Habana Blues

Habana Blues biography

This is the OST of Benito Zambrano's Habana Blues, shot in Cuba in 2005, which won a Goya and a CEC Award for Best Music. "The movie is more about the music than the story of the two young musicians. The lyrics contain criticism of problems in Cuba like poverty and electricity outages, but the film also contains comments on such criticism. The two musicians, Ruy and Tito, whose music is a mix of traditional Cuban music and more modern music like rap, get a chance at an international breakthrough through a US record company, but for this they have to restrict themselves to criticism of the Cuban utopia, because that sells better in the US and Spain. Ruy considers this cheap treason of his country, which he loves despite its shortcomings, but Tito understands the commercial imperative behind the plan - the US invest and want to get a return for their investment. Art versus commerce, nationalism versus globalism and communism versus capitalism are the themes in the film. Ruy starts using more traditional styles as an expression of his anxiety to leave the country he loves so much." (Wikipedia) The OST contains not only the songs played by Ruy's and Tito's band, but also those of bands who just have a very short appearance in the movie, like Anais Abreu, Tierra Verde, Free Hole Negro, Cuba Libre, Tribal and Escape. To understand the movie, it's essential to understand the lyrics, because they form a big part of the story. The music itself is a mixture of nearly all styles (rock, jazz, rap, rock'n'roll, metal and so on) with traditional Cuban rythms, which creates something sounding incredibly great. For more information on the movie, the music, the trailer etc. visit the official website.