Cayo Hueso and Andrés Levin’s new gospel

About a century ago, during the Prohibition years in the United States, thousands of North Americans found an escape haven in Cuba to avoid the ban on the consumption of alcoholic beverages. At the time, William Caldwell was advertising his Bar Neptuno as a place with “fine American cuisine and the best alcohol money can buy. A favourite gathering place for North Americans”. A century later, another gringo attempts to rescue this space in the heart of the Cayo Hueso neighbourhood (Centro Habana), with hopes of converting it into an epicentre of Caribbean cultural life. But he’s not just any gringo, nor is he even really gringo. 

Andrés Levin is a Venezuelan-born citizen of the world, trained in New York as a music producer and founder of the beautiful resonant mashup that was Yerba Buena. A name probably known to anyone that has been involved in habanero cultural life in recent decades. Fuelled by the spirit of Brooklyn and teachers such as Nile Rogers and his own father, Levin is a natural-born experimenter; his career path and experience collaborating with such diverse and bright projects like Orishas, the musical In the Heights or Guava Island, have allowed him to appear as a reference for any project concerning the Cuban music scene. Now Levin attempts to take advantage of all of those connections in and outside of the country to give shape to a dream of his: Tribe Caribe.

Over 30 years of recording and producing in three continents, he says, the lack of communication between Caribbean cultures has always been brought to his attention. In a recent interview one gathers that Tribe Caribe is a platform which proposes to strengthen relations between Latin America and the Caribbean. “It’s time to start telling a story where all these cultures are united and to create one sole voice which includes Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Trinidad, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and of course, New York, the most Caribbean city in the world”, he explained.

His recent biography can be traced through the songs which he has been working on. Last year he launched The Man with the Hat and the Tan (ManHatTan)a single that tells the story of a man that comes from Manhattan to Havana, collaborating with Jon Baptiste, Pedrito Martínez, Daymé Arocena and Ron Blake. His most recent track Chano's Manteca is a contemporary version of the fabulous recording by Chano Pozo, in which he pays homage to the legendary drummer and to the Cayo Hueso neighbourhood, hence he involved several musicians born there (Pedrito Martínez, Yissy García, Gonzalito Rubalcaba, Samuel Formell, among others). Later on, he plans to release an Afro-Caribbean version of Le Freak (Freak Out), the classic by his instructor Nile Rogers together with Chic, where he will attempt to play around with what many non-English speakers heard when listening to the track: “AAA-Africa”. It’s easy to interpret that trilogy as the soundtrack to the endeavour that is today Tribe Caribe.

“Tribe Caribe is born with the intention of creating a sole voice of the Caribbean, principally through music, but it could be through art, cinema, food, hospitality, lifestyle”, Andrés Levin tells me. He’s a remarkably tall man, with an athletic complexion, light skin and a shaved head. Andrés Levin does not go unnoticed, he loves to be the centre of attention and likes to pretend to be the dull foreigner, a role that he plays with perfection. We are sat in what will be the restaurant Manteca, the Cuban headquarters of Tribe Caribe, a restored five story building located on the corner of Neptuno and Aramburu, in the heart of Centro Habana. We are accompanied by a Mexican Hairless dog, strolling around the place as if he owned it all. From what he tells me (and as featured on the website), Neptuno bar used to be “an establishment in the 1950s that welcomed artists of the era like Los Zafiros” (I wonder if anyone has noticed the error, considering that the group was formed in 1962). 

The Manteca restaurant is one of the many references that the space will hold to the icons of the area. Andrés seems to be obsessed with the locals knowing the place’s history and educating the community through music. “I would dare to say that the majority of people younger than 35 don’t know the musical heritage of the neighbourhood that they were born in”, he tells me, “so, part of what I want to do through music, events and activities, is to make them realise that a ton of people like Formell, Los Zafiros, Chappottín, Carlos del Puerto, Omara, Moraima, lived or roamed about here.

“Considering that the Festival of Jazz was coming up, it occurred to me ‘‘damn, what about if we do something for Chano and Formell in Parque Trillo’”‘, he continues (a few weeks later the event would be celebrated, “Mass for Chano and Formell”, a success, if we set aside the never-ending audio problem that goes hand in hand with Cuban shows). “Listen, this is the track”, he says to me while playing it.

Manteca’s unique introductory beats resonate, with the bass and congas marking the infectious rhythm, but with a twist of funk, mambo and “gringo latin”. I don’t know how he does it, but he pulls it off over and over again. A band lives in his head, and the only thing he has to do is give shape to it with the tools he has on hand (and what can musically go wrong when you have tools like “Alain Pérez, “Yissy García”, “Los Van Van” and “Pedrito Martínez”?).

