Edited by Azizi Powell
This post presents information about and seven videos of Abakuá traditional music & masquerade dancing traditions in Cuba and in the United States.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
INFORMATION ABOUT ABUKUA
From http://www.afrocubaweb.com/abakwa/abakua.htm
"Abakuá - Abakwá - Abacuá – Ñáñigo
Abakuá members derive their culture from the Efik and Efo of the Cross River region in Nigeria, which Cubans call Carabali. They are organized in a set of over 150 potencias (lodges) located mainly in Havana, Matanzas, and Cardenas.
The people of Big Qua Town in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, Nigeria, are known as the Abakpa, the likely source for the name Abakuá. Big Qua Town is the home of the president of the Calabar Mgbe or Ékpè.
The Cuban Abakuá societies have a male-only membership, their Ékpè equivalent in the Cross River State are called lodges in English, they are fraternities. Both the Cuban and Nigerian lodges are Ékpè lodges.
There is also in Cuba an Efo cultural manifestation organized along family lines, the Brikamo, carried by the Calle family in Matanzas.
In 2001, the Efik National Association in the US began to have contact with Cuban Abakuá. There is evidence of prior contacts between the Abakuá and the Efik in Cuba, but the contact has not until now been sustained. Among such evidence is a plaque hanging on the walls of a potencia in Havana given by an Obong, a traditional leader of the Efiks.
The Abakuá gave us the rumba, one of Cuba's principal musical traditions. The Calle family, for example, is of Efo origin and is said to have invented the guaguanco, a type of rumba.
We can also note that the Carabali culture in Santiago (cabildos) and in the center of Cuba is also derived from Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The name Carabali is derived from the slave port of Calabar, as distinct from the Karabali people of the Niger Delta."...
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaku%C3%A1
"Abakua or Abakuá (various spellings are used) is an Afro-Cuban men's initiatory fraternity, or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon. Known generally as Ekpe, Ngbe, or Ugbe among the multi-lingual groups in the region, these closed groups all used the leopard as a symbol of masculine prowess in war and political authority in their various communities...
The creolized Cuban term Abakuá is thought to refer to the Abakpa area in southeast Nigeria, where the society was active. The first such societies were established by Africans in the town of Regla, Havana, in 1836.[1] This remains the main area of Abakuá implantation, especially the district of Guanabacoa in eastern Havana, and in Matanzas where Afro-Cuban culture is vibrant. While Abakuá eventually came to include members of European descent, this was not accomplished without conflict...
Members of this society came to be known as ñañigos, a word used to designate the street dancers of the society. The ñañigos, who were also called diablitos, were well known by the general population in Cuba through their participation in the carnival on the Day of the Three Kings, when they danced through the streets wearing their ceremonial outfit: a multicolored checkerboard dress, with a conical headpiece topped with tassels[3] Initially, the Abakua accepted only blacks as members; however, in the late nineteenth century the admission policies of the society were liberalized to include mulatos and whites.[4]"
FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1 Abakuá (1962) Dir. Bernabé Hernández
guarachon63, Uploaded on Oct 23, 2011
-snip-
Here's a comment from this video's viewer comment thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py5KwcwQAtI
Dan Wilson, 2011
"amazing footage of the result of over 200 years of preserved culture"
****
Example #2: YORUBA ANDABO ABAKUA
jgarcia1237,Uploaded on Sep 14, 2007
LA PROTESTA PERFORMED LIVE FILMED AT LA CECILIA IN lA HABANA BY WWW.ORISHAPRODUCTIONS.COM AND JOSEGARCIA1237
-snip-
"Yoruba Andabo" is a well known Cuban folkloric group. The English translation for the group's name is "friends of Yoruba (culture).
****
Example #3 yoruba andabo 3 abakuá (1992)
guarachon63, Uploaded on Sep 28, 2011
Recorded 1992 at Quinta de los Molinos, Havana
****
Example #4: Una rumba abakua
MusicAllVideo1, Uploaded on Aug 26, 2010
Una rumba Abakuà nella plaza Jesus Maria in onore di Ignacio Pineiro fondatore del Septeto Nacional. Tra i protagonisti di questo homenaje troviamo "El Matador" Frank Oropesa e "El Goyo".
