Quinteto Rebelde
During the intense fighting of 1959, Fidel Castro gathered and eventually founded himself the rebel band Quinteto Rebelde with musicians, mostly young, from the Medina family and their cousins from the Lavoe family.
Those musicians who were initially mere peasants find themselves so in
the middle of a group of liberators ordered by the famous Fidel Castro
and the legendary Ernesto "Che"
Guevara. These teenagers, sunday musicians so to speak,
find themselves sing in the middle of the revolution
combats of the Sierra Maestra mountains. Following the advance of the
liberation army,
the "Quinteto" prevents Batista's troops from sleeping and at the
same time trying to convince the enemy to come and join the liberators.
All songs are joyful and simple to understand, based on
several concerns of a population which was basically, until
then, often starving and subjected to heavy agricultural
labors for a handful of Latifundistas [landowners] close to the
dictator Batista.
Needless to say, the task to sing the praises of the revolution and encourage people to follow Fidel in his effort to lead to a more just and equitable was heavy lifting, and the Quinteto boys accomplish it brilliantly.
Do revolutionary songs written 50 years ago on well-known melodies still have a meaning today? Fifty years later, we must admit that the passion with which they still interpret their art touches us. This album will reach you with its simplicity and authenticity. Recorded in the jungle at the foot of the Sierra Maestra, where it all began.
