All aboard the trova train!

Vieja Trova Santiaguera (Old Santiagoan Trova) is a quintet of spry old men, all from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago, an important city to Cuban music and the birthplace of trova, a genre that developed among poor, itinerant, self-taught troubadours (trovadores) in the late nineteenth century, growing out of cancion, urban music that grew out of the mixture of Cuban folk music, European popular song and influences from Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.

Vieja Trova formed in 1994, naming itself in contrast to the politicized, eclectic “Nueva Trova” (new trova) movement that emerged after the 1959 Communist revolution. Though the members are apparently devout Communists, they didn’t have much truck with the innovations of their juniors. Although Buena Vista Social Club was still a few years in the future, Vieja Trova was founded on basically the same principle, of reviving the musical traditions of the past before all their practitioners died.

“El Tren” (”The Train”) is a whimsical song with wonderful vocal sound effects and onomatopoeia, from their self-titled album. The rest of the album is okay - there are a couple of nice standards (”Lagrimas Negras” (”Black Tears”) and “Son de la Loma” (”They’re From the Hills”) and a lovely song called “El Huerfanito” (”The Little Orphan”), but the rest is undistinguished. If you want to know more about trova and the whole history of Cuban music, I recommend The Rough Guide to Cuban Music.

Vieja Trova Santiaguera - El Tren