Lo que quiero es Fiesta!

As I went to Fiesta on Sunday night straight from work, I was a little underprepared, so the pic above was taken with my not-very-sophisticated Nokia 6300 (it's not even 3g - I am so old-school). But it gives you an idea of the crowd. Venezuelan group Bailatino's gig had been washed out by torrential rain the night before, but lucky for us Mi Tierra fans, it spat lightly throughout the night and nothing more - not enough to clear the dancefloor. The numbers were down of course, but there was still an impressive number of peeps jumping up and down to the recorded reggaeton and the band's infectious timba.

Afterwards, the band moved upstairs to Port Orient and the crowd went with them. I hung around for one set, which sadly included a bachata and a merengue. They were going to do two more sets, but I had to work the next day - it was a holiday for everyone else - so I headed off into the taxiless night. The streets were full of other people with the same goal (most heading out, not home) and I wound up having to walk halfway home (in heels) before I finally spied a cab with its light on and threw myself at it.

I had thought that the wee flurry of Cuban flavoured events had dried up but I had totally forgotten about the Marconi Club's regular Cuban fest which happens every October (luckily the Viva newsletter reminded me - if you're not on the mailing list, you should get on it immediately. Alexis does a great job). As usual, the publicity for it is dire: the web site has no details at all about who is playing when. The banner that I lifted tells you who is on the bill, but not which nights. If you're fussy (like me), a phone call might be in order. I don't know who the Sydney Salsa All Stars are; likewise "Cuban band JJ Son", but I do know that Son Veneno always play a great timba set out there, so they're definitely worth catching. And the whole thing is free anyway. You could do worse.

And if anyone is going out there from the city, can they give me a lift? Ta.

Salsa in Sydney

Quite a bit coming up around town, which is nice: it's great to be inspired to get out and go dancing.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Noche de Fuego, with Mi Tierra, a few DJs, including Sydney's best, Mani, and a slew of dance shows. The Manning Bar is a great venue, with two rooms and a big balcony, and if the mild weather holds out, that will be the place to be. There are details about the event here.

Next week is the biggest event on the Sydney Latin calendar, Fiesta, at Darling Harbour: three days; 30 bands; 45 dance groups. There are dance classes as well. Mi Tierra are playing on Sunday, and they always totally rock the harbour - it's one of the best places to see them.

The other highlight of the bill is the Ruben Blades tribute band on Sunday at 1pm. It's led by Martin Taylor who really knows his stuff when it comes to big bands; and features the music of the legendary Ruben Blades. I think that all speaks for itself. I'm working, but I'll try and sneak out and catch them.

See the full program here.

There are also bands playing every night at Port Orient after the bands finish at the Aquashell (from about 11pm). These include Mi Tierra, Club Havana Band and Salsa Rica Orchestra. More details on Facebook.

Friday, the headlining bands at Fiesta are Watussi and a band from Colombia Aterciopelados - both are Latin rock, so dancers will want to be at Hotel Chambers for One Night in Cuba, with myself, Mani, Nandez and AV el Cubano.

Cubamemucho Melbourne Pt 2

The statues cast an eye over the dancers.

Well, Saturday night was pretty excruciating. So much for there being more opportunities to dance. Part of the entertainment for the evening was to be a performance by the teachers, and before we left the hotel, I made a throwaway comment about how “knowing those show ponies, they’ll never get off stage”.
Alas - there never was a truer word spoken in jest. The night started with some pretty ordinary music from the DJ, then Adrian, a local Cuban ex-pat, who is an excellent dancer but has musical aspirations (regrettably, he is not alone), got up on stage to shout some impromptu reggaeton. This went longer than I would have liked, as opportunities for dancing were already looking like they might be rare, seeing as we still had the performers' routines to see. The impro reggaeton had put them behind, and they came out more than one hour later than scheduled. They all got a chance to show off their chops - some more than others. There was a pretty good variety - Afro-Cuban, guaguanco, son - and there were quite a lot of modern dance elements in some of the routines.
Alexis Borrero, whose (men-only) rumba workshops were apparently outstanding, jumped off the stage and took off his jacket. Then ... took off his pants, and danced in a g-string. Interesting decision. It was a very athletic performance - the guy is all muscle. A tiny weeny ball of muscle.
None of the performers were introduced so I wasn’t certain who everyone was. But you couldn’t miss Seo and Alessia. Or escape them for that matter. Dudes would not get off stage. Then when they did... they came back again. And again. The pair had some real showstopping moves - which you can no doubt see on youtube - but Seo returned on his own, to do a Michael Jackson impression to Billie Jean which was, admittedly, very good. He came back yet again, to sing a bachata to a backing track. That was ... not so good.
Oh, that the evening had sped along as quickly as my report: it was beset by delays and silences in between acts and belaboured announcing from the MCs. Not to mention an endless unrehearsed free-for-all by the teachers at the end. How I longed for them all to get the fuck off the stage so we could dance ourselves. Just when it seemed the end was near, someone else would come out (usually Seo) and do another routine.
There was probably some more reggaeton after that - I don’t know, I was practically in a coma by this stage, and then finally the band, Mi Tierra, came on. But alas, they had been unable to have a soundcheck, and worse, the promised gear had not been organised for them and they had had to scurry around town at the last minute to get some drums. They were playing as a 13 piece, and with no soundcheck, in that big-ass old theatre, they sounded like shit. By the time they got to the end of their sadly only hour-long set, the sound was about right. But by then it was 1am, the curfew had kicked in, and we were being kicked out.
I was really pretty ready to go home by that point anyway. Time to cut my losses. The Cubamemucho crew headed off to party at a bar called Boricua. If the music lived up to its name, it wasn't going to be my cup of tea. I called it a night.

I had one class owing, and I was interested in doing a rumba class with Madeleine, as she had received good raps from people who had done the classes on Saturday, but it was being held at 11am. I woke at 10 and just didn’t feel like rushing. So after a nuclear strength cafecito, I went to the dance school in time for Rafael’s cha-cha-cha class. This was a lot of fun. There were no arse jokes, just lots of moves taught at a rapid clip. The only drawback for me was that he assumed everyone there could dance rueda: once he’d taught us the moves, we danced them in a rueda. It’s a been a hundred years since I led a dame. But overall it was a lot of fun.

Wasn’t sure what to expect for the final night after the disappointment of Saturday. It did not start well: for the first 40 minutes or so after I arrived, the music was a mixed disc with no Cuban music on it; worse, it contained the dreaded Micaela. Ay, ay, ay! Most of us were in a pretty foul mood about that. If we want to listen to shit Colombian salsa we can stay in Sydney and go to any one of a bunch of free nights instead of forking out a load of money for airfare/hotel/cover charge. Things didn’t improve after that either - Adrian led the Cubamemucho gang in - not dance - of course not. Why would you think that? No, they all got up and played and sang. Why stick to your skill set? After I finish writing this, I’m off to invent a cure for cancer. With all this experience in journalism, I’m sure I’ll nail it. That went for waaaaay too long. The finals for the rueda comp were supposed to have been held at 8.30pm. Sometime after 9.30 (I stopped looking at my watch) they began. You can see the winning team below, and the others at youtube.



While they tallied the scores, a local band, Carlito’s Way, started playing, and they obviously had soundchecked; the sound was crisp and clear. They started with Ritmo Oriental's Yo bailo de todo and followed it up with Paulito's Tú no me calculas. The band had baritone sax and trumpet and two lovely voiced male singers. Both those songs sounded great and I had a couple of great dances (thanks Mauricio and Manuel!). The other songs weren’t as fab, but then, they had set the bar high.
After the winner of the comp was announced, there was a gargantuan rueda, with circles inside circles. It looked like a bit of a madhouse. One of the teachers, Jorge, gave the microphone to the leaders of the competing teams to call, which was a cool idea. When the song had finished, son expert Mario wanted to keep it going, but one of the MCs shooed him away - damn straight. Some of us non-ruederos wanted a turn, and the band still had a second set to play.
It was just as good as the first and finished with Manolito's El aguila and Marcando la distancia - I almost felt like I was at Miramar for a second, dancing down the front. My friend said: this just makes me want to be in Havana. It was a lot of fun, and it was pretty disappointing when the band finished and they booted us out.
People wanted to kick on and I was dubious but I thought, why not? We go home tomorrow. So we headed over to Fitzroy to Night Cat, which has a salsa night on Sundays. It closes at 2 and we all got there about 1.30. Reggaeton was playing, then some dull Issac songs. I sat around until I got hassled by a young Colombian guy. He had the unblinking stare and the disregard for personal space typical of someone on their 14th beer. I tried to be polite. That was my mistake. Verbal brutality had to follow. When that didn’t work, I ran. What else could I do? The reggaeton continued and the stars of the weekend were holding the floor. Fortunately it wasn’t a dead loss for me as the DJ closed the evening Havana D'Primera's Resumen de los 90, and I just happened to be standing next to an excellent leader when it came on. ¡Aaaaagua!
I was thankful that a weekend of ups and downs finished on a high note.

