Compay Segundo

Calle Salud (Nonesuch)

The first sounds on Calle Salud, 93-year-old Cuban Sonero Compay Segundo’s second solo release in Nonesuch’s Buena Vista Social Club series, move with the lithe grace of two Spanish dancers approaching each other with their arms outstretched. Cheek to cheek, the lovers separate, letting their hands trace down the length of their partner’s arm until only their fingers clasp. They let go, only to come together again. They are the twin clarinets of Rafael Lázaro Inciarte and Haskell Armenteros — on loan from Cuba’s National Symphony Orchestra — who play on 10 of Calle Salud’s 13 tracks, where they weave a subtle dance of some of the most lilting, romantic music this side of Harry Belafonte. As on his Nonesuch solo debut,1998’s tropical daydream, Lo Mejor de la Vida (“The Best in Life”), Francisco “Compay” Repilado is the “Segundo” vocalist on Calle Salud, shadowing “la voz prima,” which for most of this pressed flower of timeless Cuban balladry, is the husky tenor of Hugo Gárzon — not necessarily the best of the featured vocalists on Lo Mejor de la Vida. The sisterly harmonies of Vionaika Martínez and Mayelín Pérez could have easily danced every dance themselves, the priceless “Viejoes Sones de Santiago” all but stealing the show — a feat considering that almost all the songs on Calle Salud, particularly “Una Rosa de Francia,” “María en la Playa,” “Balcon de Santiago,” and “Chan Chan,” all but the first written by Segundo, sound as if they came into existence on the day men and women were first introduced.

***.5

This article appears in November 12 • 1999.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.