Trova House

Trova House

Because we overnighted in Santiago de Cuba we were able to go out for an evening of music. We went to the nightclub Trova House, which is just off the main Plaza.

Trova (the “v” is pronounced “b”, so it’s “troba” as in “troubadour”) is the traditional music of Oriente Province, or the eastern end of Cuba. It blends Spanish traditional music styles with influences from African music and American Jazz. A proper trova group must have at least a couple of guitars and a lot of percussion. It reminded me of Spanish and Portuguese music, only more upbeat. (It usually didn’t sound like the singer was dying of a broken heart).

The group that we listened to is called Sones De Oriente.

While they played a pair of dancers danced for us, while we sipped mojitos and cuba libres.

Los Osos de la Trova

The music is infectious, with strong, driving rhythms. It’s hard not to feel like dancing. And of course, as always happens at these evenings, they did get people from the audience up to dance. Some of them did pretty well.

It was a fun night out, and a good introduction to real Cuban music, which is so big a part of the soul of the country.