Cuban Guitarist, Vocalist, Composer, Arranger, Band Leader
LUIS MARIO OCHOA
Releases New Video:
from Forever Lecuona
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Video by Manuel Buznego 2022 |
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PRESS RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Sue Auclair
M: 617.359.5771
For Immediate Release:
April 15, 2022
Guitarist, Vocalist, Composer,
Arranger & Band Leader
LUIS MARIO OCHOA
has just released a new video:
"La Mulata Chancletera"
to accompany his new album
FOREVER LECUONA
"Ochoa arranges 10 of Lecuona's love songs with passion, favoring a bed of Afro-Cuban jazz rhythms and traditional Havana seasoning. His vocal power and tone are sensational, and the arrangements are modern with earthy intensity and purpose. I could detail the individual
songs but there's really no need. All of them will sweep you away. Ochoa's taste is superb,
and the music pays respect to the original masterpieces with a bright, contemporary feel."
- Marc Myers, JazzWax
MIAMI, Florida, USA and TORONTO, Ontario, Canada--Guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger and band leader Luis Mario Ochoa, the Cuban-born, Miami and Toronto based musician, recently released his fifth album, Forever Lecuona [April 6, 2022] and now, he is also releasing his new video, "La Mulata Chancletera" featuring the opening track from the album.
Shot in Miami by photographer and videographer Manuel Buznego it features Ochoa dancing, playing and singing alongside model Ingrid Spengler to "La Mulata Chancletera" in a seaside setting.
A tribute to world renowned Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona – known as the Gershwin of Cuba – Forever Lecuona features ten of some of the legendary artist’s most beloved compositions, presented in a concert style recital program.
Ochoa's crackerjack Latin band includes pianist Hilario Durán, percussionist Luis Orbegoso, bassists Louis Simão, Roberto Riverón and Jonathan Amador, timbales player and drummer Rosendo 'Chendy' León, drummer Amhed Mitchel, conga player Jorge Luis Torres 'Papiosco' and bata drummer Reimundo Sosa.
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JJORGE LUIS TORRES PAPIOSCO
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As the primary force behind the emergence of Cuban music around the world in the early 20th century, Lecuona’s compositions encapsulated the spirit of Cuban, African and Spanish influences producing a library of music across multiple genres including popular songs, piano solo compositions, as well as music for theater, ballet and opera.
Ochoa’s desire to pay homage to Lecuona began when he moved to Miami in 2014 to start a new chapter in his life and career. With a vast selection of music to choose from, he wanted to mirror Lecuona’s ample array of styles, by featuring his tropical songs, congas, boleros, criollas, Afro Cuban dances and a Sevillana flavored song.
A multi-faceted musician, Luis Mario emigrated to Toronto from Cuba in 1990 after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in classical guitar at the University of Havana, Instituto Superior de Artes. In Canada, he expanded his musical career as guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger and band leader. His first album A La Cubana (1995) was among the first Latin recordings to be released in Canada and the first from a Cuban born musician.
Over the years Ochoa has produced and released three additional albums: La Fiesta (2000), Cimarrón (2005) and Momentos Cubanos (2008). Tracks from his productions have been featured on Canadian major networks mini-series such as Traders (CBC) The Associates (CTV) as well as in the films Brave New Girl (2004) and Bailey's Billions (2005). Luis Mario has recorded and performed many times with Latin jazz luminaries such as multi-Grammy® award-winner Paquito D’Rivera and multi-Juno® award winner, Hilario Durán.
Coinciding with the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Lecuona’s passing in 2023, Forever Lecuona will continue to keep the music of this incredible composer alive.
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LISTEN TO SAMPLES FROM THE ALBUM: |
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April 6, 2022
Luis Mario: Forever Lecuona
"Ochoa arranges 10 of Lecuona's love songs with passion, favoring a bed of Afro-Cuban jazz rhythms and traditional Havana seasoning. His vocal power and tone are sensational, and the arrangements are modern with earthy intensity and purpose. I could detail the individual songs but there's really no need. All of them will sweep you away. Ochoa's taste is superb, and the music pays respect to the original masterpieces with a bright, contemporary feel." - Marc Myers. Full Review here
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Photo by Manuel Buznego 2022 |
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Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Rock Concert: An Oral History" (Grove), "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards
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A REVIEW RECEIVED IN AN EMAIL:
"The Lecuona Cuban Boys in their time of the early 1930s up to the 1960s and slightly beyond past the death of Ernesto Lecuona, were the premier folklorico ensemble to come from the Castro led Caribbean island. Staying close to that tradition, the exceptional guitarist and singer Luis Mario Ochoa follows up his previous brilliant recordings with this gem. Help from the great pianist Hilario Duran, different percussionists and bassists allows Ochoa to dig deep into the Lecuona repertoire. Classics like “La Comparsa,” “Danza Lucumi” and lesser known pieces such as “Como Arrullo De Palma” (from the book of Benny More), and “Siempre En Mi Corazon” are but a few examples of the power and importance of Lecuona's music that Ochoa has brought to the surface and forefront. This is easily going to be an across the board Top Latin Jazz pick in 2022, one for the ages, and comes very highly recommended."
