In this collection of masterfully crafted interviews with some of the most famous creators of the music we call Salsa, prizewining Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura Fuentes explores the genesis of the music, its rise in popularity, its social context, and its artistic legacy. Filled with personal revelations by the musicians, historical detail about their lives and times, and colorful anecdotes about their identities, friendships, and working relationships, the book is a tribute to the artistry and social commitment of some of the most inventive artists of our time. In his brilliant introduction about the idols of Latin music since the 1920s, and throughout the book, Padura takes up the old dispute about the relationship of salsa to the Cuban music known as son, but the book is not a search for origins. Rather, through his conversations with a group of extraordinarily articulate musicians, he reveals how the aesthetics of salsa filled a cultural void, transforming popular Latin and Caribbean dance music and creating a new generation of musicians who would establish a new model: the salsero, an artist who had embarked upon something his forbearers never did—a conscious project.

Faces of Salsa: A Spoken History of the Music

Arts & Photography

Fuentes, Leonardo Padura

Music

Smithsonian Books

Padura Fuentes — one of Cuba's best-known and most widely acclaimed writers — has written a first-rate detective story set against the backdrop of Hemingway's Cuba. Part fascinating examination of Hemingway the man in his trying final years and part nifty postmodern procedural, Adios Hemingway will engross Hemingway fans while keeping them in suspense until the final pages.

Adios Hemingway

Literature & Fiction

United States

Canongate U.S.

* This is the first book to present a selection of the best creative work by Raúl Cañibano in Cuba: 30 years, captured in 100 pictures* The most beautiful, clever, and sensual photographic take on the attitudes to life on the largest Caribbean Island: VIVA CUBA!&nbsp;&nbsp;* Raúl Cañibano captures the essence of Cuba in his award-winning documentary and artistic work* Public collections in Cuba, like the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, have acquired works of Raúl Cañibano, as has the International Center of Photography (icp) in New York* Raúl Cañibano has been awarded the Grand Prix of Cuban photography* Leonardo Padura Fuentes, one of the most successful and popular contemporary writers in Cuba, delivers a stimulating introduction to the volume. (He is also famous for completely revamping Cuban crime fiction)This beautiful book presents a selection of Cuban photographer Raúl Cañibano's photographic oeuvre from nearly three decades. In these affectionate and astute photographs, he captures the heart and soul of Cuba. He seeks out Cubans as they are, in everyday situations, in their homes, on the streets, in the fields, and in the cities. In these images, the artist captures the eternal human drama: faith, old age, death, games, tenderness, love, anxiety, and a desire for beauty. His subjects appear as themselves in all their complexity, granting us a look into their inner lives. Text in English, German and Spanish.

Absolut Cuba

Canibano, Raul

Individual Artists

Edition Lammerhuber

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Books by Fuentes, Leonardo Padura