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| MUSICA CUBANA: ROOTS
OF TIMBA |
Project
Title: Musica Cubana: Roots
of Timba
Recipient Organization: SomArts
Lead Artist: Roberto Borrell
Genre and Date Awarded: Traditional Arts,
June 2001
Presented: April 13-21, 2002
Roberto
Borrell and his Orquesta La Moderna Tradición, the only danzón
ensemble in the United States, collaborated with SomArts to produce an evening-length
multi-disciplinary concert exploring the genres of Cuban music that lead
up to the modern popular dance music, “Timba.” Working with his
Orquesta and five master artists, and importing leading Cuban performers
for the production,
Mr. Borrell developed and presented a theatrical presentation, complete with
historical narration, exploring 150 years of folkloric and popular Afro-Cuban
as well as Spanish-Cuban and French Cuban works of music and dance. SomArts
collaborated with the artists, managing technical, administrative and production
arrangements for this complex work, and providing a venue for the performances.
Through
this project, the lead artist and his collaborators were able to create
a work that incorporated Borrell’s unusual, extensive knowledge,
and presented his vision of the evolution of the genres of dance and music
that influence
the dominating popular music of Cuba today. Its course highlighted traditional
genres from tonadas to trova, and tradanza to danzon, through cha cha cha
and on to timba. More than ten different ensembles (many featuring the same
musicians
in different configurations) performed the finished work. Borrell researched,
transcribed and composed the appropriate music and brought from Cuba the
necessary (and locally unavailable) talent to create a work of the highest
production
standards. Among other highlights, he was reunited on stage with his siblings, “the
dancing Borrell brothers,” for the first time in many years.
Musica Cubana, a two-and-a-half hour performance
with narration, was presented four times at SomArts’ theater in San Francisco, and
in two workshops at Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo.
It attracted
large, enthusiastic audiences and the final performance culminated with
a joyful dance party and celebration. For SomArts, it was able to showcase
Roberto Borrell’s
Cuban dance and music classes, held in the Center’s studios, to
the public. Orquesta la Moderna Tradición occasionally performs
at Sunday afternoon tea dances at SomArts, and this popular tradition
has continued since the
production.
Roberto Borrell learned traditional and popular
Afro-Cuban dance, percussion, and song from master musicians and
dancers while
growing up in la Havana
Vieja, Havana, Cuba. He is a respected dancer and percussionist as
well as a teacher
of Cuban popular dance styles. He led the Afro-Cuban Folkloric group
Kubata, in Cuba for ten years before coming to the United States in
1980. First
settling in New York, he formed a new company under the Kubata name
and founded and
directed Son Group. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, in
October 1996 Mr. Borrell founded Orquesta la Moderna Tradición—one
of the only ensembles in the United States that is dedicated to the
performance of
classic Cuban dance music. He is percussionist and musical co-director
of
Orquesta along with violinist/composer Tregar Otton.
The collaborating
organization, SomArts, pursues the mission of celebrating the multicultural
texture of San Francisco by presenting art reflective
of the City’s diverse communities. Founded in 1975, SomArts
is a 30,000-square foot city-owned cultural center with two art galleries,
rehearsal spaces,
and a 300-seat flexible theater. It also contains printmaking, pottery,
and design
studios as well as administrative offices. In 1980 SomArts began
incubating
promising small arts groups by providing them subsidized administrative
office space and over the years, several of these groups have evolved
into nationally
respected non-profit arts organizations. It also operates the Mural
Resource Center, which has developed and maintained numerous murals
through the City
of San Francisco.
Roberto Borrell learned traditional and popular
Afro-Cuban dance, percussion, and song from master musicians and
dancers while
growing
up in la Havana Vieja,
Havana, Cuba. He is a respected dancer and percussionist of Afro-Cuban Yoruba,
Abakua (Calabar), Rumba, Arará (Dahony), and Palo (Congo). He also
is an expert in pronunciation of the non-Spanish languages one must use to
sing
these Afro-Cuban genres, as well as being a master dancer and teacher of
Cuban popular dance styles such as son montuno, danzón, and cha cha
cha.
Mr. Borrell led the Afro-Cuban folkloric group
Kubata in Cuba for 10 years before coming to the United States
in 1980, where he founded
a new
company
under the same name. Kubata, then based in New York City, performed Roberto’s
productions for 10 years in many major East Coast venues, such as the Smithsonian,
Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. He also was founder and musical director
of the famous New York-based Son Grupo, part of Kubata productions. Borrell
danced in the front line of the Folklorico Nacional de Cuba for many years
and, in major United States venues, has performed and recorded both as
a dancer and percussionist, with legends such as Tito Puente, the Machete
Ensemble,
Chocolate Armenteros, “Cachao” Lopez, and Richard Egües.
