Puro Son - La familia Valera Miranda en Concierto

Product Description One of the most famous family septetos in Cuba, La Familia Valera Miranda has been playing traditional Cuban Son for generations. World-renowned for their virtuosity, the most important elements of their musical heritage are the authenticity, purity & eloquence in their style. Filmed in front of the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba, this live concert DVD captures the essence of the group. About the Actor La Familia Valera Miranda has been practicing the traditional Cuban music known as Son the style recently popularized by the Buena Vista Social Club albums for generations!!! Music is a family affair for these famous musicians. Félix Valera Miranda, founder of the group, sings and plays guitar while his wife, Carmen, plays maracas, along with their sons, Enrique (Kiki), Raúl, and Ernesto, on cuatro (an eight-string guitar tuned in pairs), bass, and bongos respectively. In addition to La Familia is Wilfredo Fuentes on congas and Antonio Rodón who sings and plays clave. Since the 19th century, several families have played a significant role in Cuban culture, acting as a crucible of ethnic groups, collecting deeply rooted local traditions that have a bearing on the country s unique musical identity. La Familia Valera Miranda is one of the most interesting families of this type. Their ancestors were subsistence farmers who populated the rural areas of the Oriente (eastern Cuba), primarily the Cauto River valley near the villages of Bayamo and Las Tunas. From there they migrated to the areas of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and the legendary Sierra Maestra mountains. The fact that La Familia s ancestors gradually spread throughout the Oriente is important in that it flavored artistic exchanges in their music as well as in their daily and social life. The Valera branch contributed the secular & festive, popular & religious Hispanic elements as well as the Afro-Cuban elements derived from Bantu origins. These influences are detected not only in their songs but also in the musical instruments they used. From the Miranda branch came elements that were specific to the Canary Islands and Andalucía, as well as the unusual Afro-Hispanic mixture represented, in particular, by Cutiño and his granddaughter, the famous singer Milla Miranda, the mother of Félix Valera. Although world-renowned for their outstanding technical and virtuosic skill, the mos