bio
from Roots of Timba Project
Roberto Borrell
learned traditional and popular Afro-Cuban dance, percussion,
and song from master musicians and dancers while growing up in la
Havana Vieja, Havana, Cuba. He is a respected dancer and percussionist
of Afro-Cuban Yoruba, Abakua (Calabar), Rumba, Arará (Dahony),
and Palo (Congo). He also a master dancer and teacher of Cuban popular
dance styles such as son montuno, danzón, and cha cha cha.
Mr. Borrell led the Afro-Cuban folkloric group Kubata
in Cuba for 10 years before coming to the United States in 1980,
where he founded a new company under the same name. Kubata, then
based in New York City, performed Roberto’s productions for
10 years in many major East Coast venues, such as the Smithsonian,
Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. He also was founder and musical
director of the famous New York-based Son Grupo, part of Kubata
productions.
Borrell danced in the front line of the Folklorico Nacional de Cuba
for several years and, in major United States venues, has performed
and recorded both as a dancer and percussionist, with legends such
as Tito Puente, the Machete Ensemble, Chocolate Armenteros, “Cachao”
Lopez, and Richard Egües.
Mr. Borrell was the co-founder, percussionist and
musical co-director of the 11-member Orquesta
la Moderna Tradición, one of the only ensembles in the
United States that is dedicated to the performance of classic Cuban
dance music: son, guaracha, cha cha cha, and especially the lilting
grooves of the danzón.
professional affiliations
- Dancer, Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba (National
Folkloric Dance company of Cuba) (1966-68)
- Musical Director, Orquesta Union Cienfueguera (1969-70)
- Founder and director, Roberto Borrell y su Kubatá,
a 30-member dance company. Won prizes in Cuban cultural festivals
in 1970, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, and ’77.
Represented Cuba in the World Youth Festival in Havana in 1978.
Later re-formed the group in Washington DC, New York, and the
San Francisco Bay Area (1970-80)
- Performed in the film documentary Machito (1984)
- Recorded Son of Corazón with Conjunto
Tipico Cubano (1989)
Cuba:
- Carnival of Havana, Comparsa Las Jardineras (1977)
- Carnival of Havana, Conjunto Yacaré (1975)
- Carnival of Havana, Comparsa Artes y Espectaculos
(1974)
- Folkloric show, Tropicana Cabaret (in the Tropicana)
with Papo Angarica (1974)
- Cabaret Las Vegas (1970)
- Fleitas Brother’s Circus (1968)
- Orquesta Cabaret Sierra (1968)
United States:
- Conjunto Estrellas del Son
- Washington DC Steel Band
- Orquesta Tipica 73
- Conjunto Los Soneros
- Machito and his Cuban Orquesta
- Luis Perico and his Orquesta
- Maria Bausa
- The Machete Ensemble
- Conjunto Céspedes
- Conjunto Tipico Cubano
- Monguito “el Unico”
- Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros
- Lita Branda
- Miguel Quintana
- Los Soneros
- Luis Perico Ortiz
- University of Portland, Portland, Oregon
- Washington State University, Seattle, Washington
- Mills College, Oakland, California
- University of Massachusetts
- Boys Harbor Music School, New York
- Citicentre Dance Theater, Oakland, California
- La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, California
- Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco
- Workshops in Switzerland and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin
Islands
bio
from Geneva Concert Program
Roberto Borrell and Orquestra Moderna Tradition
Raised in Habana Vieja (Old Havana), Roberto Borrell grew up immersed
in the fertile Cuban music scene of the 50s and 60s. In those days,
each Havana neighborhood had its own Sociedad (social club). There
were over 100 sociedades in Havana, open with live music seven days
a week. These sociedades maintained elegant dance halls that filled
up every weekend with a dedicated, dressed-to-kill dancing public,
who moved with ease from elegant danzons to funky son montunos,
lively cha-cha-cha's or romantic boleros, played by greats such
as Aragon, Neno Gonzales, Arcano, and Chappottin. The young Roberto
became an accomplished dancer, and later, percussionist.
In the early 60s, the social clubs closed, and the music that had
flourished there faded into obscurity and nostalgia. Twenty years
went by. Roberto emigrated to the United States and worked for a
decade as a percussionist in New York's salsa and Latin jazz club
scene. When he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early
90s, he discovered a unique set of circumstances: a growing community
of music lovers was wondering how to dance to the vintage Cuban
sounds newly available on CD reissues, and musicians were eager
to study and play Cuban music. He met Tregar Otton, a classically
trained musician originally from South Texas, who had been playing
Cuban music since his early twenties. When Tregar approached him
with the idea of starting a danzon orchestra, Roberto didn't think
people would be interested, but they began working together and
it became clear that theirs would be a fruitful and exciting collaboration.
In 1997, they released their first CD, the critically acclaimed
Danzonemos. Their second CD, Goza Conmigo, showcases the Orquesta's
continuing evolution as they pursue their artistic goals, modernizing
traditional genres while keeping the form pure. They have incorporated
more upbeat tempos and original compositions as well as creating
strikingly contemporary arrangements of some familiar classics.
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