When you hear a conjunto and you hear another conjunto, you think it’s like a continuation of the first. “In those days, you could distinguish the sound of the different conjuntos, and the different orquestas. In his PBS interview, when asked to describe the Cuban music scene of the 1930s and 1940s, he explained: He composed his first song at the age of 15, and by his 20s and 30s, he was playing with some of the best bands of the era. Maybe is magic or something like that, I do not know.”Īs a young man, Compay earned a living by working in the tobacco fields and by cutting hair at night, he’d frequent the local hotspots.
And now, you see, they sing it all over the world. I put lyrics to it according to a tale I heard when I was a child: Juanica y Chan Chan. One day I woke up with those four little notes. I look out of my balcony and see no one, but I can hear it as if the instruments were playing in the street. Sometimes I wake up with a melody in my head. His best known song, Chan Chan, was actually one of his last compositions, written in 1987. His nickname comes from the Cuban slang for “compadre” and his sweet “second voice,” or bass harmony vocals. Sones combine elements of the Spanish guitar with African rhythms. In New York City, the son Cubano mixed with other musical styles to influence the creation of salsa music.Ĭuban composer and guitarist Compay Segundo (born Francisco Repilado, 1907-2003) is the late statesman of Afro-Cuban music. In Cuban musical terms, Chan Chan is known as a son, a style of that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. It might as well be the country’s national anthem. Thanks to Buena Vista Social Club, Cuba and Compay Segundo’s Chan Chan are inextricably linked.