Armando Garzón y Los Guanches - Danzón

To everyone's surprise in Santiago de Cuba, the celebrated bolero singer, Armando Garzón, joined forces with one of the port's hottest Cuban son bands, Los Guanches, to record a repertoire of the old boleros, arranged to the danzón rhythm but played on guitars, bongos, bass and güiro scraper, the instruments of Cuban son.The result is proof of the enormous creativity and spirit of Cuban musicians.

The idea for this CD came from Corason founder and producer Eduardo Llerenas who wanted Armando Garzón's second CD to evoke the spirit of Barbarito Diez, the legendary Cuban bolero singer who was the last great vocalist to also sing danzones.

The project was a huge challenge for Garzón, and for Los Guanches since they had to stretch their traditional line-up to new limits and to accomodate the different vocal styles of a great bolero singer with the up-beat chorus of a young son band.

The results were very well-received during their live shows in Mexico and, more recently in France. Today the son bands at the Casa de la Trova include danzones in their daily repertoire which was almost unthinkable before this CD.

CO 138 ©, (p) Discos Corason, 1998. Produced by Eduardo Llerenas