Regia: Roberto Ravenna
Riprese e montaggio video: Roberto Ravenna
-snip-
[The music starts at 3:30]
****
Example #5: Roman Diaz at the abakua conference in brookling
jicamocubano, Uploaded on Sep 27, 2007
Roman Diaz perfoming for the abakua conference in new york
-snip-
Here's a comment from this video's viewer comment thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHpxbrm3pks
eyenmmaba, 2010
"the moves and incantations very similar the those of the calabar people despite hundreds of years and thousands of miles of separation by slavery. amazing stuff"
****
Example #6: Dia Del Abakua 2013 Miami, Fl
N'dibo Yeve N'go, Published on Jan 8, 2013
This is a brief depiction of an Abakúa masquerade portrayed by Angel Guerrero. Members from most of Cuba's Abaküa potencias (lodges), exiled in Miami are present at this gathering which happens once a year in commemoration of Colonial Cuba's Three Kings Day processions, where all the Cabildos, Potencias, Ile's and various mutual aid societies would bring out their finest regalia, drummers , dancers and chanters in order to win favor with the Governor who would then bestow upon their coffers the Aguinaldo( gift of gold coins) which the members of each society would then use to buy the freedom of their enslaved compatriots.
****
Example #7: Echu Alabbony - Abakua en el Patio de la Rumba
atticchris, Uploaded on Mar 7, 2009
Echu Alabbony presenta el espectaculo de los Abakua llevado al arte.
Filmado en el Patio de la Rumba en 2007.
=snip-
My Spanish is poor, but what I believe a number of commenters wrote in this video’s viewer comment thread is that this Abakua music & dance performance is a production of a children’s folkloric group and therefore isn’t authentic (particularly with regards to the involvement of children and females), but still should be respected as the group’s attempt to learn about Nigerian traditions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to all members of the Abakuá culture. Thanks also those who are featured in the Abakuá videos that are presented in this post, and thanks to those whose information on Abakuá I have quoted. My thanks also to the producers and uploaders of these videos.
Also, thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Viewer comments are welcome
Showing posts with label Guaguanco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guaguanco. Show all posts
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Seven Videos Of The Queen Of Salsa, Celia Cruz
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases seven videos of performances by the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. Information about Celia Cruz and these featured songs are also provided in this post.
The content of this post is provided for historical, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
INFORMATION ABOUT CELIA CRUZ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Cruz
"Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso de la Santísima Trinidad (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American salsa performer. One of the most popular salsa artists of the 20th century, she earned twenty-three gold albums and was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."[1]
She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music...
Cruz became known for her trademark shout "¡Azúcar!" ("Sugar!" in Spanish). The catch phrase started as the punch line for a joke Cruz used to tell frequently at her concerts. Once, she ordered cafe cubano (Cuban coffee) in a restaurant in Miami. The waiter asked her if she'd like sugar, and she replied that, since he was Cuban, he should know that you can't drink Cuban coffee without it! After having told the joke so many times, Cruz eventually dropped the joke and greeted her audience at the start of her appearances with the punch line alone. In her later years, she would use the punch line a few times, to later say: "No les digo más 'Azúcar', pa' que no les dé diabetes!" which means "I won't say 'Sugar' anymore so that you won't get diabetes" "...
With Fidel Castro assuming control of Cuba in 1959, Cruz and her husband, Pedro Knight, refused to return to their homeland and became citizens of the United States…
-snip-
From http://celiacruz.com/index.php/celia-cruz/biography
"For more than half a century, the Queen of Salsa carried her title with class and distinction. Her powerful voice and electrifying rhythm garnered more than 100 worldwide recognitions, multiple platinum and gold records, three GRAMMY® awards and four Latin GRAMMY® awards, as well as a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Her boundless enthusiasm, genuine warmth, and deep-seated humanitarianism made Celia Cruz the music industry’s most accomplished and revered performer and the world's most notable ambassador of Hispanic culture.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Celia Cruz - Guantanamera
Xxjorgehlxx, Uploaded on Dec 25, 2007
Celia Cruz, "La Reina de la Salsa", interpretando Guantanamera
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamera
"Guantanamera" (Spanish: "from Guantánamo [feminine]", thus "woman from Guantánamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song."...
****
Example #2: CELIA CRUZ y la sonora matancera
JUAN R, Uploaded on Jan 19, 2011
CELIA CRUZ canta desde la antigua Cuba con el respaldo de la Sonora Matancera. Nelson Pinedo de origen colombiano, fue uno de los mejores cantantes de la Sonora Matancera. Aquí ven ustedes a Pedro Knight en la trompeta (el más alto) antes de que se enamorara de Celia Cruz. Este video es histórico porque la película fue rodada en Cuba con un elenco de grandes artistas internacionales. La chica es Ana Berta Lepe.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Matancera
"Sonora Matancera is a Cuban/Afro-Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music. Led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, and composer Rogelio Martínez, who was nicknamed El Gallego, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music....
