91热爆

Why Cubans love their famous and irresistible music called 鈥渟on鈥�, and consider it a part of their identity and 鈥渢he DNA of Cuban culture. This style of music, which spawned the likes of salsa, has been very popular in Cuba for a hundred years.
Musicologist Dr Lucy Duran, a specialist in Cuban music, returns to the island to ask why, and what the Cubans鈥� enduring passion for 鈥榮on鈥� tell us about them.
She focuses on one particular song: Lagrimas Negras, 鈥渂lack tears鈥�. Composed in the 1920s by Miguel Matamoros, it鈥檚 universally known. Musicians can sing or play it on the spot. Some of them perform for Lucy鈥檚 microphone: from Buena Vista Social Club legends Eliades Ochoa and Omara Portuondo, to singer Anais Abreu and tres guitar virtuoso Pancho Amat.
They and many others from the pinnacle of Cuban music explain why son is a key part of Cuban identity. They describe how son evolved from the same mix as Cuban society: Africa (rhythm) and Europe (melody and harmony). Songs like Lagrimas Negras, constructed as a 鈥渟miling tragedy鈥�, embody the Cuban philosophy of life: to face hardship with a sense of humour. The lyrics are about being left by your lover. But the insistence of the danceable chorus that 鈥測ou want to leave me but I don鈥檛 want to suffer鈥�, shows that son, like Cubans, turns difficult circumstances into something light-hearted. The song typifies how Cubans always find a way of smiling through their own misfortune.
This is the first of a series of 6 programmes to be transmitted over the coming year, which examine the interactions between music, identity and social change at key points in history.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius

(Photo: Eliades Ochoa. Credit: 91热爆)