The album Cuba Music And Revolution features many artists who flourished in Cuba in the 70s and 80s, but whom the rest of the world has probably never heard of. Groups like Irakere and Los Van Van are a favourable exception to this rule, but the remaining bands are still cloaked in a grey cloud of obscurity. The reason for this anonymity is the 60-plus year old trade embargo of the United States,
… which to this day prohibits any kind of trade with Cuba. In 2015, Sony Music and Cuban state music company Egrem arranged a distribution deal for Cuban music as diplomatic relations improved under Obama. However, Trump put a stop to this and the embargo was actually tightened. The English jazz DJ Gilles Peterson managed to collect a large number of these songs for the Soul Jazz label so we can now listen to this beautiful music in the Western world. (AD)more