Buena Vista Social Club Presents http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Music/Buena-Vista-Social-Club-Presents-Manuel-El-Guajiro-Mirabal/0075597981025

Manuel Guajiro Mirabal [Digipak]

Artist: Manuel "El Guajiro" Mirabal

• Personnel: Manuel "El Guajiro" Mirabal (trumpet); Pepe Maza (vocals, claves); Demetrio Muniz, Ibrahim Ferrer, Aldo del Rio, Carlos Calunga, Diego Ramon Palacio, Tirso Oriol Duarte Lescay (vocals); Manuel Galb n (guitar, organ); Papi Oviedo, Jose 'Maracaibo' Castaneda, Johnny Neptuno (tres); Policarop "Polo" Tamayo (flute); Javier Zalba (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Rolando Sanchez, Pantaleon Sanchez (alto saxophone); Alfred Thompson, Antonio Jimenez, Rafael 'Jimmy' Jenks (tenor saxophone); Ventura Gutierrez (baritone saxophone); Yaure Mu¤iz, Luis Alem ny Conde, Alejandro Pichardo (trumpet); Jesus "Aguaje" Ramos (trombone); Rub‚n Gonz lez , Roberto Fonseca (piano); Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez (double bass); Manuel Anga Diaz (congas); Roberto Garc¡a, Carlos Gonzalez (bongos); Enrique Lazaga (maracas); Amadito Vald‚s (timbales); Diego Coppinger.
  
• The 1997 runaway smash BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB is the gift that keeps on giving. In the wake of the album's success, a number of its key performers, including Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer, released solo albums, and in 2005, trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal added his name to that distinguished list. Like his cohorts in the Buena Vista project, Mirabal embodies the musical traditions of Cuba, specializing in classic conjunto, with traces of mambo, rhumba, and bolero in the mix. At the time of this recording, Mirabal's first solo album, he was 71 years old.
  
• Though Mirabal has played in countless orchestra and ensemble since the '40s, and has likely run through the entire Afro-Cuban repertoire in that time, this album is devoted almost exclusively to the music of pioneering Cuban visionary Arsenio Rodriguez. Rodriguez cast the die for modern salsa conjunto, and the instrumentation Mirabal chooses--three trumpets, piano, tres, guitar, percussion, and a rotating roster of lead and backing vocalists--is a classic conjunto configuration. Mirabal evokes the sound of a '40s Havana dancehall, and the playing is superb, with danceable polyrhythms, impassioned vocals, and plenty of dazzling brass work. This is another score for BUENA VISTA fans.