Juan Formell Interview
by Marla

1.     Congratulations on winning a Grammy Award for Best Salsa Performance.  Did you expect to win.  Do you think anyone thought a Cuban group would win?  How does it feel?

We never thought we would win and I think that for us it's still a
surprise and definitely we are very happy to have it. I think we have worked all our lives to receive an award of this caliber.

2.     Much of your popularity in Cuba has been due to your strong relationship to the lives of ordinary Cuban people and lyrics that speak about daily life in Cuba.  Do you think American audiences can relate to your lyrics as well? 

I think that listeners in the U.S.A. would relate to our music better if it was
translated or at least the essence. But this question can also be inverted:
not everybody understands English and how many people like American music?

3.     Do you think Buena Vista Social Club helped bring about more of a world awareness of Cuban music? 

Cuban music has always been Cuban music. I think what the Buena Vista
Social Club has done was to revive what happened with Cuban music in the 40's & 50's, but they have not presented anything new.

4.     You and Van Van have created history in many ways.  You are known for having broken a lot of ground in the Latin music world because of your incorporation of styles like rap and funk with traditional music like son, trova and charanga and always emerging with something fresh.  Who were your early musical influences and how did they affect your style?

In Cuba radio stations would play a vast mix of music; there wasn’t a specific format.  You could hear everything and it all influenced me:  Brazilian music, instrumental music.  I liked vocal forms, singers like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand.  So, on the one hand, I had the influence of the Cuban arts like Beny Moré, La Orquesta Aragon, Chapotin, and on the other I was hearing a lot of the rock ‘n roll of that time, like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, The Platters and The Beatles.

5.     Can you explain in words just what Songo is?

Well, to explain a design we would have to use a graphic example.  There are a
lot of people that do not know about music. I could tell you that the Son is
the fundamental base of the popular Cuban dance music. And the Songo has a
sound closer to this modern era but using the base of the Son.

6.     What music do you listen to or admire now?

There is a singer named Camaron from the island who I adore. I listen to him
a lot and he is very good. Take 6, Boys to Men and incredibly enough I like the
Back Street Boys.  They are a good vocal quartet. I also like Ruben Blades
and Juan Luis Guerra.

7.     Do the dancers affect your compositions?  Some of the people I have interviewed before, like Tito Puente, said that they wrote and sometimes changed compositions according to watching people dance to them.  Have you ever done that?

The dancer is the one who gives you the measurements of any changes you
have to make. When you follow the dancer half of the battle is won, because
you adapt yourself to what the dancer wants. And you make the necessary
changes.  Music can have the function to make people, which I believe has been my objective.  One discovers in life that which you were given grace to do and I believe that I was supposed to take this path.  I have done everything – jazz, chamber music, but little by little it became apparent that it was my talent to write music that makes people dance.  But not just with a can and a stick, as some people say:  the dancer needs to know that there is a story to be told, to see himself in that story, to have a phrase that moves him, that gives him an emotional impulse.  He reiterates the rhythm and to do this you are either born with it or not.

8.     The 30-Year boxed set is the culmination of a lot of work?  How do you think that your music has evolved over the years?

Well, a lot of things have changed since Van Van was born in 1970, mostly in the details.  Our music contains a mix of different timbres from the traditional Cuban dance music but it’s a more dynamic music, very aggressive, so much so that the priority is to the needs of the Cuban dancer, and the Cuban dancer is very strong.  I mean he likes music with a lot of strength.  But in other aspects, like the base of the Cuban son, we play it in the same way that it was played in the 40’s or 50’s, with the only difference being that our music is played more aggressively, with the mix of new timbres:  synthesizers with combinations that haven’t been done before, trombones, and violins.  But it’s still Cuban music.  I mean, it can be danced as easily by a person of this generation as by a person of a previous generation. So for Cubans, what we play is still Cuban music, but its instrumental sounds and degree of energy is probably new.  I think that the music of every country evolves and this orchestra is a good example of the way that Cuban music has evolved in the past 30 years.

9.     How about salsa music in general?  How do you think it has developed?

Salsa was and is still a little stagnated in these last years and some people have recognized that in Cuba there was music, the Cuban music, the same dance music but it sounded stronger with more aggressiveness than salsa. Salsa is soft. Cuban music has a lot of changes in the bass, the piano and the percussion. I think that salsa is trying to renovate itself anew.

10. I was in Cuba a few of times and I heard a lot of timba.  What do you think of the huge timba craze in Cuba, artists like Paulito, Manolin or Piloto?  Do you think it will last?

Yes it is going to last.  As as a matter of fact this has been done for years.
Cuban music has a strong base, from a strong tradition and timba is the logical generational evolution. Hopefully after this more things are going to come, but the timba phenomenon has been happening for over ten years and I think there is more to come.

11. What was your inspiration for Ay Dios Ampárame?

That was a poem by Eloy Machado.  He writes in a poetic style that uses
a direct and populist  language.  The story is very nice. The real name of the
poem is "Soy Todo" (I am Everything).   I am the Rumba.  I am Danzon and then he starts talking about the Orishas: I am Obatala, I am Chango. I added the choruses, like Ay Dios Ampárame. I think Mayito does a great interpretation of the song with a lot of passion.

12. What is the future of Van Van?

Well Van Van has a group of young people that have been integrated in the past years. I think the day will come when the old ones will not be there (and I myself can already be included in that group), and those young ones will continue the idea.