Rafael Somavilla – La Batea
Rafael Somavilla – Dominga
Rafael Somavilla – Mi Guajira No. 2
Rafael Somavilla – Mirando Traves De Un Mundo De Cristal
You can expect to see nothing but Cuban records in this section during this month, after my time spent at Tienda Seriosha in Havana. This LP might be my favorite of all of the ones that I picked up. Rafael Somavilla was a bandleader of some note in Cuba, primarily it seems with the Orquesta Cubana De Musica Moderna. For this album, songs were selected from Tony Taño, Juan Almeida and Raul Gomez. Knowing those names let me know that this would likely be a great record, as did the fact that there was a cover of Jorge Ben’s “Dominga” which I knew was from a record he put out in 1969. One of the other keys for me was the fact that the rhythms for the album were listed along with the songs and five of the songs were labeled as “Fantasía,” which more or less was used to describe psychedelic music in Cuba. With all of that, more than any other record, I couldn’t wait to clean this one up and drop the needle on it.
Once I did, as you can hear form the tracks above, the album did not disappoint. “La Batea” leads off the album and sets the tone, begining with what sounds like someone handwashing on a washboard and takes off from there into some really wild rhythms. The cover of “Dominga” closes up the album and shares quite a bit from the original, but smooths out the wilder edges of Ben’s original arrangement. In between those two stellar songs are eight other ones (“Mi Guajira” and “Mirando” just my two faves) that constantly flow into unexpected places. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more music from this period of time from Somavilla on my next trip.
Cheers,
Michael