Daya Aceituno and the Band went up a reel to your account instagram, where they compare what the public thinks the preparation before a concert is like – with total seriousness among the musicians – and what it really is like – on the bus, singing and bleating. In short, that is the Band, the first and only one in Cuba that plays and dances at the same time, as promoted on the social network. And, therefore, the kind that does it without lecterns or threadbare yellowish pages, with young people in tennis shoes, jeans and a white sweater with the identifying logo.
When Daya Aceituno arrives on stage her pupils grow. The setting can be a park, a school in Ciego de Ávila, a luxury theater or a square in Europe. It can be the same under the heat of the 12 noon sun as it is under a roof from which very fine lanterns hang. She doesn’t notice that. She carefully observes the space she has and may demand some modification that can be resolved in a matter of minutes. The musicians, they and no one else, will carry her instruments and place them where they belong.
Minutes before starting everyone gathers in a circle, like soccer teams do before the opening whistle. Aceituno, the director, is the only one who speaks. They listen to her, with their eyes closed, thank her for a new opportunity for professional improvement. They pray, or seem to pray. It is a kind of ritual, just a moment of intimacy. There is no need to review the technical-tactical plan again. They rehearsed that one so many times.
Except for the drummer, the others stand aside. It’s his moment, or his first moment. The drumsticks produce a vibe that the audience never expects. He never expects the Band to break so high. It’s hard to imagine the show continuing at that point. How deluded!
Daya Aceituno bursts in with the rest of the band and scares them. The public is not prepared for such an invasion. Even having seen them on television or in a live performance, there will always be a certain astonishment. “Our way of playing and dancing is impressive even in Holland, where we were at an international band festival, although there they do performances on bicycles,” he said before.
She doesn’t even have a baton nor is she facing the musicians. She projects herself towards the public. She is now the “bus driver.” The “passengers” – the public – will follow the movements she makes. Daya behind the wheel would probably not be able to afford the minimum expenses, but with that simple resource she has purchased the Cándido González Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences (IPVCE), in Ciego de Ávila.
facebookDuring the XXI edition of the Piña Colada Festival, from April 3 to 7, 2024, it had a series of presentations. At the official opening gala, around 7:00 p.m., in the Martí Park of the city of Avila, a concert started by the Camagüey Symphony Orchestra and the Camagüey Professional Choir concluded in celebration of Corávila’s 25 years.
The Band showed that it was crazy. Footballers who are very daring, who push themselves to the limit, are called “crazy”, or when technical directors surprise with an unthinkable strategy they are also called “crazy”. Well, Daya suffers from that and is contagious. And if not, how does it “run over” all over the boulevard? Or how does it stop traffic at one of its intersections? How do you cause such a commotion without any driver daring to at least press the horn?
There are no mediations between the Band and the public. The Band, on the contrary, prefers to shorten the distances. That lineage that perhaps there are artists who carry with them, is completely lost here. In the show, there is always a point where the musicians and the people intertwine, forming a big band. Thus, just like those times when the club wins the league and all the fans unstoppably rush onto the field.
The difference is that now the superstars are graduates of the National School of Art or the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, most of them between 18 and 25 years old. They fulfill their social service, they study at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA). And, as the Band is always sui generis, one studies a degree in Veterinary Medicine and another is an industrial engineer.
The Band is composed of saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone and percussion. Aceituno, due to “medical recommendation”, to counteract asthma, he studied music. Specifically, he graduated from the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory with an elementary level of music in the specialty of choral conducting and with an intermediate level from Amadeo Roldán. He obtained a gold title from the ISA with the euphonium, “an instrument that few know, intermediate between the tromba and the tuba,” adds who at the same time leads the Boyeros Municipal Band.
One more university, that is the Band: They want to graduate from here, says Aceituno in other words. First, of course, they depend on how much the experience can provide them professionally. Daya tells the IPVCE students that their musicians could earn more money in a popular group, for example. That message is the second: There are still young people in Cuba today who overcome generating income for the vocation of being who they want to be. There are still Dayas…
“We wanted to create a different format of concert bands, to offer a different proposal to young people, so that they like it, to recover this music that was almost lost,” says Daya with an aura of emotion in each word. “You can dance, enjoy, enjoy, jump and have a good time with a band,” said in interview with Forward.
During vacation time, Daya originated the “Summer Band” project, aimed at students from elementary music schools in Havana, to review the subject Ensemble Practice “from a fun, different approach, trying to awaken in “their interest in the format of a band,” explained to the press media.
Behind the show, it is very possible that the scoldings, the frustrations, the days not wanting to practice can be weighed in tons. “At least we have to study 2, 3 or 4 hours a day, whatever we can. It repeats and repeats again. It is very difficult to unify ideas sometimes,” he tells the IPVCE students.
Daya is one when facing the public and another when she turns to the musicians. Another one that should be more similar to the one in the rehearsals. But nobody knows that, it’s imperceptible here. The ease is such that everything seems improvised.
They cover Bruno Mars and Camila Cabello and change the chorus of their Havana Oh Na Na. Daya knows which audience she is addressing and from there she chooses the repertoire. “Learning each piece by heart, doing it without reading the scores is not easy,” and you don’t have to swear. Nor is the complexity of maintaining the neatness of a concert band: that is, playing reggaeton and, at the same time, not losing the essence.
In March 2023, in an interview with Cubasi, added: “The biggest challenge is to maintain, after 10 years of work, a fresh, renewed proposal that is constantly changing (…). Create new music and make that music coherent with the discourse and with the stage projection that we have. Every day improve that stage projection, which does not stop at just playing and dancing, which can include acting.” Add music, dance and acting and you get the score. Yes, Daya Aceituno ventured into theater, or she always did; but the Nave Oficio de Isla group, led by Osvaldo Doimeadiós, was his patent in some way.
There is some responsibility in keeping it genuine. Daya includes it in the concert. He is capable of evoking Compay Segundo, Benny or Martí with an incredible atticism. He stirs his ajiaco and, at the slightest oversight, transports us to Brazil. That’s the Band. And he comes back.
He signals for them to record the IPVCE young people dancing casino. He is aware that Cuba will seek in the coming days to set the record for the largest number of people dancing casino simultaneously. Cuba broke it. “How good it is to see them dancing casino! Those who know, please teach others”, and it is assumed that beyond the brief request, there is a concern for the transcendence of art.
Ask the time. 90 minutes passed. We will have to whistle the end no matter what. Add stoppage time. “We are leaving as God commands,” she warns. And God commands to go at a conga pace. While the Band will return to the bus, the “fans” will comment on the dribbles and goals of Daya’s team.
• Daya Aceituno y la Banda also “tasted” the most musical cocktail on the Island in 2023
