MIAMI — You may think you know the Estefan family.
After all, more than 45 years have gone by since Gloria and Emilio released “Live Again/Renacer” as the first Miami Sound Machine album. Nearly 40 since “Conga” crossed over from Miami clubs to global pop charts. Closing in on 30 years after Gloria took listeners back to her Cuban homeland on “Mi Tierra.”
But until the new “Estefan Family Christmas” album, released this holiday season, it’s a safe bet that despite the radio hits and concert tours and the Broadway bio musical that aimed to represent the real Estefan family, you’ve never really heard the fullest essence of the Estefans.
“Estefan Family Christmas,” previewed with a televised performance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, is the most Estefan Estefan record yet.
A family effort
And it’s not just because the warm, 17-track album features Gloria and daughter Emily singing and writing together, but it also marks the professional lead vocal debut of Gloria and Emilio’s grandson, 10-year-old Sasha Estefan-Coppola, whose work extends well beyond singing his parts.
After all, Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond and Tony DeFranco all did the childhood singing thing quite well decades ago with some of their family members. Sasha had more to do than to just sing and hit his mark and let the grownups make the decisions. He served as one of the album’s associate producers with his aunt, Berklee College of Music-graduate Emily — and the liner note credit isn’t a mere honorarium. The young man often coached his more experienced family members at the studios in which “Estefan Family Christmas” came together: Criteria Recording Studio in North Miami, the family’s Crescent Moon Studios in South Miami, and the University of Miami Maurice Gusman Concert Hall, among them.
“My mom often says there were times that it was 3 in the morning and Sasha was wide awake and still scolding us for being flat or sharp. And we fully understand that he was right, like he’s incredible. He’s unafraid. He contributes musically, vocally,” said Emily, 27.
There’s also a spoken word part for Sasha’s mom and dad, Nayib Estefan and Lara Estefan-Coppola, on “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”
Gloria’s mom, Gloria Fajardo, is referenced in Emily’s lyrics for the new original song, “Thankful,” and her picture from a family album appears in the CD booklet.
The “very vocal” family dogs and cats get in on the record, too. There’s Leona, Quincy, Nova, Alula, Bowser, Daisy, Hamilton and Mathilda on “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late).” Well, almost all of them. We, so juvenile, heard something, well, flatulent in the mix. Too much eggnog in the Kibble?
Gloria, with Emily and Sasha and Emilio on a group chat with the Miami Herald the morning after they taped their performance for the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at the White House for broadcast on CBS this Sunday, corrected us. Everyone giggled.
“The only one we couldn’t really nab was Sasha’s dog Quincy so we got him snoring because he’s not very vocal,” Gloria, 65, explained.
Coaching grandpa in the vocal booth
Remarkably, “Estefan Family Christmas” also marks the professional singing debut of 69-year-old patriarch Emilio Estefan Jr. This we found hard to believe until we flipped through the 25 or so previous Miami Sound Machine and Gloria Estefan albums dating back to 1977. Sure enough, Emilio had escaped from the vocal booth until his duet with Sasha on “I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus,” a song that originated on a Muppets TV Christmas special in 2008 and originally sung by Gonzo and Fozzie Bear.
Emilio makes for a pretty convincing Fozzie Bear with a little coaching from his grandson.
The idea for Emilio’s participation came from Julia Berg, wife of University of Miami Frost School of Music dean Shelton “Shelly” Berg, who served as the album’s pianist, arranger, co-producer and conductor. Julia, Gloria said, thought the tender lyrics in “I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus” really captured Emilio and his bond with his grandson and that the family patriarch ought to share a lead vocal. The Estefan family agreed it could be sweet to capture their voices together at this moment in time for future generations of the Estefan family to hear one day.
“Emilio was always gung-ho about trying new things,” Gloria said.
But then he sang.
Sasha, who had finished his parts in the vocal booth over two days of recording, headed over to the studio’s couch with his iPad to watch Netflix when he kept hearing Emilio singing the opening line over and over ... and over ... again.
