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This is ajiaco, or stew made, traditional and modern “Unique among Cuban group leaders at the time,” Mr. Álvarez said. Marysol Quevedo, a specialist in Cuban music and an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Miami. “What it represented was this perfect hybrid of traditional and influences from abroad,” he said.
Unlike many Cuban artists of the period, Mr. Álvarez received permission from the Cuban Communist government to travel abroad, starting with a trip to Venezuela in 1980. (Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel) condolences on his death.) This freedom of movement gave him access to Latin music outside of Cuba and kept him in touch with contemporary music trends. In 1999, after he and his band performed in New York, Peter Watrous He described their sound as “modern and unstoppable” from The New York Times.
Mr. Álvarez has also played a pioneering role in other ways. La Regla de Ocha-Ifá, a priest in the Yoruba religion, was one of the first Cubans to bring songs focused on their faith on stage and into the recording studio. Religions such as Ifá, a blend of Roman Catholicism and West African spiritual beliefs, were banned and practiced in atheist Cuba until 1992, when the government declared itself secular and outlawed religious discrimination. Ifá and other Santeria religions are now widely and openly practiced.
The ban did not prevent Mr Álvarez from recording one of his biggest hits in 1991. “Y Qué Tu Quieres Que Te Den?” It focuses on Ifá and asks listeners to think about what they want from the orishas or gods. The song served as a tribute to his religion, but also as a public confirmation of his popularity.
Adalberto Cecilio Álvarez Zayas was born on November 22, 1948 in Havana and grew up in Camagüey, central Cuba. His father, Enrique Álvarez, was a musician, and his mother, Rosa Zayas, was both a musician and a singer.
He studied composition and orchestration at the National School of Art in Cuba. He then taught a spell to students and influenced the band’s leader, Joseíto González, until he took a job writing songs for the group Conjunto Rumbavana in 1972. It was Mr González who introduced Mr. Álvarez to the idea of reviving the Cuban dance tradition.
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