THE RIDE - track by track

El puente

Don't worry - this is only a "pre-reprise". The song El puente is actually a lengthy episode which occurs in the second half of the El que esté que tumbe on Disc Two. This may seem odd, but it's the way that Manolín, and some other prominent timberos, develop new material. Almost every song on this CD has additional coros that weren't on the studio recording and some of these will eventually be appropriated for new songs. Having either personally attended or repeatedly studied scratchy live tapes of dozens of Manolín concerts from all phases of his career, I can report that he has repeated this process many times. He adds a coro to an existing song and gradually embellishes it until it's ready to stand on its own, at which point it gets reharmonized and given its own arrangement and title. Songs like Pegaíto, pegaíto, Todo fue mental and Pelo suelto y carretera started out in this way. El puente is about halfway there. He's already got the basic flow of the cuerpo and when Luis Bu gets through with it, it will take its rightful place beside Me pasé de copas, Romeo y Julieta and La bola in the band's repertoire. Let me restate that: When and IF Luis (or Jeáns Valdés) gets through with it.

This insight into the band's work habits also sheds light on the waning of Manolín's creative output since moving to the United States. In Cuba the band played several times weekly and rehearsed constantly, and that's where the bulk of the musical invention took place. South Beach yuppies and struggling Hialeah musicians don't have time for that sort of thing ... they're too busy living the life of the beautiful people ... or trying to figure out how to pay the rent.