Album Vívelo by the Compay Segundo group pays tribute to the King of the Harmonica

September 18, 2022

A listening session of the album Vívelo by the group Compay Segundo revealed today the significance that the music of the famous Cuban composer has, nicknamed in artistic circles as the King of the Harmonica.

This exclusive opportunity, reserved for some artists and journalists at the headquarters of Abdala studios in La Habana, made it possible to learn the details of the new album that brings together 11 songs recorded during the heat of a tour through several European countries.

According to Maikel Dizan, the composer of 10 of the songs that make up the phonogram, these creations give continuity to the work of one of the greatest musicians Cuba has produced and demonstrate the significance of his legacy throughout the world.

Vívelo aims to show some of the experiences that the members of the Compay Segundo group had during the years of work alongside their main figure and creator of several classics of traditional music, he emphasized.

Son para ti is the title of one of the singles in which the well-known vocalist Isaac Delgado participates; while Alexander Abreu joined to sing El gato miau miau, Rolando Luna contributed his piano to Que fue de nuestro amor and Hugo Garzón lent his voice to the guaracha titled Maria Luisa.

Recorded in France in a studio styled after the 1940s and 1950s and mastered at The golden Voice Record in Los Ángeles, United States, the production reserves as a finale a Potpourri that groups together some of the classics that became international through Segundo.

The conception of the material took around two years and arrives just as 115 years are being commemorated since the birth of the baptized Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz, native of the Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba and inventor of the harmonic instrument resulting from the hybridization of the tres and the guitar.

According to the director of the group, Salvador Repilado, the premiere of Vívelo will take place at the famous concert hall La Cigale in France on November 1st of this year and will later be part of a tour planned through cities in Turkey.

Although unofficially some of its songs were heard on the 3rd in the so-called nave of the 10 picos of La Habana Vieja during the Raíces de la Villa event, the group plans to have a major presentation later at some cultural center in Cuba.