21st of June was definetly not the average Saturday night in Brixton as Electric Brixton filled up with with the London cuban salsa population waiting to see Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor perform live. Although it is known that London, and especially Brixton has a well-established Latin American community I truly had no idea there was a such a vast Cuban community. The venue had temporarily turned into a dance club as we were waiting for the arrival of Maykel Blanco with the dance floor flooding with couples showing off their best steps to the latest Timba hits. There is just something about Caribbean Latin Music & Dance that defies all cultural barriers and typical stereotypes, having people of all ages sharing a common interest. When Maykel Blanco made his entrance, taking his place in the front left corner behind a Roland RD700NX shining under the spotlight it really kicked off. He played hits from all his albums and really kept the public engaged especially when performing his latest hits. " Bembe" was probably the one that had the crowd going the wildest although personally the one song that I had stuck in my head for days after the performance was " Hazte la que no me ve", also one of his most recent pieces of work. I liked the way he switched styles and decided to open with al alternative intro. He played the beginning of a song at a much slower tempo soloing vocals and piano in much more classic son style putting a lot of emphasis on the piano part ( reminded me of Ruben Gonzalez performance style) and then at one point switched to the "timbeao'" style in which the original song is recorded. In a recent interview  I watched he mentions how he considers his genre to be "Son Moderno" (Modern Son)  and how he places great importance on maintaining the cuban musical tradition whilst developing a more modern style of his own.

Short Clips from the performance coming soon!