Magela Crespo

Bass
Born:  Havana, April 9, 1980

Magela Crespo plays bass in 3 de la Habana. She is, in many ways, the group's romantic heart and loves the way the group plays all styles of music in unique combinations.

"We can fuse batucada with Son, and reguetón with Son" says Magela. "We also meld three voices into the mix, but it all comes out with a singular style that is very much our own. We have just two string instruments and the rest are percussion. This is why we are different and I love it.”

Magela's mother was a ballerina. That mixture of beauty, discipline and grace is evident in Magela today. Her mother saw the world through dance and passed on that spirit of global adventure to her daughter.

It is not surprising, then, that one of the biggest influences on Magela's Latin artistry is not Cuban or Latin at all.

Says Magela: "Jaco Pastorius was not Cuban, but I think he was the greatest bass player ever. He was Finnish and American and he died 20 years ago, but his recordings still inspire me. Pastorius had terrible personal problems that finally killed him, but when he was healthy and playing, there was an amazing singing quality to his melodies that no one thought could be done with the bass."

American bass player Vic Wooten, who is very much alive, is another big influence on Magela.

"Vic Wooten has a technical virtuosity that I envy," she says, "and I also admire that he was a composer. He has won 'Bass Player of the Year' three times so far from Bass Player Magazine, so I guess I am not alone in my admiration for him. Nobody else ever won that honor more than once."

Magela's first musical instrument was actually the piano, and she also studied choral direction which gave her a great and enduring love of Cuban song. Two teachers patiently persuaded her, however, to move from the commonplace piano to the much less common bass.

Says Magela: "The first 'persuader' was a music theory teacher, Mercedes Lay, who was very patient but opened me up creatively to alternative instruments and to musical styles I hadn't even imagined existed – much less ever heard before. The second was my bass teacher, Julio Soto.  They both invested great trust in me when I doubted my talent and my interest in a musical career." But she promptly added that German was the person who has influenced her music the most with his constant guidance and overall artistic direction.

Magela was born a city girl in Havana like most in the group, but her fondest childhood memories are of escaping the city with her parents and heading for the beach and the Cuban countryside.

"I was always lobbying my parents to get out of the city," she remembers.  "I just loved the smells and foods in the Cuban countryside and still do. As I recall, the further we traveled from Havana, the older and more traditional was the music coming over the radio and pouring out of the restaurants and resorts. It was an education in Cuban song traditions and melody that influences me today."