Son 14

Formed in 1977 in Santiago, Cuba, the fourteen-piece ensemble Son 14 took its name from the national Cuban genre it championed. Vocalist Eduardo ‘El Tiburon’ Morales, born in Cuba in 1935, and pianist and musical director Adalberto Alvarez assembled the group. The following year, Lazaro Rosabal, born in 1953 in Santiago, Cuba, came aboard. Over the next several years the band cut multiple albums for the Havana-based EGREM imprint, several of which sold widely across Latin America, while the musicians also traveled extensively through both the Americas and Europe. Alvarez departed in 1992 to launch his own project, after which Rosabal assumed the role of musical director. Although the ensemble retained its strong following in the Latin market, it began reaching wider international audiences when the track ‘El Son De La Madrugada’ appeared on the 1993 Earthworks Records anthology Cuba - Fully Charged. Two years later Tumi Records issued Son - The BIG SOUND, a retrospective drawn from the Alvarez period. Having thereby introduced listeners outside Latin America to the group’s brassy, contemporary treatment of son and its variants such as son montuno and bolero son, Tumi arranged a new session at EGREM’s Cuban facilities. Issued in 1996 within the label’s Cuba Explosion series, the resulting album Cubania confirmed that the musicians had retained their characteristic flair and drive under Rosabal’s leadership. Three years afterward they returned with La Maquina Musical, which incorporated Colombian-style tropical rhythms. The band supported the release with a European tour highlighted by a performance at the Cuba Presente Festival held at London’s Barbican Centre.