16 THE AUSTRALIAN, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019theaustralian.com.au/arts ARTS

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When he stepped into the record-ing studios in Havana in 1996,Juan de Marcos Gonzalez had noidea he was about to make history.

Back then the dapper band-leader and musician was over-seeing a project bringing togetherthree generations of Cuban play-ers — “energy and experience”, hetells me — and had rounded upseveral elderly musicians whosecareers stretched back to the pre-revolutionary 1950s but had sinceretired or faded from view. Thisbig band of seven singers and 14musicians he called the Afro-Cuban All Stars.

The album they made, A TodaCuba le Gusta (All of Cuba Loves It),was the first of three recordingsproduced during the 10-day book-ing at EGREM, the studios of thenational Cuban record company.It was a disc that bottled what feltlike a better, simpler era with old-world styles from mambo andrumba to danzon and son, unfurl-ing over grooving percussion andinsistent double bass; joyoushorns chased piano melodiesand singers told, in Spanish andYoruba, the language of the WestAfrican ancestors, of the beauty ofthe island and the might and rangeof its Santeria deities. The songswere by the composers of yester-year, imaginatively arranged andrearranged by Gonzalez.

“Many of these old guys hadbeen close friends of my dad,”Gonzalez, 65, says of his father,Marcos Gonzalez, a vocalist whohad performed with respectedAfro-Cuban bandleader and com-poser Arsenio Rodriguez. “I knewwhere to find them. I knew that(singer) Ibrahim Ferrer was work-ing on the street, shining shoes. Iknew that (pianist) Ruben Gonza-lez had lost his piano to wood-worm and walked five miles a dayso he could use a piano belongingto a friend.”

If all this rings a bell, it should.The next album made at EGREMserendipitously ended up featur-ing many of the same elderly mu-sicians, alongside additional vet-erans including singer OmaraPortuondo, then 66, and 91-year-old singer-guitarist CompaySegundo. The latter’s most fa-mous composition, the slow,dreamy Chan Chan, would be theopening track on the Buena VistaSocial Club, the Grammy-winningrecording produced by Americanguitarist Ry Cooder, directed byJuan de Marcos Gonzalez andreleased on London’s World Cir-cuit label. Named after a longdefunct, unremarkable Havananightspot, it is still the biggest sell-ing world music album.

On the eve of an Australiantour by a rejuvenated, 14-pieceACAS — featuring Gonzalez’swife of 40 years, Gliceria, anddaughters Laura and Gliceria Jr,both symphonic musicians —Gonzalez is sanguine about hislegacy. Sitting backstage at Lon-don’s Barbican in his trademarkwhite suit and black beret, heinsists that the music has alwaysbeen the thing. Current albumAbsolutely Live II, his first releasein six years, takes in five genres ofCuban music, reimagining songsfrom those pivotal BVSC andACAS albums and throwing in afew originals along the way.

“Wherever a Cuban band per-forms people are captivated by itsquality and taste,” says Gonzalez.“I’m not just talking about estab-lished names but also small bandsthat entertain tourists in OldHavana. We’ve kept our roots, ourauthenticity, through the centu-ries, even through times when itwas forbidden to play congasbecause playing with the handswas a ‘black’ thing.”

Gonzalez is in talks with aBroadway producer keen to re-

AND THE BEAT GOES ONsort to the “I’m a musician, not apolitician” disclaimer. Gonzalezprefers to discuss music, of course— and doesn’t withhold his dis-dain for “fake Buena Vistas”, thegroups still making a buck bycashing in on the BVSC name.

“You go to Havana Vieja (OldHavana) and there are about fivedifferent bands calling themselvesthe Buena Vista All-Stars andmaking money from tourists whoare brought there by touts,” hesays. “After the original old guysdied, Buena Vista was no more.That should have been that.”

Gonzalez pursued his love oftraditional Cuban music while atuniversity, studying engineeringand Russian, and in 1976 formedthe folk band Sierra Maestra —named after the mountain rangewhere Castro and Che Guevaraestablished their guerilla base.Gonzalez, who played the tres gui-tar, wanted to revive classic 1920sCuban son, the basis for salsa, aform that originated in Santiago inthe east and had fallen out offavour. Sierra Maestra went on torecord 14 albums and tour inter-nationally, but it was 1994’s Dun-dunbanza, released on the WorldCircuit label, that proved pivotal.

Encouraged by Nick Gold,Gonzalez expanded the line-up toinclude 50s-style piano, horns andcongas by way of tribute to Arsen-io Rodriguez. The Afro-Cuban AllStars, with its line-up of neglected“golden age” stars, was foundedtwo years later.

