Sonia Santana Havana Dreams - Reseña de audio grabación

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2004 by Jesse Varela

(Sony/Odyssey)

Born in the city of Las Palmas in Spain's Canary Islands, vocalist Sonia Santana is like a finely tuned instrument with impeccable range, phrasing and timing. On her debut, Havana Dreams, she presents a songbook of chestnuts from Cuba, Brazil and U.S. Tin Pan Alley. Singing in Spanish, Portuguese and accented English (a la Carmen Miranda), Santana is backed by the incredible Saratoga big band, made up of ace Cuban musicians and led by pianist Tony Pérez, which helps her soar to amazing heights as she bends notes like a jazzy flamenco singer. Lagrimas Negras is my favorite; she delivers the lyric with a behind-the-beat articulation. The arrangement is suave at first, as it transitions from a danzón rendering of the theme into a kicking son montuno with a nice mambo thing happening between the reeds and brass in the middle. The samba Pra quem sabe dar valor swings nicely, with the big band providing intricate counterpoint and harmonic embellishment for Santana to float over. Pérez takes a solo and delivers clear, soulful melodic inventions. A striking beauty, Santana is unfortunately dished a pretty cheesy repertoire of Tin Pan Alley tunes to represent. Sway, South American Way, Say Si Si and Rum & Coca Cola are done more for the cute factor other than the musicality that Sonia Santana is capable of. But her ability to transcend beyond the cheese is a commendable quality and should be respected because she is blessed with a great voice and a great future.