The Cuban music that is mostly known for its dance music. Due to a return to tradition, there has been a rediscovery of a musical paradise that had almost been forgotten. This popular music, performed by small groups, is the root of our present day music, (El colibrí). The guitar has always been the core instrument of popular music, as much in Spain as in most of the countries in Latin America. Great composers have contributed their knowledge and art to this music, especially in the realm of the guitar, because of the guitar¹s ability to maintain a continuous dialogue with the listener.

Cuban composer, guitarist, and conductor Leo Brouwer is one of the most recognized composers for the guitar within this genre. He has written several concertos for guitar and orchestra and countless works for solo guitar. The works chosen for this recording span the different creative periods of this great musician, (Un día di Noviembre).

The melodies of the Spanish music in this recording signify, in my opinion, a return to our ancestors. Works known in Cuba with suggestive titles render a perfect image of the Alhambra, as an example, or of a María, at the same time playful, flirtatious, and sad.

Civil engineer, guitarist, and composer José Antonio (Ñico) Rojas perfectly integrates the rhythm and percussive flavor of Cuban popular music with the techniques of the classical guitar. Guajira a mi madre (Guajira for My Mother) is based on the rhythm of the country son. In contrast, Recuerdos de un médico violinista (Memories of a Doctor Violinist), reminds us of La Havana in the 1930s, and of those bars where you could taste the Cuban cocktails Hemingway valued so highly.

Among the first guitarists to stand out after the creation of the Cuban Guitar School were Aldo Rodríguez and Rey Guerra. Both composers, they have contributed greatly to our musical culture and pedagogy. As a final note, I would like to pay homage to my first teacher, Antonio Alberto Rodríguez, for sharing his knowledge of this wonderfully diverse instrument.

Marco Diaz Tamayo