“There are a lot of things peo-ple don’t know,” says Gonzalez,who is writing a book about thetime. “I met Nick Gold in Londonin the Camden house of (aca-demic, producer and Cubaphile)Lucy Duran, and she introducedme to (BVSC member) EliadesOchoa at a party where we cookedthe idea of Buena Vista.”

That seminal album had begunas a collaboration between musi-cians from Cuba and Mali, whereCuban music remains influential.But a saga of lost passports meantthe Malians never arrived in Ha-vana, and those assembled atEGREM had to do what Cubansdo so well — improvise. When thegreat diva Celina Gonzalez de-clined to take part, Juan de Mar-cos Gonzalez co-opted anotherfamous female vocalist, Portuon-do, who was recording elsewherein the building.

“The repertoire was all veryeastern, from the east side of theisland, because the Afro-CubanAll Stars was the one that wasmeant to be the ‘Havana project’.But then we mixed the westernand eastern styles together, whichis part of what makes the BVSCalbum special. It was an amazingthree weeks. We’d record all dayand all the musicians would gohome, except for Ruben, whokept playing.”

To keep history alive, you haveto keep it fresh. “I had no idea theAfro-Cuban All Stars would stillbe going strong, 23 years on,” saysGonzalez. “I make sure I changethe line-up every couple of years.Touring a big band is expensivebut this is the best way to play theAfro Cuban music I’ve been play-ing all my life.

“I’m the same age now as someof those old Buena Vista guys werethen. I’ll be playing this music untilI die.” He flashes a smile. “Andhopefully forever after.”

The Afro-Cuban All Stars perform in Adelaide, tonight; Melbourne, Sunday; Canberra, March 27; Sydney; March 29 and March 30.

The man behind a Cuban revival is still going strong

JANE CORNWELL

claim of ineligibility, Templemansays “an open and competitivemulti-year funding program isavailable to support West Austra-lian arts organisations to produceannual programs of activity”.

“The last Organisations In-vestment Program, which sup-ports multi-year funding, startedin 2015, for which Sculpture bythe Sea was eligible to apply. Noapplication was received,” Tem-pleman says.

He says his arts ministry hascommitted nearly $258,000 dur-ing the life of the event, which hasbeen successful in 79 per cent ofapplications submitted. “In addi-tion, participating artists havebeen supported through the ArtsGrants Programs to participate inboth the Cottesloe and BondiSculpture by the Sea events.”

Handley responds that the$258,000 was for artists’ feesacross a 15-year period, a $1000payment to each participatingartist to cover costs. That ar-rangement ended in 2017, “whichI found mind-boggling”.

The unedifying airing of viewsleaves Sculpture by the Sea Cot-tesloe in a precarious position,wedged between flagging corpor-ate support and an unsympa-thetic government that Mc-Gowan announced last weekwould not pay any more.

In reality, Handley says he hasnow been “invited” to put anapplication into the department’sOrganisations Investment Pro-gram, which provides funds of upto $300,000. But successful appli-cants will be notified inNovember, long after invitationsare due to go out to artists to sub-mit concepts for the 2020 event.

It means the fate of the sculp-ture event may lie with influentialcorporate figures and private phi-lanthropists who tend to makeCottesloe and the nearby wealthysuburbs their home. It has hap-pened before: shortfalls over sev-eral years were met by generouscheques from high-profile bene-factors including Gina Rinehartand philanthropist and Cottesloeresident Andrew Forrest, whoalso has purchased sculpturesfrom the event.

Handley’s call for a direct gov-ernment stake in the state’s cul-tural life resonates with artists.

Mikaela Castledine, who pre-viously has won Cottesloe’s majorsculpture prize and believes hersculpture career was effectivelylaunched there, says closurewould be tragic for West Austra-lian artists looking to connectwith eastern states and overseasmarkets.

“Sculpture by the Sea allowsartists to price and sell their workfor amounts that, while maybestill not covering all costs, at leastallows them to continue to workand support their families,” Cas-tledine says.

Tide going out on west’s Sculpture by the Sea

COLIN MURTY

Sonia Payes’s Women in Bronze was a hit at Cottesloe

The organisers and state government are arguing over funding

VICTORIA LAURIE

Afro-Cuban All Stars founder Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, above; right, a scene from the popular 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club directed by Wim Wenders

‘We’ve kept our roots, our authenticity, through the centuries’JUAN DE MARCOS GONZALEZAFRO-CUBAN ALL STARS

Unbalanced ambitions sabotage production

Given the lofty ambitions of BinLaden: The One Man Show — tohumanise the emir of al-Qa’ida— and the acclaim KnaiveTheatre’s show has received sinceits 2013 British premiere, I was ex-pecting something heftier andless like theatre-in-education.

