Cuban Sound Has Paris Sizzling

The past couple of years have seen landmark collaborations between Cuban and American musicians scale the charts and sell into the millions in the U.S., most notably the Buena Vista Social Club-Ry Cooder project and its myriad spinoffs and clones.

Now a mini-wave of Cuban collaborations is rolling into the U.S. marketplace--but they don’t involve established American artists. Rather, they feature young musicians from Paris.

Unlike the traditional Cuban recordings that have done well here, the new offerings mix traditional and modern Cuban sounds with international alternative, hip-hop, reggae and rap sentiments. And while the more traditional Cuban offerings of recent years have showcased standard Cuban love songs from years gone by, the Paris-Havana collaborations boast edgier lyrics that speak of poverty, immigration and the search for justice.

Two names have emerged as leaders of this wave of Paris-based alternative Cuban sounds, both of them members of the now-defunct Franco-Spanish punk-rap outfit Mano Negra, and both recording for Virgin France, distributed in the U.S. by Higher Octave Records, a Malibu-based label that specializes in “adult-alternative” and world music.

One is Sergent Garcia, a Paris-born rapper, guitarist and singer of Spanish and French descent. The other is French dance music programmer Tom Darnal, who heads P18, a 13-piece orchestra named after an ethnically mixed neighborhood in Paris. Both have released debut albums in recent months.

Though the leaders of both ensembles are French, several members of each band are Cuban residents. Garcia explains the collaborations this way: “Paris is one of the world’s great immigrant cities. You’ve got people from all over the world there, and music from all over the world.”

‘Interesting Hybrids’ Are Flourishing in Paris

Joe Rakauskas, chief operating officer for Higher Octave, says, “Paris right now is the world music capital. There are so many musical styles flourishing there. It’s just a very friendly and inviting place for Latin and African musicians to experiment, and a lot of interesting hybrids are developing there.”

Indeed, the members of another Paris-based band, called Orishas, all are from Cuba. They rap about gangs in Cuba, among other problems there.

Rakauskas says musicians in Paris have had an easier time than U.S. musicians in keeping up with musical trends in Cuba over the last 40 years. In that time, U.S. citizens have been forbidden by U.S. law from traveling to Cuba, but French citizens have traveled freely on direct flights.

Garcia’s debut album, “Un Poquito Quema’o,” of which more than 200,000 copies have been shipped to France, hit U.S. shelves last week. Rakauskas credits Garcia’s success in France to a more open radio market, noting the album has already produced a French pop hit.

Garcia, who got his musical start at age 15 playing in punk-rock bands, describes his music as a global fusion based on Cuban sounds--including the older son and the newer, energetic timba--and U.S. funk, hip-hop and rap. He was in town last week working on remixes with L.A. rap groups Delinquent Habits and Cypress Hill.

Born to a Spanish father and a French mother, Garcia, 35, describes himself as a citizen of the world, and says, “In these times anyone living in any part of the world can hear and play music from any other part of the world, as long as you respect traditions.”

P18’s Darnal, also 35, echoes Garcia’s sentiments about Paris as a sort of global hub for pop music that fuses elements from many different cultures. P18’s debut album, “Urban Cuban,” released in October, was partially recorded in Cuba.

Darnal describes P18’s music with a term he invented while talking to reporters there. “We say it’s electropica, because it’s electronica and tropical music combined.” He also compares his group to London’s ragga-jungle hybrid Asian Dub Foundation.

The Paris-Havana collaborations speak to political issues, namely poverty and oppression, though Darnal and Garcia both say their messages are not aimed at any particular government or political affiliation.

Garcia says the song “Hoy Me Voy” was inspired by the difficult ties faced by immigrants all over the world, and not just by the plight of those fleeing Cuba. And Darnal says P18’s song “Somos el Futuro,” which features a sample of a Che Guevara speech and a chorus of Cuban children chanting “We are the future,” is aimed at Cubans in Cuba and Cuban Americans in Miami whose political differences continue to affect generations of children.

Public Radio, Alternative Outlets Promote Albums

Both of these albums are being promoted in the U.S. through world music outlets such as public radio stations, as well as alternative Latin music vehicles such as the Long Beach-based rock en espan~ol magazine La Banda Elastica. Josh Kun, host of Viva 107’s weekly alternative Latin radio show “The Red Zone,” has been spinning songs off both albums and says they could be the first Cuban collaborations is recent years to appeal to a young clubgoing demographic in the U.S.

Unlike the U.S.-Cuban pairings of recent years, the Paris-Cuban collaborations appear to have the potential to reach Cuban audiences in Cuba as well, where popular music tastes run more toward timba and rap than to the traditional son popularized in the U.S. by the Buena Vista Social Club.

Garcia says that he’s heard from friends in Cuba that bootlegs of his album were spreading “like crazy” across the island, a fact that cheered him artistically in spite of the bad news for his bank account. Cuba has only one official record label, run by the state, and it is difficult to come by any other legitimate recordings there.

“It means a lot to me to know they like our stuff in Cuba,” Garcia says. “What we do is fusion, but you still want to be true to the roots.”