As part of the San Francisco Bay Area Cuban Festival we are having direct from Cuba Elito Reve y su Charangon and Mayito Rivera.

Orquesta Revé, commonly known as "El Charangon", is a music legend in Cuba and is famous worldwide. The Orquesta Revé was founded in 1956 by Elio Revé, a brilliant musician from Guantanamo who died in 1996.
Today it is his son, Elito Revé, who ensures the musical direction of the band. Many of the musicians and singers currently at the forefront of the Cuban music scene have been at one time or another members of Orquesta Revé, and it is probably for that reason that the band was given the nickname of the "Mother" orchestra.

In the more than half-century of its existence, the Orquesta Revé has been not only an incomparable orchestra of popular dance music, but also a laboratory from which other orchestras originated, such as Ritmo Oriental, Los Van Van, DaN Den, the 440, Pupy, Chucho Valdes, Yumuri and others. Orquesta Revé has also been the source of other innovative and successful musical formulas as well.

Within Elio's artistic formation in Guantanamo, there is distinct evidence in the music of the mixed cultural heritages of Cuba, most noticeably the beautiful Afro-Cuban musical synthesis from a combination of both Afro-Spanish and Afro-french influences present in the different historical periods of Cuba's development.

ELITO REVÉ Y SU CHARANGÓN

Fundada en el año 1956 por el maestro Elio Revé Matos, la orquesta Elio Revé y su Charangón es, desde hace cincuenta años, una de las agrupaciones musicales de mayor prestigio y popularidad en Cuba. Bien conocida mundialmente ha paseado el changüí por los más prestigiosos escenarios nacionales e internacionales y compartido escenario con artistas de fama mundial. Elito Revé ha resultado un fiel continuador de la obra de su padre Elio Revé, al mantener a la Orquesta en los más altos niveles de popularidad, tanto nacional como internacional.
Este año, la agrupación cumple 61 años.