Biography
The concept for the supergroup Caravana Cubana originated at a memorial service held in April 1998 for Emilio Vandenedes, the renowned public radio broadcaster whose work in the Los Angeles and Miami markets had long championed Cuban music. Impressed by the caliber of the performances, every musician involved joined film producer George Hernández—co-founder of the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival—in planning a studio project modeled on the event. Their goal was to showcase several of the memorial’s participants, artists whose extended careers had never brought them the recognition they deserved.
That project produced multiple reunions among musicians long separated by time and distance. Bassist Al McKibbon, who had performed Afro-Cuban jazz with Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo during the late 1940s, recorded again with Francisco Aguabella after a 36-year hiatus. Los Angeles-based José Caridad Perico Hernández reconnected both with his longtime associate Jesús Chucho Valdés and with Pío Leiva, his fellow sonero from 1950s Havana. Raúl Travieso Rodríguez, brother of the late Cuban music legend Arsenio Rodríguez, sat in with many of his former colleagues for the first time in decades. The sessions took place in Los Angeles throughout the summer of 1998; the resulting album, Late Night Sessions, appeared on Rhino Records in January 2000 and earned a pair of Grammy Award nominations.
That project produced multiple reunions among musicians long separated by time and distance. Bassist Al McKibbon, who had performed Afro-Cuban jazz with Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo during the late 1940s, recorded again with Francisco Aguabella after a 36-year hiatus. Los Angeles-based José Caridad Perico Hernández reconnected both with his longtime associate Jesús Chucho Valdés and with Pío Leiva, his fellow sonero from 1950s Havana. Raúl Travieso Rodríguez, brother of the late Cuban music legend Arsenio Rodríguez, sat in with many of his former colleagues for the first time in decades. The sessions took place in Los Angeles throughout the summer of 1998; the resulting album, Late Night Sessions, appeared on Rhino Records in January 2000 and earned a pair of Grammy Award nominations.