Cuban albums of 2020 (chosen by the critics)

There is a truth like a temple: music saved us in 2020 and will continue to do so. On the first day of the new year, and when there are still many uncertainties in the global and national music ecosystem, a group of faithful music lovers gather those essential albums that have provided the soundtrack for the last 365 days. 

Participating in the preparation of this list were Joaquín Borges Triana, Leannelis Cárdenas, Iván Egüed, Darsi Fernandez, Diana Ferreiro, Yansert Fraga Leon, Rafa G. Escalona, Nahela Hechavarria, Rosa Marquetti, Agapito Martinez, Raul Medina, Carla Mesa, Pistacubana, Rogelio Ramos, Lorena Sánchez, Carmen Souta, Rafael Valdivia, and Lalau Yllarramendiz Alfonso. 

Inside / X Alfonso (FacMusic) 

cover of Inside Vol. I-II.

X Alfonso is a man who travels through time. Past, present and future are filtered in songs that reveal all the cycles, ruptures and surprises that exist between the real world and fiction. That is why, after almost a decade of silence, we knew that Inside Vol I-II It would be a poetic explosion to lead us towards reflections and questions about modern life. Along with sounds that cross the most diverse genres —song, electronic music, pop, rap, prayers and Afro-Cuban songs—, this double album reminds us that Cuban music, despite so many losses, still has artists who live on the land and keep them afloat, with the strength to watch over tomorrow. (Carla Table). 

Icon / Aragon Orchestra (Puntilla Music)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido Icon.

Who expects to hear a nostalgic journey or the immovable sound of a memory, will face Icon with the mood wrong. The most recent album by the Orquesta Aragón, conceived as a celebration of its 80 years of life, shouts from the rooftops that the Charanga Eterna continues to be an expert in renewing itself and landing in all possible eras without losing its stamp of timbre and sound. Current songs, new tumbaos, versions that bring lost ballads to the charanguero style and never forgotten songs, some hits from the times of the invincible triad —Rafael Lay, Felo Bacallao and Pepe Olmos— and new songs that are totally current. This album is a rarity of symbiosis and yet another proof of that lucid faith that has kept several generations of musicians united around the leadership of the Lay surname, who decided to evolve with the times without losing its essence. An album that once again says that Aragón is a classic, just like the Rolling Stones or El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. In Icon sounds the miracle of coexistence in which different generations identify something very theirs or an unavoidable reference. (Rosa Marquetti). 

I told you / Harold Lopez-Nussa (Mac Avenue Records)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido I told you.

Rhythm and energy from the first chord. I told you oscillates pulsating like an electrocardiogram to the heart of Cuban music: from the mambo to the mozambique, to the Van Van sound, to the classical piano, to the timba and the Cuban point, to the jazzton. With several luxury guests, in addition to the perfect quartet (Harold and Ruy Adrián López-Nussa, Julio César González and Maykel González), it sounds like Cuba and the world. A very personal album, from beginning to end, and 11 songs to collect. (Nahela Hechavarria).

This is our Changüí / Changüí from Guantánamo (Egrem)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido This is our Changüí.

The sound of Guaso crowds into this phonographic and audiovisual material in a renewed way. This album —justly nominated for the Latin Grammy 2020 in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Album— returns us to Los Maceos street and reaffirms how much tradition weighs on Cuban popular music; while with 75 years of founding, the group continues to be a musical reference in the country. Updated to the standards of the contemporary musical product —by the hand of Fernando Dewar, tres player and director of the highly acclaimed Septeto Santiaguero, who became a musical producer—, this changüí held a chair at the Siboney Studios in Santiago de Cuba and had special guests such as Maestro Pancho Amat, the singers from Santiaguero, the bongo player from Mount Raunier García Pyrolo, and the recording and mixing of the stellar Máximo Espinosa. Eleven unreleased songs rediscover their director, leading voice and manager, José Andrés Rodríguez. As if that were not enough, and as a complement to the material, the package is accompanied by a documentary that collects testimonies from living bearers of the changüí tradition, as well as musicians who have dabbled in the genre for years. (Yansert Fraga Leon). 

The champions / Yomil & El Dany (Jungl Yomil and El Dany)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido The champions.

