Haila - Tal como soy
The new album, which I blogged about a while back, is finally out and available at Prodland (those outside the US, try prodland.de or wait a week or so and order it from Descarga).
I actually got it a while back, and didn't blog it, because apart from that one magnificent track - which I thought was called Siga tu camino, but turns out to be No caigo otra vez - the rest didn't really grab me. As she said in the Piso 6 interview, the album is a mix of styles: there are a handful of ballads, a few tropical tracks, a reggaeton-lite kind of thing, a tropical-rock combo, a house track and the aforementioned No caigo otra vez, which is out-and-out slamdunk timba - many thanks to Haila and Calzado for that one.
I'm a pretty tough customer when it comes to ballads - if it wasn't recorded by Marvin Gaye or one of his colleagues between 1970 and 1978, I'm generally not interested (though I do have a soft spot for Bamboleo's Tu y yo somos una a misma cosa). But this is slick and accomplished, as you'd expect. If you're looking for something other than timba, this could hit the spot.

More from the vaults

Along with the neglected classic Maravilla album featuring Manolito (which I talk about in the post below) that has just been unearthed, comes this old clip from a Van Van special out of Cuba (you can find it here). This is a half-hour special with some vintage Van Van clips - both live and promotional - none, lamentably, in their full form. But anything is better than nothing. Check out the old-school casineros in this clip for ¿Y qué tú crees?

Update: I have edited the remaining video snippets from the show into one file and uploaded them to youtube. Check out Chirrín, Chirrán - pretty awesome!

I had planned to do a review of Tirso's latest CD, Fin del juego. I have also, for sometime, had the idea of doing a series on the classic timba albums - the "must-have" albums for any geek (or aspiring geek). But Kevin Moore, in his bid to chronicle the evolution of timba, is unearthing so many forgotten classics that I keep getting sidetracked. 

Ritmo Oriental, for instance, have an astonishing legacy that, tragically, seems to have been overlooked by everyone - even some of the young whippersnappers playing in Cuba today seem unaware of such masterpieces as Cuidao con la percussion. And that's one of the ones that is available on CD. And recently, Kevin has come across an untitled Maravilla de Florida album from 1986. It features some cracking numbers and some brilliant piano playing from Manolito Simonet. 

I'm a huge Manolito fan, and very familiar with most of his work, but I have never heard him play like this. In the matter of stellar piano playing, Manolito often defers to Miguelito "Pan con Salsa", who played with NG la Banda for many years before joining El Trabuco. Many of Cuba's bandleaders are, quite rightly, known for being egoistas, but when Manolito describes Miguelito as "el mejor de cuba" I don't think it's a case of false modesty - I think he is being sincere. Yet this obscure album proves Manolito is no slouch himself. 

A couple of these gems can be found on Volume 5 of the excellent Cuban Gold series, along with the great, original version of Adalberto's La rumba soy yo (he rerecorded it with the mighty Aramis Galindo on vocals for 2006's La rumba soy yo). I have uploaded the very spicy El muerto to the player in the sidebar.

P.S. And the short version of the Tirso review is: it's innovative, high-octane timba. Buy it.