Improvising Sabor
. and .’s development in the late 1960s with little mention of the . addresses not only this lost and ignored history, but contends with issues of race, class, and identity while evaluating differences in style between players from prerevolution Cuban charangas and those of 1960s New York.. that is rooted in both Cuban dance music forms and the rich performance culture of Latin New York. The distinctive styles generated by these musicians sparked compelling points of departure and influence.
Improvising Sabor is a great example of how to approach a study of musical transformation and identity in a manner which engages both academics and practitioners. Miller has put aside commonly held opinions about performance aesthetic in New York and, from the perspective of the flute within the charanga tradition she has considered the wider world of Cuban music and transformation in New York.
Improvising Sabor is a truly erudite and serious work of music scholarship. The meticulous annotated musical transcriptions, together with the two albums created as companions to the book, constitute an exceptional master class on charanga, flute improvisation and a musical understanding of the concepts of sabor and cubanía, a multi-disciplinary work equally accessible to musicians, historians, and aficionados.
Sue Miller is associate professor in music at Leeds Beckett University and bandleader of Charanga del Norte, and she has several books on music to her name. These books include Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation, which is the predecessor to the current volume.
