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Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956: Oro. Inés Sotomayor and Ensemble.

Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956
Oro. Inés Sotomayor and Ensemble.
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table of contents
  1. Beyond the Archive: The Cabrera-Tarafa Collection of Afro-Cuban Music, circa 1956
  2. An Introduction to the Collection
  3. Música de los cultos africanos en Cuba (Music of the African Cults in Cuba): The Liner Notes
    1. Oro. Marcos Portillo Domínguez [Até Borá] and ensemble.
    2. Rezos. Fernando Hernández, Inés Sotomayor, and Domingo Hernández.
    3. “Guarachitas” para los Orishas (Instrumental Batá Drumming). Miguel Santa Cruz, Gustavo Díaz, and Juan González.
    4. Songs for Osain. Cándido Martínez, Baba orisha from Havana.
    5. Oro. Inés Sotomayor and Ensemble.
    6. Oro de Tambores (Batá Drum Instrumental Oro). Miguel Santa Cruz, Gustavo Díaz, and Juan González.
    7. Oro (Batá Drums with Chorus). Cándido Martínez, Antonio Alberiche, chorus, and the Batá drums of Miguel Santa Cruz and Juan González.
    8. Moforibale. Palo Gangá Ñongobá. Cantos de Palo. Congo Musunde and Gangá. Florinda Pastor, Agustín Diago, and ensemble.
    9. Oro. Silvino Baró, M. Catalá, S. Rodríguez, R. Viart.
    10. Mayimbi. Toque de Palo. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    11. Canto Lucumí. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    12. Cantos Arará. Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, and Rodolfo Viart.
    13. Rezos. Petronila Hernández.
    14. Babaluayé. A. Alberiche.
    15. Bembé & Tambores (Instrumental Drumming). Domingo Hernández, Marcelo Carreras, Ángel Rolando, and Domingo Hernández, hijo. Tambores and guataca.
    16. Oro. Alberto Yenkins (Yin) and ensemble.
    17. Itutu. Fernando Hernández and ensemble.
    18. Oro. Cándido Mártinez and ensemble.
    19. Congo and Gangá Songs. Florinda Diago and family.
    20. About This Site.

Disc 3 Side B (15 tracks, 25’20”)

Oro. Inés Sotomayor and Ensemble.

Inés Sotomayor, Apwón, elderly Iyalocha, very well-known and respected in Jovellanos and neighboring communities. She is responsible for the annual feast which is celebrated by the descendants of the defunct Arrati mill in honor of their ancestors and the orishas,[1] which is attended by an enormous number of devotees.

Inés is a child of Babaluayé (Agróniga), one of the most venerated “Fundamentos” (orishas) de la vieja dotación, and she is the “Mayor (Elder),” or as they say, the most “ancient” (oldest surviving) among the Black people of Arrati.

Moyuba Orisha: salutes “to the owner” of the door of the Ilé Orisha, Eleguá. Eshubeleke.[2]

Osáin. Osáin.

Ochosi odé mata — Ochosi oyi reo.

Ogún moforibale.

Ogún onile-Ogún madé o — Ogunlé.

Dadá-Dadá.

Moforibale fú Changó.

Disc 4 Side A (22’25”)

Obá ogodó.

Oyá — Oya yariwó — Oyá Dadá o. [3]

Oyá-Oyá — Oyá jeri jeri — Oyá-Oyá — Oya mío obini bale.

Olokún — Oloko dedé — Yemayá — Yeyé. (Oshún).

Oshún. Didé o de dena!

Fernando Hernández intones a song in honor of Olokún, the god of the ocean, “who lives at the bottom of the sea, shackled in seven chains by Obatalá.” Olokún is a god for some, a goddess for others. “The Mother, the oldest, or Fundamento” of Yemayá.

  1. DF-N: [re Arrati (Arratia?)] cf. García Rodriguez (2011). ↑

  2. DF-N: Disc 3, Side B consists entirely of songs led by Inés Sotomayor. Her style on the recordings — no doubt influenced by both her advanced age — is unhurried as she numerous variations of epithets alternating with the chorus’ prolonged repetition of a brief refrain (e.g., iba orisha, iba laye o). [...] ↑

  3. DF-N: After Sotomayor leads a sequence of songs for Oya (oya ka kaoya kuerun laye o), she turns over the lead singing to Fernando Hernández, who follows with another sequence for Oya (oya eriwo e, ayaba eriwo aya osi) and leads the rest of the liturgical sequence (oro). Interestingly, the first songs are more commonly associated with the closely-related orisha Obba, although Cabrera’s notes do not identify them as such. [re female orisha] ↑

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Oro de Tambores (Batá Drum Instrumental Oro). Miguel Santa Cruz, Gustavo Díaz, and Juan González.
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