When Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Cuba’s seminal rumba group, plays at the Museum of Contemporary Art this weekend, there won’t be a single original member among the group’s 15 dancers and musicians.
The last of the founders, Gregorio Diaz Alfonso, died two years ago, shortly after the group’s last Chicago appearance. “Goyo,” as he was popularly known, was a coffee-colored man of quiet dignity who sat in the center of Los Munequitos’ three drummers, slapping the tumba drum held between his knees.
“To lose Goyo has been tremendous, a huge loss,” said Diosdado Ramos, the ensemble’s director, by phone from his home in Matanzas, a town just outside Havana known as the cradleland of rumba, that most Cuban of rhythms, a perfect blend of African and Spanish idioms. “What he brought to the group was wisdom. He taught us a lot.”
But, cautions Ramos, his death barely affects the musicality of Los Munequitos, and not because Goyo was not an exceptional musician but because Matanzas is such an exceptional place.
“Here in Matanzas, we have rumba for breakfast, rumba for lunch, rumba for dinner,” says Ramos with a hearty laugh. “There are many, many young people here who — while they may not be able to match Goyo’s spirit — can certainly play anything he could play. Rumba, you see, is Matanzas’ particular idiosyncrasy, the lifeblood of this town.”
Rumba is really a set of different rhythms. Since they originated in 1952, Los Munequitos have focused on three aspects of the rumba: yambu, the original style developed in Matanzas province; the columbia, a duel-like dance performed only by men; and the guaguanco, now considered a classic rhythm carried by three congas and featuring solo hand drumming. (Its most popular contemporary form is the percussion refrain in salsa numbers.)
But since 1995, Los Munequitos have added a new rhythm: rumba conga. “It’s much more carnavalesque,” says Armando Valladares, the group’s musical director, also speaking by phone from Matanzas. “It’s much more the music of Havana, more urban, really, and we play it to end the show.”
When Los Munequitos were last here, their show was exclusively a survey of rumba; thus it retained a distinctly religious air, since most of the rhythms are derived from santeria, where each is assigned to a particular deity. This time, only one god will be introduced, Elegua, a trickster who is always invoked at the beginnings of ceremonies, parties and the like.
“The rest of the program will consist of five movements, all of them focused on African dances,” explains Valladares.
But while the music moves the spirit, don’t expect to see too much dancing out in the audience.
“It’s a sit-down experience,” says Ramos. “It’s always in a concert hall, it’s always small and intimate with us. You see, this is exactly like going to see Alicia Alonso in a ballet. It’s classical music. It’s Cuban classical music.”
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It’s probably the best salsa lineup in years, and it’s “Primavera Musical” this Saturday at the Aragon: Jerry Rivera, whose “El Amor Nunca Pregunta” is all over the radio; La India, whose growl and grit move the soul; Victor Manuelle, back after last year’s sensational Festival Boricua; the frantic merengue of Grupo Mania. You know it’ll go-go-go all night long.
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Amazingly, Shay Duffin has been portraying Irish bad boy Brendan Behan for nearly 24 years, and the show, according to some who saw it, hasn’t changed much from its inception. “Brendan Behan: Confessions of an Irish Rebel” uses Behan’s own words to tell the story of his short, very tortured life. When Behan finally died at age 41 in 1964, the London Mail said, “too young to die but too drunk to live.” In spite of this, “Confessions of an Irish Rebel” is also quite funny, quite bawdy, and Duffin is simply quite good.
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the facts
Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave. $15; $12 MCA members. Call 312-397-4010 for more information. The MCA is wheelchair accessible.
Saturday, 7 p.m., “Primavera Musical,” Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence Ave. $27. Call 312-421-5121.
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. (no performance next Wednesday, March 18), Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 5 and 8:30 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 6 p.m. (except this Sunday, March 15, when the performances are at 4 and 7 p.m. instead), “Brendan Behan: Confessions of an Irish Rebel,” by Shay Duffin, Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Ave. $24.50. For more information, including additional show times, call 773-325-1700. The Mercury is wheelchair accessible.
