Tirso Duarte y La Sonoridad

by Kevin Moore ©2003
photography by Andrés Vargas

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pon clik aquí para «Si la vida te dice baila» - revista de la nueva música de Tirso en vivo

Tirso Duarte is the most talented figure to hit the Timba scene since Alain Pérez. He began his professional career playing teclado with Pachito Alonzo. In the summer of 1998, when the famous Charanga Habanera/Charanga Forever breakup occurred, David Calzado recruited him as his new pianist and principal creative collaborator, and Tirso rose to the occasion brilliantly. For the new Charanga, Tirso played, arranged, sang, and wrote songs such as Charanguero Mayor, which is among the 5 finalists in the timba.com award vote for Best Timba Song of All-Time. One need only listen to the piano and bass tumbaos on album Charanguero Mayor to get an idea of Tirso's brilliance and originality. Tirso left CH in January of 2001, and after a brief stint singing with NG La Banda, he became a founding member of Pupy Pedroso's "Los Que Son Son". He sang brilliantly with this band, but Pupy, himself one Cuba's greatest and most original writers, arrangers and pianists, had no need for Tirso's talents in these areas. And so, in the summer of 2003, Tirso set out to form his own band. There are no studio recordings available as of yet, but I've heard live tapes and readers of timba.com can take it on good authority that this, and Pupy's band, are the two most exciting new groups to emerge since the second Charanga Habanera burst onto the scene in 1998. It's not by coincidence that Tirso Duarte played a key role in all three bands.

Tirso's new music combines a wealth of new musical ideas with influences from his own earlier writing with La Charanga Habanera, influences absorbed from his work with Pupy, and, to my ear, with influences from both Pupy's and Juan Formell's earlier work with Los Van Van.

As a pianist, and more importantly, as a creator of piano tumbaos, Tirso is without peer in Havana today. The other young virtuosi of the 90s have either burned out, turned to jazz, or stopped producing new material as a result of leaving the fertile Havana music scene.

As a young singer, Tirso was often considered by many to be extremely talented, but heavily influenced by the great Mayito Rivera. Today, however, his range, expressivity and creativity have soared in all directions and to my ear he's carved out an original and multi-dimensional style which makes him far more than just a Mayito clone.

Timba.com has been covering Tirso Duarte through his work with other groups for some time. We have an interview with him from the Charanga Habanera Tour of 2000 which produced the Live in the USA CD, a long list of audio examples, and a special article on the rhythmic style of Charanga Habanera featuring audio from MIDI files of Tirso's playing. We also have extensive material on Tirso's work on Charanga Habanera's Charanguero mayor, and Pupy Pedroso's Qué cosas tiene la vida.