A Cuban dance band set to perform Tuesday in Lawrence has caused a political ruckus in Miami.
A 15-piece Cuban dance band from Havana that is scheduled to perform Tuesday night in Lawrence is causing a political ruckus in Miami.
There, anti-Castro Cubans have pressured city hall into canceling Los Van Van's Oct. 9 show, which was booked for a municipal concert hall.
"Los Van Van are so incredibly popular that in the mind of the ultra right-wing Cuban minority, they're in bed with Castro. It's not the truth," said Bob Augelli, a Lawrence business consultant and musician who is co-producing the band's show here at Liberty Hall.
"From my perspective," Augelli said, "leave it to Jesse Helms and Fidel Castro to figure out the politics. Los Van Van are coming here to party and make great music. That's the truth, man."
According to a Miami Herald newspaper report, the band's show in Miami was canceled after the private company that manages the Miami concert hall was pressured by Miami Mayor Joe Carollo and other elected officials.
"This is the official Communist band of Fidel Castro," Carollo told the Herald.
Are Lawrence city officials ready to welcome a commie pinko dance band?
"No comment," said spokesperson Gayle Martin.
Augelli said it's the band's trend-setting influence on Latin music that is revolutionary, not its politics.
"They started as a charanga band, which uses three violins and kind of a salsa orchestration but with violins instead of horns," he said. "As they evolved they added electric bass and drum and at that time coined a new term for their music, songo, which is pretty revolutionary. Then they added three trombones. The band formed in 1969 and went through this evolution. Currently they refer to their sound as timba. They've so deeply influenced music in Cuba to where most of the bands there now are timba bands. But it's just straight-ahead salsa. They're not playing political music. They're playing dance music."
Appearing with Los Van Van is Barbarito Torres, a Cuban musician famous to many in the U.S. because of the Buena Vista Social Club CD and film.
Augelli is co-producing the show here with Avalanche, a Lawrence entertainment company. He said Los Van Van may be the first of several Latin acts brought here by the collaborators.
"We're hoping this is the first of a whole series of Latin concerts for the Lawrence-KC area. We've been talking with Ruben Blades' folks, nothing finalized, but something we're real interested in doing. We'd also like to bring in a meringue artist, Elvis Crispo. And of course more of the Cuban acts."
-- Mike Shields' phone message number is 832-7154. His e-mail address is mshields@ljworld.com.
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