About the Artist

Here comes…el Son is a compilation performed by an assortment of unlikely musicians. Buddies Alfredo Alvarez Calderon and Rogelio Pretto teamed up to produce an exciting new TWIST to Beatles music. By recording in Havana, Cuba using local musicians, they preserved the rhythmic purity of the music they wanted to put together. To write the musical arrangements and help assemble the team of musicians, they enlisted the invaluable talents of Cuban master arranger “Pucho” Lopez —himself a devoted admirer of The Beatles. Pucho’s arrangements allow traditional instruments like the violin, guitar, trumpet and double bass to blend remarkably with grassroots Cuban percussive elements like clave, maracas, tumbadora, bongo and guiro, as well as the more primitively exotic paila and shekere and the Tito Puente favorite, timbales. Singers and musicians were enlisted from the sophisticated ranks of Cuba’s Symphony Orchestra and some of Havana’s popular urban stages. Francisco Padrón’s trumpet, for example, graces “We Can Work It Out ” with qualities of el son which are reminiscent of l930’s Cuba, when this unique beat enjoyed its greatest popularity. Omar Pérez Rodriguez’s digital nimbleness with the Lute adds a harp-like medieval enchantment to “Hey Jude”. “Because” and “Nowhere Man” are rendered exclusively in vocally produced instrumentations by Vocal LT, another popular local group. Their delightful vocal-only renditions provide another charming twist of son and columbia to classic Beatles tunes. Internationally renown percussion group Los Papines’s rendition in guaguancó of “Hello Good-bye” showcases that rhythm’s direct African lineage. And in what will surely be a favorite of this CD, they coax the ever appealing notes of “Hey Jude” into a stimulating son-guajira that will set you off to the dance floor. This novel approach to the music of The Beatles makes Here comes el Son a truly unique record.