Statement of the Cuban Music Institute
Any attempt to distort and to usurp the wealth of a country is a crime, it is to adulterate the human historical heritage and must be repudiated as such.
Cuba, reservoir of universal musical culture, has historically placed the results of a creation characterized by its indisputable attachment to the Cuban identity and origin to the service of universal culture.
Regarding the media aggressions against Cuba, the creation of an orchestra in Miami, which they pretend to name Riverside is a reprehensible fact that surpasses the basic respect for the Cuban nation, and which is just trying to confuse
international public opinion.
To defend the creation and interpretation of the musical groups that identify us, is to defend the nation and Cuban nationality.
To know our musical essence, is to know our origin, where we come from
The Orquesta Riverside, our Riverside, in its work since 1938, when it was created, has synthesized in its repertoire of more than 600 pieces, the best lifeblood of our music. It was an emblem during the 40s not only in Cuba but abroad, being the most important jazz band of Havana.
In the formation and development of Cuban music various popular genres converged in the Orquesta Riverside, which from jazz band format, found a way to play them. This earned the orchestra the highest recognition of the Radio, Television and people of Cuba.
Musical themes
like "Vereda tropical", "El de la Rumba soy yo", "Que lio tio" in the voice of Tito Gomez, essential singer in our musical heritage, became symbols that define the Cuban.
And when we say Cuban, we are referring to originating musical genres.
We speak of the Son, the Rumba, the Danzón, Bolero, rhythms and sounds that identify them.
We talked about music that is born of genuine popular creation and, in the process of assimilation and decantation, it returns readapted in each period, but which always identify us as Cubans.
Great Cuban musicians played with this orchestra, the great Peruchin, the great Cachaito, Joseito Gonzalez, the Guajiro Mirabal, Enrique Gonzalez Mantici, Adolfo Guzman, Marcos Urbay, Jorge Reyes, without trying to separate it ever
historical process that unfolds in the Cuban nation.
Similarly, some twenty young musicians, formed by our art education system, inheritors of our traditions, integrating today the renewed Orquesta Riverside.
Cuba, a small country, blocked and constantly harassed constantly in different ways, grows increasingly bigger by establishing among its priorities the development of culture as the shield of the Cuban nation. So when you bet on a musical group, is made from the essence of their cultural values and not to flirt with an uneducated and banal market designed like the commercial interests of the lowest political affiliations.
To pretend the promotion of an orchestra with the same name and repertoire, using the same arrangements in a country that wants to appropriate of something they don´t own, something their culture did not create, violates international rights conventions, of which both Cuba and the United States are signatories.
The Orquesta Riverside is itself a symbol identifying the Cuban music; it is recognized by its own sound and performance style. The Orquesta Riverside has international recognition and its name, like that of other Cuban bands, becomes a symbol of the heritage of the nation.
The Cuban Music Institute on behalf of Cuban musicians denounces this act and expresses indignation at such vandalism done.
link to original report http://www.cubarte-english.cult.cu/paginas/actualidad/noticia.php?id=24329
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