Biography
Bearing a moniker reminiscent of a Spanish gambler’s mournful cry, Carlos Alas del Casino championed the guajira approach to tango inside his Cuban birthplace before departing for Miami in the 1960s, precisely when Fidel Castro’s standoff with the United States reached its sharpest pitch. The resulting American cultural currents may have traveled well past the Miami Cuban exile enclave and its conservative mandates; his son, performing under the abbreviated name Jovary Alas, reportedly shared a stage with heavy metal luminary Alice Cooper at Studio 54.
Alas del Casino’s professional path opened in circumstances that felt worlds removed from any encounter with Cooper, and not merely because of the brief sea crossing involved. Guajira numbers mirrored country-and-western fare in their lyrical focus on rustic scenes treated with sentiment, yet their musical architecture remained characteristically Cuban through the juxtaposition of opposing rhythmic meters. During the 1940s his renditions of these established tango forms echoed across Cuba. Throughout the next twenty years the striking vocalist became a steady presence on Cuban radio while also appearing as a touring performer across Latin America. The Cubanacan label later issued Cantantes de la Orquestra: Casino de la Playa, Volume One, a compilation of archival recordings that features Alas del Casino delivering “Soy Como Soy,” a title which, for listeners unfamiliar with Spanish, might evoke the quintessential bargain Chinese meal.
Alas del Casino’s professional path opened in circumstances that felt worlds removed from any encounter with Cooper, and not merely because of the brief sea crossing involved. Guajira numbers mirrored country-and-western fare in their lyrical focus on rustic scenes treated with sentiment, yet their musical architecture remained characteristically Cuban through the juxtaposition of opposing rhythmic meters. During the 1940s his renditions of these established tango forms echoed across Cuba. Throughout the next twenty years the striking vocalist became a steady presence on Cuban radio while also appearing as a touring performer across Latin America. The Cubanacan label later issued Cantantes de la Orquestra: Casino de la Playa, Volume One, a compilation of archival recordings that features Alas del Casino delivering “Soy Como Soy,” a title which, for listeners unfamiliar with Spanish, might evoke the quintessential bargain Chinese meal.
Albums