--Michael G. Nastos: Hot House Magazine/NYC, WCBN 88.3 FM, wcbn.org, Ann Arbor, MI., DownBeat, ArtsFuse, El Intruso and Jazz Messenger Polls, Paradiso Dei Musicisti
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Photo by Manuel Buznego 2022 |
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TRACK BY TRACK:
By Luis Mario Ochoa
1. La Mulata Chancletera: “The Flirty Mulata” is one of the theme songs from the zarzuela (operetta) María La O, and it describes a beautiful and happy girl who brings a smile to all.
2. Como Arrullo De Palmas: "The Whispering Of Palm Trees" This is a love song made popular by one of Cuba’s most renowned singers, Benny Moré.
3. María La O: This is an aria (romanza) from the zarzuela María La O and it’s a song about a woman with a broken heart.
4. Siempre En Mi Corazón: "Always In My Heart" is a love song about longing and it’s also the theme of the classic Hollywood film, Always In My Heart, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1942.
5. Para Vigo Me Voy: “I Am Going to Vigo” Vigo is a town in Spain. This is an upbeat song inviting people to join in a conga line and dance all the way to Vigo.
6. Una Rosa Blanca: “A White Rose” Lecuona wrote this beautiful melody to a poem by Cuba’s national poet hero, José Martí. The translation is, "I offer a white rose to the sincere friend who offers me his hand, and for the cruel one that rips out my heart, I don't offer thorns, I offer a white rose.”
7. Y La Negra Bailaba: “And the Black Lady Danced” is a piece from Lecuona’s suite, Afro Cuban Dances.
8. La Comparsa: “The Carnaval Procession” was composed in 1912, for Lecuona's first ballet and it became as well, his first Afro Cuban Dance. With this one piece alone, he became a renowned composer.
9. Danza Lucumí: “Lucumí Dance” Lucumi is an ethnic branch of the Yoruba ancestry and it is tied to the Afro Cuban Santería, a religion that blends Yoruba with the saints of Catholicism. The African slaves were prohibited from practicing their own religion, so they synthesized Catholicism together with their own Yoruba worship. This piece is also from Lecuona’s suite, Afro Cuban Dances.
10. Damisela Encantadora: “The Enchanted Young Lady” is the Romanza piece from Lecuona's zarzuela, Lola Cruz.
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ABOUT CUBAN COMPOSER
ERNESTO LECUONA
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Cuba has many incredible composers in its cultural repertoire, but perhaps none that ever reached the stature of Ernesto Lecuona. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional skill. His father was Canarian and his mother was Cuban.
Lecuona's talent for composition influenced the Latin American world in a way quite similar to that of George Gershwin in the United States, in his case, raising Cuban music to classical status.
Even before becoming well known, this great Cuban musician was unique. Through his music, he was able to synthesize the feeling of an entire nation. Within his compositions, he was able to combine the popular with the traditional as well as the history with contemporary times of his people. Because Lecuona had become so popular and well-known, he was able to leave Cuba and conquer stages around the world without ever forgetting the land of his birth.
Ernesto Sixto de la Asunción Lecuona y Casado was born in Guanabacoa, Cuba, on August 6, 1895. A few days after his birth, a beggar approached his crib and prophetically called him a genius. The beggar was not wrong, because at the age of five years old, the boy gave his first recital!
It’s no wonder that by age 13 he had already composed his first piece: Cuba and America. He was a brilliant student and he graduated from The National Conservatory of Havana with a gold medal for his musical skills when he was only 16 years old. Afterwards, he was able to continue his studies outside of Cuba.
France and the United States were the countries in which he chose to cultivate his artistry. And even during his early stages of schooling, his name would become forever etched into the cultural memories of the United States and throughout America. In the U.S., he was the first to introduce a Latin orchestra: The Lecuona Cuban Boys. This exceptional band of Afro-Cuban musicians filled the 1930s and 1940s with its intense Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Since those days, Lecuona’s renown has continued to grow as his contributions to Cuban music have become more and more widely known, especially within the Spanish lyric theater known as “Zarzuela,” a kind of masque-like musical theatre or operetta which existed in Spain since the time of Juan del Ensina and later imported to Cuba. In Cuba, the afrocubanismo zarzuelas of Ernesto Lecuona (María la O; El cafetal), Eliseo Grenet (La virgen morena) and Gonzalo Roig (Cecilia Valdés, based on Cirilo Villaverde's classic novel) represent a brief golden age of political and cultural importance. These and other works centered on the plight of the mulata woman and other black underclasses in Cuban society.
In 1960, thoroughly unhappy with Castro's new régime, Lecuona moved to Tampa, Florida. Lecuona lived his final years in the U.S., but while traveling in the Canary Islands three years later, he died of a heart attack in the town of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on November 29, 1963, where he was trying to recuperate from a lung ailment.
A great deal of Lecuona's music was first introduced to mass American audiences by actor and bandleader Desi Arnaz, a fellow Cuban and Lucille Ball's spouse.
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Tropical Plant Photo by Sue Auclair |
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Sue Auclair
Marketing | Public Relations | Business Development
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