Cuban women show how it's done
Sí Señor! — Las Perlas del Son — Corasón through Larrikin/Festival Records
Review By Melanie Sjoberg
One of the most exciting aspects of any music festival is the discovery of a fresh new sound. Las Perlas del Son may prove to be precisely that during their first tour of Australia.
If you like to swing your hips on the dance floor, and possibly swig on the odd draft of Havana rum in the process, then you must not miss this dynamic Cuban women's band.
Cuba has a long record of encouraging creativity amongst its youth, so it is not surprising to learn that these young women have been performing for several years in the amateur movement in Santiago de Cuba.
Rosa María López, a base player, decided in 1995 that she wanted to form a women's band to perform the traditional Cuban music called trova. The result was Las Perlas del Son, a seven-piece acoustic group which traverses the son, boleros and guaracha styles, popular from the 1920s, all of which have influenced the more familiar salsa rhythm.
Their sound is equally easy to listen to or dance to, depending on your mood. But Las Perlas del Son's first CD certainly indicates that it would probably be a challenge to remain seated throughout one of their live performances.
Their sound drifts from the lyrical son style on tracks such as "Chan Chan" and "El Pagre", into a sensual bolero son with "Lagrimas Negras", which contains some beautiful solos on bongos. The final track, "Bilongo", is an example of the heat generated by the guaracha.
It's not easy to learn more about this band or its members. Green Left Weekly plans to interview them during the Womadelaide festival this month, but the usual sources of information, including web sites on Cuban music, do not contain much detail, probably because this band has only just been discovered by people outside Cuba.
Catch Las Perlas del Son if you can. They will be performing in February at the Spanish Club in Sydney (17), the Basement in Sydney (18-19), Festival of Perth (20), Womadelaide (21), the Gypsy Bar in Canberra (24), Port Kembla Leagues Club (25), the Basement again (26), and Womad in Auckland (27-28).