For me this concert was a double treat. Although I live right "next door" to Denmark, I have never managed to catch Grupo Danson live. So when I heard that Mayito would be touring and Grupo Danson would be his band, I knew it was time for another little timba trip. The concert was held at Söpaviljongen, a beautiful club located on one of the many small lakes that intersect the city of Copenhagen. Happily it is a club with good audio as a concert of this caliber deserved. One of the DJs that evening was my friend and fellow Timba Geek, DJ Salsani, who I finally got meet in person that night along with her husband Franz of the PlanetTimba blog. It's always nice to finally get a chance to meet your internet friends in the flesh!

Mayito Rivera with Ernesto Manuitt, Carlos Pérez & Yaser Morejón of Grupo Danson

The concert was a mix of songs from Grupo Danson, Mayito's solo albums and Los Van Van. Grupo Danson took the stage sans Mayito and the concert began with "Tema Danson", Ernesto Manuitt on lead. Helping out on coro and güiro was Signe Assmusen, a classically trained singer who is also a soloist with Salsa Loca in Denmark.

Ernesto & Signe Assmusen

Actually Grupo Danson must have one of the strongest coro sections around considering that the bassist and both trombones also sing coro (when they aren't playing mambos of course).

Carlito & Jakob Johansen - los metales

Mayito joined the band on stage for the second song, which was "Negrito Bailador" from his Grammy nominated album "Llegó la hora". This is one of those great Cuban theme songs that honors the dancer and the Afro-Cuban roots of the culture that gave birth to this music. Mayito Rivera is arguably the most popular singer of the timba generation, certainly he swept the singer category in the Timba.com awards winning 4 of 5 possible awards. So what award did he not win? Best Corista.

Mejor cantante la timba - Mayito Rivera

Undoubtedly one of Mayito's strengths as a singer is his domination of both traditional Cuban music as well as rumba. His first solo album "Pa' Bachatear Chappotín", was an example of his familiarity with and love of the classics. He shared that with us this night performing "Canto al Monte". They also did a Van Van's "Aquí el que baila gana" and "Pelotero la bola" ended the first set.

Back in the dressing room everyone was having a good time. Drummer Tony and bongocero Yohanier were telling me early that day how Mayito said that concerts are for enjoying yourself, not for stressing, and that philosophy was very much in evidence. Although Mayito is a huge star he doesn't let that go to his head.

Peter Ehler, Signe & Ernesto

Mayito sees music as a team effort where each player relies on the other, so no one is more important than the other. It's this kind of respect that makes for a successful collaboration. I cornered Mayito for a couple of minutes to ask him about the tour. Click here to watch the brief interview in WMV format.

Carlos & Yaser relaxing between sets

The second set began with "Llevala a tu vacilón", with Mayito's arrangement from "Llegó la hora". This is such a classic song and it was my first time seeing it live. Mayito begins it as a ballad before slipping into songo and he has added few coros. He also invited a friend of his to come up and do a couple minutes of rap which segued into the "Pa'qué, pa'qué si no hay necesidad de eso?" coro.

The next song took us back to the Danson repertoire and was actually one of the most interesting songs of the evening for me. "Mi música" won Danson the Best World Music song when their first CD was released and it has also been recorded by Alexander Abreu with Havana D'Primera and has become one of the new anthems of Cuban music for many fans. So this was something interesting: a third version with Grupo Danson but with Mayito Rivera on lead. What would the master improviser and mananero do with this song?

Well thay started by skipping the cuerpo entirely and just jumping right into the first coro. A lot of little things happened in this song: there was a timbalaye coro I haven't heard before, Carlos Pérez himself began singing guias at about 7 minutes and the last coro was slightly different than with Havana D'Primera: tumba la caña mira que viene Danson sonando el cuero. And what can I say about Mayito's singing? The song took a hold of him and really inpired him through his improvisations, as it does all of us fans no matter how many times we have heard it. I think you'd better just watch it yourself to see what I mean.

Mayito singing Mi música with Grupo Danson

If "Mi música" is a new Cuban anthem, "Soy todo" is the big daddy. Winner of the Best Lyrics in a Timba Song award, "Soy todo" embodies the spirit of Afro-Cuban culture and religion that are such essential elements of timba. It was surprising how good the song sounded with only two trombones.

Mayito & Grupo Danson with "Soy todo"

Carlito was inspired to perform a little conga solo during "Soy todo"

Yohanier moved to the elecropads for this song and about 10 minutes into the song Carlos performed a short conga solo. This was followed by a jazzy piano solo from Carsten.

Carsten Kær played several solos during the evening

The closing song was "Si a una mamita" and it had the longest dance contest I've experienced to date: 25 minutes of cintura. First the guys came up to show their rumba moves followed by the ladies. It seemed to me that Mayito was most impressed by the final dancer, a Danish girl who he sang the following coro for: "Que tú bailes, tú gozas, tu bailes como una prieta".

Yohanier laid down some hot bongo solos

When all is said and done, the collaboration between Mayito and Grupo Danson was a great success. Thanks to Mayito's childhood friend Rubén, for tking the initiative to set the concerts up. And I have to complement the band on their preparing for the concert so well. It is a daunting task to play arrangements by Van Van, especially with a smaller band, but they made it work. And finally, Mayito is simply magnificent. Of course Carlos was very pleased with the concert and gave us a short interview after the show.

Carlito & Mayito