SAVOR was started by Cuban born Victor Alavarez about seven years ago. He and his wife Nanette were both seasoned musicians long before moving to New Mexico having paid their musical dues while living in Houston, Texas for many years.

From his days as a soloist, combo mando-man, music minstrel and Latin big band leader back in Houston, Victor had always wanted to get back to his Cuban roots by playing the songs that he had grown up hearing in his native Havana. After leaving the big band scene in the big city, he and Nanette moved to New Mexico. It was not long before Victor realized that his heart yearned to express his Cuban roots through his talent as a mandolin player of thirty years.

The group started off as a quartet playing a variety of Latin tunes. The quartet included Victor on Mandolin and guitar and Nanette on ‘Lola’, the acoustic bass. After a few years of gigging, they recorded an album entitled “Muévete con Savor” in 2002.

Over the next few years, members came and went, but Victor and Nanette kept the group together. Though the group did play some Cuban songs, Victor was determined to follow his dream of playing more of a Cuban repertoire for audiences to learn about and enjoy Cuba’s often forgotten and underestimated contribution to Latin music.

In late summer of 2005, our Havana native began to find musicians that shared in his musical vision. The addition of New Mexico native drummer and percussionist J.J. Oviedo marked a turning point with the group. In early 2006, Victor, Nanette, and J.J. recorded a live album called “Savor: a taste of Cuba.” Soon, other friends and musicians came to Victor’s aide. With the addition of such musicians as Venezuelan born bassist and guitarist Ivan Castillo and later Cuban native and seasoned percussionist René Navaro, Victor found himself the desired and potent recipe for his music. Currently, the group performs as a trio or quartet that includes, but is not limited to: Mandolin, guitar, requinto guitar, acoustic/electric bass and various percussion instruments mostly comprised of bongos, congas, cowbell, and maracas. The music that the group performs includes Cuban and Afro-Cuban songs and rhythms based on the original Cuban ‘Son’; which is the grandfather of modern ‘Salsa’ rhythms. The music is performed in an informal street-like manner, making it raw and infectiously dance-able. In addition, SAVOR’s repertoire includes many other Latin American and Spanish songs for the eclectic and Latin hungry taste. The group that fans and music lovers now see performing in many venues in Santa Fe and Española is the product of several years of hard work and dedication to a personal quest of homage to Cuban music. We invite all who find themselves curious about Cuban rhythms and Cuba’s music to come out and hear us and party with us like on the streets of Habana Vieja!

(PLEASE SEE YOUTUBE CUTS BELOW THE BRIEF HISTORY THAT FOLLOWS)

For those of you who are curious about Cuban history and its music, the following is a brief summary of these two topics:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CUBA In 1492 a Spanish merchant was contracted by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the rulers of Spain, to find a passage to the East Indies. At this time in Spain the royal families would contract merchants to travel to the East, China and the East Indies, to bring goods back to Spain; goods such as porcelain, fine textiles, silk, spices, as well as many other resources. Cristóbal Colón was this merchant contracted by the Spanish royalty to go to the East and bring back such goods. On his voyage they got lost and ended up in the West Indies, also known as the Caribbean. As Spain colonized the islands of the Caribbean, they drastically changed the landscape of each island. Each island was set up with plantation agriculture, meaning each island was essentially one large plantation. They grew fruit, cotton, tobacco, sugar, cocoa and many other things. After these goods were harvested they were sent back to Europe to sell. Because each island was colonized in this manner each island of the Caribbean had, essentially, a different culture. Because the majority of the indigenous population had died out the plantation owners needed laborers from elsewhere. The Spaniards brought in slaves from Africa to work the plantations. Because the Spanish brought few women with them, they intermarried with the remaining indigenous peoples as well as the slaves which assisted in the creation of these new cultures. In 1511 the island was officially mapped and the first trade settlement was built. A few years later the city of Havana was established. Cuba was under the rule of Spain for hundreds of years. There were many battles back and forth between Spain and Cuba; with Cuba trying to gain its independence. In 1898, after many years of fighting Cuba gained independence from Spain. It wasn’t until 1902, however, that Cuba was officially recognized as independent. At this time the United States and the United Fruit Company controlled the resources and money that went into and out of Cuba.

Private Clubs

We now turn the focus to Havana. By the 1940’s many of the cities had grown greatly. There were many members’ only clubs, such as cigar rolling clubs, or base ball clubs, as well as music clubs. Entrance to these clubs was based on ethnicity. One such club was the Buena Vista Social Club. People would go there to dance and sing and listen to traditional Cuban Folk Music.

MUSIC OF CUBA Cuban Folk Music

Cuban Folk Music is very diverse and has been influenced by many different cultures. The coming together of Spanish peoples, slaves from Africa, and the remaining indigenous populations of the Caribbean created many different cultural groups through out the Caribbean. To understand the influences on the music one must understand how the island was colonized. The natives of Cuba were the Taíno, Arawak and Ciboney people, known for a style of music called areito. Large numbers of African slaves and European immigrants brought their own forms of music to the island. European dances and folk musics included zapateo, fandango, zampado, retambico and canción. Later, northern European forms like waltz, minuet, gavotte and mazurka appeared among urban whites. Fernando Ortíz, a Cuban folklorist, described Cuba’s musical innovations as arising from the interplay between African slaves settled on large sugar plantations and Spanish or Canary Islanders who grew tobacco on small farms. The African slaves and their descendants reconstructed large numbers of percussive instruments and corresponding rhythms, the most important instruments being the clave, the congas and batá drums. Chinese immigrants have contributed the cornetín chino (”Chinese cornet”), a Chinese wind instrument still played in the comparsas, or carnival groups, of Santiago de Cuba and have been since over 100 years ago.

