Alejandro Almenares - Casa de Trova – Cuba 50’s - 180g 2LP

Product no.: PPANTUMI228

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Alejandro Almenares - Casa de Trova – Cuba 50’s - 180g 2LP
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Pure Pleasure / Tumi - PPAN TUMI228 - 180 Gram Virgin  Vinyl   

Pure Analogue Audiophile Remaster - Pressed at Pallas Germany - Limited Edition

AAA 100% Analogue - Mastered by  Ray Staff at Air Mastering London

 
hi-fi+ February 2015 Dennis Davis Sound 9/10 Music 9/10
 Alejandro Almenares (born in 1978) is a Cuban treasure who still performs regularly at the Le Casa De Trova in Santiago de Cuba, the secondlargest city in Cuba, and a centre of Cuban cultural life. Le Casa De Trova was founded by Alejandro’s father Angel, himself one of Cuba’s legendary singer-songwriter trovadores. Tumi Music, a UK based record label specializing in Latin American & Caribbean music, made the fourteen-hour drive from Havana to Santiago de Cuba in late 2012 to record Almenares and his septet.
   For most audiophiles, the extent of their Cuban music collection will be through the Buena Vista Social Club album. While Almenares’ music shares some of the same roots as that album, it differs in many ways. The earlier double album, is a studio recording employing a much larger force of musicians. The sound of the Almenares LP is excellent, no doubt far superior to what you would hear during an amplified live performance.
   “Pure Pleasure’s issue of Alejandro Almenares’ album coincides with the historic thaw of relations between the United States and Cuba and will hopefully give a boost to this unappreciated music”. A very enjoyable small group recording
 
La Casa de Trova. The house of the troubadours. It’s a place of almost mythical status in Cuban music, the home of so many of the glorious songs that have come out of the island. Even Paul McCartney has made his pilgrimage there. For Alejandro Almenares, it’s a place he visits every single day, still carrying his guitar as he goes to play and talk with friends. And it’s the inspiration behind his album Casa De Trova(Tumi Records: release: February 25, 2014).
 
For Almenares, the connection to the house is deep. His musician father, Angel Sanchez Almenares, was one of the founders of the Casa.
“I was there when it all began, too,” he recalls. “I grew up listening to them playing there, the trovas and soneros. I’m 76 now. I’m the last of the founders still alive.”
It’s a house filled with memories of all the tunes that have filled the air over the years – and still do. As a child, Almenares took them all in as naturally as breathing. When he was 10 years old he began attending music school staying until he was 14, “when I had to quit in order to work and help my parents.”
 
Two years later he was a professional musician, playing the music his father had written and performed in groups like Los Taínos, Trio Oriente and Las Guitarras Internacionales. A lifetime of music, and, he adds with a smile, “so many bands that the number and names escape me now.”
 
If you’re a fan of the Buena Vista Social Club, this guy’s gonna make them seem like a bunch of posers. Composer, vocalist and tres guitarist, Alejandro Almenares delivers the real thing from Cuba here on this set. This double vinyl set contains the same songs (although in different order); the difference is that the first features his rich and full voice, while the second features his material as (mostly) instrumentals. Flutes, percussion, violin, soprano sax, guitars and intermittent vocal choruses accompany Almenares on the gentle and fragrant instrumental takes of “No Critiques Al Nene” and “La Nina Que Yo Ame”, while vocalists Tony Rodon, Eva Grinan, Jose Cabrera and Ismael Borges deliver tales of passion on “Mujercita “Linda”, A Tu Retrato”, “Te Vi Y Te Contemple” and “De Lo Que Quiero Saber” respectively.
 
Alejandro Enis Almenares Born in Santiago de Cuba 24th May 1937 is perhaps the last of the Troubadours of the golden age of Trova in Cuba.
 
As a composer he has written over several hundred songs including "Mueve la cintura mulata" used in the film "Pecado Original". starring Antonio Banderas called and currently in the film "secret sharer" The same song was also interpreted by Omara Portuondo."
 
Now 76 years old, he lives in Santiago de Cuba and still plays on a daily basis along with Eliades Ochoa and others in the Casa De Trova.
 
Casa the Trova is some of the songs written by his father and himself during some 150 years of joint life
 
The album has another great value: it presents music that is exceptionally rare, being released as if a happy secret is becoming known for the first time. It is true that Casa Trova is simple and its music has not hitherto been heard by many Cubans, let alone in such a vast swathe of North America. It is for this reason as well as for the fact that Mr. Almenares’ journey is wonderfully lyrical and intimate and fragrant that this music is absolutely memorable and impossible to resist.
 
The simplicity of the old world charms are on abundant display here. No gimmicks, no frills, just earnest notes and, like the best of cooks, letting the simple ingredients do all the work in creating the flavor that makes your mouth water. Essential listening!      
 
 
Tracklisting
 
Side A - vocals
1.  No critiques al nene  
2.  La finca de Vila  
3.  Mujercita linda    
4.  Te vi y te contemple  
5.  El son de Vicentico  
6.  A tu retrato
Side B - vocals
1.  La chica de mi rosal  
2. Esa guitarra que suena  
3. Lechero  
4. La niña que yo  ame  
5. De lo que quiero saber  
6. Pepillito  
7. Con amor te pagare
 
Side C - instrumentals
1.  No critiques al nene  
2.  El son de Vicentico
3. Pepillito  
4.  Te vi y te contemple
5. Con amor te pagare
 6.  Lechero
 7.  A tu retrato
Side D - instrumentals
8.  Mujercita linda  
9.  La chica de mi rosal  
10. La niña que yo ame  
11. De lo que quiero saber  
12.  Esa guitarra que suena  
13. El mismo paso  
14.  La finca de Vila
 
Alejandro Almenares - Casa de Trova – Cuba 50’s - 180g 2LP
 
 
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At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records. During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

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Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany  For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!  
 

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