With a humility sometimes unseen among younger generations, the director of the group, Ethiel Fernández Failde, told Prensa Latina that he is very happy to participate in the event in which music, history, and traditions form an amalgam of cultural processes, culminating in great nightly dances for an entire week.
This is my first performance at the Piña Colada Festival, and I am very happy, as is the orchestra in general, to be here in the municipality of Morón; we came from the International Danzón Festival in Matanzas, the musician expressed. We are pleased to be the host orchestra for that event and now visit this city for the event organized by my great friend and director of the Talismán, Arnaldo Rodríguez, Failde emphasized.
As a worthy successor to the music of the creator of the danzón, Matanzas native Miguel Failde —author of the first song in this genre, “Las Alturas de Simpson”— the performer honored the work of his predecessor, whose great-great-nephew he is.
Our group strongly defends our musical roots and traditions; not even Miguel Failde’s orchestra —king of the danzón— played only this genuinely Cuban expression. That’s why, as young people, we can’t afford to stop making the music we love and that is in tune with our environment and our times, he noted.
Depending on the audience and the stage on which we perform, we shape our repertoire, but there’s always a place for danzón, he commented.
Failde’s catalog of genres includes son, merengue, timba, and the most popular Cuban music.
“We always think about the public, they are the ones who rule; they ask us, and we satisfy them. We have a wide range of formats and repertoire,” he added.
Failde commented on his immediate projects, including albums and tours.
He referred to the album scheduled for release this month with Puerto Rican salsa legend Andy Montañez; also a single in May with Mexican singer Eugenia León. For that same month, we are already preparing a single with Havana D’ Primera director Alexander Abreu, who has been involved in every project of ours,” the young director added.
“We have a renewed orchestra, new faces, musicians who graduated from art schools, and these are elements that keep the group’s image fresh,” Failde told this media outlet.
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