Ethiel Faílde: "There's no need to dress up to dance danzón"

April 12, 2021

It was not because of his family connection to the creator of the danzon Las Alturas de Simpson that the flautist from Matanzas, Ethiel Faílde, came to love this rhythm.

"Miguel Faílde was not a topic of conversation in my house. I came to the danzon through school and then I asked my mother for information and began to put the pieces together, the ones a six-year-old boy could put together. From him I only have the record player that Marcia gave me recently, the director of the Pharmaceutical Museum and a great defender of Matanzas' heritage, and the descriptions told by Osvaldo Castillo Faílde in the book Miguel Faílde, musical creator of the danzon, which I always keep near my bed. I have gradually assumed his legacy, the rescue and continuity of his work, more than by blood, by the impulse of a young musician who discovers with pride the importance of his surname for Cuban culture."

The young director of the Orquesta Faílde in conversation with the newspaper Granma, when the group celebrates this April 14th its ninth anniversary, expressed:

–What is the key to the success you have had in your career with the orchestra, so vertiginous, that has already taken you to a nomination for a Latin Grammy?

–The history of the group has two moments: the genesis and first steps and after 2016 onwards. In the first everything happened more slowly and with a very local character, we came out of school with a format and a repertoire that later continuous contact with the public was sculpting for the better. Then, several events occurred that made us known more in the capital and throughout the country, and that forced us to look towards other levels of greater professional scope.

"Among those events I should mention the concert at Prado y Neptuno in 2015; the realization of our first album Llegó la Faílde, thanks to the AHS-Egrem link that earned two nominations at Cubadisco in 2016 and that the Mexican press ranked among the best of the year. In addition to collaborations with Omara, the care in communication, the video clips, the international presence on stages as notable as the Kennedy Center, the year with Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba and serious work with the repertoire, the sound and record production, in addition to the presence of Yerlanis and Yurisán as leading voices in the orchestra."

–What are the keys to the orchestra?

–I don't have them entirely clear because there is no manual for directing an orchestra. But what interests us is the truth in everything we do, that from the faces of the musicians when interpreting a danzon, to our communication and social networks. We believe in what we do, in serving music. We let each success surprise us while working, studying and we turn them into more desires to create. You have to always keep your ear to the ground, shed your egos, work together, listen. In La Faílde everyone fulfills their role. Team and family unity works wonders.

–Why do you think there aren't more groups, especially young ones, that want to perform danzones?

–I think first we have to celebrate the ones we have, whether purely young like Cubaclamé, in Las Tunas, or the incorporation of new generation musicians into the roster of already established groups like La Aragón, the Siglo XX (which is currently led by a 25-year-old guy), the Piquete Típico Cubano, Acierto Juvenil, among others. That should be better promoted, we should start there because those things inspire.

"Neither youth nor years are absolute guarantees of anything. The first thing I do when I meet a group that includes danzones in their repertoire is look at their faces, their stage presence and then I listen to the overall sound, but if what you play doesn't flourish in your expressions and seems like something imposed, forced or learned by force, better not do it, whatever generation you belong to.

"At the same time, I feel there is no true unity among the young exponents of the genre, that's missing; creating a front and really supporting each other. I am glad that we have young composers interested in the danzon. You can make danzon (and mambo, chachachá, son, etc.) with today's themes, you can version, revisit creations from more than a century ago with current sounds and codes.

"This sense of continuity also has to reach within the danzon movement itself, I mean the dancers and natural promoters. We have to trust and listen more to young people, eliminate artificial barriers that harm this sociocultural expression that we love so much, the easiest example would be costumes and the need to maintain elegance, but with the codes of the twenty-first century, you don't have to dress up to dance danzon."

–How will the orchestra celebrate the new anniversary?

–We will have several premieres on the radio, on social networks and music platforms. Our version of Nereidas, the most popular of the Mexican danzones, created by Amador Pérez Torres Dimas, has already come out and on April 20th we will premiere a version of Luna sobre Matanzas, a classic by Matanzas' Frank Domínguez that La Faílde brings to sung danzon.

"For May we will present Joyas inéditas, the fourth studio album of the group, which comes out thanks to the collaboration of the Provincial Directorate of Culture of Matanzas and Egrem. This will bring unknown works by Miguel Failde and Aniceto Díaz for which there was no phonographic record. It is not an album designed for any award circuit or to be a commercial success, it is a commitment to the work of those immense creators, a duty to memory. They will be followed in June by two new video clips Esas no son cubanas, with Andy Montañez and Cuba libre, the first audiovisual of this kind that will dress a work by Miguel Faílde, a work entrusted to the multi-awarded Joseph Ros.

"We are waiting for the world release of our Omara Portuondo's new album, in which we have the honor of being invited to support the godmother in a duet with the very famous Raphael from Spain. It's good that our followers know that every Saturday, since March 20th, we have been sharing on Facebook and Youtube moments from the concert held last October at the Teatro Sauto, on the occasion of Omara's 90th birthday."