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World Routes in Cuba World Routes: Cuba 2007

In the first of three programmes recorded on location in Cuba, Lucy Duran embarks on a 1000-mile road journey in search of the musical roots of this very musical island. She begins her exploration of Cuban music in Santiago de Cuba, the sizzling eastern city that’s both the birthplace of son and the cradle of the Fidel Castro’s Revolution. In her search of Cuban Music Lucy explores changui music from Guantanamo, looking into the African and Haitian influences that helped create it. In Holguin she discovers the Mechanical Organ, “organo oriental”, and the voice of Beny More. As well as encountering the religious music of the Cabildos and the Spanish influenced countryside “Decimas” music in the colonial gem Trinidad de Cuba. Lucy visits Matanzas, the birthplace of two crucial musical styles: rumba and danzon. There she records a session with “Munequitos de Matanzas”, one of Latin America’s biggest cult bands. She returns to Havana and meets record producer Juan de Marcos Gonzalez who tells her the story of Buena Vista Social Club