Formell’s Fans

As a 30-year veteran writer and radio host in the field of world music, I would like to respond to Agustin Gurza’s piece about Cuban artist Juan-Carlos Formell (“Enemies: A Musical,� July 7).

Formell is a brilliantly original guitarist-composer-arranger and one of Cuba’s most interesting contemporary artists. His new record, “Las Calles del Paraiso,� is by deliberate design a subtle and intricate album that does not fit squarely into any category of Cuban music. As a musician-composer and vocalist, he is easily the equal of Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, to whom it would be a more appropriate comparison. That he had to go into exile to make his first record, which was almost immediately nominated for a Grammy, does raise questions about how nurturing the socialist schools of Cuba really are and why a person of his gifts could not find an outlet in his own country.

AL ANGELORO

Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Gurza’s article was a personal and political diatribe, not a professional review of a work of art.

It is impossible to fathom how anyone listening to either of Formell’s two albums (the first, “Songs From a Little Blue House,� was a Grammy nominee) could draw Gurza’s conclusions. Formell’s voice is hauntingly melodic and perfect for his songs. Missing from the review is mention of Formell’s breathtaking mastery of the guitar; he is an undeniable virtuoso in the much-admired Trova style. Formell has been critically and appropriately compared to Caetano Veloso, among others.

As an admirer of Formell’s music and an anthropologist, I was dismayed by the naive “essentialism� in Gurza’s comment about the music of Cuban refugees. Gurza implies that the real Cuban music can only come from true Cubans in Cuba. It is by now a commonplace observation that the crucible of exile often gives rise to the most innovative music, literature and art.

To call Formell’s music “nostalgic� (Gurza’s label for the work of Cuban musicians here) is to profoundly misunderstand his re-examination and fresh rendering of Cuban themes and traditions. The review was a travesty of the work of an accomplished and important artist.

SUSAN SPERLING

Berkeley