Part 12 ‘Parade of Stars 2’ – of the 12-part series about Sonora Matancera.
Every first Friday of each month, starting on 7 January 2011 at 7 pm, the Concertzender will start broadcasting a 12-part series, a musical documentary about the most charismatic orchestra of Cuba: Sonora Matancera.
Each programme will be repeated twice in the same month and can be listened to after (see the "Programmagids" or programme guide).
For a brief history of the orchestra with photos in the weblog, click here
Time flies! The most recent recording in this 12th part of our Sonora Matancera series dates back to 1989. With manager Rogelio Martínez’ death in 2001, it was the end of ‘conjunto’ after about 80 years. It is very sad that in their country of origin Cuba, for political reasons amongst the people about 50 years or younger, the most Cuban orchestra of all time is hardly known if at all. Forbidden since their forced move from Cuba in 1960. But their music lives on. Not only are the records still sold today and even re-released, but also Colombian orchestras still carry the orchestra’s flame by replaying and rerecording their strong repertoire note by note.
In Colombia, the orchestra is simply extraordinarily popular. But now often with more modern electronics yet in the same strength, because the formula of Sonora Matancera with its 2 trumpets and piano, timbales and only one tumba (or conga) is incredibly strong. In this final, 12th episode we play voices of singers that have only made six or less recordings with the orchestra. Even still, not all of them have been featured because some of them have sung at the orchestra but have not been recorded, while other recordings are almost impossible to find (too rare). With a single recording, these singers, usually from other South American countries, immortalized themselves instantly. Some of the masses in the west only know them because of their Sonora Matancera past. Do not underestimate that! A single recording with the orchestra was enough to make yourself a legend and profit from it for the rest of your life – the orchestra was THAT famous.
In their own country, these singers were usually well-known already, such as Carmen Delia Dipiní (Puerto Rico) or Víctor Pinero (Venezuela), Tona la Negra (México), Chito Galindo (Uruguay), Johnny López (Puerto Rico) and Rey Caney of Los Compadres from Cuba, just to name a few. With this series, we hope to have given the true fans a complete overview of the path and history of this famous orchestra.
Programme overview:
7 January 2011 – Part 1 ’80-year overview’
4 February – Part 2 ’Bienvenido Granda’
4 March – Part 3 ‘Daniel Santos’
1 April – Part 4 ‘Celia Cruz’
6 May – Part 5 ‘Nelson Pinedo’
3 June – Part 6 ‘Celio González’
1 July – Part 7 ‘Carlos Argentino’
5 August – Part 8 ‘The other singers – I’
2 September – Part 9 ‘The other singers – II’
2 December – Part 10 ‘Sonora Matancera – Live!’
6 January 2012 – Part 11 ‘Parade of Stars – I’
3 February 2012 – Part 12 ‘Parade of Stars – II’
Every time, the repeats can be seen 10 days (on Monday) and 19 days (on Wednesday) later. You can find this information in our programme guide.
