Interview with David Calzado

La Charanga Habanera - Milan 2004

Welcome to Milan. How do you find the Italian audience?

Well now we feel at home; now it's almost like a family. Now we know that there a lot of people who are familiar with are many of our songs, so it's easy to know that we're going to have good communication with the audience.

Tell me about the new CD, I know that you've changed styles a little...

What happened is that the CD “Soy cubano soy popular” has had a lot of vitality. The CD is still very strong in Cuba. Then it was necessary to make a new production, and I thought that it wouldn't be a good idea to do a new CD along the same lines, so I preferred to make a different CD.

Did you want to experiment with other types of music?

Yes, that's what I wanted, and I think it was precisely the right moment to do it, since the other CD is still holding firm with a lot of strength. So in November, approximately, we will record another CD in the "natural" style of the Charanga. But this was an experiment that seems to be turning out very well, because now in Cuba there are two songs that are big hits. One is entitled “Ay amor” and the other is a new version of a song that was very famous in ‘93 that is titled “Mi estrella”. Since this song is from 92/93 the young generation didn't know it and it is very successful. The new CD also has some ballads, since we have had a lot of success with the ballads we have included on previous CDs. Now on this CD we have included some ballads. It is softer, with the intention of waiting for the other CD “Soy cubano soy popular” to finish its “work”, since it still has a lot of strength.

So what do you think will be the future of timba, now that reggaeton has become so popular in Cuba?

Look, reggaeton is really gaining popularity but it seems that it will be a transitory music style. It will pass rapidly. I believe that timba will continue to last, as long as it is done intelligently and the artist look for for modernity. What you have to watch out for is to not lose touch with "the times”.

Last year the Charanga turned 15. Tell me some memory and if there is special CD that has given you the most satisfaction.

Well in the 15 years a lot has happened in la Charanga Habanera....first more than 40 musicians have passed through, counting musicians and singers, and I would like to thank all of them of course, for their participation at the time in which each one played. Of the CDs there are two that are very important for me, that compete, they are “Tremendo Delirio” and “Soy cubano soy popular”...if I tell you which one has had the best results it's “Soy cubano soy popular”. Never in the history of  la Charanga Habanera has the orchestra been as popular in Cuba as at this moment, because before we had a very important audience but a more marginal audience. Now we have a larger audience.

Well, I love these two CDs. I also like the others, [he laughs] a lot of good things have happened, but the most important is to recognize the work of all of the charangueros since 1988 who have done an excellent job so that the Charanga continues to be where it finds itself at this moment.. 

Now tell me what music is it that you listen to and that influences you?

Well when it comes to listening, I listen to everything, symphonic music, classical music, I listen to rock, soul, timba, the only thing I don't listen to is salsa, the salsa that comes from Puerto Rico. I don't listen to it, although they do a good job and everything but...it doesn't “reach” me. It's like listening to the music of the 50s in Cuba, it doesn't call my attention much...even though I recognize that they are doing good work.

But yes, I listen to my timba colleagues, and of course I listen to any type of music that I consider to be well done, with taste and with love.

Last year Oscar D’Leon talking about his opinion of the music that was being made in Cuba said that he was not in agreement with the music that was being made simply because the Cubans wanted to demonstrate everything at once, the quality of the music that they made. What is your opinion of this?

I think that Oscar D’Leon is a great...a great singer of music - I wouldn't say salsa - but rather Cuban music. But it seems that Oscar D’Leon is a singer of another generation. It seems to me that what he has done is transcendental, very interesting, very important for world dance music. But I think that the criterion on which Oscar bases his opinion is based on the opinions of an earlier generation.

If at this time Oscar went to Cuba what do you think would happen?

Well at this moment in Cuba people are not listening to Oscar D’Leon, so clearly it would be very different from the way it was. But in every way he left us with a very pleasant memory. I'm sure that a lot of people would go to see him.

The last question, how do you think you can win the competition with the salsa artists that are backed by important record companies?

Cuban timba can't compete with anything because it doesn't have promotion on par with these salsa groups. The competition will be real, will be valid, when we all have the same possibilities. I am satisfied with being very popular in my country, and it's the same for any artist. When you are popular in your country, it is more than enough. I think that in Cuba we are at currently among the three top orchestras, not to say the first, and have been now for two or three years. That is, I'm happy, and for this work. Of course if the opportunity arose to do more promotion and to invade other parts of the world I would be even happier. But I'm not going to stop doing what I do and what I feel because I don't have the help of these people.

David Calzado y Claudia D'ammassa