Ska Cubano

Take the propulsive backbeat shuffle of Jamaican ska and blend it with soulful Afro-Cuban son, and the result is Ska Cubano.The band is the creation of London promoter Peter Scott, who came up with the brilliant idea of blending two of the Caribbean’s most influential music styles. He brought London ska artist Natty Bo to Santiago de Cuba, where they collaborated with local musicians to create the unique Ska Cubano sound. It was in Santiago that they discovered the band’s future lead singer, Juan Manuel Villy Carbonell, a.k.a Beny Billy, a rough-and-tumble former boxer and crooner whose voice is a dead ringer for that of Cuban legend Beny Moré. “Changó” was written and first recorded around 1930 by Cuban bandleader Oscar Calle, who found fame in Europe during the rumba craze of that era. The lyrics pay tribute to Changó, Yemaya and Obatalá, three of the most important orishas, or saints, in the Afro-Cuban religion Santería. “You shouldn’t play around with the saints,” sings Beny Billy, “They decide whether you live or die.”