Máxima Alerta is a Cuban-American fusion music band known for its merging of Cuban reggaeton, or Cubaton, with traditional Cuban music and other Latin musical genres.
The band, founded in 1999 by Ray Machado in Santa Clara, Cuba, is credited, along with the band Cubanito 20.02, for popularizing Cubaton. Stylistically, it is known for its incorporating son Cubano, conga, cumbia, salsa, merengue, and Cuban rumba, as well as styles and forms such as rap and ballads. After the band was banned from performing in Cuba, Machado emigrated to Hudson County, New Jersey in the United States, where it resumed performing in 2011, playing in local venues such as the Park Performing Arts Center and Maxwell's, and at New York City locations such as The Bitter End.
History
1999 — 2011
Ray Machado, the founder and lead singer of Máxima Alerta, was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, a busy city in the center of Cuba where reggaeton music gained popularity among the young, often marginalized and vilified youth culture (and where it is sometimes spelt "regueton" or "reggae town"), and merged with local influences to be called Cubaton. Machado graduated in 1997 as an audio engineer from the Instituto Cubano de Radio y Television in Havana. He worked as a concert sound engineer for acts including Cándido Fabre, Paulo FG, and El Chispa y sus Cómplices. He founded the Cubaton fusion band Máxima Alerta on June 20, 1999 in Santa Clara, serving as lead singer, musical director, and composer of most of the songs for the group. For four years Machado (aka "El Italiano") and his bandmates, Francisco Pantaleón (aka "El Panta") and Yoslin Aleman (aka "Mister Show") practiced together, working to develop their unique sound and build a following. Marcos Daniel Prado, a singer trained at the Fagot school, joined them in 2002. In 2003 Máxima Alerta debuted on national radio and television stations with two songs, "Echar pa' lante" and "Adegüello 1895", both of which attained national popularity.
According to Machado, hip hop began to gain popularity in Cuba in the 1980s, though rap was forbidden by the Cuban government because it was feared that it could be used for counter-revolutionary activities. Fidel Castro changed his mind when hip hop became popular among the Cuban youth, especially among black Cubans. In time, the Castro government came to see rap music artists as potential new revolutionaries, provided that they produced lyrics that cast the Cuban Revolution in a positive light. While still in Cuba, Machado touched upon this by saying, "We don't rap about the political situation. Rap is a special way to talk about the situation in the country. On Cuba there are about 300 hip hop groups; and they all take a different line. We like more commercial raps. We want our raps to also be heard outside of Cuba. Cuban hip hop and reggaeton is strong enough to get success outside of Cuba just like what happens today with son and salsa."
During a concert in Cumanayagua, the band met Flipper, a member of the reggaeton band Cubanito 20.02, who told them that the Cubanito label was looking for other groups. At a later anniversary concert for the Radio Taino program Cuba tonight, the band was noticed by the artistic director of the French record label Lusafrica, and arranged for the band's first CD, Llegaron los Alertas to be recorded at Silvio Rodríguez's Abdala Studios. It was released in April 2005. The album features such singles as "Echar pa'lante" ("Go Forward"), which mixes an old revolutionary ballad by Carlos Puebla about Che Guevara with hip hop and son Cubano; and "Machete", a crossover of Cuban rumba and salsa trumpets with a hip hop beat that centers on an old farmer cutting sugar cane with a machete. The album was nominated for Best Album Rap, Dance and Hip Hop at the Cubadisco awards festival. In 2009, the band's song "La Figura" ("Ay Lola"), which Maxima Alerta recorded with the Cuban reggaeton group Gente de Zona, rose to the top of the charts.
In 2011, Máxima Alerta released the CD Alertas para Todos, recorded and produced by Nando Pro in Havana. Six of the fourteen tracks on the album featured special guests Yulien Oviedo and Dante; Alexander Delgado y Randy Marcos; Sisto Llorente "El Indio". The CD also features a song dedicated Cuban baseball player and Olympic gold medalist Victor Mesa.