This is the most ambitious and comprehensive album of Cuban reggaeton to date and it came full of perreo, flow and good vibes, in the saddest year of the century so far. It also turned out to be the testament of Daniel Muñoz (El Dany) and a yardstick with which Roberto will be measured —perhaps unfairly. Yomil Hidalgo of the future. There is so much wheat there, that it could have been two phonograms and not one. Yomil & El Dany had the luxury of 24 well-produced songs, a cocktail to which they threw some thirty Cuban exponents of the genre and its ramifications. Dembow, morpha, trap and traptón, rap, pop. Party, confrontation, heartbreak. In addition to some absences that do not remain on the album, it navigates with unreleased songs that transport us to the founding years of that movement on the Island; and we also immersed ourselves in the waters of the cast. There are more than 20 tracks with their own personalities that show, once again, the existence of a living culture that is born and reproduces in the neighborhoods, despite official rejection. (Raul Medina). 

The tale of the good pipe / Alain Pérez (Egrem)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido The tale of the good pipe.

When it seemed that almost everything had been invented, Alain Pérez managed to rethink timba like someone starting from scratch. The tale of the good pipe it can be narrated in various ways that would only complement each other: that of the rebellion of the musician who radically rethinks the canon of the tumbaos, the rhythm, the arrangements, the key; how to insert tradition in a project that seeks at the same time some ruptures; or what are the limits to tense those formulas and ways of doing, sedimented to give way to a new course. Alain knows risks and luckily for us he has decided to take them once again. Until now it seems that the pulse is winning the musician. When it comes to timba, there's nothing better than knocking things down from time to time. (Rafael Valdivia). 

classics to jazz / Nestor G. del Prado & Afrocubannewage (Bis Music)  

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido classics to jazz.

A few decades later, an old dream of two children from the Sports Casino became one of the most beautiful tributes that have been paid to the Cuban songbook. After years of blanking out in several projects with a broad generic spectrum, Néstor G. del Prado has finally made his debut as a soloist with this album. With the bass as the backbone, Del Prado summons several of the finest instrumentalists of his generation to put together a repertoire through which classic themes of Cuban music parade, in a kind of traditional party to the rhythm of jazz. Essential topic: green tobacco. (Rafa G. Escalona). 

Capitalia / William Roblejo´s Trio (Egrem)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido Capitalia.

This album came to brighten our souls in such a difficult year. With the violin as the main voice, William Roblejo allowed himself —through the sound codes of jazz and in the company of two stalwarts: Roberto Luis Gómez and Julio César González— to travel through a world full of colors and nuances. Thanks to its technical and interpretive quality, this musical journey turned out to be an artistic experience where good taste and subtlety came together. Undoubtedly, a phonogram that marks a point of inflection and maturity in Roblejo's career. Permanent invitation to enjoy if it is good music. (Leannelis Cardenas). 

butterflies / Omara Portuondo (Bis Music)

Cover of the album Básico, No Básico y Dirigido butterflies.

From his early Black magic (Kubaney, 1958) Omara Portuondo showed that she could move across a broad spectrum: dancer at Tropicana, member of Loquibambia, Las D'Aida or Buena Vista Social Club. The Portuondo has a history of extra class. 2020 gave it back to us in 10 songs by Jesse Suárez and a classic by Silvio Rodríguez. In this phonogram you can feel the flutter of sounds like Sergio George's; while bolero, pop and allusions to tropical rhythms show that little is foreign to our Bride of the filin. The young author, producer and singer Jesse Suárez (accompanied in the production by Carlos Cartaya and Yusef Díaz) comes out victorious due to the modern and old combination that he achieves. At 90 years old, Omara remembers that she can, like at 28, go through all the registers, even in the hands of a young man who understands himself, above all, with the sound of this time. (Rogelio Ramos). 

Wind and Time, Live at Blue Note Tokyo / Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola (Top Stop Music)

Wind and Time album cover, Live at Blue Note Tokyo.

That Aymée Nuviola is one of our most complete and gifted songwriters is no longer news. If anyone had any doubts, there was his latest studio album (A Journey Through Cuban Music, 2019) to sweep the category of Best Tropical Latin Album at the 2020 Grammys, and make her the second Cuban woman to climb to the top of the international music commercial podium after the incomparable Celia Cruz. But here we have a plus too powerful with the presence of pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, whose credentials do not need to be shaken in the face of any Cuban music listener. This pair could not fail. The Japanese audience who witnessed this show at the Blue Note in Tokyo should cherish it forever in their memory. Lucky for us, it was recorded live. Health! (Darsi Fernandez).