1. GOING FAR BEYOND THE CONGA

Commentaries and critics of CD Caminando.

SUR CARIBE WALKING WITH LONG STEPS. by Omar Vázquez. Culturals. Granma. Thursday 29th, april 2004.

"When we recorded "CAMINANDO" (WALKING) with EGREM, we felt the importance of exploring a way to follow. With 17 years of work, we are always at the start point and we are happy to increase the level of convocation, as it happened recently in the VIADUCT OF MATANZAS ".

Those were the words of Ricardo Leyva, Director of the Band from Santiago de Cuba, in the presentation of a CD with the cooperation of Angel Bonne, Pedrito Calvo and Robertón, Jenny Valdés, the Rapper Rubén Cuesta (Candyman) who worked for years with the Band, and some other invited singers.

The fact that they have the Album of dancing music that sold more copies according to the Catalog of EGREM, Caminando, can bring about more than one surprise, as the President of the Stamp, José Manuel García stated. The phonogram includes 12 songs, most of them by Ricardo Leyva as well as Tu Caramelo soy Yo (I'm your Candy) by Rubén Cuesta and Si miro al mar, mujer(If I look at the Sea, woman), by Carlos Más.

RICARDO LEYVA " I can´t live without Sur Caribe". By Alden González Díaz Student of Social Communication. Culturals. Sierra Maestra.

It is quite difficult for anyone to be a prophet in his own Land, and it is even more difficult in Santiago . The Band Sur Caribe got to own prophesy with a boom never witnessed before at the beginning of the 90´s and those who follow popular music know I'm not lying.

Thanks to the leadership of Ricardo leyva, Sur Caribe changed its faith and the helmsman headed it towards popularity. It has been almost 10 years and it is time to re-tell, party and thank.That is why it has been a good idea to celebrate the 10 th Aniversary of Ricardo Leyva with Sur Caribe.

"The Band already existed; but it was on January 1987 when I was luckily asked to be the Director of this Band and from that moment on the lives of Ricardo Leyva and Sur Caribe have been together until now. For all these good moments, for all the things we believe in and humbly give to people, we are celebrating the 10 th Aniversary of this happy encounter ".

He divided the work in three phases, because of the different singers the band has had and the conformation of the metal instruments: first three trumpets and two trombones, then three trombones and two trumpets until now with four trombones. For them, the the three of them are very important; the first one, because it allows them to experiment even more and because with this one the had an explosion of popularity in Santiago . The second one gave them a national connotation to their music and defined the sonority of the band. And the last one is important because it is a hybrid epoch that sums up the previous ones. However, Sur Caribe is not as popular right now as it used to be.

"Every band has a boom at the beginning and then they try to keep the popularity or disappear . For us it was more difficult because we are facing problems with national broadcasting and promotion. We are preparing a well-thought repertoire, a well-thought promotion, we are doing things as we have never did; because we were lucky before. Almost everything that was done was planned; but it was done with good will and it worked. We really hope the success is going to be greater this time".

Are you the same composer you used to be?

"It is a difficult question...Now I have more experience. At the beginning I wrote on the paper whatever came to my mind. Now I think more. Nowadays, the music made in Cuba is different, I do not like most of it, although it does not mean I do not make it. I work for the audience, nor for me".

He also thinks that time has made him a better composer because of his work experience, for being a producer of the Siboney Studios, "to the point that, as Maestro Rafael lay stated, I would like to buy all we recorded in the first years to set fire on it".

He was mostly influenced by Juan Formell and the music from the 60´s, "then one tries to stay away from those influences. Right now I do not feel influenced by anything because I already have the experience".

Does Sur Caribe have a sonority that differs from other Bands?

Yes, it has a sound that anyone who listens to it would say that it is different from any other sound. That is the audience's opinion who is the one that knows about it. It is the music what counts which is the most important element in the history of a Band".

What does this work has represented to you as a social being?

"My life, also to my family and friends. When someone sees me, Sur Caribe comes to his mind. I can't live without Sur Caribe, my life beats, I eat, I dream, I do everything thinking about Sur Caribe".

Any Plan for the future?

"The Celebration of these 10 years of work. We've been thinking on a Tour around the Capital and the most important neighborhoods of Santiago de Cuba . The recording of a CD and a concert on January 11 th in Heredia Theatre in Santiago . For this concert, we are preparing the most important repertoire of these 10 years, led by Eduardo Rosillo and Consuelo Almaguer. We have invited Salvador Llorens, Lázaro odelín, Frank Solís, Joaquín Díaz, ex-musicians from other bands and surprise".

with SUR CARIBE "For my people, my only and beloved Santiago " Sierra Maestra, June 26th, 2004.

The Central Park of Contramaestre seemed to have no room for more people. After midnight right in the middle of a great Carnival 2004, dancers gathered to follow "literally", the message sent by the popular Band Sur Caribe.

And a good dancer, which is a characteristic of Cubans and especially from Santiago , has the chance to express himself much better when there is a show as the one performed by this Band from Santiago .

After the concert, in a peaceful atmosphere, the conversation with Ricardo Leyva, Director of Sur Caribe and Sergio I. Hernández Cardero, the manager of the Band confirmed the idea we had in our last meeting two years ago; these people do not lose the essence of Santiago .

"I'm never tired of saying and proving that we are Santiagueros (from Santiago ) and we are strongly connected to Santiago . We can be anywhere, in or out of Cuba , but we take our city and the audience in our hearts. Our things are here", says Ricardo, while writing something on a notebook.

Leyva and Sergito said some words of gratitude, words that we shared, to the organizers of the festivities in Contramaestre and from that exchange with the musicians we obtained the Last Edition of the Cuban Magazine of Music "Tropicana International" with a front page showing Ricardo, as usual, all in white and the background was a street of Santiago de Cuba. The work of Luis Ríos has a very suggesting title: Aprendí Caminando (I learnt on the Way).

In the six first pages, Ricardo explains his family links with music: the Hierrezuelos and the aunt; singer of Coro Electricista Natal, the beginning of his musical studies with Norma Milanés the time spent in the House of Culture in Regla, his return to Santiago and the Band he formed: RubleySon .. Then, el Nuevo Cubanero that gave him so much and Renovación Santiago , the emporium of Sur Caribe.

Leyva remembers his categorization as Director, his anxieties and search "to make a different proposal". This is how he broke phases, changes and more studies "but at last all the dreams I had for Sur Caribe came true".

He says, without forgetting he is a composer of many songs, most of them popular thanks to his general knowledge on melody writing.

After more than three years of hard work, Sur Caribe is, today, a First Class Band even though Leyva admits that he is pleased to share his work with musicians he loves and respects for their quality and because of this he launched his second CD "CAMINANDO (WALKING) and all he said in the Magazine "Tropicana Internacional".

"I thank my musicians, the people invited for the CD as well as my essential agent Sergio Hernández who played a very important role in this project, the designers of the front page, the EGREM and the Siboney Studios of Santiago de Cuba".

Evidently, Sur Caribe is a "SUPEREXPRESS" that walks its popularity from North to South and East to West all around Cuba and the best thing they have achieved is the First Class Team they have with a unique stamp: the cadence and rhythm of Santiago de Cuba . It is not a coincidence that the "Team" is anxiously waiting for the Carnival 2004 of Santiago . Then, in Trocha and carretera Morón , in Santa Úrsula or in Martí and San Pedro we will find once again the well-known "Sur Caribe"