This funky off-shoot of Charanga Habanera, Charanga Forever delivers the premier salsa meets funk experience: la timba cubana. Check out the track "Sueño Equivocado" to hear the influence if US bands like Earth, Wind and Fire on the island’s music. Highlights also includes the title track “La Cuqui Quiere Fiesta” the center-piece of the album.
Charanga Forever The original members of the group were all formerly in Charanga Habanera and the early parts of their careers are covered in great depth in our now completed section on the four albums of the original Charanga Habanera: Love Fever, Hey You Loca, Pa' Que Se Entere La Habana and Tremendo Delirio. The story of the breakup and the early years of Charanga Forever is covered in the article "Charanga Habanera: The Breakup and Beyond".
Having gotten all the way to 2002 with Charanga Habanera, we now return to the summer of 1998 to find out what happened to the original charangueros. They were able to start playing almost instantly. They needed only a new name, "Charanga Forever", and a singer, Armando Cantero, to replace Michel. And so, ironically, the first Charanga Forever was formed from the musicians of the second Charanga Habanera, while the second Charanga Forever was in fact nearly a complete reunion of the original Charanga Habanera that recorded Pa' Que Se Entere La Habana.
"La Charanga que tú conoces, la que siempre te sofocó", JC González, Pedro Pablo, Sombrilla, Michel, Polledo, Manolito, Vitico & Co., were back in business and they corded a short, but brilliant album for a French label that included the astounding "Somos la Charanga" which turns out to have been composed by none other than Juan Formell! In fact, on the French release, the track is listed as "Dice Formell". It also contained a great early Limonta song called "El Avión" which the original Charanga Habanera played live but had never recorded, as well as the great "La Menor" and other tracks. -- by Kevin Moore of www.TIMBA.com
Musicians on "La Cuqui Quiere Fiesta" By Charanga Forever:
