LOS VAN VAN - LA FANTASIA

Los Van Van - La Fantasia

At a press conference on November 29th, Samuel Formell announced that Los Van Van will release their tribute to Juan Formell - "La fantasía" - on Friday, December 5th at the final concert of their national tour, which will be held at the steps of the University of Havana. This will be only one day after the band celebrates its 45th anniversary.

The new CD - recorded at Estudios de 18 EGREM - contains 14 tracks with compositions and arrangements by Juan Formell, Samuel Formell, Juan Carlos Formell, Boris Luna, Jorge Leliebre, Pacho Chibás, Robertón, Mandy Cantero and Juan Ballestero. Alexander Abreu makes an appearance with a brilliant trumpet solo on track 14 - "Soy Van Van". Various DJs have posted short sections of some of the songs, and I am going to say that from what I have heard, I believe that "La fantasía" will be Van Van's strongest album since "Chapeando". Samuel has the daunting task of taking the helm of Cuba's most famous musical instituion, and all indications are that his father prepared him well by making him musical director several years ago. El tren va por buen camino.

As we were discussing the new album via e-mail, Kevin made the following observations on the subject of remakes, of which "La fantasía" contains two.

Kevin Moore:
1) "Es mucho" is from vol. 5 - 1979 - I think I'm on firm ground in saying the vols 5 & 6 were by far the worst sounding Van Van albums but had some great songs that were unjustly debuted with bad recordings - thus, re-recording anything from those (especially "La rumba no está completa" and "El montuno" - which they've already done and which are two amazing tracks) is a great idea because now Van Van has world-class singing and infinitely better recording capabilities.

2) "Me basta con pensar" started as the B-side bolero of the early 70s single "Que se sepa" - neither of which ever got onto an official album - unless the version Omara did of the A-side with them did got onto one, but "Me basta" was turned into an uptempo arrangement in 1990 for Los Van Van - not by Formell, but by Pupy (this only happened twice and both were masterpieces in my opinion). That version of "Me basta" contains within it - among many other things - the seeds of Manolito y su Trabuco's whole harmonic sello - it sounds like late 90s Trabuco back when Manolito was still in Maravillas de Florida. It's a hugely important timba precursor and one of the best post-revolution tracks period in my opinion - no idea what the new one will be like, but it's definitely anything but a tired old song swept out of the closet for lack of creativity. I'm very curious to hear this whole album.

As are we all Kevin. The first thing I plan to do Friday morning is buy "La fantasía" from whichever on-line store uploads it first. I predict that it will be a great holiday gift for all the Cuban music fans on my list.

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viernes, 21 noviembre 2014, 04:35 am

Congratulations are in order for Descemer Bueno, Alexander Delgado & Randy Malcom of Gente D'Zona, and Enrique Iglesias who won in three of the four categories for which they were nominated. "Bailando" won Best Urban Song, Best Urban Performance and the coveted Song of the Year. It's great to see Cuban musicians getting such international recognition. There is still a long way to go, since the original version of the song recorded and released in Cuba would probably not even have garnered a nomination (note: this is my opinion and not necessarily the opinion of Timba.com). I hope to see renewed international interest in what is happening in Cuban music as well as a continuation of interational artists collaborating with Cuban musicians, as we have seen with Andy Montañez, Gilberto Santa Rosa and El Canario. Most recently Marc Anthony has released the official video of his version of Polo Montañez' "Flor Pálida" and collaborated with Cuban audiovisual producer Alejandro Pérez, who also produced the "Bailando" videos.

Billboard recently published a good interview with Descemer Bueno titled: "Meet Descemer Bueno, The Talent Behind Enrique Iglesias' Smash Hit 'Bailando'.

The guys are currently touring Europe and were in their hotel in Paris when the winners were announced. Thanks to Joel Collazo for posting a video of Enrique, Descemer, Alexander and Randy and their reaction to the GRAMMYs.

Post by Joel Collazo.

Song for Maura Best Latin Jazz Album LATIN GRAMMYS 2014

Congratulations also to Paquito D'Rivera & Trio Corrente ("Song for Maura") for their tie with Chick Corea ("The Vigil") for Best Latin Jazz Album. I am not a GRAMMY historian so I don't know how often ties happen. Maybe Bill has more comments in this area.

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miércoles, 12 noviembre 2014, 05:09 pm

The newest addition to my CD collection: Grupo Danson - Rumba, Son con Timba

On Monday Grupo Danson, under the direction of trombonist Carlos Pérez, released their long-awaited second CD - "Rumba, son con timba" - at iTunes and Amazon. I was fortunate to get a hardcopy at their release concert held in Copenhagen Saturday, November 8th. The concert report and a CD review will be coming soon.

Briefly let me say that Grupo Danson is an outstanding body of musicians. The rhythm section has fantastic gears and the trombones are a powerhouse. I highly recommend catching them live, but more on that in the concert report. The CD contains songs by Alaín Pérez, Alexander Abreu, César "Pupy" Pedroso and Carlos Pérez and includes both Alaín and Mandy Cantero as guest singers along with Danson's own singer lineup of Ernesto Manuitt and Henri Benitez. But again, more on the CD in the full review.

track list:
Mezclando culturas A. Abreu arr. A. Abreu ,A. Pérez
Que buena suerte G. Pérez arr. A. Pérez
Sibaguaní C. Pérez arr. C. Pérez
Polvo del ayer G. Pérez arr. A. Pérez
Sabor de mi rumba G. Pérez arr. A. Pérez
José Andrés C. Pedroso arr. C. Pérez
Siempre cha cha chá G. Pérez arr. A. Pérez
Va y ven de hamaca C. Pérez arr. C. Pérez
Conga cubana G. Pérez arr. A. Pérez

In the meantime here is a brief interview with Carlos done shortly before the concert. It is in Spanish with English subtitles.

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viernes, 24 octubre 2014, 11:47 am

Laritza Bacallao on Carnival Cruise Scandinavia

Bar Brasil's annual Carnival Cruise Stockholm is fast approaching. Every year the Baltic Sea goes Caribbean for 23 hours with dancers, bands, percussionists, and DJs. This year over 100 artists will take part, including Laritza Bacallao - one of the most popular young artists in Cuba.

Laritza comes from a family of singers. Her grandfather Rafael "Felo" Bacallao and her father Ernesto Bacallao were both singers of the legendary Orquesta Aragón. It seems natural that Laritza would also study music - choral direction and piano - and become a singer. She has a versatile voice and can sing a bolero as well as cha-cha-chá a son or a reggaeton. But the style for which Laritza has become known is the pan-Caribbean dance music that swept her to the top of the charts in Cuba where she has remained for the past couple of years. The arrangements mix everything from samba to salsa to merengue to rumba and conga...you get the idea. She has collaborated with many Cuban artists, such as Pablo FG, Candido Fabré, JG, and Los 4 to name a few. Her infectious party music caught the attention of Puerto Rican salsa star Victor Manuelle, who will soon release a salsa version of her hit "Que suenen los tambores" by composer Osmany Espinosa.

Although she has toured Europe before, this will be Laritza's first Scandinavian performance. She will be backed by an eight-piece band. If you will be in the area, book your cabin now and get ready to rock the boat with the Scandinavian carnival elite. A YouTube search will give you a number of videos with Laritza, but in honor of the Carnival Cruise, I leave you with her hit "Carnaval".