Oh, and one of the stories I wrote as a result of my interview with Los Van Van's Juan Formell is online here (written by Gabrien Wilder, apparently...), I'd like to thank Martin Karakas and Isabel Marlen for their help with that, and while I'm at it, here is the interview I did with Tirso that I wrote up for The Sydney Morning Herald in April.

So here I am, in Rome. I've come here for the timba, of course - festivals in Rome and Turin, with Trabuco, Pupy and Paulito FG. Weeee! The flight(s) almost killed me. Jeez Australia is a long way from everywhere. Well, it's a long way from anywhere that has timba cubana (it's close to New Zealand and Asia ...).
Anyway, the timba doesn't get going till Wednesday with Trabuco, the next day I plan to go somewhere on the coast with PFG, then to Milan. Wow. Even I can't believe I'm here doing this.
I arrived last night and today was spent walking around the beautiful streets, getting blisters on my feet and looking in awe at all the awesome oldness. I joined the throngs briefly at the Vatican, when I went to the tombs of the Popes - creepy, man. An underground passage with recorded Gregorian chants and statues of dead dudes.
I spoke to Paulito's Italian manager - an absolute gem of a chica called Sara - who is in Turin, and last night saw Issac play: not very many people she said, but he played well. She's a big fan: Issac and Paulito (of course) are her favourites Cuban cantantes. I had an email from Pupy's Pepito - I thought that since Pupy isn't going to Sweden now, they might do an extra show (or two) in Rome, but he says he won't know for three days whether they're doing extra gigs or not. By then I'll be all tied up ...
Tomorrow, it's on with the non-timba lreated activities, and the Sistine Chapel. What an amazing place this is. Australia's oldest buildings are 200 years old, so to be here in this ancient city is mind-blowing. And how much is preserved! How did they manage that? How did it not get torn down and turned into glass-pannelled office blocks? I mean thank god, but ... que raro!

When I was in Havana in 2004, I started collecting the flyers that are placed on the tables at the Casas de la Musica, Cafe Cantante etc, advertising the upcoming gigs. I don't know. They're extremely lo-fi - in this day where everyone has a PC and scanner and photoquality paper to print on - where anyone can be a pretty swish publisher/designer, there was something naive and refreshing about these photocopies.



Of course, rather than advertising the gigs, what almost everyone uses them for, is to write down the contact details of the people they meet at the gigs. At one gig, I'd forgotten to bring paper with me, and I swooped on a flyer on a table, that no one seemed to want. As I grabbed it, the couple at the table both reached out their hands, and at the same moment I realised it was already covered in the details of someone unknown to me. Anyway, here is a small selection of flyers I picked up this year. One day I'll dig out the ones from '04.

Just for a taste of Havana.

Havana 2006 round-up

Hits and misses

or

Where the hell was Reve?

I have written thousands of words about the standouts of my holiday - Trabuco, Paulito and Pupy. They were hands-down the top three for me. I'd see any of them again in a heartbeat - and pray I never have to choose between them ... But I thought I'd do a round-up on the trip as a whole - the other bands I saw - and the bands I didn't.

On the timba-geek vacation index, I reckon my holiday rated a 9/10 - though there are no doubt others who would have made more of it - who, for instance, would not have wimped out of the La Tropical extravaganza. Who perhaps would have gone for a bigger variety bands, rather than seeing the same guranteed good-time groups week in, week out.
What can I say? I'm a traditionalist. If it's a choice between Trabuco, who I know kick arse cause I saw 'em do just that last week (and who were in better form than I have ever seen them); and Haila, who I last saw in 2001 with Azucar Negra, and whose most recent recorded efforts lean towards pop and reggaeton rather than timba, well that's a no-brainer for me.
Haila did in fact play about three consecutive Thursday matinees at Galiano - but always while Trabuco was at Cantante. She rarely played anywhere else, then suddenly she wasn't playing anywhere at all (though apparently she is doing the first of the summer concerts coming up at the Tribuno). Azucar Negra did Thursdays for a while too. For obvious reasons, I didn't make it.

