Cooder

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Tuesday, February 09, 1999 4:58:45 PM EST

(CNN) -- Not so long ago, the idea of musicians from Havana -- not expatriates, but musicians visiting from Cuba -- performing in New York would have been unthinkable. But thanks to a slow thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and the efforts of American guitarist Ry Cooder, some of Cuba's legendary musicians were able to take the stage recently at Carnegie Hall.

As Cooder and the musicians who performed tell it, the process of getting them involved was roundabout, but worthwhile.

"It was a superb performance, and it's not just another pop show, or something toxically driven -- money-driven, power-driven, fame-driven," says Cooder. "So you know you're seeing something very real, and I have to think, 'Isn't that nice?'"

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Acclaimed Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez says he met Cooder because of Cooder's proximity to his home. "I met him when I passed by San Miguel, the place where he records. One day I stopped by -- since I live close by -- to see what the pianos were like, and started to play," he said through a translator. "Ry gave me a thumbs-up. I didn't know what that meant. I thought I was disturbing them, so I stopped, but he motioned again so I played for a while."

Performing in the United States, Gonzalez says, was interesting, "because there are a lot of Cubans over there. They want to live in the United States or they want to stay there for a while -- I don't think there's a crime with that."

Getting Compay Segundo, another celebrated Cuban musician, onto the roster was harder, Cooder says. "First we heard he was dead, then we heard he was sick, then we heard he hadn't played in 10 years. All of that, never mind, just bring him in and set him down." Things worked out fine.

"(Cooder) was looking for talent," Segundo recalls. "Then he said, 'Here in the valley there is Compay Segundo. Bring him to me so I can meet him.' We met, and he listened to my music and ideas, and he liked my style very much."

Compay Segundo

Cuba-U.S. relations have been hostile for most of the four decades since President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Even now, the two countries continue to spar, with Cuba threatening last week to cut phone ties with the United States over U.S. attempts to seize phone payments destined for Cuba.

The United States has a trade embargo in place against Cuba, and travel between the two countries is severely restricted. The exchange of cultural performances remains highly controversial. But Cooder says the controversy makes no sense to him.

"It's the heart, it's about people who are just beautiful individuals," Cooder says of the political conflicts that have kept Cuban musicians from performing stateside before. "What can I say? It seems so clear. But I'm not in politics. I don't operate from that point of view, and this is not a record project or music project that is too political."

Nonetheless, for musicians in Cuba their isolation has had what some consider to be a benefit: Their style remains true to its traditions, unmuddied by outside influence.

"The music that they've always made in Cuba has the value of self-tuning and the strength of popular creation," says Cuban songwriter Silvio Rodriguez.

"In the 1940s and '50s it culminated and crystallized into a very successful genre. It has created a tremendous level of music -- the bolero, the huaracha, the son montuno, the guaguanco, the mambo and the cha-cha-cha. All of this transformed itself, in the '40s and '50s, into the richest music in the world."