Guajiro Sonero

José Alberto, nicknamed ‘The Nightingale’ to distinguish him from the other José Alberto, ‘The Canary’, is from Bayamo in Eastern Cuba, and has forged a career as a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and a cunning way of shaping a phrase. Here he tackles perhaps the most popular of Cuban styles, the son, with its elegant balance between Spanish poetic and melodic forms, and neatly dovetailed African rhythms and vocal improvisations in call-and-response patterns, which grow increasingly tense and driving as the song progresses. The ensemble is in classic conjunto format, with three bright trumpets rising in harmony above percussion and tres or cuatro intertwining with intricate piano riffs.

Although the fundamental sound and approach remain the same throughout the album, the decision to use five arrangers, generally the pianists, provides variety in style and feeling. For instance, the opening track ‘Un Pasito Contigo’, sounds almost old-fashioned, with a free-flowing piano tumbao and simple, carefully placed bass underpinning, while ‘No Naciste Para Mi’ moves into the jerkier, more elaborate and rhythmically unsettling territory of timba. The faintly eccentric closing track, ‘Mi Bayamo de Siempre’, combines grandiosity with a relentless groove. Absorbing and intelligent dance music.