Sonero de Oriente

If you’re a fan of Buena Vista Social Club, whose eponymous 1997 album was a global sensation, you’ll warm to this similarly traditional rural music from eastern Cuba, considered the heartland of son. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Arturo Jorge Cabrales had a poor, rural upbringing in the Rio Cauto valley, making his own first guitar using, as he says, “natural material I could find outside.” Initially playing at parties and events, in 2007 Jorge formed his group; and in 2017, playing a double-necked octatres guitar (the necks comprised of eight and six strings respectively), he released his first album, Finca Santa Elena, some of which appears in the soundtrack of Mo Fini's film Mambo Man.

In this new album, Jorge and his quartet are joined by Thommy Lowry on trumpet and William Roblejo on violin. The ten tracks offer a lilting mix of son and guaracha dance tunes, with Jorge singing of country life, of loves won and lost. Jorge's gruff voice is sweetened by the background vocals and enlivened by Lowry's glorious trumpet solos and Roblejo's soaring violin. They’re all good, solid tunes, though about halfway through the laidback pace becomes virtually soporific. Happily though, Jorge saves the best for last, in ‘Vamos al Valle de Elqui’, whose infectious rhythm and haunting trumpet provide an uplifting finale.