Photo: Carmen Carrazana / Taken from the Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso website.

***

On the question, what he feels is missing in order to generate those connections between the cultures of the region and how Tribe Caribe intends to contribute to narrowing that gap, Levin responds with a strong-willed answer.

“For me, things need to be done, and I’m proving with my music that yes, we need to do more than what we think we’re doing (which is quite obvious, too). In other words, Jamaicans love Cuban music, Cubans love Jamaican music… I remember, one Friday, going from Mío & Tuyo (a bar in Havana) to the airport, to travel to Kingston, and the following night I was in Kingston, listening, in English, to the same beats, almost the same dances, the same vibes, the same Africanity. It’s all too similar, it’s all too good to not do anything. And that’s why I’m here”.

When Levin talks about the project, he displays his best salesmanship. And he sure knows how to sell. “I didn’t choose Cuba, Cuba chose me”, he says. “I’m no longer going to be in New York. I love Mexico, but Mexico is not Cuba. This is a place that completes me and [where] I know I can make a change. In Mexico, changing the life of an entire neighbourhood is impossible; in New York, forget it, and I believe what interests me now is not only to make a song, but to create a social project which the music can be used for real social change. 

DJ Belinda Baker and Landeep at the block party in Cayo Hueso. Photo: Carmen Carrazana / Taken from the Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso website.

“I love this concept where the hotel can also be the stamp, and that the people who come here are going to participate in something musical, and the locals will be impacted by an idea that comes from an Englishman and a Jamaican, juxtapositions like that can be considered a sound culture.

“I think it’s quite innovative that Tribe Caribe has a digital as well as a physical place to create content, that serves as a place to visit, where we can proclaim this ‘gospel’. I am building the studio here [in the neighbourhood], I am going to record here. Four months from now artists can come and record. This project is not Andrés’ hotel, who is in Miami eating shit. No, I am going to be here, with the people, creating and telling stories”.

In Andrés Levin’s dream, any given day Jon Baptiste and Koffee, Juan Luis Guerra and Natalia Lafourcade, Santa Fe Klan and Colombia’s hip hoppers could converge in Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso. “Being able to create a real, physical dialogue is what I intend to do. Once I get the funds, I’m going to bring back an artist from each country, to see what the hell we can do”, he says.

“For example, at the block party [a community party organized on the 10th of December just gone, that included, the appearance of Osain del Monte as well as a photo exhibition by Juan Carlos Alom and the sets of the DJs B2elinda Baker and Landeep], Osain and a DJ, who was a Jamaican buddy of mine, were playing. At four o’clock in the afternoon, she began to play music from Jamaica and the Caribbean. The people of the neighbourhood were kind of like ‘I like it, but I don’t know…’. By 6:30, everybody was enjoying the Jamaican music. My idea is to create a stimulating environment where the concept is Pan-Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean —in food, sound and clothing—. That is how I imagine this area, this neighbourhood to be, a Caribbean epicentre. Not just in January and not just Cuban.”

Block party in Cayo Hueso. Photo: Carmen Carrazana / Taken from the Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso website.

 ***

On the 24th of January 2023, whilst night falls in Centro Habana, a stage and sound system bring the Cayo Hueso neighbourhood together to celebrate a mass for Chano and Formell. Andrés Levin (wearing a beautifully designed rhinestone jacket for the occasion that says “ESTOY PA CAYO HUESO”) and his Tribe Caribe team, have called up an ‘all-stars’ of popular Cuban music that includes Pedrito Martínez, Alain Pérez and Los VanVan. At 8:30 p.m. when Pedrito starts playing, right in front of the building where he grew up, the thousands of people gathered in Parque Trillo start having a blast. At first hesitantly, then they let themselves be taken by the rhythm. The night can only get better: it includes the performance of the legendary Porto Rican conga player Giovanni Hidalgo and Los Van Van to close. Whilst I am leaving, and I notice the trail of empty beer cans and nylon bags, I observe how people return to their houses for the next day of hardship. I wonder whether this Tribe Caribe Cayo Hueso project will be nothing more than Cadwell’s eager escapist venture or if it will mean something to Havana’s cultural bohemianism. In a country drained by crisis, the people are grateful for a few hours of exceptionally good music. Tribe Caribe will have to demonstrate if it can effectively be an agent of social change for the neighbourhood or if it will be the nth attempt to gentrify this city.