The group was founded on January 12, 1924 in Barrio Ojo de Agua, a neighborhood in the city of Matanzas,[4] capital of the province of the same name in west central Cuba.[5] Culturally and demographically, this is the most African region of Cuba...
The band experienced many more changes—in personnel, instrumentation, and musical styles—in their nearly eight decade history. Each change in personnel and instrumentation altered the group's sound."...
****
Example #3: Celia Cruz & The Fania All Stars - Quimbara - Zaire, Africa 1974
GravityLimited, Uploaded on Jun 28, 2010
Zaire, Africa 1974
-snip-
This song title is sometimes given as "Kimbara".
Click http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/music/1753850-quimbara.html for a comment posted by Richard Cadena (Mexico) about Salsa music in general and about the word "Quimbara". According to that writer, "Quimbara" is a proper name. Also, click http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080816123431AAFw7oU for a comment from Rafael, a Spanish speaker who writes that "Quimbara" isn't a Spanish word, but comes from an African language.
****
Example #4: Celia Cruz. La vida es un carnaval (Live).flv
Manu Remon, Uploaded on Nov 16, 2010
querida celia cruz cuanto hace falta tu alegria :/
-snip-
The English translation for this song title is "Life Is A Carnival."
****
Example #5: Celia Cruz - Oye Como Va
CeliaCruzVEVO, Uploaded on Oct 25, 2009
Music video by Celia Cruz performing Oye Como Va. (C) 2002 Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.
-snip-
Here's a comment about the English translation of this song's title:
"Taken out of the context of [Carlos] Santana's song, "¡Oye! ¿Cómo va?" might be interpreted to mean "Hey! How's it going?" But, taken in the context of the surrounding words, it means "Listen how the beat (or rythm)goes. Posted by Moe, Jun 14, 2011 http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/195229/what-does-oye-como-va-mean-in-english
****
Example #6: Celia Cruz con la Orquesta de José Alberto "El Canario" - Te busco
liuxiahuai, Uploaded on Aug 8, 2010
-snip-
Several online sites translates the title of this song as "I Look For You". Here's a link to one site that provides the Spanish lyrics to this song as well as their English translation: http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/spanish-lyrics-translation/11929-english-translation-of-yo-te-busco.html.
****
Example #7: Celia Cruz - Rie Y Llora
CeliaCruzVEVO, Uploaded on Oct 24, 2009
Music video by Celia Cruz performing Rie Y Llora. (C) 2004 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
-snip-
The English translation for this title is "Laugh And Cry". Click http://lyricstranslate.com/en/rie-y-llora-laugh-and-cry.html for the Spanish lyrics & their English translation.
RELATED LINKS
One additional video of Celia Cruz can be found on pancocojams at
"Seven Black Female Singers With Blond Hair" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/seven-black-female-singers-with-blond.html and another video of Celia Cruz is included in this pancocojams post: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-female-singers-with-red-hair.html "Black Female Singers With Red Hair"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Celia Cruz for her music legacy. Thanks also to the composers of these song and to those who provided the information which I have quoted about Celia Cruz and these featured songs. My thanks also to the uploaders of these sound files and videos.
Also, thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Viewer comments are welcome
This pancocojams post showcases seven videos of performances by the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. Information about Celia Cruz and these featured songs are also provided in this post.
The content of this post is provided for historical, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
INFORMATION ABOUT CELIA CRUZ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Cruz
"Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso de la Santísima Trinidad (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American salsa performer. One of the most popular salsa artists of the 20th century, she earned twenty-three gold albums and was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."[1]
She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music...
Cruz became known for her trademark shout "¡Azúcar!" ("Sugar!" in Spanish). The catch phrase started as the punch line for a joke Cruz used to tell frequently at her concerts. Once, she ordered cafe cubano (Cuban coffee) in a restaurant in Miami. The waiter asked her if she'd like sugar, and she replied that, since he was Cuban, he should know that you can't drink Cuban coffee without it! After having told the joke so many times, Cruz eventually dropped the joke and greeted her audience at the start of her appearances with the punch line alone. In her later years, she would use the punch line a few times, to later say: "No les digo más 'Azúcar', pa' que no les dé diabetes!" which means "I won't say 'Sugar' anymore so that you won't get diabetes" "...
