Music for Bola de Nieve: Saxophonist Michel Herrera directs tribute album

October 3, 2021

In the context of the recently completed 110th anniversary of the birth of the great Ignacio Villa, Bola de Nieve, a tribute CD is being produced in Cuba, directed by young saxophonist Michel Herrera, under the label of the Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales (EGREM).

Paying tribute to Bola has been a great challenge that I have greatly enjoyed, he is a composer and musician that demands having different colors in order to recreate his work in its maximum expression, Herrera expressed.

According to a press note, this album is an original idea by Adriana Pazos, and the musical production will be handled by the young saxophonist, one of the most productive figures in the Cuban music scene.

A great roster of instrumentalists and vocalists bring life to the phonogram, Herrera has counted on Cuban pianists from different generations: Frank Fernández, Cucurucho Valdés, Rodrigo García Ameneiros, Emilio Morales, Efrain Chivás Pacho, Aldo López Gavilán and Roberto Fonseca.

Among the vocalists are Polito Ibáñez, El Noro, Luna Manzanares, Beatriz Marquez, Alexander Abreu, Osiris Valdés and Paulo FG.

Likewise, the rest of the team brings together talents such as Ruly Herrera, Yandy Martínez, Arturo Cruz, Yasek Manzano, Emilio Vega and Estrellas del Areito, and as a special guest, the winner of several Grammy awards, Arturo O´Farrill.

Bola's work is quite extensive, working in his sound world I was able to listen to many of his themes that are not very well known and I discovered that he is a chronicler, an excellent artist in terms of sound spectrum, in terms of spectacle, but also in terms of recreating music to tell stories, Herrera details.

In total, the album will have eight tracks, chosen according to the criteria of the young saxophonist, in accordance with the way he had musically conceived this production.

There are many themes that are among the most well-known of Bola's work, and it is a challenge to be able to say something different when it is music that has truly marked the aesthetics of Cuban music in the world, because Bola I believe marks an important stage within Cuban music and culture, he affirmed.

This tribute to Bola de Nieve will also pay homage to the 35 years of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), whose first creation grant is named after Ignacio Villa.