Havana good time

Over the years, American listeners have embraced Cuban music.

  The rhythms delighted audiences here not only during the 1940s and ’50s, but again in the 1990s, when Cuban bandleader

Juan de Marcos and American guitarist Ry Cooder released the “Buena Vista Social Club” music that brought some long-obscure music legends the spotlight time they’d been denied.

Now it’s time for Cuban musicians to return the musical moral support, de Marcos said from the road. He and his Afro-Cuban All Stars, who will perform Wednesday at the Paramount Theater, are happy to offer fans an evening away from economic worries.

“With my music, I hope to bring a little bit of happiness to fight the economic problems,” de Marcos said. “The people are stressed.”

The Grammy Award-winning maestro isn’t immune to stress, either. Years of enthusiastically received concerts followed the release of the “Buena Vista Social Club” CD in 1996, but touring hassles heated up in 2003 that kept the Cuban musicians at home, unable to enter the United States. A combination of post-9/11 security changes and enduring anti-Communist limits on U.S.-Cuban travel and contact put the brakes on successful tours that had introduced new generations of American listeners to the innovative rhythms of their island neighbors.

The resourceful de Marcos finally found a solution — creating a touring outfit filled with top-notch Cuban musicians who already lived outside Cuba. But by then, the economy had changed, forcing many music fans to cut back on entertainment. De Marcos worried before the tour began that the recession would prove to be a tougher opponent than politics.

He didn’t have to worry for long.

“The response of the audience was tremendous,” de Marcos said. “It’s incredible. We’re selling out all the concerts. All the concerts were sold out or nearly sold out.”

Fifteen Cuban musicians now scattered around the world have found a home in the Afro-Cuban All Stars.

Pianist Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera lives in Minnesota these days. Calixto Oviedo, a famed drummer, lives in Stockholm.

De Marcos tracked down three trumpet standouts — Yaure Muniz in Madrid, Igort Rivas in Curacao and Miguel Valdes in Vancouver. All three are Buena Vista Social Club alumni, as is trombonist Alberto “Molote” Martinez.

“The most important thing for me is to show the versatility and vitality of the Cuban music,” de Marcos said. “This time we’re featuring a mix of music.”

De Marcos said that the All Stars will play some traditional numbers that listeners will recognize, plus about nine new compositions “that are going to be on my upcoming album.”

De Marcos said that audiences will be getting genuine Afro-Cuban music — “not Latin. It’s Cuban percussion and Cuban rhythm,” he said. “And we are playing contemporary Cuban dance hall music. There is more fusion, more contemporary and international elements.”

Don’t be surprised, then, to hear the band “take a little bit of Earth, Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang, a little Dizzy Gillespie and a little Buena Vista Social Club,” he said.

De Marcos offered his confidence that the economic hard times won’t keep Americans down for long.

“You will always win,” he said cheerfully. “You are a great country. I am very sure you will win.”

To learn more about the artists and the tour, just visit http://www.afrocubanallstars  ustour.com. And if you’re at all on the fence about going to the show, just visit the Web site and listen to the music.