Ito Ibah Echu: Sacred Yoruba Music of Cuba

Muñequitos de Matanzas, Los

album cover

Calling African Spirits Long Distance, from Cuba

This music was created to appease, praise, enchant, or request help from the deities, known as orishas, of the African Yoruba tradition. As Yoruba beliefs have evolved in Cuba, the entreaties have been set to unique rhythms, and are dependent on the tones produced by specific drums (the bata drum, played by hand, figures prominently).

That's what happens on Ito Iban Echu, an electrifying set of musical offerings to the orishas by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. The group was founded in 1952, and became one of the island nation's most important preservers of not just traditional folklore, but rumba and Afro-Cuban dance music. The CD's title comes from a phonetic Spanish interpretation of a Yoruba phrase meaning "It came out well"—it's often spoken when a babalu, or diviner, finishes consulting with an oracle. But it's a fitting description of these live tracks, which exude a deep sense of mission.

The drums guide everything—the pace of the chants, the intensity of the singing, the rough "structure" of the pieces. A set of bata drums has six heads, each of a different size; the resulting pitches are thought to speak directly to the orishas. As rendered by the veteran group, the chants become hypnotic cycles of declaration, affirmation, and elaboration. Among the most intense are "Chango eyeleo," for the flamboyant deity of thunder and lighting, and "Yemaya (seco)," for the water goddess who governs motherhood and fertility. All of the chants affirm something crucial about life—or the afterlife. With deep passion Los Muñequitos show how simple phrases can become a conduit for communication with the spirit world.

Genre: World, Cuba
Released: 1996, Qbadisc
Key Tracks: "Eleggua (con guira)," "Babalu aye," "Yemaya (seco)," "Chango eyeleo."
F.Y.I.: The producer of this album, Ned Sublette, is the author of an authoritative history, Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo.
Catalog Choice: Rumba Calienta 88/77.
Next Stop: Mongo Santamaria: Drums and Chants
After That: Lazaro Ros: Songs for Elegua.
Book Page: 533