It was the last Bay Area concert with David Calzado y la Charanga Habanera. The Cuban band had been touring the U.S. and apppeared for the first time on the West Coast. They played to a sold-out crowd at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz. Just before their last set, I caught up with David Calzado, leader and co-creater of La Charanga Habanera. Though exhausted from the previous set of non-stop muisc and dancing, he montioned me over and we began.

Q: First of all, welcome. Can you talk a bit of what happened when the original group separated?
David Calzado : What occurred was that approximately four years ago, la Charanga Habanera needed some young blood, new blood, people with a desire to play. When bands start up and make it, they want to eat up the stage, eat up the people, be their best, but many musicians age inside and they start working in a mechanical way, in an automatic manner. La Charanga Habanera is a band that needs to have spontaneity, strength in the blood. There has to be a complete giving of oneself on stage and I think it was time for some people to move on.

At that point I was going to have a graduation for eight people. When the remaining band members found out that the eight people were going to be replaced they rebelled. Well, out of fourteen musicians there were six who I thought could still be in the band, but since they defended the cause of the others, I decided that all fourteen band-members should leave. And I stayed with Michel only who is now the lead singer of the band and the others were chosen by me. La Charanga Habanera is not a band; it’s a concept and that concept is David Calzado. As long as David Calzado is alive, there will be Charanga Habanera. There may be a better band or an inferior band, but only one Charanga Habanera!

Then, Michel and I went out and in 5 days I found the musicians–young, old, quite talented, musicians of great quality. And we formed a group and, after a month of rehearsing, we had our first concert.

Q: How long ago was this?
DC: It’s been three years, no, two and a half. That concert was in Cuba one month after the celebration. And it’s been so good that in 1998 and 1999 we were chosen as the most popular band in Cuba. The band was chosen by a popular vote that far surpassed the votes of all the other groups that were nominated.

Q: What came next?
DC: In 1999 we were internationally solicited on 17 occasions. And so, in 24 months, we have had 17 different tours. That is a great record, not just for the Charanga Habanera, but also for almost all Cuban orchestras. So, after this, I can tell you that if you ask me how I feel about it, I would tell you that I have the joy of having been able to find another band.

Q: How has the new CD been received?
DC: Those two records/CD’s are not out on sale in the United States yet. Right now we are working out the licensing details to have an American company distribute it in the US.

At any rate, since it’s a hot record, as always, as La Charanga Habanera always does, the singles in it are strong, ‘heavy’ as some call them. We have played a varied repertoire where there’s everything from the past ten years and we have, of course, done new things to this recording, and we have also done some traditional material as we always do.

For me it’s been an impressive tour. Especially in this area, in the West, I had expectations about the band not being known. Since it had never been here, I expected small audiences. I thought I was going to take my first steps. And now I’m worried we have come and all the places have been very, very, very full. Now the problem or the concern is not ‘I want that,’ but ‘how do I keep this?’ I have really been amazed because I had expected to go from low to high. Now we have begun big and so the concern is how to become bigger. Because there is something that happens and that is that bands come here and they become known and people like them, but they begin to decline in popularity. We must do a great job for Americans and Latinos who are in the US because this country has many artistic manifestations of great quality. So… it’s not easy.

Q:I had taken some visiting Cuban musicians to play at an R & B club. One of the U.S. musicians, after hearing the Cuban musicians play, commented that once Cuba was open and more Cuban musicians move here, they [the American musicians] would be out of work!
DC: I think that you will see that the school of music in Cuba is very strong. The truth is that it is very difficult to find a group outside of Cuba that can put together so many quality musicians in one band.

Q: Thanks to our government.
DC: Thanks to you [U.S government] and because of the circumstances. I'm telling you, it is eveident that it is going to bea sensational day when the doors are open and Cuban music comes to meet the rest of the world. I truly belive this.

Q: Do you leave for Havana tonight?
DC: No, tonight we are going to Los Angeles to do two more concerts, Saturday and Sunday.

Q: Where do you go next?
DC: Then we’ll go to Puerto Rico, the Island of Enchantment. On Friday the 24^th we’ll be at the Tito Puente Amphitheater. There we’ll perform with Justo Betancourt's group, a band of the former Fania musician, and with a group that plays plena. On Saturday we’ll play with Papo Luca and La Sonora Ponceña and with Willie Rosario and Isabel Bandera at a place called San Juan Chateau. Then we’ll go to Miami to do our fourth, fifth and sixth concert. We did three concerts in Miami and now we are going to do three more.

At this point the cue was given for the band's next set to begin. I thanked David for his time. He smiled and said he would have more time during their next vist. The second set was firey and true to form: hot music and moves from this new la Charanga Habanera. Check the Events Calendar for their next visit - be sure and get ticktets early!

Listen to a sound byte from their latest CD 'El Charanguero Mayor', available at descarga.com

To view the video clip from their Santa Cruz 2000 concert again, click here!

