CD Review: Tiempo Libre's 'Bach in Havana'--Salsa to the classics

June 26, 9:42 PMLA Dancing ExaminersIan Ono and Jana Monji :

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To call Tiempo Libre's version of Bach's D Major Prelude from Well Tempered Klavier, Book 1 an interpretation would not do it justice.  It is rather a reinvention of Bach’s melodies placed in the frame of Afro-Cuban Jazz.  Bach is just the starting point, quickly the fusion of jazz rhythms and structures blend through the music.

While this is Tiempo Libre's first album on the Sony label it is not their debut.  Each of the members of the  two-time Grammy nominated septet (Jorge Gomez, Joaquin "El Kid" Diaz, Leandro Gonzales, Tebeio "Tony" Fonte, Cristobal Ferrer Garcia, Hilario Bell, Luis "Rosca" Belran Castillo) were trained classically trained at La ENA, Cuba’s premiere conservatory and this severs them well.

Their first piece, a conga inspired by The Well-Tempered Clavier’s C Minor Fugue, pulls all their energy together.  The singer announces the album’s intent in praise to Bach.

Johann Sebastian, tremenda escuela                        Johann Sebastian, great inspiration

Mas conocido por Bach                                              Better known simply as Bach

Elha dejado, un gran legado                                       Left us a great legacy

Y con mi conga te quiero contar                                 One I want to share with you through my conga

It is impossible to not tap or move to the beat of this piece.  

In "Clave in C Minor" (Based on Prelude No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847) the subtle flavor of the piano is joined by a trumpet that teases out the Bach motif as the piano shifts into high gear.  The trumpets echo back the motif in a Guanguanco style (a type of rumba).

In their very danceable "Gavotte", Tiempo Libre uses French suite no. 5 in G major as a jumping off point.  The sassy trumpet sings out the melody in this Cuban song.

It should be no surprise how successful this group is at reinventing Bach's melodies.  In 2008 worked on James Galway's album O'Rielly Street, where they did a Latin Jazz version of Claude Bolling Jazz Suites including “Baroque and Blue”, as well as a timba take on Bach's “Badinerie”.  The difference being this time around the music in much more danceable.  While they are not the first to fuse classical music with dance music, who can forget "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murray and the Big Apple Band, Tiempo Libre has taken it to the next level.

JANA: This CD of polite, intellectual and flirty dance music. "Tu Conga Bach" is more like a calling card and it introduces the album's intent, but it doesn't make my hips want to go into overdrive, but it's sort of a flirty number that's followed by the jazzy "Fuga." "Air on a G-String" is a catchy title, and I'm not fond of g-strings to begin with, but this is actually a romantic easy-listening tune. If you're Catholic and already have some issues regarding dancing and any sort of romantic transgressions you've done at, near or after dancing, "Kyrie" might send you straight to mass and confession. Not being Catholic, all that subtext is lost on me and "Kyrie" is a lovely piece mixing piano with brass. Listening to this CD makes me want to put my hair up and dress in a light, flirty, summery number with a skirt that rises and falls with every turn.

Members of Tiempo Libre:  Jorge Gomez, Joaquin "El Kid" Diaz, Leandro Gonzales, Tebeio "Tony" Fonte, Cristobal Ferrer Garcia, Hilario Bell, Luis "Rosca" Belran Castillo.

For more information visit their web side http://www.tiempolibremusic.com, and you can buy "Bach in Havana" at Amazon.