HOW DO CUBAN CHARANGA BANDS SOUND DIFFERENT FROM NEW YORK CHARANGAS?
The Cubans play a very traditional, old styled charanga. The difference in the sound is even reflected in the way the music was recorded. It has a more acoustic sound. It is hard to describe how the two sound different but if you hear a Cuban charanga and a New York charanga you will recognize the difference. Another important difference is that In the Cuban style of charanga, the coro (vocal chorus) was performed by a group of 3-4 voices singing in unison. That is a very particular sound. In Charanson we dont have that type of sound. We more voices singing harmonies, solo voices and lead vocals. A lot of the Cuban charangas dont have lead vocals. They just have 3 or 4 voices singing together all the time. I was a big fan of Tipica 73 which to this day I think was one of the greatest bands I have ever heard. They had an all-star line up of musicians. They were really on the cutting edge in terms of being very progressive with their sound. They could play traditional charangas because A