After welcoming punters withtea and biscuits, Osama (SamRedway) gives a flip-chart lectureon how to change the world.Drawing on the published 9/11Commission report and inter-views with bin Laden’s first wife,Najwa, and son Omar, The OneMan Show falls well short of es-tablishing bin Laden’s credentialsas a freedom fighter.

Indeed, the only moral com-plexity bin Laden is allowedcomes in an account of his meet-

ing with Ayman al-Zawahiri, co-founder of al-Qa’ida, whosehardline anti-Shi’ite policiestroubled the son of a Shia woman.

Writers Redway and TyrrellJones omit the crucial fact binLaden had no stomach to fight theUS until its soldiers stayed in theMiddle East after the liberation ofKuwait. The play is also sabo-taged by an outraged certaintythat the September 11 attackswere a disproportionate responseto that country’s many strikes onMuslim nations that caused com-parable losses in infrastructureand civilian lives.

Tickets: $35. Bookings: (03) 9534 3388 or online. Duration: 1hr. Until Sunday, then Canberra, March 26-31; Sydney, April 3-6.

THEATRE

Bin Laden: The One Man ShowBy Sam Redway and Tyrrell Jones. Knaive Theatre. Theatre Works, St Kilda, March 19.

CHRIS BOYD Sam Redway as bin Laden.

create, via a stage musical, theBuena Vista Social Club in its hey-day. He also has spent severalyears writing an opera that willfeature Cuban symphonic music,which is almost unknown world-wide, as well as the trials and tribu-lations of his own generation ofCuban musicians as they devel-oped genres such as the fast-and-furious timba.

And while not a fan of reggae-ton, the raw, beats-heavy soundthat has pulsed from Cuba’s taxis,tower blocks and street cornerssince early this century (“There istoo much swearing and sex”), hedefends its right to be made.

“Currently our urban music isin danger with Decree 49,” he says,referring to the Cuban law thatbars artists and musicians fromoperating without the approval ofthe Ministry of Culture.

“The government is afraid of

them, and trying to get controlback.”

Gonzalez and his family havelived in Mexico City for more thana decade, initially relocating sothat his daughters (he also has ason, a California-based engineer)could attend an elite music con-servatoire there. While hardly arebel — he has a PhD in Russian,for starters — the Havana-rearedCubano has always told it as hesees it. “I’ve been free my whole

life,” he says. “I was punished inthe early 2000s with a two-yearban on performing with a band.They were expecting my defectionfrom Cuba but I didn’t do it.Nobody was going to push me outof my country.”

Unlike the Buena Vista elders,Gonzalez doesn’t mind talkingabout politics. He remembers theway journalists used to fire ques-tions about Fidel Castro at thelikes of Segundo, who would re-

The two giant faces looking outacross sand and sea at CottesloeBeach represent the dilemmafaced by Sculpture by the Sea, thepopular cultural event that haslaunched local artists’ careersacross 15 years and this summerentertained nearly a quarter ofa million visitors at Perth’s busi-est beach.

One face of Women in Bronze,by Sonia Payes, represents thesuccess of a free event that hasseen roughly one in six Perth resi-dents come to view 70 sculpturalworks during its 18-day run,which ended on Monday.

But the other face representsthe financial backers who haveturned away from the event, withthe loss of three major sponsorsand funding from corporatesources dropping from 26 percent of total revenue to only 8 percent this year.

It poses a tricky challenge toSculpture by the Sea’s foundingdirector, David Handley, whosays he has had to go public forsupport — especially from theWest Australian government’sDepartment for Cultural Indus-tries — or contemplate cancellingnext year’s event. “A free event ofthis scale needs significantlymore support from governmentand more corporate sponsors toget behind it,” Handley says.

He says the next three monthsare critical if the Cottesloe event,launched in 2005 as a west coastversion of the long-running sisterexhibition at Bondi in Sydney, isto resurface next year. Handleywants an ongoing commitmentfrom the WA government akin tothe annual funding of $300,000provided by Create NSW for hisBondi event during the past nineyears. Handley claims he hasmade attempts to seek WA artsfunding “but it was explicitlystated to us we were not eligible”.

