The Divine Script of Habana Abierta. Arseniorodriguez Quintana. Ediciones Muntaner English Edition 2026

 

The Divine Script of Habana Abierta Kindle Edition

The generation of performers and composers known as Habana Abierta have shaped the last 30 years of Cuban music both on and off the island in parallel fashion. From the origins of the 13 y 8 gathering, the DNA of the albums by Habana Oculta and Habana Abierta. From 1995 to 2005, they flooded Cuba and Spain with more than a hundred published songs, all released in Spain, with no album officially edited and promoted there. Nevertheless, the social and emotional impact in Havana was extraordinary; it then spread to Madrid, from there to Miami and throughout the entire exile community. At the level of other emigrants from the sixties and seventies like Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan, La Lupe, or Willy Chirino, who were very popular unofficially but were banned, the difference is that none of the previous artists returned to the island—they wouldn't have been allowed to either; Habana Abierta did, and brought together seven thousand people at the Salón Rosado de La Tropical Benny Moré in a historic 2003 concert, where voices were left hoarse from shouting and dancing to the soundtrack of their lives during the Special Period: Ritmo Sabroso, Rockason, Divino Guión, Asere qué Bolá, La Natilla, La Habana a todo color, Siempre Happy. Recordings of Habana Abierta in Cuban and exile homes are never missing—they provided comfort both here and there. Their influence on 21st-century Cuban music is fundamental. Their songs have been performed by Ana Belén, Ana Torrojas, Tomasito, Ketama, Luis Enrique, Fernanda Abreu, Raimundo Amador, Willy Chirino, Bebo Valdés, Antonio Carmona, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and Amaury Gutierrez. In Havana: Grupo Mezcla, Alexander Abreu, Danays Bautista, Gente de Zona, David Montes, X Alfonso, Rochy, Habáname, Beatriz Márquez have transcended in unusual ways beyond the island. This is what this book is about, dedicated to Raúl Ciro, whose suicide made me see the need to put in writing the first memoir of this generation of performers and composers. As Habana Abierta, they participated in festivals: Doctor Music Festival, Festival Bilbao Tropical, Festival BAM, Festival ETNOSUR, Festival Valle de Ainsa, Festival La Mar de Músicas Cartagena, Festival Womad de Canarias, Festival Amnistía Internacional, among others. They have collaborated with some of the great figures from the music world in Spain. Among others, Bob Dylan, Deep Purple, Dave Mathews Band, Beastie Boys, Iggy Pop, Garbage, sharing the bill at those festivals. They have toured the U.S., Cuba, Portugal, and other European countries, where their media impact and the success of their performances was fundamental. It's no coincidence that Benito Zambrano acknowledged that his successful film Habana Blues was inspired by them. The day one begins to debate dates and origins of a cultural event, that day it stops being an anecdote and becomes History. " Arsenio Rodríguez Quintana.

Book "Origins of the Habanera" Arsenio Rodríguez Quintana Ediciones Muntaner 2026

 

This book emerges to fill a crucial gap in the literature written in recent years in Europe about the habanera rhythm and (havaneres). This gap relates to the scant or nonexistent information about the African rhythm (Black and Afro-Cuban) that is the essence of the habanera and the cadence of its beat. In the nineteenth century, the habanera was called by many names: tango rhythm, tango de negritos, habanera rhythm, americanas, and even criollas, but it was always the same thing. It also challenges other misconceptions held by those who claim that the habanera left Cuba in the nineteenth century, took root in Europe, and was abandoned there—this is false. I also document its success in nineteenth-century Spanish zarzuelas and in habanera festivals in Torrevieja and Calella de Palafrugell since the 1950s.

It contains the most complete profile ever published in a music book about María (Gamboa) Martínez, a freed Black Cuban woman who toured Cuban tango with her guitar through Madrid, London, and Paris on their finest stages from 1936 to 1950, subsidized by Queen Isabel, and who captivated many, including Charles Baudelaire, who dedicated a poem to her that is included here.

All three branches of the habanera—instrumental, lyrical (bel canto), and popular—continued to be created in Cuba. From 1803, when the first ones appeared, including "La bella cubana" by J. White, "La Bayamesa" by Fornaris, and "Tu" by Sánchez de Fuentes, all three are habaneras by Cuban authors of the nineteenth century. Manuel Samuel left more than fifty written works, as did Ignacio Cervantes and Escudero—three nineteenth-century authors who demonstrate this with their sheet music.

In the twentieth century, the first RCA Victor recordings included "habaneras," and later the Regina and Martí theaters in Cuba became venues for Cuban zarzuelas like Niña Rita (1927), Cecilia Valdés (1931), and Amalia Batista by Eliseo Grenet, Lecuona, and Prat—all filled with tangos and habaneras. We should not forget that María Teresa Vera, Gonzalo Roig, Marta Valdés, and many others have written habaneras up to the present day.

This book addresses the Afro-Cuban legitimacy of the habanera, which emerged from the Cuban contradanza and tango. With photographs, sheet music, and objective data, and perhaps the most complete historical chronology of this genre at the end of the book.

Published June 2021

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GN39MVCK