Formell’s Fans

As a 30-year veteran writer and radio host in the field of world music, I would like to respond to Agustin Gurza’s piece about Cuban artist Juan-Carlos Formell (“Enemies: A Musical,” July 7).

Formell is a brilliantly original guitarist-composer-arranger and one of Cuba’s most interesting contemporary artists. His new record, “Las Calles del Paraiso,” is by deliberate design a subtle and intricate album that does not fit squarely into any category of Cuban music. As a musician-composer and vocalist, he is easily the equal of Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, to whom it would be a more appropriate comparison. That he had to go into exile to make his first record, which was almost immediately nominated for a Grammy, does raise questions about how nurturing the socialist schools of Cuba really are and why a person of his gifts could not find an outlet in his own country.

AL ANGELORO

Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Gurza’s article was a personal and political diatribe, not a professional review of a work of art.

It is impossible to fathom how anyone listening to either of Formell’s two albums (the first, “Songs From a Little Blue House,” was a Grammy nominee) could draw Gurza’s conclusions. Formell’s voice is hauntingly melodic and perfect for his songs. Missing from the review is mention of Formell’s breathtaking mastery of the guitar; he is an undeniable virtuoso in the much-admired Trova style. Formell has been critically and appropriately compared to Caetano Veloso, among others.

As an admirer of Formell’s music and an anthropologist, I was dismayed by the naive “essentialism” in Gurza’s comment about the music of Cuban refugees. Gurza implies that the real Cuban music can only come from true Cubans in Cuba. It is by now a commonplace observation that the crucible of exile often gives rise to the most innovative music, literature and art.

To call Formell’s music “nostalgic” (Gurza’s label for the work of Cuban musicians here) is to profoundly misunderstand his re-examination and fresh rendering of Cuban themes and traditions. The review was a travesty of the work of an accomplished and important artist.

SUSAN SPERLING

Berkeley