The first time I saw NG was in Havana, five years ago.
In the five years since, they have made consecutive Japan tours, so they have become the most famous Cuban contemporary salsa band. But they hate being called a salsa band. Yet there isn’t really any other good way to put it, and in the end they get filed under genres like Latin funk or Latin fusion, which don’t quite fit either. The eight songs gathered on this best-of album were all recorded under my production, and the recording sessions have, by now, become legend among the people who were there.
For example, in a recording project of “nine songs total, running time 62 minutes,” on the first day they laid in the rhythm section — piano, drums, conga, bongos, and bass; on the second day they overlaid the horn section ensembles and solos; on the third day they added the chorus; on the fourth day they put in the vocals; and the remaining two days were spent on mixing — making a CD in six days. Of course, faster isn’t necessarily better. But if you weren’t good, you couldn’t go this fast.
“It’s so good you don’t even need to be this good” — that’s what Ryuichi Sakamoto said.
How can you be this good? — I once asked a Cuban.
“We practice.”
That’s what they answered.
It’s true, the amount of practice they do is no joke. In the end, I think their seriousness toward music is just on a different level.
The current NG has gone through repeated member changes, and is, frankly, not in its best state. Generational turnover in Cuba’s music world is also intense. This best-of album, including in that sense, has become, I take some pride in saying, the finest from NG La Banda’s prime era.
Ryu Murakami