Cubanísimo

In its fourth complete Spanish-language album Gloria Estefan returns to the success of hit-longplayer "Mi Tierra" (1993): the irresistible mix of tearjerker and salsa crackers in traditional Cuban sound of the fifties. Neither the Caribbean Christmas album "Abriendo Puertas" (1995) nor the Bolero Collection "Alma Caribena" could build on this success.

"90 Millas" manages effortlessly to keep the quality of "Mi Tierra". Estefan's voice is as always slightly fragile, but their feeling is right and the Garde great musician, she has gathered around him, making almost every song into a small work of art. The production quality is anyway always immaculate. The themes as before to love & sorrow as well as Fiesta, dancing & joy of life. But be touched upon religious and family issues as well as the liberation of Cuba. With the provocative title of the CD (the distance from Florida to Cuba is 90 miles, "90 Millas") would have the gentle listener somewhat more substantial than expected naive liberation rhetoric: Cuba is free, the old grudges buried, all dancing through Havana and are happy , We Germans know that even 20 years after the "liberation" of East Germany the wall in the head, unfortunately, is only too present. The good Gloria is an already times before as our Vertriebenenfunktionärin Erika Steinbach when that Cuba has left at the tender age of two in 1959, always looking for the island as "Mi Tierra" laments (my home). Well, nobody expects politically differentiated lyrics on a mainstream album.

Musically happened against "Mi Tierra" little new, however, occur in the final two pieces of the album, the Afro-Cuban elements in the foreground, making "Morenita" and "90 Millas" the most interesting compositions. In the reduction to antiphonal singing and percussion, the African heritage is clearly experiencing here. In "90 Millas" Estefan sings even predominantly in Noruba, the language of African slaves and evokes the Santería saints Elegua.

One point deduction's for the superfluous electric guitars that interfere with the neo-classical unity of the album somewhat. "Morenita" and especially "No llores" would have been even more effective with another orchestration. Probably the Estefan wanted but not do without Carlos Santana as a crowd-pulling guest star.