1940s and 1950s Rodríguez established the conjunto format and contributed to the development of the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs.
Rhumba, also known as ballroom rumba, is a genre of ballroom music and dance that appeared in the East Coast of the United States during the 1930s. It combined American big band music with Afro-Cuban rhythms, primarily the son cubano, but also conga and rumba. Although taking its name from the latter, ballroom rumba differs completely from Cuban rumba in both its music and its dance. Hence, authors prefer the Americanized spelling of the word (rhumba) to distinguish between them.
Mozambique refers to two separate styles of music.
Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term Afro-Cuban can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural elements found in Cuban society such as race, religion, music, language, the arts and class culture.
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga and boogaloo dance crazes of the 1960s. His biggest hit was his rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. From the 1970s, he recorded mainly salsa and Latin jazz, before retiring in the late 1990s.
Songo is a genre of popular Cuban music, created by the group Los Van Van in the early 1970s. Songo incorporated rhythmic elements from folkloric rumba into popular dance music, and was a significant departure from the son montuno/mambo-based structure which had dominated popular music in Cuba since the 1940s. Blas Egües was the first drummer in Los Van Van, but it was the band's second drummer, José Luis Quintana "Changuito", who developed songo into the world-wide phenomenon it is today.
NG La Banda is a Cuban musical group founded by flutist José Luis "El Tosco" Cortés. NG stands for nueva generación. NG La Banda are the creators of timba, the most important popular dance and music genre of the past two decades. Prior to founding NG La Banda, Cortés played in the Afro-Cuban jazz-fusion supergroup Irakere, and the seminal songo band Los Van Van.
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill was a Cuban composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his work in the Latin idiom, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop", although he also composed traditional jazz pieces and even symphonic works.
Lázaro Ros was an Afro-Cuban singer. His music borrowed much from Africa, as he performed music of the Lucumí culture, of the Yoruba people from modern-day Nigeria, and of the Arará culture of the Dahomeyan people from modern-day Benin. Ros was largely self-taught, and first learned to sing by learning the chants associated with Santería, a religion based in the Lucumí and Arará cultures.
Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, namely Abakuá and yuka, as well as the Spanish-based coros de clave. According to Argeliers León, rumba is one of the major "genre complexes" of Cuban music, and the term rumba complex is now commonly used by musicologists. This complex encompasses the three traditional forms of rumba, as well as their contemporary derivatives and other minor styles.
Ogguere is a music group founded in 2001. Edrey Riveri(director,creator) and member of the group chose Ogguere, a Yoruba word that means "soul of the earth", as a symbolic name. Their song "Cha Cuba" was recorded in 2001.
Salvador Gonzáles Escalona, born October 21, 1948,in Camagüey, Cuba, and died 16 of april 2021 in Havana, Cuba, was a Cuban painter, muralist and sculptor. His artist name is Salvador.
Descemer Bueno is a Cuban singer, songwriter, and record producer. His first professional gigs were playing bass with Cuban troubadour Santiago Feliú.
Carlos Vidal Bolado (1914–1996), also known as "Vidal Bolado", was a Cuban conga drummer and an original member of Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Vidal holds the double distinction of being the first to record authentic folkloric Cuban rumba and the first to play congas in Latin jazz.
The Havana Cultura Tour is a Cuban music concert tour, taking place in Ibiza (Spain) during summer. The first edition of the Havana Cultura Tour occurred in July and August 2008, featuring three artists from Cuba: a famous rapper called Kumar, an R&B style singer named Diana Fuentes, both accompanied by DJ Erick Gonzalez. Havana Club, the original Cuban rum brand, is the organizer of the event.
Obdulio Morales Ríos was a Cuban pianist, conductor, composer and ethnomusicologist, an important figure in the late afrocubanismo movement. He championed Afro-Cuban music traditions and sponsored artists such as Merceditas Valdés.
Pedrito Martinez is a Cuban percussionist, drummer, singer, dancer, bandleader, songwriter, composer, and educator. He was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. He is a Cuban Conguero performing classic Cuban Rumbas, Afro-Cuban folkloric and religious music. He is a Santería priest. He came to the United States of America from Havana in 1998. He plays the Batá drum, conga, cajón, timbale, and bongo drums, among other percussion instruments. Pedrito learned his craft from the streets of Havana, Cuba. He has performed with Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, Brian Lynch, and Bruce Springsteen. He settled in the New York City - New Jersey area in 1998.
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