César Pedroso, Pupy
The King of “tumbao”

When the beginning of his successful route with the Los Van Van orchestra as a pianist, arranger and composer already surpassed the 30 years of uninterrupted labor; he decided to give a turn to his artistic career, and founded a new musical group. Almost five years after that decision he follows counting within those indispensable for the Cuban popular music, and when the dancing stages announce the presence of his orchestra all people know that success is granted. That is why Pupy y los que son son could not be absent for the gathering Baila en Cuba, which will take place in Ciudad de la Habana at the end of the year, a fact that gave us a pretext to have this dialog, when the musician gave a look to his extensive trajectory, making a compulsory stop to talk about his father legacy.

“At home there was always a piano, my dad used to play piano with the Sensación orchestra, with Chapottín, with Benny Moré… with a whole series of celebrities of the Cuban culture, of that kind of music. An uncle of mine used to play the güiro with the Arcaño orchestra, my grandfather was the Director of an orchestra named Cuba; there he used to play the flute. So, at home all the time, what one used to breathe was a musical air.

Then I, since very early age, used to sit at the piano, and tried to get some melody with my little fingers, and I can remember that the first ones were Cerezo rosa and Inolvidable primavera, when I was about four years old. Afterwards, when time went on, I followed playing and when I reached 11 or 12 years, I began to study in the conservatory, although before that I used to receive classes with private professors. However, always as the fundamental base the model was my father. So much, that many of the things I make, or ninety per cent of them, come from my father’s creativity. People think it’s me who did them, but they are actually his”.

Beyond following his father’s patterns when he interprets the music, Pupy also received great teaching from his father, who made him note other celebrities of the piano, like Rubén González and Lilí Martínez. “Once, when I was a child, there was an orchestra playing named the Orlando López orchestra; he was Cachao’s brother. Orlando López was not the type to make extraordinary things, but my dad said: - Look, he maybe does not put there so many notes, but look at the swing he has when playing the piano… And that was one of the things I had as guidance, trying always to have the swing, to get near to those people dancing and listening to the music.”

Following the “tumbao”

Seemingly, those words had an effect in the incipient pianist who then ignored how many generations of Cubans would enjoy the music made by him. “Cuba has a talent for dancers also because here, now and then, the way of dancing changes, and you have to write precisely on the base of the things you note. When I am playing, I look carefully how the dancer moves when he makes the “tumbao” (the way he or she moves). It is a relation between the dancer and the performer musician.”

The “tumbao” is one of the fundamental things; although it does not have to be precisely a piano one, there can be also a good bass “tumbao”. But it is with the piano, the bass and the percussion that a dance is made. Because singing, the bass player can do it. I used to work in a septet and the rest of the musicians started to leave for other groups, so only the piano the bass and the percussionist stayed; the percussionist and myself were the singers, and the people enjoyed a lot with that. For me the piano has a tremendous importance.

I think that my piano contribution to Los Van Van is something that represented like an identity seal. Once, we were playing in the Tropicana Mambí and we were performing a piece my dad used to like a lot, a piece from Formell. He came and said to him: Play my piece – Si mami se va – that’s the name of the song. And he also said to me – Why don’t you put a “tumbao” there? No, dad it is Formell’s… Then he talked to Formell, and from then on I started to make “tumbaos” in the orchestra. You just pay attention to the first songs by Los Van Van, they are very different. The “tumbao” started creating a base, creating an identity seal, in such a way that up to date is essential. And I know – it is not immodesty at all – I have taken a close look at the way other people make the “tumbao” and I make it in a different way. It was my idea since my dad made the “tumbao” in a way that I told him to: If I have a complete chord, - a chord has… five notes, four notes – and if I have all these four notes to make a “tumbao”, why should I use only one of them? And that was what the people used to do, people used just one note. Then what I do is to distribute the four notes, I do it like if making a Bach theme. “

The inescapable precedent

It is very difficult talking to Pupy and not referring to that times of Los Van Van, when he cemented his musical formation; a story that had started at the end of the 60´s, when he works as a pianist and musical director of the Orquesta Revé, up to the arrival of Formell with his renovating ideas. “I had already made two or three arrangements for the Revé, but that orchestra used to have the “Changüí” style, and would not move from that on. Formell arrived and I liked very much all things he brought with him, then I decided to stop, because I could see the importance of what he was doing, and let him space. And then I learned a lot by him. During these times we did Qué bolá, qué bolón, El Martes, La chica solitaria, La flaca, El jueves…”

At the end of 1969, Formell founded his own orchestra and already in 1971 Pupy made the first arrangements for Los Van Van and also the initial compositions: I made the first one, it was called El bate de aluminio, with another one called Tal como empezó , with the arrangement made by El Tosco (José Luis Cortés), the one from El bate… that I did myself. Then Formell liked the piece very much and from then on I followed with compositions, but with a style of my own.”

There were so many years of joint work that nowadays there are many that mix up the authors of some of the Los Van Van successes, attributing Pupy some Formell titles and vice versa. “There are Formell themes that I made arrangements for , and added choirs to them: Me basta con pensar, Si tú te vas… , and many people don’t know about the green light I used to have then in the orchestra. For example, when I made El Buena gente, I named it the rhythm chango-son, because I tell Changuito about the idea, I play it in the piano and he listens, and then Changuito said to me: let’s go with that! When I was making a piece for Los Van Van, the first one I used to call was Changuito, and only then I sang it to Formell. I used to write frequently also the “tumbao”; in other cases it was him who wrote it, because Formell had also to sing, so he had to accommodate things for him and play the bass as well, then many times he had to simplify the movement of the instrument. We gave ourselves the luxury to recreate in such things. It was that way, based on three persons: Formell, Changuito and César Pedroso. Juan is my brother, and musically he is my father, but he always used to say: you have talent for making a group; but actually, I just wanted to be by his side and he as well wanted me around.”

