Willy Chirino and the Miami Sound

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2004 by Francisco Ojeda

When I recently asked Willy Chirino to define for me the "Miami Sound," he paused for moment before giving the short definition that he must have given a thousand times before. "The Miami Sound," he said, "is a musical salad in which the main ingredient is Cuban music." It is obviously a rehearsed answer designed to either satisfy a journalist that is only superficially interested in the matter, of to invite additional questions from a writer with deeper curiosities. I continued my questions in search of additional details.

"I belong to a generation," Chirino continued after a longer pause, "that arrived in Miami in the very early 1960s, while still very young. We brought from Cuba the music of artists like Benny Moré, Celia Cruz, Sonora Matancera, Orquesta Riverside, Félix Chappotìn's conjunto, etc. A short time after arriving, however, we were hit by the sounds of rock groups like the Kinks, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles, and a little later still by the sounds of Brazil and the music of Chico Buarque, Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and the other artists from that incredibly musical land and from that wonderful period. By the time the late 1960s rolled around, the mixture of all these influences--with Cuban music as the logical main ingredient--began to form a new style that has since become known as the 'Miami Sound.'" Now, it seemed to me, we had a more detailed answer.

Willy Chirino is by no means the only artist who expounds what can still be considered a true Miami Sound, but he is surely the purest, the most active, and the one who enjoys the most international exposure. Earlier groups that shaped and worked the style--like Coke, the Antiques, Carlos Oliva, Hansel y Raúl, the original Miami Sound Machine, and Clouds--have either disappeared, remained relatively local, or changed their music considerably in the years since. All that remains of the original style are memories and a discography composed of records that become rarer with each passing day. Notwithstanding the passing of time and the changes it has brought to the city and its music scene, one thing remains vibrant as the guiding principle of the local sound, and it is still the one that gave distinction and originality to the early Miami Sound. Only now do I realize that the best over-all definition is probably the one I originally considered an obviously-rehearsed answer from Chirino: "The Miami Sound is a musical salad in which the main ingredient is Cuban music." All things considered, it sounds oddly complete.

Artistically, finally on his own

Willy Chirino had just released his latest CD, a collection titled Son del Alma. The recording, which includes 12 original compositions and a bonus track with Dominican singer Johnny Ventura, is the most recent in a discography that to date includes over 20 official releases and has brought the popular Cuban artist four gold and two platinum records. The Chirino musical résumé, besides, includes work as a much-in-demand producer for artists like Oscar D'León, Raphael, Rocío Jurado, Jorge Muñiz, Magneto, and Celia Cruz. And if that were not enough, his songs have been recorded by vocalists such as Vicki Carr, Dyango, Ricardo Montaner, Charytìn, Jorge Muñiz, Oscar D'León, Celia Cruz, and the group Gypsy Kings, who sold more than seven million records with their version of Chirino's Soy.

With a record label of his own (Latinum Music, Inc.) that allows him complete control of his music and its marketing, Willy Chirino now feels that he is finally able to do exactly what his long experience in the business recommends. "The first two or three albums that I recorded back in the early 1970s," he explains, "were very original in the sense that I followed my own intuition with no restrictions at all. Once I began to attract notice, however, the record companies began to try to steer me toward what they considered a solidly marketable sound, with the result that some of my latter records are touched by this fact. As time passed, however, I began to pay less and less attention to these ... recommendations, if you will, and to listen more to the artist in me. With the preparation and release of Acuarela del Caribe (1990) and Oxígeno (1991), the process in search of artistic independence was kicked into high gear and it has all culminated with the founding of my own record company." The CD Afrodisiac, which brought Chirino a gold record back in 2000 as well as six charted hits, was the first promising release on the new Latinum Music label.

Early Miami Sound

Willy Chirino began his musical career, oddly enough, within Miami's rock and roll movement of the 1960s. By the middle of the decade, however, he was in New York working with musicians like Julio Gutiérrez and Tito Puente, among others. When his first album, One Man Alone (1974), finally hit the market in Miami, it became evident to all that a new and very original local sound was taking firm root. What soon became known as the Miami Sound was then, as it is now, characterized by the mixing of timbers and rhythmic elements of various styles, all within a Cuban musical framework. Over the years, the Miami Sound has only changed in the sense that the various elements used in the mixture have changed; the Cuban musical framework remains as the basic and defining element and so does the almost existential need to blend the various musical winds that continually blow over the city. Today, the Miami Sound created by Willy Chirino includes rap and hip-hop, as well as the powerful sounds coming out of Cuba.