Klímax 12th Anniversary Concert
Salon Rosado de La Tropical, La Habana 2007-04-14
by Michelle White ©2007

My first concert at La Tropical was the 12th anniversary concert of Klímax. I had never been to a concert there before mainly because my friends think it's too dangerous for a naïve Yuma, and they still wouldn't let me go into the audience to film the concert, so I had to film from the stage. But this night at least, everything was calm, although the place was crowded both on the central dance floor and the upper tiers. The people came to enjoy themselves this night, not to fight.

Maikel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor were the opening band. Next week I will upload a full concert report about Salsa Mayor, but for now I will say that this young band has quickly established a following in Cuba the rest of the timba world. They performed four songs, including a new hit called Anda Pégate. Their music is classic timba with no concessions and got the audience warmed up for the Klímax concert that followed.

Klímax opened the concert with a potpurri of hits written by Giraldo Piloto throught his career. Some of you may not realize that before forming Klímax, Piloto wrote some of the biggest hits for other artists such as La Charanga Habanera, Issac Delgado and NG La Banda. The potpurri consisted of No Me Mires a Los Ojos, Equilibrio con Dos Mujeres, El 443025, Me Sube La Fiebre and Catarro Chino.

Klímax y la gente de La Tropical

The first guest artist was Haydée Milanés. In case you don't know, she is the daughter of Pablo Milanés and in 2005 she released her first album as a solo artist. Her own CD is a soft pop/jazz style but at this concert she sang Tú No Eres, which features a very "Klímax" arrangement, i.e. timba con jazz.

Haydée Milanés canta con Klímax

Immediately following Haydée, Piloto introduced Cubanito 20.02. They sang La Mujer Piropo, which they sang on the Klímax 10th Anniversary DVD. There was a hardcore fanatica in the front row who couldn't get enough of Cubanito.

Cubanito 20.02 singing La Mujer Piropo

Next up was the third and final guest appearance of the evening: Pupy Pedroso and Mandy Cantero. Also as on the 10th Anniversary DVD, they joined in on Se Confunde Ser Esa Mujer, but unlike the CD, the musicians and singers of Klímax began the song and later Pupy took over the piano and Mandy came in with the coro "Esta fiesta es desde ahora hasta mañana". Click here to see a clip from Se Confunde Ser Esa Mujer. It even includes Pupy singing!

César "Pupy" Pedroso plays a solo

It was now time for Klímax to show what is coming with the estreno Cuatro Balas. I don't know when they will be releasing the next album, but I'm sure this song will be a hit. It features a rapped coro that will appeal to the reggaeton/rap generation but still has the unmistakable Klímax sello. Click here to listen for yourself. As your can see, Klímax continues to produce only the best quality music under the guidance of Giraldo Piloto.

The new song Cuatro Balas will be another hit

They followed with a timbaton potpurri with timba version of songs such as Lo Que Pasó, Pasó. I'm not much of a reggaeton fan myself but the arrangements were timba with just a touch of reggaeton, my kind of music.

The last song of the concert was what I call "Ali Baba". During this song they had a dance contest, first the women and then the men. This is the first time I've seen the men come up on stage to shake their "thang" in Cuba. In this case the contest was more serious because the winners got copies of the 10th Anniversay DVD!

The band sounded great and the concert was a great introduction to La Tropical for me. It was also a perfect vehicle for Piloto to demonstrate his talent as a composer and bandleader with both the classic timba hits, the new timba hits and his ability to successfully incorporate reggaton into serious timba. Klímax continues to maintain their position at the forefront of timba development.

To conclude I highly recommend the 10th Anniversary DVD. It features some of the same guest artists as I saw as well as others such as Chucho Valdés, Vania, Telmary and Leoni.