However, the moment to follow other course arrived and Pupy went to the stages with a new group: Los que son son.

The new orchestra

Founding a new group alter having worked intensely for thirty years, with one of the most important Cuban orchestras, supposed a challenge, mostly to prove the validity of the new proposal. “Already from the beginning I wanted to have trumpets, but no flutes, as the Manolito Simonet´s orchestra has flute, trumpet and trombone. And Los Van Van has flutes, so I have trumpets. That is to say, I tried to free myself from that all. As for sound, that does not matter at all. Initially people thought that we were like Los Van Van, but that was not so. The problem is that in Los Van Van were two talents, let’s call them that way, two composers, two arrangers doing music for the same name. Now that they are apart, each one of them preserved their own characteristics, their pattern, and their system for writing. In Los Van Van the other talent stays, that is Juan Formell, and the sound of Los Van Van stays the same. And something went apart, and became Pupy y los que son son. Thus from Los Van Van two groups appeared, each one with its own style. “

Contrary to every prognosis, the new orchestra surged with an incredible force. Its first disc
Qué cosas tiene la vida, turned to be one of the musical phenomenon of the recent years, as all its titles, without an exception reached the first places in the list of successes in radio and TV and are yet acclaimed and enjoyed by dancers. Moreover, this volume received the EGREM 2004 award, to the disc of the year, as he obtained the highest sales level.

Such a welcome came as a surprise for César Pedroso: “I even record songs there with fear. For example, I made Qué cosas tiene la vida on request of an EGREM executive, because I had already recorded that piece with Los Van Van. Then, I made a different arrangement, and it succeeded. My hope was in El pregonero, Juégala, and Seis semanas , the latter I included as a homage, because this is the only theme that has been successful by the same group twice. A theme can be successful when placed by two different groups, but not for the same one. It was recorded by Los Van Van twice, firstly by Israel, and then comes another singer, Mayito Rivera, with his own style and it also succeeded. And the recorder Orestes Águila had also a lot to do with the mix of the disc.”

In addition of the success attained by the two discs, another of the credentials that prestige the orchestra is the fidelity of the sound when presenting life. This is the result of an iron discipline, a virtue that Pupy learned from his two former teachers: Elio Revé and Juan Formell; and also of the profound carefulness, with which these recordings are made. “Here there are groups recording with instrumentalists that are not the usual ones, they invite them, and when that piece is life, it is not the same, it cannot be if the instrumentalist is not there. They substitute him with the keyboard and when they pass it life then can be disappointing.”

In defense of casino

The pretext of our gathering, the international meeting for dancers Baila en Cuba, which will take place between November 27 and December 1st this year, leads us to a discussion that has been developing during the recent years. Is there a casino crisis in Cuba? Has the aggressiveness of the Timba something to do with it?

“Our music is not as aggressive as for giving up dancing casino. What happens, as always, is that there is a trend. Now there is the reguetón, it has its dancers, it has its swing; but if you look at it, there are many things that we make that have the same effect; giving the dancer the possibility to leave off casino, and dance anything else. For example, with De la Timba a Pogolotti you can dance son montuno, but some people mix it up and dance it like casino. They look for casino and follow it. I can see that internationally. What they want to do now had to be done much earlier. The popularity of this dance in Europe is very large. As a result of all the DJ; and no only them but also because all the Cuban dance teachers that have left, to them we have to be very thankful.

The Cubans were the ones who invented casino, but now there are Porto Ricans making their dancing, with a lot of choreography; that is why we have to be grateful, because they use our music. Since they use our music, it becomes popular, and that is satisfactory for the dancers, because casino is not American or Porto Rican, it is from here, from Regla, from the Old Havana Lyceum. And that satisfies us, because casino was given very little value, while it has a tremendous importance, as it is the only dance that has a choreography without previous rehearse.”

How many things in one lifetime

Despite his indisputable success with Los que son son, many times when referring to his work Pupy outstands as the pianist and arranger that during 30 years worked in the legendary band. “Los Van Van is a fundamental part of my history. I keep being Van Van because those who are performing today are a dependency of us, the founders. We set the fundamental base, the most difficult part. They have to maintain what we did, because Los Van Van is an orchestra remaining for history. I also have in my favor the fact that people have rewarded the work of
Los que son son in such a short time, to attain that is most difficult that anything else. Now, if my work would be still relegated, if I had to depend from the Los Van Van surname for that, maybe I would be upset, but it actually does not bothers me, because in any case Los Van Van have a 35 years old trajectory; and internationally that is a good asset. I haven’t been given this work as a present, I made this work along with the orchestra creator, and if I still have to bear that surname, I bear it with a tremendous pride.”

However, more than like the man that made great contributions to that band, more than like the director of a new group currently enjoying great popularity inside and outside Cuba, Pupy would like to be remembered for being a great instrumentalist, as well as for the life, only he has been able to confer to the piano “tumbaos”. “In many places people call me names, they call me
El rey del “tumbao”, el señor “tumbao” (The King of “tumbao”, The Master of “tumbao”), they have given to me even a pullover with my own hands imprint…I would like everything would be related to “tumbao”, to a contemporary “tumbao”, because “tumbao” has been something that also made history.”