WOMAD

La Familia Valera Miranda

From Cuba

The Familia Valera Miranda are six musicians from the Oriente region of Cuba, which is geographically close to Haiti and Jamaica. It’s a region whose dominant musical form, son, is also different from that around Havana. Son displays Cuba’s Hispanic culture through its instruments – the guitar, double bass and tres, a guitar with three double strings – and its African heritage through the call and response style of the songs. But, although it is a mixture of influences, son is unquestionably a Cuban style that is not replicated anywhere else. And its light, infectious rhythms are well suited to an English summer festival, as anyone who saw Sierra Maestra here three years ago will tell you.At the heart of son rhythms are the wooden claves, which play a repeated syncopated beat. The bongoes (also known as requinto) provide a counter-rhythm, and the maracas cover the gaps. The bass provides harmony as well as rhythm, the tres fills in counter-melodies and the cuatro (a lower-pitched tres) provides harmonic fills with the vocals. It’s a style that seeks a balance through lightness, rather than providing a heavy beat at the centre.Son began as the rural music of Oriente, although a hybrid of it eventually became popular in New York and returned to Cuba as salsa. Son’s lyrics reflect its roots – love, food, dance and drink remain the staple topics – but there are often satirical undertones and sexual wordplay.Felix Valera Miranda, a tres and percussion player who now runs the Department of Traditional Music in Santiago, the capital of Oriente, is the lead singer of Familia Valera Miranda. His wife, Carmen Rosa Alarcon Gamba, and the rest of the group, including the couple’s three sons, also sing. The family has Hispanic, African and Indian roots, so they are an embodiment of the cosmopolitan beginnings of son.