As leader of The Afro-Cuban All Stars and one of the younger pups in The Buena Vista Social Club, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez has played an extraordinary role in the recent re-popularisation of Cuban music around the world. It was his 1997 album A Toda Cuba Le Gusta, which brought together four generations of Cuban musicians for the first time; the intention, to make authentic 1950s-style Cuban orchestra music. He was then the obvious choice as musical director not just on the Buena Vista Social Club record but also on the solo albums of Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer. Certainly, Ry Cooder gets much of the attention, but it was Juan de Marcos and his early groundwork with his band Sierra Maestra that really started the ball rolling.
Born in Havana in 1954, Juan de Marcos grew up hearing all kinds of music. And although he studied classical guitar at the Conservatory in Havana, he had no ideas of a career in music. His father, who had been a singer in the legendary orchestra of Arsenio Rodriguez, had advised him to head towards getting a real job, his own memories of being a musician enough to convince him that it was far too tough a life for any son of his. And so Juan de Marcos went to university to study agricultural sciences and content himself with amateur bands. But university tends to play tricks on people and soon he rediscovered his love for the old rhythms. It was only one part of his varied musical experience, but it had turned out to be, by far, the strongest.
"When I was a teenager I used to have parties in my house with rumba, which is a traditional style of Afro-Cuban music. And because my father was a singer there was a party in my house every year and many important Cuban musicians of the old style would be there. So when I started with this kind of music it was simple for me. And besides, we are Cubans! But I also grew up with rock'n'roll. Remember that we live in Cuba and its only 110 miles to Miami, so we had American radio in our houses and I started out as a rock'n'roll player. We had amateur bands trying to recreate the sounds of great American or British bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, King Crimson, The Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. I remember groups like Los Zafiros but I was really, really young. "
During his university years, it was South American music which was particularly popular in Cuba, and in a reaction against that de Marcos and a group of friends formed a traditional septeto group called Sierra Maestra, which began playing to young Cuban audiences. They were contemporary but also well rooted in the tradition and they were a particularly dynamic spectacle. Back at the end of the 1970s forming a septeto like Sierra Maestra was a fairly radical musical move. Significantly, they began touring Europe, building up a following and sowing the seeds for the unexpected successes to come.
"We formed the band to fight against the influence of South American music in Cuba and we started Sierra Maestra to recreate the sound of the old times. I changed from the rock'n'roll guitar to the tres, which is the most important lead guitar for the Cuban music. It was really wonderful but we had to study a lot to catch the spirit of the real thing. I used to write exactly the arrangements of the big old bands - like Arsenio Rodriguez - note by note. But then in the late 1970s we started creating our own pieces and our own arrangements."
A fruitful relationship was then formed with Nick Gold at World Circuit Records, the farsighted label which released Sierra Maestra's music. The idea emerged to expand the group and play even more of the 1940s and 1950s material - and, while they were at it, why not involve some of the older musicians who actually played it first time around? And so people such as Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer were suddenly back in business, even turning up in places like Whelan's in Dublin for one of those legendary evenings (those who missed it seriously doubt it took place at all).
Many of the same personnel turned up again on the hugely successful Buena Vista Social Club CD - a project which turned out to be one of music's more delightful commercial surprises.
"Yes, it's a big success. But remember that Cuba is Cuba, so for us it's nothing outstanding that we have done. It's Cuban music and we have been playing it for a century. When I had the idea to make the album using the old guys and mix the old guys with the musicians of the younger generation, it was because I grew up playing that kind of music and I had met a lot of important guys. So it was a sort of a tribute to the Cuban music and to our ancestors as well. But it's good that there is a reaction in the young generation. They always think they have the truth - same as me, before! They normally only try to recreate contemporary sounds and don't take care of the old tunes, but now they are trying to use the traditional styles of Cuban music and are mixing contemporary elements with those roots."
It would be a very hard ticket indeed who would find much fault with The Buena Vista Social Club and its charming individual stars, but its success does, ironically, raise a slight problem for younger musicians such as Juan de Marcos. His most recent album, Distinto, Diferente, was rather less successful than the releases of the old brigade, probably because the European and North American audience has come to recognise only 1940s and 1950s-style music as Cuban music. It's worth remembering that the music of the Buena Vistas is pre-revolutionary, old-fashioned stuff - probably tweaked a little here and there by Ry Cooder to make it more accessible to non-Cuban ears - and is only part of what Cuban music is all about. But following its huge success, when audiences hear Cuban music which doesn't sound exactly like The Buena Vista Social Club, they don't always give it a chance.
"Yes, because they don't know. For them, the only Cuban music that exists is the old styles. It's important that you the keep the roots alive but the old guys are old guys and they are going to finish in some period. Ruben Gonzalez is 82 years old! How long is he going to be playing? So it's important to bring the youth to these styles and its important that they mix contemporary elements with it. Things are going to change and people will realise that there is other Cuban music that exists - not just the old music. Contemporary Cuban music is beautiful as well, and deserves some space. That's why I changed and I took a risk with my last album. It's like new vision of traditional Cuban music. In that way, The Afro-Cuban All-Stars is a sort of a bridge between The Buena Vista Social Club and the contemporary music."
"If you play pure and you are playing in the spirit of the nation, people will understand, For example your culture is very far away from mine, but I like The Chieftains. Simply, they are great and it sounds Irish. I don't like music that doesn't have a sense of nationality. But I think that we are in a very special moment with Cuban music right now. People know the old-fashioned music, but now they are going to be introduced, step by step, into the contemporary Cuban music. We were isolated for 40 years and we would like to keep the place that we now have. In the end we are going to win."
Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All-Stars play at Witnness, Fairyhouse on Saturday, August 5th