Mr. Borrell currently is founder, percussionist
and musical co-director of the 11-member Orquesta la Moderna Tradición, one of the only
ensembles in the United States that is dedicated to the performance of
classic Cuban
dance music: son, guaracha, cha cha cha, and especially the lilting grooves
of the danzón. Co-led with violinist/composer Tregar Otton, Orquesta
la Moderna Tradición performs classics of the genre along with
original compositions which keep the tradition alive and vital. The Orquesta
has
recorded two CDs and has played in numerous festivals and clubs nationally,
including
Lincoln Center’s summer music festival, Breckenridge Jazz Festival,
and the San Francisco International Jazz Festival. They have been reviewed
and
featured in Latin Beat magazine, The New York Times, and The
San Francisco Examiner.
- Dancer, Conjunto Folklorico Nacional
de Cuba (National Folkloric Dance company
of Cuba) (1966-68)
- Musical Director, Orquesta
Union Cienfueguera (1969-70)
- Founder and director, Roberto Borrell
y su Kubatá,
a 30-member dance company. Won prizes in Cuban cultural festivals
in 1970, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, and ’77.
Represented Cuba in the World Youth Festival in Havana in 1978.
Later re-formed the group in Washington DC, New York, and the
San Francisco Bay Area (1970-80)
- Performed in the film documentary Machito (1984)
- Recorded Son
of Corazón with Conjunto
Tipico Cubano (1989)
- Breckenridge Jazz Festival, with Orquesta
la Moderna Tradición, Breckenridge, Colorado (2000)
- Grinnell University,
with Orquesta la Moderna Tradición,
Grinnell, Iowa (1999)
- San Francisco International Jazz Festival,
with Orquesta la Moderna Tradición, San Francisco,
California (1999)
- Breckenridge Jazz Festival, with Orquesta
la Moderna Tradición, Breckenridge, Colorado (1998)
- Glenwood Springs
Jazz Festival, with Orquesta la Moderna Tradición, Glenwood
Springs, Colorado (1998)
- Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s
Swing Festival, with Orquesta la Moderna Tradición, New
York, New York (1996)
- Carnival, San Francisco, California (1995)
- Tribute to Nicholas Guillen,
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California (1992)
- Caribbean Cultural Center,
Boston, Massachusetts (1990)
- Tribute to Israel “Cachao” Lopez,
Hunter College Auditorium, New York, New York (1987)
- Fourth Annual
Caribbean Music Festival, Cartagena, Columbia (1985)
- Expression ’85,
Hunter College, New York, New York (1985)
- Hispanic American Festival ’85,
Central Connecticut State University (1985)
- Under the Influence:
The Music of Cuba, American Museum of Natural History, New
York (1984)
- Caribbean Expression ’84, Dag Hammerskjold
Auditorium, United Nations, New York (1984)
- First Cuban Parade, 6th Avenue,
New York, New York (1984)
- Cuba y Puerto Rico Son, Carnegie Hall,
New York, New York (1984)
- Second Conference of African Traditions,
Bahia, Brazil (1983)
- Tribute to Latin America, American Museum
of Natural History, New York (1983)
- First Annual Shango Celebration,
City College, New York (1983)
- U.S. Festival (Apple Computer/Bill
Graham Productions), San Bernardino, CA (1982)
- 4th Annual
African Diaspora, Lincoln Center, New York (1982)
Cuba:
- Carnival of Havana, Comparsa Las Jardineras (1977)
- Carnival of Havana,
Conjunto Yacaré (1975)
- Carnival of Havana, Comparsa Artes
y Espectaculos (1974)
- Folkloric show, Tropicana Cabaret (in the
Tropicana) with Papo Angarica (1974)
- Cabaret Las Vegas (1970)
- Fleitas Brother’s Circus (1968)
- Orquesta Cabaret Sierra (1968)
United States:
- Conjunto Estrellas del Son
- Washington DC Steel Band
- Orquesta Tipica 73
- Conjunto Los Soneros
- Machito and his Cuban Orquesta
- Luis Perico and his Orquesta
- Maria Bausa
- The Machete Ensemble
- Conjunto Céspedes
- Conjunto Tipico Cubano
- Monguito “el Unico”
- Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros
- Lita Branda
- Miguel Quintana
- Los Soneros
- Luis Perico Ortiz
- University of Portland, Portland, Oregon
- Washington State University,
Seattle, Washington
- Mills College, Oakland, California
- University of Massachusetts
- Boys Harbor Music School, New York
- Citicentre Dance Theater, Oakland,
California
- La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley,
California
- Mission Cultural
Center, San Francisco
- Workshops in Switzerland and St. Croix, U.S.
Virgin Islands
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