Mambo Madness!: once again, the "madness"

August 5, 2018

Cuban and Spanish producers and artists such as Lucrecia and Mayito Rivera presented the "¡Mambo Madness!" movement in Miami, through which they intend to spread the "craze" of this rhythm again using an album and an orchestra of 23 musicians.

Mambo became a fever in Cuba, where it was born in the 1930s, but also in Mexico and New York, and although older generations are familiar with this traditional genre, it is harder for new generations to identify with it.

So that mambo ceases to be only the past, entertainment entrepreneur Genco Chaviano founded "¡Mambo Madness!" together with model and actress Ivelin Giro, which had its first preview during the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair last December.

"Mambo has never died. (…) But now is the time to bring it back to the whole world with pride," Chaviano tells Efe.

The founder of the movement compares it to "taking a car that is 15 years old to the mechanic to change its oil," and to do so he brought together several producers, musicians and singers with whom he will organize mambo-related events around the world.

One of his allies will be singer Lucrecia, who will perform "Dolor y perdón" and "Obsesión," by Cuban singer Benny Moré, on the first "¡Mambo Madness!" album, which will be released in November and will also feature singer Mayito Rivera.

The album, the starting point of the movement, will also include versions of mambo pioneers such as Antonio Arcaño, Cachao, Arsenio Rodríguez, and Dámaso Pérez Prado.

"It's a rhythm that is easy for young people to dance to, they don't have to dance it as a couple and it's very rhythmic. They have the musical reference with the new versions that have been made, it won't seem strange to them to listen to it," Lucrecia told Efe today, referring to re-releases of hits like "Mambo No. 5" by Pérez Prado.

This 1950 song was covered by German Lou Bega in 1999 and reached the top of sales charts worldwide.

But even in its origins, the song "Mambo No. 5" unleashed a true "mambo mania" in Mexico and allowed Pérez Prado to be remembered today as the international promoter of this musical genre or simply as the "King of Mambo."

And after Mexico came New York, where mambo became a cultural phenomenon that was danced even at the Palladium Ballroom on Broadway.

The 21st century versions of these mambo pioneers will be performed by the "¡Mambo Madness!" orchestra, which will include 23 instruments with Grammy Award-winning Cuban musicians and will be directed by composer Julio Montalvo.

"Mambo is a genre that moves the body of the entire world. When they hear it, everyone will say: 'The mambo craze is taking off'!", Lucrecia assured.

And they want this craze to reach Europe, where Lucrecia assures she will be "on the front lines," Asia, Latin America, and the United States, to "showcase that cachet and elegance that mambo brought to the world and that people of all kinds of cultures enjoyed," its founder assures.

"You have to give people mambo like food. But in a way that the young people can understand it and enjoy it," assures Chaviano, who would like to see people dressed in suits dancing on the dance floors like they did in New York in the 1950s.

To contribute to this mambo renaissance, they are preparing audiovisual productions, shows, and excursions to Cuba, in addition to the recording of the album.

For New Year's Eve they will travel to Cuba to bring the movement, which they consider a lifestyle, to its roots, just when the city of Havana celebrates 500 years, all to "keep Cuban culture at a high level."

EFE / OnCuba