Cuban Songs from Trova to Guaracha: Pedro Luis Ferrer & Lena Ferrer
Schedule
Thu, 04 Dec, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
16 John St , Saugerties, NY, United States, New York 12477 | Saugerties, NY
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Legendary musician, composer and singer Pedro Luis Ferrer occupies a unique place in Cuban music and social culture where he started his career in 1969. He plays a variety of Cuban music styles like son montuno, punto guajiro, trova traditional, and nengon, but his main style is guaracha, a vibrant genre originating in 18th century musical theatre, contributing greatly to a national consciousness during the time of Spanish colonialism.Pedro Luis Ferrer will perform on Spanish guitar and Cuban tres (a guitar-like instrument), and will be accompanied by his daughter Lena Ferrer on vocals, marimbula (also known as bajo de flejes, a Cuban instrument derived from the African mbira), and percussion instruments clave, maracas and guiro.
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Ferrer is considered a living heritage of Cuban culture and during his long career his songs have been recorded by such artists as Celia Cruz, Omara Portuondo (Buena Vista Social Club), Gilberto Santa Rosa, Danny Rivera and Papo Luca."
Ferrer’s lyrics are charged with humor, social commentaries and obsessive references to food, which is something that’s present in the music of some of his predecessors (“soneros” like Los Compadres, Trio Matamoros, Barbaroito Diez, etc). But it is the pointed social commentaries that distinguish his lyrics from the more trivial ones of his contemporaries. His witty, sardonic social commentary so irked the Castro regime that in the late 90s the government banned his music from the state-run media (which in Cuba means all media). In an interview published in Mother Jones, Ferrer explained: “My music was broadcast in the official media in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I made music for television and I recorded some songs that quickly took root in the popular consciousness, like “Inseminación Artificial”, a song about a cow’s sexually charged lament on the industrialization of Cuba’s agriculture. This song became wildly popular in Cuba. But at the same time that those successful favorites were being broadcast, songs of mine that the bureaucracy deemed offensive or strange were silenced. There were many controversies and arguments with TV producers who refused to broadcast the most critical songs of my repertoire. Then one day, they took all of them out of circulation, even the ones that I composed in obvious support of the Revolution”.
Pierogi, beer, wine, sake, refreshments, snacks available.
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Where is it happening?
16 John St , Saugerties, NY, United States, New York 12477Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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