The second Cuban night at our new venue is coming up - this coming Friday - el viernes que viene. Hotel Chambers sadly has no water views, but it does have a lot more room to dance than the Watershed, and lots of nooks and crannies with soft lounges to collapse in if the unexpected happens, and you feel like you need to sit down. Last month saw a great turn out and I hope to see you all down there again. Timba is going gangbusters right now, and I have yet more great new music to play (see previous post).
As my fellow farandulero Lionel has reported at Timba Stars, the Havana D'Primera album has been completed. Lionel says it will be called Haciendo historia (Making history) and be on sale in March. I hope there are no delays, as that seems a long time to wait.As he reports, the tracklisting is as follows:
1. Resumen de los 90 2. Ahora que buscas 3. Historia verdadera 4. Mi música 5. Despues de un beso 6. Cuando el rio suena 7. OnyOny 8. Confiesale 9. Niña bonita 10. Las cosas de un amigo 11. Vivencias
Some of these songs have been around for some time, and all but three of them were being played by the band when I saw them in Havana in the middle of last year. Mi música is probably the best known. It was first recorded when Alexander was with Grupo Danson, and without taking anything away from that version - because it is wonderful - the new one raises the bar even higher. Live, it has been given a new lease of life, with glorious new coros and bloques - a great song has been turned into a tour de force. And even though the new studio version doesn't incorporate all of these changes, it is nevertheless a brilliant update of what was already an exceptional song. Historia verdadera was also on the Grupo Danson album and has been re-recorded: the tropical feel - or "fusión" as they call it in Cuba, is more marked on this version, but it still has the same joyous feel of the original. If you figure out how to dance to it, let me know.
Confiesale, Cuando el río suena and Resumen de los 90 have all been around in demo form and on the band's Myspace page and official web site for some time, although the first two have been re-recorded for the album. I'm surprised about Río, as the video for the old version came out just over a month ago. The new version is much smoother and a little more laidback. It's still a great track, but I think I prefer the demo, with its funkier feel and rocking bombas. Confiesale sounds wonderful. This is a haunting track with a lovely melody and coros, and is a real grower. I was very underwhelmed when I first heard it as a demo more than a year ago. In fact it took a live performance to get me to love it. Don't repeat my error!
Las cosas de un amigo is an interesting track - very fast with an early rhythm change. It's a lot of fun to dance casino to, although it has a very different feel to a lot of timba - but then so does a lot of Alexander's stuff. This one really kicks arse - more so live, but it's still fun on the record. I was pleased to see it made the cut, I had thought it might be too raucous for the CD.
Ahora que buscas, along with Resumen de los 90 and the pop ballad, Vivencias, is one that wasn't yet in the live set last year. It's reminiscent of Grupo Danson tracks like Solo para ti or Nena - a smooth, melodic salsa start, with almost whispered coros, that slowly builds in strength. At the 3:00 minute mark, the coristas start singing with more urgency, the mambos blare and you have a real dance track on your hands. Good stuff. Looking forward to hearing this one live. Bet there are some nice add-ons that didn't make it to the recording.
Jannier and the coristas read the lyrics of Después de un beso off the back of a Salsa Mayor flyer at the song's live debut at Casa de la Musica, Galiano, in May of last year.
The rest of the album falls into either the tropical/fusión or son categories. But as I pointed out earlier - all these tracks bar three (two of which are salsa/timba) were in the set being played at every gig in Havana last year, so the mixed bag is not a grab for a foreign audience. Or if it is, well, it's one that a lot of Cubans surely dig. Normally a tropical/fusión song like Niña bonita or Ony Ony would have me running screaming for the exit, or at least the bar, but Alexander – he has a way with him, and even though, yes, it's true, I did usually go to the bar during Ony Ony, that's mainly because I had to get some water sometime, and I couldn't tear myself away during any of the other songs.Después de un beso is an almost traditonal son that came into being halfway through my trip: it debuted at a Thursday matinee at Casa de la Musica, Galiano, being little more than a cuerpo and a few coros. It's fleshed out here and very bonito it is too.
The pop ballad, Vivencias, is almost unexpected - I say almost, because when Alexander is involved, expect anything. And expect him to pull it off. This starts off just Alexander singing a capella, then joined by minimal percussion and some exceptional keyboard playing.
This is a great album. It captures the joy that Alexander prides himself on bringing to his audience. You could do worse than quote one of his own songs:
"Te traigo el ritmo, te traigo la melodía Te traigo la rumba caramba con el paso de las congas y un librito de poesía"
(From Resumen de los 90)
Update: I have heard from Alexander who told me that what I have is a rough mix of the album, as they only finished mixing yesterday, so the finished product should sound even better. The artwork is currently being designed and as soon as I have more details I will post them here.
More classic Ritmo Oriental goodness, thanks to Pisicore. Tony Calá is a living legend: today he is singing awesome songs like NG La Banda's brand new grindfest Lucha luchador, here in 1985 it was La Ritmo's brilliant Azúcar a granel.
Egrem have announced that Alaín Daniel's new album, called Vestigios, has finally been released. This is the album he was recording when I was in Havana last year. (If you go back to read that report, note that the song Un amigo en Madrid is not a cha-cha-cha - he was working on two that day and I got confused...) I don't know what "released" means exactly in Egrem-speak, as it wasn't listed on yesterday's Descarga mailout and it doesn't seem to be at Prodland either. I guess it means: be on the lookout - it will probably turn up somewhere, sooner rather than later.
This is the tracklisting:
1. Esto si sabe a Cuba 2. Un amigo en Madrid 3. La Miki 4. Marginal 5. Qué le pasa a esa mujer 6. Se pegan 7. Un loco enamora'o 8. Solo dime 9. Bendita locura 10. Le encanta la calle 12. Aparentemente ideal
All of the songs were written by Alaín, except for Qué le pasa a esa mujer, which was written by Juan Almeida. A couple of the songs - Se pegan and Le encanta la calle - have been around as demos for sometime now and have become dance-floor favourites here in Sydney. The Egrem blurb says Bendita locura, which he originally recorded on a four-track EP, has been re-recorded as a duet with Vania. That EP only just turned up at Descarga recently, despite being released in 2007. Hope it doesn't take them as long to get their hands on this. With the recent albums by Azucar Negra and Van Van; imminent, smoking hot releases by Bakuleye and Havana d'Primera and now this, it's looking like a good, if financially challenging, time to be a timba geek.
Well, the new venue didn't quite suit our hungry crowd - there were too many dancers and not enough dance floor, so we are moving next door to the Hotel Chambers which, apparently, is a bigger room. Plus I notice from the web site that it has that nice soft furniture that won't damage shins when an oblivious partner excitedly turns you a tad too rapidly. I have some kicking new tracks, including the Bakuleye, which I played last time, Arrasando(which David played last time – but I have my eye on a different track or two than the ones he chose) and a couple of other goodies, that I will keep for a surprise. I have been abso-fucking-lutely flat-out with one thing and another, so I am looking forward to chilling out a little, then capping off the week with a bit of casino. I know I am overdue for some meaty blogposts - I will get to perusing Mucho Swing and putting some other thoughts down sometime soon.
The second Cuban night at our new venue is coming up - this coming Friday - el viernes que viene. Hotel Chambers sadly has no water views, but it does have a lot more room to dance than the Watershed, and lots of nooks and crannies with soft lounges to collapse in if the unexpected happens, and you feel like you need to sit down.