With Fidel Castro assuming control of Cuba in 1959, Cruz and her husband, Pedro Knight, refused to return to their homeland and became citizens of the United States…
-snip-
From http://celiacruz.com/index.php/celia-cruz/biography
"For more than half a century, the Queen of Salsa carried her title with class and distinction. Her powerful voice and electrifying rhythm garnered more than 100 worldwide recognitions, multiple platinum and gold records, three GRAMMY® awards and four Latin GRAMMY® awards, as well as a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Her boundless enthusiasm, genuine warmth, and deep-seated humanitarianism made Celia Cruz the music industry’s most accomplished and revered performer and the world's most notable ambassador of Hispanic culture.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Celia Cruz - Guantanamera
Xxjorgehlxx, Uploaded on Dec 25, 2007
Celia Cruz, "La Reina de la Salsa", interpretando Guantanamera
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamera
"Guantanamera" (Spanish: "from Guantánamo [feminine]", thus "woman from Guantánamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song."...
****
Example #2: CELIA CRUZ y la sonora matancera
JUAN R, Uploaded on Jan 19, 2011
CELIA CRUZ canta desde la antigua Cuba con el respaldo de la Sonora Matancera. Nelson Pinedo de origen colombiano, fue uno de los mejores cantantes de la Sonora Matancera. Aquí ven ustedes a Pedro Knight en la trompeta (el más alto) antes de que se enamorara de Celia Cruz. Este video es histórico porque la película fue rodada en Cuba con un elenco de grandes artistas internacionales. La chica es Ana Berta Lepe.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Matancera
"Sonora Matancera is a Cuban/Afro-Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music. Led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, and composer Rogelio Martínez, who was nicknamed El Gallego, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music....
The group was founded on January 12, 1924 in Barrio Ojo de Agua, a neighborhood in the city of Matanzas,[4] capital of the province of the same name in west central Cuba.[5] Culturally and demographically, this is the most African region of Cuba...
The band experienced many more changes—in personnel, instrumentation, and musical styles—in their nearly eight decade history. Each change in personnel and instrumentation altered the group's sound."...
****
Example #3: Celia Cruz & The Fania All Stars - Quimbara - Zaire, Africa 1974
GravityLimited, Uploaded on Jun 28, 2010
Zaire, Africa 1974
-snip-
This song title is sometimes given as "Kimbara".
Click http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/music/1753850-quimbara.html for a comment posted by Richard Cadena (Mexico) about Salsa music in general and about the word "Quimbara". According to that writer, "Quimbara" is a proper name. Also, click http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080816123431AAFw7oU for a comment from Rafael, a Spanish speaker who writes that "Quimbara" isn't a Spanish word, but comes from an African language.
****
Example #4: Celia Cruz. La vida es un carnaval (Live).flv
Manu Remon, Uploaded on Nov 16, 2010
querida celia cruz cuanto hace falta tu alegria :/
-snip-
The English translation for this song title is "Life Is A Carnival."
****
Example #5: Celia Cruz - Oye Como Va
CeliaCruzVEVO, Uploaded on Oct 25, 2009
Music video by Celia Cruz performing Oye Como Va. (C) 2002 Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.
-snip-
Here's a comment about the English translation of this song's title:
"Taken out of the context of [Carlos] Santana's song, "¡Oye! ¿Cómo va?" might be interpreted to mean "Hey! How's it going?" But, taken in the context of the surrounding words, it means "Listen how the beat (or rythm)goes. Posted by Moe, Jun 14, 2011 http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/195229/what-does-oye-como-va-mean-in-english
****
Example #6: Celia Cruz con la Orquesta de José Alberto "El Canario" - Te busco
liuxiahuai, Uploaded on Aug 8, 2010
-snip-
Several online sites translates the title of this song as "I Look For You". Here's a link to one site that provides the Spanish lyrics to this song as well as their English translation: http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/spanish-lyrics-translation/11929-english-translation-of-yo-te-busco.html.
****
Example #7: Celia Cruz - Rie Y Llora
CeliaCruzVEVO, Uploaded on Oct 24, 2009
Music video by Celia Cruz performing Rie Y Llora. (C) 2004 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
-snip-
The English translation for this title is "Laugh And Cry". Click http://lyricstranslate.com/en/rie-y-llora-laugh-and-cry.html for the Spanish lyrics & their English translation.
RELATED LINKS
One additional video of Celia Cruz can be found on pancocojams at
"Seven Black Female Singers With Blond Hair" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/seven-black-female-singers-with-blond.html and another video of Celia Cruz is included in this pancocojams post: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-female-singers-with-red-hair.html "Black Female Singers With Red Hair"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Celia Cruz for her music legacy. Thanks also to the composers of these song and to those who provided the information which I have quoted about Celia Cruz and these featured songs. My thanks also to the uploaders of these sound files and videos.
Also, thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Viewer comments are welcome
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