Cuba Canta y Baila

The purpose of this project is to showcase and promote the Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection. We hope to achieve this by bringing together the many different, but related, elements in the collection into an attractive and valuable web presence. It includes not only digitized music recordings but, as added value, they are presented within a historical and cultural context. In addition, it will include biographical data on the performer, image galleries, access to their complete discography, and an up-to-date listing of recordings from the collection database. All the elements under consideration already exist within the Collection but in separate compartments, some online and some to be digitized.

The project also will be a step towards the preservation of these fragile materials which are not available readily and which represent the history and culture of Cuba from the beginning of the 20th century, when recorded sound became a possibility. It also meets our responsibility to the Collection by maintaining and implementing new and evolving technologies. It provides, for each performer, four digitzed recordings as a sample of their art; biographical data taken from Diaz-Ayala book, "Cuba Canta y Baila"; a complete discography, taken from the same book; and a direct link via a preformatted search to the recordings database.

We welcome and encourage additional information or suggestions to improve the site. We also welcome donations of recordings or other related material.