Cubamemucho Melbourne Pt 1

The Forum Theatre

The first night was held in a fabulous decaying theatre in the city: chipped statues and ornate cornices; the ceiling painted midnight blue with sparkles for stars. It was not entirely unlike 1830 at night, with its little grotto and shining beacon.
There weren't actually very many people there (the Chilean Independance day celebrations are on this weekend - there are two different festivals for that apparently; no doubt free - might have paid to think about that in advance I'd have thought), but there were enough. It didn't look empty and the dancefloor was mostly full, but not so full that you'd get an elbow in the head.
Nice big wooden dancefloor, which sadly didn't get used enough - by the crowd, anyway. There were heats of the rueda competition and on top of that there was a welcome show by a group playing rumba but incorporating the didgeridoo, and there was lots of slow talking into the microphone. The speediest speaker, alas, wasn't allowed to run the show.
There were seven rueda groups ranging from students to fanaticos. The standard was mostly pretty good. One did a hideous overly theatrical production with zombies and girls in short nurses outfits (puh-lease) in the LA congress style and another actually danced to a New York salsa track. WTF? I vagued out for that one. The others chose more wisely: Pupy, Tirso etc.
Four finalists were chosen to perform on the closing night.
While the judges were deciding, Kenny Lopez, a Melbourne muso who has played Cuban music for many years, took to the stage with his son outfit which included violin and one trumpet. They are very polished, and Kenny knows his stuff, but, you know, son. And although it was sweet, I would have rather had a little less live Kenny and some pre-recorded Havana D'Primera.
The DJs (no sign of Melao so far) were pretty conservative: old Manolito, old Bamboleo (Yo no me parezco a nadie), recent Issac, Fresquecito (about the liveliest song all night I think). There wasn't a lot of hard timba. Not sure why.

The Forum by day

Tonight should provide more opportunities for dancing: Mi Tierra, a local timba band are playing. They should rock the house.
Today I went down to the Victorian College of the Arts where the workshops are being held. I had thought I might do a son class, but we got there late and it was packed to the gills. So me and my friend went and got a coffee. I came back later and did advanced casino with Jorge. They were mostly moves that we have learnt here in rueda under names like El nudo and El mago, but that was OK, as I've never learnt to lead them. It was just too bad he spent a large part of the class talking about his partner's arse (with her translating these pearls of wisdom into English, in case we didn't get it), instead of talking about dancing. Would have been nice if, when we came to dance to the music, he had played salsa instead of reggaeton too. Some might argue it was salsaton. I'd say it was a pretty salsa-less ton.
I would have done the orishas class but the schedule got completely rearranged this morning, and when it got moved from 5 to 3, it kind of clashed with ... lunch.
So I have one other class to choose from tomorrow, cause I paid for two. I'll probably decide on the spur of the moment. Again.
To be honest I don't really care if I do another one, though I suppose I may as well. Mainly I'm just looking forward to some dancing tonight.

Timba en defensa del CDR

Here's something interesting that popped up after this week's episode of Piso 6 - luckily, Richard at Mucho Swing left the VCR running. It's a music video praising the virtues of CDR - the Comités en Defensa de la Revolución, featuring various luminaries from the Cuban music scene.

I didn't recognise everyone, but it looks like Arnaldo from the Talisman in the control booth directing everything - he also did the Egrem 45th anniversary song, so I guess he is flavour of the month with whoever is commissioning these government works. On the other side of the booth is Haila, Amaray and El Noro. Others I recognise, but not by name (the red-headed chick is from one of the pop bands I think), and others I don't know at all.

If you can name some of them, please do so in the comments.

Update: Mirco at Timba por siempre has pointed out that this is to commemorate the 49th anniversary of CDR.

HdP in Milan

Havana D'Primera's three-month long European tour is winding up - they return to Havana on Saturday, with their first gig home at Miramar on August 25 - their regular Tuesday matinee. I can't be there, so I'll be watching the above video a lot. It's from their gig at Milan's Latinamericando festival earlier this week. This festival does very high quality audio-visual recordings - multiple cameras and excellent sound. It's a bit of a pain when you are there and there are cameramen everywhere obstructing your view, but it's a godsend for anyone who couldn't make it.

This is Resumen de los 90, with some nice views of Anniel and Miguelito going at it on percussion, which you often don't get to see.

And for all you lucky sods in Europe, the band will apparently be back in November. You lucky, lucky bastards!

La Tremenda - la bomba de Sweden

Those of you who have read the blog for the last few months might have come to the conclusion that I was wee bit smitten - some might even say obsessed - with Havana D'Primera. This has taken the form of - but is not limited to - listening to them everyday since I got the album back in February, and seeing every gig I could in Havana, even if it meant not seeing some other fine bands (sorry, Klimax).

