Cuba's loss is American music fans' gain

Cuba's loss is American music fans' gain
MUSIC | Defectors 3 de la Habana put a hot and sweaty contemporary spin
on traditional Cuban tunes
June 8, 2008

BY MARY HOULIHAN mhoullihan@suntimes.com

Tourists and locals alike know the allure of Cuba's Cafe Cantante. In
the Teatro Nacional de Cuba on Revolution Square, the club is home to
top music acts and a hot salsa dance scene.

Until last fall, the club was the Wednesday-night home of 3 de la
Habana, a six-piece group that built its reputation with a repertoire
that includes the explosive timba, a new Cuban take on salsa.

In 2003, the band took part in a quick tour of the United States,
whetting the appetite of fans. Since then, little was heard from them
until the band cut ties to its homeland. After a series of concerts in
Cancun, six members of 3 de la Habana sought and were granted political
asylum in the U.S.

Band founder German Pinelli, 34, says there are no regrets. "It's a
difficult step, and we discussed it a lot," Pinelli says. "Once you
cross the border, you lose everything in Cuba. But we had already played
all the best places in Havana and nothing more was going to happen for us."

Guitarist Pinelli is joined on the group's vocal frontline by his wife
Ana Maria and his brother Ari. Completing the band are Tirso Paez on
bongos/percussion, Magela Crespo on bass and Maykel Vicens Naranjo on
congas. The band recorded three albums in Cuba, and recently began work
on their first U.S. album, due out in August.

The Cafe Cantante vibe will be replicated when 3 de la Habana performs
at 11 p.m. Saturday at the Logan Square Auditorium in a show presented
by the Old Town School of Folk Music.

"This is a band that is exceptionally talented," says Old Town's Mateo
Mulcahy, "and has been in the business for a long time."

Hip, young and with a great stage presence, 3 de la Habana is known for
its hot and sweaty live shows full of Cuban dance rhythms. With that in
mind, Mulcahy decided the Old Town concert hall wasn't big enough to
contain the show -- thus the move to Logan Square, where doors open at 9
p.m. for pre-show dance lessons.

In Cuba, music serves as a national lifeblood, but little of it was
heard live in the States until Ry Cooder's "Buena Vista Social Club"
introduced American fans to an older generation of performers. Since
then, Cuban music has become a global hot commodity.

The Pinelli brothers' father Tony was a member of the Cuban quartet Los
Canas; he is the composer of some of the band's songs that traverse a
spectrum of bolero, cha-cha-cha, guaracha, son and timba with a dash of
reggae, Brazilian and reggaeton.

Pinelli was working at the Tropicana Cabaret when he met his wife, who
was the club's soloist. They decided that cabaret was a dead end and,
along with Ari, revived the Cuban tradition of the harmonic vocal trio.

Eventually, Pinelli realized the form was old-fashioned and decided to
do a makeover and invited musicians from the best Cuban art schools to
join the band. "We wanted to give it a contemporary touch," he says, "to
take the vocal trio to the big stage with music that would make people
get up and dance."

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