We Are the Music!

A mini-history of Cuban Music - but with a hum.
This black and white film from 1966 is a mini-history of Cuban music styles - at least those in place during the 1960s. The film "Buena Vista Social Club" has brought a resurgence in interest in the folk music and jazz of Cuba. Director and scriptwriter (though there is no actual script to speak of) Rogelio Paris shows us nearly all the non-Classical music styles of the country. Beginning with an Afro-Cuban folk dance company, we move through Latin jazz, percussive dance, piano jazz (by a guy who combines Louis Armstrong's and Fats Waller's personalities) and Salsa at a Carnival. Between the musical performances - both staged and impromptu - we are given scenes of the neighborhoods (of, I assume, Havana, though not identified) and people in their everyday life - whether doing laundry or playing on the beach.

Though this is an important film that captures the culture, time has not been kind to the print used and it has not been restored in any way. The image is not formatted...

We are the Music!
If you, like me, enjoy afrocaribbean music- salsa, Latin jazz, etc. --, "We are the Music!" (¡Nosotros, la Música!) is for you. And if you, like me, are specially attracted to archival footage about this music, then you will definitely be in heaven with this film, too. "We are the Music!" is a fascinating and precious trip to nostalgia that documents part of Cuba's important musical contribution to the world.

The film was made in Cuba during the sixties, and director Rogelio París, with Odilio Urfe as his musical advisor, takes us to many places in which music was played at the time. The first stop is in a theater, and we enjoy a show by Cuba's legendary Conjunto Folklórico Nacional. Odilio Urfe and his conjunto follows, playing charanga a la francesa., in what appears to be a semi-deserted building. Next comes fantastic footage of singer and pianist Bola de Nieve (Ignacio Villa) entertaining a crowd, performing some classic Cuban songs, like...

One of the greatest films ever made
I could have said one of the greatest *musical* films ever made, but frankly I think this goes beyond that. I can't think of another musical film where the music and visuals are so superbly interwoven, and the craft of film-making evident here elevates this obscure movie to the most rarefied level.

The black and white cinematography is stunning, from that 60's era of Socialist solidarity cinema that borrowed stylistic elements from Soviet films. There are so many unforgettable images: the dancing couple who made the world disappear, the exhausted rumba dancer, the santeria devotee dancing into a trance-fit, Bola de Nieve before a cozy audience, the swirling sound of the charanga flute filling up an old church ... The list is endless, the visual genius continuously mindboggling.

People I've shown this to have dropped their jaw to the ground. Many people have acknowledged I Am Cuba, made at roughly the same time, for cinematographic mastery, but I would put...

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