Instruments

Many of the instruments played in the Cuban Folk Music Tradition are still played in modern Cuban Folk Music. Instruments such as the Congas, Cajon and the bata drums were brought to Cuba by slaves from Africa. As well as the marimbula this is related to the mbira from Africa. Other instruments such as the guitar and the laud were brought over with the Spanish. Today they still play these drums and the guitar and the laud. They also play slide guitar and bass guitar as well as maracas and clavs.

RHYTHMS

When you listen to the music you can hear the influence of the many different cultures. Many of the rhythms used in Cuban Folk Music originated in Africa. Many other music styles influenced this music such as jazz, mambo, conga, tango as well as Ghanaian High-life, West African Afro-beat and Spanish Nuevo-flamenco. One of the main styles they use is the Son. The son consists of many repeating sections and features much improvisation. The most well known son is La Bamba. Another rhythm style is known as Changui. This style consists of a repeating head with a B-section. The B-section is mainly improvisation. In the B-section there is instrumental improvisation as well as vocal improvisation. Changui originated in the early nineteenth century in the Guantanamo Providence in Cuba. It originated on the sugar plantations which had a high concentration of African slaves. It combines the Spanish elements of guitar with African rhythms as well as percussion.

In the following paragraphs we highlight four specific Cuban rhythms typically heard in a live performance by SAVOR:

Son and Son Montuno

With roots on the island of Cuba, Son Cubano is a style of music that became popular in the second half of the 19th century in the eastern province of Oriente. The earliest known son dates from the late 1500s (the oldest known son is “Son de la Má Teodora”, from about the 1570s in Santiago de Cuba). It combines the structure and elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arara origin. While originally a Cuban music style Son has also become a word used for rural traditional musical styles of Spanish speaking countries and apart from the Cuban variant called Son Cubano other son traditions exist in Mexico where for example the Son Jarocho of Veracruz and the Son Huasteca of the Sierra Huasteca constitute distinct popular musical styles where the concept has been fusioned with indigenous musical styles.Changüí Changüí is a style of Cuban music which originated in the early 19th century in the eastern region of Guantánamo Province. It arose in the sugar cane refineries and in the rural communities populated by slaves. Changui combines the structure and elements of Spain canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of the Bantu Arara origin. Changui is thought to be the predecessor of son montuno, which enjoyed tremendous popularity in Cuba throughout the 20th century. Changüi was born in Guantanamo, Cuba, and originated in the style called Nengon. There are some conflicting answers you will receive when you ask the question, “What is Changüi”? The answer from an ethnomusicology point if view is simple, but like most academic answers, it leaves more questions and sometimes contradicts popular definitions. So then when can we say that we are playing Changüi and not Nengon? The academic answer is that you are playing Changüi once the ensemble consists of these 4 musical instruments: Marimbula, Bongo, Tres, Güiro (or Guayo) and one or more singers. Also, note that Changüi has no son clave. Clave had not been invented yet. Instead, the guayo plays on the down beats. The guitar-like tres gives changui its distinctive sound by following the melodic line of the song and reinforcing the harmonic structure of the guitar instruments.

Cuban RumbaIn Cuba, Rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba influence came in the 16th century with the slaves from Africa. Rumba arose in Havana in the 1890s. As a sexually charged Afro-Cuban dance, Rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd. Afro-Cuban rumba is entirely different than ballroom rumba, or the African style of pop music called rumba. Rumba developed in rural Cuba, and is still danced in Havana, Mantanzas and other Cuban cities as well as rural areas, especially those with a significant or predominant black community, although now it is infused with influences from jazz and hip hop.
Bolero In Cuba, the bolero developed into a distinct dance in duple time which eventually spread to other countries, while the dance itself gradually disappeared from Cuba, leaving behind what author Ed Morales has called the “most popular lyric tradition in Latin America”.^[2] The modern Cuban bolero song tradition originated in Santiago in the 19th century. The travelling, storytelling trova (or canción) tradition was major basis for the Cuban bolero, influenced by a variety of European musical styles. The trova was usually accompanied only by a guitar, and had a rootsy, Spanish sound.^[3] Some musicologists also trace an influence from the traditional son music of the Mexican state of Yucatan; this is actually quite plausible, as the traditional music of this region sounds very much like the bolero, having many similarities in melody, tempo, and vocal style. Though some scholars date the bolero to the early 19th century, Ed Morales dates it to José Pepe Sánchez’s Tristeza, in 1885, which popularized the term bolero and is now considered the first classic in the field.^[4] The Cuban bolero traveled almost immediately to Mexico after its conception, where it became part of the repertoire of Mexican traditional music. In fact, some of the bolero’s most prominent composers have come from Mexico, an example being the great Mexican composer Agustín Lara. In the 1950s, sung boleros became extremely popular and have enjoyed enduring popularity as a popular song form throughout Latin America.