Ry Cooder & Manuel
Galbán: Mambo Sinuendo
Perro Verde/Nonesuch 79691
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 To use a Hollywood
phrase, the "pitch" on this record is Buena Vista Social Club, Vol. 2,
but the only thing it has in common with that recording is that it was done in Havana's
Egrem Studios and has that same warm, woody acoustic informing it.
BVSC was, of course, an encyclopedic paean to the
"good old stuff" -- pre-revolutionary Cuban music. It was acoustic music and
represented many of the popular song forms that existed in that pre-rock'n'roll era: sones,
boleros, danzons, and tumbaos. Most of all, it was an attempt to
document a generation of masters before they shuffled off this mortal coil with their
collective decades of musical acumen.
Mambo Sinuendo isn't any of those things. The
guitars are plugged in, Galbán probably isn't eligible for the Cuban equivalent of the
senior discount, and the groove isn't folkloric. It's a rock'n'roll record. But there
ain't nothing ordinary about this rock'n'roll. It's quietly exotic -- evocative of mambo,
but not your daddy's mambo.
The music on Mambo Sinuendo is hypnotically
rhythmic in a slow, mellow, insinuating, almost organic way. Against a backdrop of
percussion, acoustic bass, and (very occasionally) singers, Cooder and Galbán trade
guitar licks and solos. However this isn't a cutting session; rather than trying to
outplay each other, the two musicians create an intricate interplay that's all about mood
and tone. And twang -- lots and lots of twang.
Somebody described this sound as retro-futuristic
and that's not a bad choice. It sounds instantly familiar and oddly exotic in an almost
quaint way. It really is the aural equivalent of the covers of 1930s-era science-fiction
magazines -- familiar and modern, but not remotely smacking of this modern era.
Think Sputnik, not International Space Station.
Or think of the Ventures as played by a group of musicians
who have silly putty for hip bones -- even gringos will be forced to swing and sway when
confronted by these grooves.
Drummer Jim Keltner, percussionist Joachim Cooder, conguero
Angá Diaz, and bassist "Cacchaíto" López supply the supple and constantly
changing backdrops against which Cooder and Galbán shine, trading their gentle,
tone-drenched licks. It's a love-in, actually. The two guitarists are so supportive of
each other that leads are sometimes traded the way old married couples finish one
another's sentences -- it's the same thought bouncing from one voice to another.
"Patricia," the old Pérez Prado classic, is a
particular gem, sounding not at all familiar or rushed. It's mambo as a leisurely stroll,
not an inexorable urge; or maybe just a quiet conversation among friends, surprising only
in its grace and range. "Monte Adentro" actually has Galbán creating a clangy
sound reminiscent of trashcan lids crashing together, but Cooder's sweetly singing lap
steel response to his tough lead smoothes out the rough edges quite nicely. "Secret
Love" has no rough edges -- it is so dreamlike, you'll feel the need to rub
the sleepdust out of your eyes when it's over. As a whole, Mambo Sinuendo is just
so easygoing and amiable you could be forgiven for thinking most modern music was simply a
nightmare.
We know better, but music like that on Mambo Sinuendo
is a daydream we can lose ourselves in as often as we like.
Sometimes life is good.
...Wes
Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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