“I wish ... I wish ... I wish...” Sasha says, doing a pretty spot-on impersonation of his grandpa trying to get the inflection in his voice just right for the Paul Williams composition.
Everyone on the phone line starts to giggle.
“I was listening to what I was doing on the iPad and over and over I just hear, ‘I wish ... I wish ... I wish.’ I started to wonder, Do you think the person who wrote the song would be happy about this?” Sasha said. “I just wanted to watch my Netflix and I had to go through this, ‘I wish ... I wish.’”
Gloria and Emily are now cracking up. Emilio? He’s uncharacteristically silent.
“Emilio did not like being on the other side of the producer. I was the producer this time and he was not happy having to be told what to do or how to do it,” Gloria says, still chuckling. “But it turned out so beautiful. He’s right here listening, by the way.”
“No respect! No respect from my grandson!” Emilio, the album’s executive producer, pipes up, teasing. “You know what he told me? He said, “Abuelo, I just need to hear it in English.’ That’s incredible. But it was beautiful and, you know something? After COVID you have to realize it’s important to spend time with the family and leave something behind for the next generation. And this is a beautiful project. For me, I’m no singer or anything ...”
“But you were beautiful,” Gloria interrupts her husband, affectionately, as only a wife of 44 years can.
“And I did it because sometimes you do things from the heart and it comes through,” Emilio said. “Last night at the White House was amazing, the presentation of what they performed, the reaction to Sasha and Emily and the family. It’s a great message now.”
The family will also share music from “Estefan Family Christmas’” when Gloria hosts “A Home for the Holidays at the Grove” and performs with her daughter and grandson from Los Angeles, airing on CBS Dec. 23.
A family feeling
The album features full band arrangements, along with the Miami Children’s Chorus and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra playing a mix of covers and originals. There’s Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson’s “Christmas Time Is Here” and “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music” but with improvisations by Gloria, Emily and Sasha.
“Estefan Family Christmas,” Gloria’s first holiday album since “Christmas Through Your Eyes” in 1993, has its origins in Thanksgiving gatherings at Gloria and Emilio’s house in Miami Beach and Christmas Eve at the nearby home of Lili Estefan — Emilio’s niece.
At both places, the family put on casual musical shows since Sasha was about 3 or 4. At a 2019 Thanksgiving gathering, Gloria suggested that they write an original chorus, before dinner, on things that they were thankful for. The idea was put on hold in 2020 when COVID halted Thanksgiving gatherings and resumed in 2021.
Capturing that familial warmth and immortalizing these little shows was the plan for “Estefan Family Christmas,” Gloria and Emily said, sharing credit with the University of Miami’s Shelly Berg, who worked with Gloria on her 2013 standards album.
“Whenever anybody asked me of all the things I do, what is No. 1, I am a mother first. So the joy that I have experienced, being able to do this record with Emily and with my grandson, who neither one of them was around when I did my first Christmas album, was the whole reason that we did this,” Gloria said.
“Sasha ... just naturally has this beautiful voice and Emily, she’s the best of all of us, and it came together really organically. We picked the songs. We chose the keys. We talked to Shelly about what we envisioned for the record, the style. We wanted it to be nostalgic and feel fresh at the same time. We wanted an orchestra because, to me, Christmas is all about the pomp and celebratory music with an orchestra. It is very much my most special project ever because I know this is something that will never be repeated in this way,” Gloria said.
“I was floored,” Emily said. “Honestly, it was such an amazing experience and then to have my mom. We all are made up of her blood, but we’re like fans of hers. She’s a cool-ass musician. So to be able to be in the studio and for her to give us that respect and that room ... we had an amazing time. We worked our butts off. It was a labor of love completely but it really was capturing what we organically do as a family and at the end of the day, for us, family has always been first and that’s a gift that I’m really glad that we got to share with everyone.”
“Sasha has a great way to put it,” Gloria said. “Absolutely,” Emily adds.
And so Sasha, the budding producer, closes the interview.
“I feel that some people that maybe don’t have a family or have someone to care for them could be part of our family when they listen to this album.”
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