Cantores y Lulus

The highlight of yesterday’s exploration of the Local Culture of Cienfuegos was a concert given for us by the 19-singer Cantores de Cienfuegos professional chorus. They sang a short requiem piece by a Cuban composer... a vocal mambo by Cienfuegos’ favorite son, the singer Benny More... ‘Down to the River to Pray,’ which Cantemus sang a couple springs ago... and Moses Hogan’s ‘Ride On, King Jesus,’ which I sang with Yale in Toronto last summer at their ‘Spirit of Song’ symposium / concert of spirituals. I spoke with their director afterwards and told her about last spring’s collaborative concert with Rumbarroco, and how difficult it was for us to learn and ingest the rhythms. She said, ‘We have trouble, too. Cuban rhythm is very difficult!’

We also visited a very small print shop in Cienfuegos and each of us was given a small print. I did not pick it out for myself. I could swear the signature says ‘Lulu.’ For those of you who don’t know me well, I belong to an all-girl ukulele band called The Ukululus: Ukaholics Unanimous. The Lulus, for short.