There I was, happy in my obsession, with the occasional interruption from Pupy or Alaín Daniel or Yulien Oviedo, and then something happened: I came into possession of the album by Swedish group La Tremenda. Truth be told, I had just started listening to the album by their compatriots, Calle Real's Me lo gané, but then I put on La Tremenda, and I dropped everything.

From the moment the plucked strings began on the opener, No. 1, I was hooked. I don't know what I was doing - something around the house - but the first three songs all had these captivating little bits that made me stop what I was doing and look up and smile - or get up and dance. It's powerful stuff.

Since then, I've become enamoured by pretty much all the songs on the album.

After No. 1 - which also has trombones mirroring the bass for a meaty mix - is No escuché a tiempo. It has a classic wussy timba start, but shows its promise at the 50 second mark with a strong, ascending coro and delicious delayed accents from the brass. The marcha returns - bear with it - and at 1.54 come fantastic layers of horns and another great coro: "Lo que pasó es que no me daba cuenta, dios avisó pero no escuché a tiempo." At this point vocalist Lesmer really gets to show his versatility, dislpaying a good facility for phrasing as well as melody.
(I discovered after I had returned from Havana, that he is now singing with NG la Banda. Good score for El Tosco. Too bad I didn't get around to seeing them. Guess those guys get up too late to make it to a matinee. Diablo Tun Tun does go pretty late ... it's why I don't go there!)

At the 4:00 mark this song has built up a really good head of steam and it all explodes with the coro "no hay lio, ni problema". This song goes through a variety of changes - the arrangement is astounding, as are all of the arrangements on the album: they are deft, clever, and executed impeccably.

Track 3, Timba vieja, is in a similar vein, though it's shorter (about 3:30) and gets to the point faster. There is something to be said for delayed gratification (and timberos know this well), but this song is easily as good as its predecessor. It totally fires. Great dance floor track. (Or dancing in the kitchen track.) The plucked strings make a return - they are programmed, but sound fantastic. I'm sure someone like Ritmo Oriental or Maravilla de Florida have used this technique (albeit with real strings) in the past - but it's perfect for timba. It adds a wonderful new layer and I wonder why I haven't heard them used like this more often. This is also the first song featuring guest star Alexander Abreu - he's blasting away on trumpet here. Later on he plays flugelhorn, and takes over lead vocals.

I played these three songs over and over for a few weeks before the others broke through - my current favourite is Lunes la semana completa (apparently it's named after the Swedish title of Groundhog Day): if the others are good; this one is to die for. It has real violins and flute, and is completely transcendent - it swoops down then soars up high; before fragmenting into percussion breaks. Check it out from :53 - it's this beautiful swirly trippy mix where everything just melds perfectly; at 1:46 the strings come out and they take it one notch higher before everything falls away except the piano and percussion, and then everyone else comes back in and they start to build it up again. This is absolute bottled joy.

The timba group La Tremenda most resemble are pre-noughties Klimax - though I'd say it's more in theory than execution. But Mulata is the one where the Klimax influence is most pronounced, the chanting coros in particular reminding me of some of Piloto's work. Alexander is back for this one, and there is an old-school, Moog-style solo, which is unexpected. It has a nice slow coda as well. Shit for the dance floor, but nice at home.

Tu forma, prologue, and the song itself, start off with washy analogue sounding synths and a drum machine - like early Pet Shop Boys meet Mtume. Then it goes into timba. (The '80s vibe isn't limited to Tu forma - there is a pop song that sounds like George Michael with a Latin twist. It's not bad actually - I don't turn it off; but it's not what makes me love the album.) When the coro arrives that tells the girl she has a "mala forma" you know a Cuban had a hand in the lyrics, and there is timbalero Calixto Oviedo's name in the credits. I suppose one could argue that if they're not slagging off the chicks, it's not timba. I do what I always do in this case: ignore the lyrics and embrace the lovely rhythms and gears and mambos - Alex is back, very briefly, before his starring role on the closer, Copos de nieve, risa de sol.

It's an odd little track - a bolero that goes into a kind of a cha-cha-cha fusion, I guess. It's lovely. It has beautiful orchestration and Alex, as ever, has that charming pull in his voice. He sings with a sincerity that few others can manage.

La Tremenda have a great formula here: good, smart, songs, well played, beautifully arranged and sung by a more than capable singer - something rare enough in itself.

The album clocks in at around just 40 minutes - just like the old days of vinyl, before CDs gave us "bonus" tracks, that filled an hour, but weren't good for much else. Just about every minute offers something to delight and surprise.

Michelle White has put together a nice medley of the album's songs at timba.com, to go with her review.

And here is the Descarga link if you want to buy it.

(You do.)