Eduardo Ramos – Vocacion – Revolucion
Noel Nicola – Examenes y Narajanas
Silvio Rodriguez – Cancion Tema
Like Cuban music from the 1970s, Post revolutionary Cuban Film isn’t particularly easy to come across here in the States. when I went digging at Tienda Seriosha I was hoping I might find some soundtracks knowing that film industry was similarly supported by the government. Admittedly, I knew less about Cuban film than I did Cuban music, but just using the same logic I do when digging in the States, I figured that if there was music associated with films of the 1960s and 1970s, it would have to be as good as the records that were being released regularly. While I was only able to track down one full soundtrack (from a film called, Julito El Pescador, you’ll probably hear more from that later), I was able to grab this collection of film music, released in 1979 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
The 15 tracks on the album are culled from six different films and feature some of the more popular Nueva Trova singers, particularly Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes (11 of the 15 tracks feature one or the other), with “Vocacion – Revolucion” and “Examenes y Narajanas” coming from the same film, a documentary titled La Nueva Escuela, while the Silvio Rodriguez track I’ve highlighted, “Cancion Tema,” comes from a film called El Hombre De Maisinicú. Both films were released in 1973 and have a sound that fits that period. I’d be curious to know how many films were produced during that 20 year period with full soundtrracks, but that is another mystery to look forward to uncovering on future trips back to Havana.
Cheers,
Michael