Eduardo, what exactly were you envisaging when you started Sierra Maestra al these years ago?
Eduardo Himely (bandleader, bass): "Sierra Maestra was named after the highest mountain region in Cuba, which is also the birthplace of son music. We were honestly nothing more than a bunch of amateur musicians wanting to play music copying the style of the great Septeto Nacional. In those days son music hardly got any attention anymore, as salsa bands like Los Van Van and Irakere were in the spotlight."
Yelfris, as the youngest member of the band, what does son mean to you?
Yelfris Valdes Espinosa (trumpet): "I started playing with Sierra Maestra a little over five years ago. Jesus Alemañy, the original trumpet player of Sierra Maestra was a great inspiration to me. I do realize that I'm one of the few Cuban youths around that are still playing son - right now the youths in Cuba listen mostly to salsa and reggaeton - but I feel privileged to be able to play with musicians of the caliber of Sierra Maestra."
With Jesus Alemañyi and Juan De Marcos, two founding members of Sierra Maestra left the band. A blood-letting like that could have meant the end for a lot of bands, but not so for Sierra Maestra.
Eduardo Himely: "Well, first of all I should maybe say that we parted on the best of terms both with Jesus and Juan and we still get in touch now and again. Son music has a very easy and universal rhythm, so it doesn't really matter who's playing it, as long as what you are doing on stage is up to scratch, the people will like it and dance. We just make sure that with Sierra Maestra we have top musicians on stage and the rest takes care of itself."
When Juan De Marcos left Sierra Maestra, together with Ry Cooder he started a project that would grow to become Buena Vista Social Club, the band that would make son an international phenomenon. How did that hype impact what you guys were doing?
Eduardo Himely: "Well, you have to know that when Juan and I formed Sierra Maestra it was little more than a hobby project; we just wanted to play music so we decided to form a band without thinking about where or how far we wanted to take it. To answer your question, I think it was really the other way around; when we got a record deal with World Circuit for our '¡Dundunbanza!' album, Nick Gold, who manages the label, and who is a great and intelligent guy, got interested in doing more with son music and that's how the whole Buena Vista Social Club project eventually came to be. Because it was also around that period that Jesus Alemañy and Juan De Marcos left the band, another consequence was that the Sierra Maestra's line-up was rejuvenated, which meant that musically speaking Sierra Maestra started incorporating other influences."
Yelfris Valdes Espinosa: "That's something that was clearly audible on our last album, 'Sonando Ya'."
How much of what you guys play on stage is improvised?
Yelfris Valdes Espinosa: "All the songs have what we call a foundation on which we as individual musicians can build. My instrument, the trumpet, is ideal to improvise on but it's not as easy as we make it sound, because we always have to make sure we stay in tune with the other musicians."
Eduardo Himely: "Personally I've always considered Sierra Maestra to be, above all else, a live band; and live you can always go even further when you're improvising than on record."
Jack Maas (tour manager, friend): "For those trumpet improvisations in son music, we really have to thank Felix Chappotin (Member of Cuba's most popular band of the 1920s and '30s, Septeto Habanero. Felix Chappottin continued to inspire Afro-Cuban music with his sweet-toned trumpet playing for more than six decades. Inheriting the leadership of Afro-Cuban tres guitarist Arsenio Rodriguez's big band, Chappottin renamed the group Conjunto Chappottin y Sus Estrellas. In the 1950's, Chappottin and his group, featuring vocalist Gerardo Martinez, released hit after hit and were seen regularly on Cuban television. The group's popularity met a hostile reaction from the Cuban government and dictator Gerardo Machado, red.), who introduced this style of playing in Cuban music. Son music is like a conversation; the subject doesn't change, but the sentences that are used, vary every time."
Jose Antonio Rodriguez, who was really the voice of Sierra Maestra, passed away a couple of years ago. How do you guys remember him? What kind of a person was he?
Eduardo Himely: "For us he was first and foremost a brother. When he passed away, the thought of replacing him never even entered our minds, because that would have simply been impossible. Our only option was starting fresh, like a new Sierra Maestra almost. Jose Antonio was not only the voice of the band like you just said, but for many he was also the face. Stepping into his footsteps hasn't been easy for Jesus Bello, but I think in time people will come to see him as the voice of Sierra Maestra just as they did with Jose Antonio."
Jack Maas: "In my opinion Jose Antonio Rodriguez was simply one of the greatest voices Cuban music has ever known. He was in the same league as for example Miguelito Coni (8 may 1917- 13 march 1984, was one of the emblematic voices in son music during the 1940's, 50's and 60's, red.), Candido Fabre (Cuban musician, song writer, and singer, famous for his art of improvisation, Fabre made himself famous as the songwriter, arranger and main vocalist with La Original de Manzanillo. As a Cuban songwriter, Candido has written over 1000 songs which have been performed by artists such as Orquesta Aragón, Los Van Van, Manguare, Issac Delgado, Celia Cruz and Oscar D'Leon, red.) and Beny Moré (24 August 1919 - 19 February 1963, was often thought of as the greatest Cuban popular singer of all time. He was gifted with an innate musicality and fluid tenor voice which he colored and phrased with great expressivity. Moré was a master of most genres of Cuban music, such as the son montuno, mambo, guaracha, and bolero, red.)."
A lot of the older generation soneros have passed away, is there still a future for the genre or will it die along with them?
Eduardo Himely: "It's a question we get asked pretty frequently. The truth is I think in Cuba we have enough young people - like Yelfris for example - interested in traditional Cuban music, ready to step in and take over. Look at what happened to son music already; when we started out, there was hardly any interest in son anymore, but these days the whole world knows about it. Oriente (Oriente, Spanish for "East", was one of six provinces of Cuba until 1976. The name is still used to refer to the eastern part of the country. The provincial capital was Santiago de Cuba and both Fidel and Raúl Castro were born there, red.) is teaming with son bands again!"
Yelfris Valdes Espinosa: "'Sonando Ya' was nominated for a Latin Grammy, which proves that son music is still very much alive."
Eduardo Himely: "True, the importance of the Latin Grammy's shouldn't be underestimated, because before they were established in 2000, Cuban music had no way to reach out to the world because of the American embargo (The United States embargo against Cuba is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo partially imposed on Cuba in October 1960. It was enacted after Cuba nationalized the properties of United States citizens and corporations and it was strengthened to a near-total embargo on February 7, 1962. Titled the Cuban Democracy Act, the embargo was codified into law in 1992 with the stated purpose of maintaining sanctions on Cuba so long as the Cuban government continues to refuse to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights", red.)."