Adalberto did his regular Wednesday at Miramar pretty much every week, but I'm not much of a one for nights and I've never seen him play a matinee. One weekend, when Los Van Van played Miramar, he played Galiano, which was unusual. But I think I was at, I dunno, Paulo, or something. So I didn't catch him at all this time.

Sur Caribe were either always doing nights or were up against, uh, Trabuco probably (take a guess). I recall their set as being pretty samey from my last trip in 2004, so I wasn't too fussed.
It was good I got to see Klimax at Delirio Habanero, which showed me that Galiano plays a big part in their not engaging me at those gigs. They were a lot better in the smaller space, and I had a great time, even though they didn't finish playing until it was time for breakfast.

Although NG La Banda played pretty much every Sunday matinee at Galiano, the closest I got was hearing the strains of "My Heart Will Go On" (not really an incentive to go inside) outside El Diablo Tun Tun while Lionel, Sandra and I waited for Bill and El Tosco to, uh, conclude a conversation, one night after we'd seen Trabuco downstairs at Casa de la Musica.

It was such a pleasure to find Maravilla (or "Maravillas" - as I am certain they were billed as at Teatro America) de Florida in town, and great to get a double dose of them, when I went to see Trabuco one night, and they unexpectedly played a set. Great to see real charanga kicking ass. It was nice to get a chance to see Maraca too, though the atmos was a little chilly. I would have liked to catch Orquesta Aragon, who played twice that I knew of; but I didn't make it to either. Sometimes I would just - and this is a terrible thing to admit - forget that someone was playing. This is why you need timba chums with you - to say, 'hey, wait a minute, shouldn't we be at [insert venue or band's name here] - right now?'

Would have liked also to have seen Alain Daniel - again, he played a Thursday afternoon - so that was him out; and at the only other gig he was billed for while I was there (La Tropical) he was replaced, for some reason, with Nelson Manuel (who I also didn't see).

Bamboleo didn't inspire me to return - not that I'd have been missed. I've rarely seen the (mostly Cuban) crowd at a Galiano matinee respond as they did to them - there was actual applause - I swear!

It was only by chance that I got to see Charanga Forever (above) - I found out they were on just a couple of hours before they hit the stage - and I wish I could have seen them more. They were really a highlight. (All right, I admit it, I gave up one gig of theirs for Trabuco.) Didn't really mind missing out on the other Charanga though, who were there the week I arrived, then absent until the weekend after I left (a fair bit of that was spent playing the country, according to Canal Cubano).

But where the hell was Elito Reve? In 2004 his gigs were a highlight: infectious balls of energy compelling you to move. Seven weeks I was there this time - SEVEN. Did he show up once? Rude bugger. Honestly - didn't he know I was there? Oderquis was around for a while, but he doesn't really trip my trigger.

Also sorely missed were Tirso and Michel - and all right, the latter managed a cameo at just about every gig I went to (he obviously did know I was in town); but I would have loved to have seen him in full flight with his own group - especially so soon after Que Hablen los Habladores, which is one of my favourite albums of the last twelve months. Tirso's Timba Cubana is another of the three (Trabuco's Hablando en Serio completes that trifecta), and dammit, he spent the whole time recording with Juan de Marcos. I whinged to him about this state affairs to no avail.

And Issac. ISSAC! Donde estabas, niño? I have yet to see him play and it's a serious blot on my timba geek report card.

So I had some nice surprises - Paulito kicking arse? GTF out! - few regrets and fewer disappointments. Most of the time in fact, I was having such a great time I wasn't even thinking about who I was missing. How good's that?

[Links to the full reports on all these gigs (the ones I went to) - and pics - can be found in the archives in the sidebar on the right.]

© Gabriel Wilder 2006

New slideshow at flickr: people and places - amiguitos, musicos and those amaaazing sunsets ...

One of my favourite Havana pics