Interview, photos and video ©2001 by Julia Sewell
Transcription and translation ©2001 by Marcia Y. Barahona
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

It was the last Bay Area concert with David Calzado y la Charanga Habanera. The Cuban band had been touring the U.S. and apppeared for the first time on the West Coast. They played to a sold-out crowd at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz. Just before their last set, I caught up with David Calzado, leader and co-creater of La Charanga Habanera. Though exhausted from the previous set of non-stop muisc and dancing, he montioned me over and we began.

Q: First of all, welcome. Can you talk a bit of what happened when the original group separated?
David Calzado : What occurred was that approximately four years ago, la Charanga Habanera needed some young blood, new blood, people with a desire to play. When bands start up and make it, they want to eat up the stage, eat up the people, be their best, but many musicians age inside and they start working in a mechanical way, in an automatic manner. La Charanga Habanera is a band that needs to have spontaneity, strength in the blood. There has to be a complete giving of oneself on stage and I think it was time for some people to move on.

At that point I was going to have a graduation for eight people. When the remaining band members found out that the eight people were going to be replaced they rebelled. Well, out of fourteen musicians there were six who I thought could still be in the band, but since they defended the cause of the others, I decided that all fourteen band-members should leave. And I stayed with Michel only who is now the lead singer of the band and the others were chosen by me. La Charanga Habanera is not a band; it’s a concept and that concept is David Calzado. As long as David Calzado is alive, there will be Charanga Habanera. There may be a better band or an inferior band, but only one Charanga Habanera!

Then, Michel and I went out and in 5 days I found the musicians–young, old, quite talented, musicians of great quality. And we formed a group and, after a month of rehearsing, we had our first concert.

Q: How long ago was this?
DC: It’s been three years, no, two and a half. That concert was in Cuba one month after the celebration. And it’s been so good that in 1998 and 1999 we were chosen as the most popular band in Cuba. The band was chosen by a popular vote that far surpassed the votes of all the other groups that were nominated.

Q: What came next?
DC: In 1999 we were internationally solicited on 17 occasions. And so, in 24 months, we have had 17 different tours. That is a great record, not just for the Charanga Habanera, but also for almost all Cuban orchestras. So, after this, I can tell you that if you ask me how I feel about it, I would tell you that I have the joy of having been able to find another band.

Q: How has the new CD been received?
DC: Those two records/CD’s are not out on sale in the United States yet. Right now we are working out the licensing details to have an American company distribute it in the US.

At any rate, since it’s a hot record, as always, as La Charanga Habanera always does, the singles in it are strong, ‘heavy’ as some call them. We have played a varied repertoire where there’s everything from the past ten years and we have, of course, done new things to this recording, and we have also done some traditional material as we always do.

For me it’s been an impressive tour. Especially in this area, in the West, I had expectations about the band not being known. Since it had never been here, I expected small audiences. I thought I was going to take my first steps. And now I’m worried we have come and all the places have been very, very, very full. Now the problem or the concern is not ‘I want that,’ but ‘how do I keep this?’ I have really been amazed because I had expected to go from low to high. Now we have begun big and so the concern is how to become bigger. Because there is something that happens and that is that bands come here and they become known and people like them, but they begin to decline in popularity. We must do a great job for Americans and Latinos who are in the US because this country has many artistic manifestations of great quality. So… it’s not easy.

Q:I had taken some visiting Cuban musicians to play at an R & B club. One of the U.S. musicians, after hearing the Cuban musicians play, commented that once Cuba was open and more Cuban musicians move here, they [the American musicians] would be out of work!
DC: I think that you will see that the school of music in Cuba is very strong. The truth is that it is very difficult to find a group outside of Cuba that can put together so many quality musicians in one band.

Q: Thanks to our government.
DC: Thanks to you [U.S government] and because of the circumstances. I'm telling you, it is eveident that it is going to bea sensational day when the doors are open and Cuban music comes to meet the rest of the world. I truly belive this.

Q: Do you leave for Havana tonight?
DC: No, tonight we are going to Los Angeles to do two more concerts, Saturday and Sunday.

Q: Where do you go next?
DC: Then we’ll go to Puerto Rico, the Island of Enchantment. On Friday the 24^th we’ll be at the Tito Puente Amphitheater. There we’ll perform with Justo Betancourt's group, a band of the former Fania musician, and with a group that plays plena. On Saturday we’ll play with Papo Luca and La Sonora Ponceña and with Willie Rosario and Isabel Bandera at a place called San Juan Chateau. Then we’ll go to Miami to do our fourth, fifth and sixth concert. We did three concerts in Miami and now we are going to do three more.

At this point the cue was given for the band's next set to begin. I thanked David for his time. He smiled and said he would have more time during their next vist. The second set was firey and true to form: hot music and moves from this new la Charanga Habanera. Check the Events Calendar for their next visit - be sure and get ticktets early!

Listen to a sound byte from their latest CD 'El Charanguero Mayor', available at descarga.com

To view the video clip from their Santa Cruz 2000 concert again, click here!

Interview, photos and video ©2001 by Julia Sewell
Transcription and translation ©2001 by Marcia Y. Barahona
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.