Handley’s complaint wasclosely followed by an open letterby 50 exhibiting West Australianartists to Premier Mark Mc-Gowan, saying they are “dis-mayed the department does notprovide substantial funding” forSculpture by the Sea Cottesloe.

The issue has since escalatedinto a terse, even prickly ex-change of views. Arts MinisterDavid Templeman (with whomHandley says he has a good rela-tionship) has responded that$400,000 has gone to Sculptureby the Sea Cottesloe this yearalone via grants for targetedactivities such as education andadvertising from Lotterywest andTourism WA. As for Handley’s

YOUR NATIONALCULTURE GUIDE

NOW SHOWINGPimped (MA15+)The realisation that each sex has its strengths, weaknesses, rights, wrongs and mysteries is at the core of the psychosexual thriller Pimped, the feature film debut of David Barker, who wrote the script with Lou Mentor. The opening scene ends with a tall, dark, handsome man closing a door on some debauchery that he has organised. He seems to be a pimp. We then move to the day and night that take up the rest of the movie. An attractive young woman, Sarah, is sleeping in her apartment. A raven-haired woman, Rachel, nudges her awake. Sarah (Ella Scott Lynch) does doll up and go to a bar, where she meets Lewis (BenedictSamuel). Something repugnant happens: to Sarah, but not only to her. There are multiple twists and shocks involving the nature of the characters and what happens to them. Veteran actors Heather Mitchell and Lewis

Fitz-Gerald take the story into even darker places.

STEPHEN ROMEI hhhjj

NSWEXHIBITION

Fang Lijun: Facial RecognitionThis show presents an evolution of the Beijing artist’s style.

GLENDA KORPORAALVermilion Art. 5/16 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay. Wed-Sat, 11am-7pm. Free entry. Inquiries: (02) 9241 3323 or online. Until April 6.

NORTHERN TERRITORYEXHIBITION

Weapons for the SoldierWith support from senior artists

Frank Young, Mumu Mike Williams, Kunmanara Ken, Peter Mungkuri and Willy Kaika Burton, the young men of the APY Lands — Vincent Namatjira, Derek Jungarrayi Thompson, Aaron Ken, Anwar Young and Kamurin Young — show their work in Weapons for the Soldier. This exhibition explores the struggle of indigenous people to sustain cultural strength.Araluen Arts Centre. 61 Larapinta Drive, Araluen. Daily, 10am-4pm. Tickets: $6-$8. Inquiries: (08) 8951 1120 or online. Until April 22.

QUEENSLANDSTAGE

Demi Lardner: Ditch Witch 800Australian comedian Demi Lardner (pictured) brings her hit show Ditch Witch 800 — winner of the Underbelly Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe and last year’s Pinder Prize at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival — to the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival. Directed by Michelle Brasier.

Brisbane Powerhouse. Rooftop Terrace, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm. Tonight and tomorrow, 8.15pm; Sunday, 7.15pm. Tickets: $27-$29. Bookings: (07) 3358 8600 or online.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAEXHIBITION

AlchemicTransgender artist Cassils exhibits for the first time in Australia, featuring video, photographic and sculpture works. Cassils’s work seeks to question the art world, using the artist’s own body.Perth Cultural Centre. PICA Gallery, Francis and William Street, Northbridge. Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm.

Free entry. Inquiries: (08) 9228 6300 or online. Until April 14.

VICTORIAMUSIC

Mahler 10: Letters and ReadingsActor Tama Matheson appears with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, in a program that features readings of Gustav Mahler’s personal letters and Mahler/Cooke’s Symphony No 10.Arts Centre Melbourne. Hamer Hall, 100 St Kilda Road. Tomorrow, 2pm. Tickets: $54-$149. Bookings: (03) 9929 9600 or online. Duration: 2hr, including a 20min interval.

TASMANIAEXHIBITION

Grace Herbert: Increase ProductivityTasmanian artist Grace Herbert investigates themes of control through body composition

assessment technology. Herbert was selected for the Shotgun program, which offers artists critical engagement, production assistance and industry access.Contemporary Art Tasmania. 27 Tasma Street, North Hobart. Wed-Sun, 12-5pm. Free event. Inquiries: (03) 6231 0445 or online. Until April 21.

SOUTH AUSTRALIASTAGE

Hannah Gadsby: DouglasFollowing her hit show Nanette, Hannah Gadsby performs an exclusive preview season of her new show, Douglas.Adelaide Festival Centre. Dunstan Playhouse, King William Street. Tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow, 4.30pm and 7.30pm; Sunday, 7.30pm. Tickets: $64.90. Inquiries: 131 246 or online. Duration: 1hr 10min.