1975's
Yoyi is the lone album by Cuba's
Grupo Los Yoyi. They were founded and led by the mysterious
Jorge Soler Leon, who composed, orchestrated, and produced the album. Their approach was heavily influenced by North American jazz fusion, funk and disco (particularly from Miami and New York City), vintage Latin sounds, psychedelic rock, and tropical sounds like dub reggae, melded and shot through with Cuba's homegrown polyrhythms and styles from son and guanguancho to mambo and rumba with soaring melodies, gospelized vocal choruses and spidery, seductive jazz-funk.
Grupo Los Yoyi were studio pioneers, innovativing with synthesizers and other electronic instruments. This eponymous album was recorded at Havana's state-run Egrem studios and was released by
Areito. Impossibly rare even in Cuba, it was withdrawn from stores by government censors for being "too western." Given the difficulty of obtaining licenses,
Yoyi was unofficially reissued several times; in 2018 appeared digitally (and legally) from
Sony ES before thier own license expired. In a strange twist, it has been officially licensed from Egrem in the 2020s by North America's
Future Rootz (their second
Areito release) and England's
Mr. Bongo as the inaugural title in their Cuban Classics Series.
Set opener "Banana" was backed with "Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar" (track five) as the band's promotional single that didn't appear until 1977, a year after the LP was withdrawn. "Banana" is introduced by cowbell, congas and a trap kit, offering a rural rythm before fuzzy electric guitars, reverb-laden organ, squiggly analog synth, dubwise trombone and brass, create a bubbling musical stew that joins Afro-Latin jazz and '70s library sound/cop soundtrack themes to chorale backing vocals and a massively funky (filthy-sounding) synth vamp. The single's flip offers a near-motorik funk backdrop framed by a bumping four-note bassline breaking snares, and snaky organ lines (with the exception of the chorus's polished arrangements, its not dissimilar to early Afroboeat). "Del Copacabana al 34" led by bass, soprano saxophone, electric harpsichord and slippery guitar vamps, in call-and-response by cinematic male and female singers before the music extinguishes them with swinging Latin jazz. The track "Paco La Calle" gained global dancefloor attention in 2008 when it was edited and remixed by DJ
Nick the Record. "Yo Mejor Te Doy" weds polished Cuban funk to big band samba; it's easily the most joyous track here -- the electric harpsichord is a nice touch). "Ruta 30" commences as Latin jazz with twinned flutes, soprano saxophone, and clarinet offering a bluesy vamp before salsa rhythms bubble up and claim the fore; a flute and soprano sax solos reassert the jazz aesthetic. Closer "El Fino," is unadulterated Latin bass-and-drum-driven, jazz funk. While it too recalls seventies exploitation film soundtracks, it transcends that box to evolve into a psych-tinged groover.
Yoyi is an album that sounds almost current with complex production techniques, a visonary grasp of styles, genres and grooves, and a truckload of soul. ~ Thom Jurek
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