photo by Tracy Cunningham

July 18, 2003 - London Concert Report from Corey Booth

I went to see Los Van Van play here in London last saturday in front of a packed crowd at the Empire. It was my first Van Van concert and, though I've been a fan for a while, I was still blown away!

The sets went the same as the other concerts that you've reviewed, except they played 'Esto te pone la cabeza mala' between 'Qué cosas tiene la vida' and 'Temba, Tumba, Timba'.

The highlights for me were: hearing Mayito and Roberto sing their hits; during 'Temba, Tumba, Timba' Mayito picked some women from the crowd to get up and dance with him (including one incredible cuban woman who even left Mayito at a loss for words!); and seeing Juan Formell play.

Concerning Juan Formell: I have read of his health problems, heard second-hand from someone who saw Van Van in cuba earlier this year and said that Formell didn't play, and sure enough, he played the first 2 somgs of this concert and then handed the bass over to someone else.

Formell stayed on stage, though, either singing chorus or hanging at the side of the stage. But, towards the end of the second set he jumped back on the bass. I was watching the singers and didn't see Formell come back on, but I could hear the difference in the bass straight away. The other guy was good, but Formell's sound was noticably better, much fuller.

Irakere is playing at Ronnie Scott's from July 21 to Aug 2, so I don't have to wait long for my next Cuba fix :)

Keep up the great work with timba.com

cheers, Corey Booth

Manchester Report from Tracy Cunningham

At long last the visit we have been waiting for…………. but definitely worth it. I was lucky enough to see both performances, two very different shows. In Manchester the group were on form but lack of audience participation somewhat dampened their enthusiasm. “Come on Manchester ,Van Van are a dance band” – why sit down?. To me they sounded technical great and played all the tracks from the live set. I was lucky enough (or not) to be invited up on stage with another seven ladies to “dance” or rather “tembleque” with Mayito. What an experience!!!!!

London was totally different, very busy, many Cubans, and every Van Van fan from miles around, a much more enthusiastic crowd however, in a very oppressive venue. The group responded to the audience and in total were on stage for around 2 hours 20 minutes, this time we were treated to some of the new material - can’t wait for the CD guys.

Absolutely brilliant, left us wanting more,more and more – Please, someone bring them back soon.

Tracy Cunningham

Monday, July 7, 2003 Amsterdam and Apeldoorn Concert Reports from Edwin Hautus

Saturday 5 July, Melkweg Amsterdam

Permiso que llego Van Van
Timpop con Birdland
Mi mimi
Soy todo
Ven ven ven
Que cosa tiene la vida
Temba, tumba y timba
Timpop Reprise
Quién no ha dicho una mentira

Saturday's show was not sold out and the crowd was not completely Van Van-worthy in my opinion.

But then again, how often can you dance at a Van Van show in the front rows?

There was an original moment when Mayito noticed
someone in the audience with a Cuban police cap:
He pointed at the guy and improvised a 'llegó la policía' verse.
Juan left some of the bass playing to one of the roadies.

Sunday 6 July, Cuba Festival Apeldoorn

Permiso que llego Van Van
Timpop con Birdland
Mi mimi
Soy todo
Ven ven ven
Que cosa tiene la vida
Esto te pone la cabeza mala
Timpop Reprise
New song by Lele (only performed 4 times before, all in the US)

On Sunday, Van Van gave a concert at Festival de Cuba in Apeldoorn, a free 4 day festival with Cuban music.\

The sound was very good again (at least in front of the stage).
Juan Formell appeared on stage before the show, but didn't play at all today.

Musically, the show was similar to the night before, with two songs changed.
I think the band had more fun than the night before.

Especially Roberto and the violin player Pedro Cesar Fajardo were joking around.
During Ven Ven Ven, Roberto did his 'sacala' routine, where he invites women on the stage to dance and shake like crazy.

One of the highlights was a pregant Cuban lady who did an amazing tembleque.

All in all, a weekend I won't soon forget..

July 5, 2003 - Stockholm Concert Report from Magnus Lindgren

My first Los Van Van concert:

Llegó Van Van
Popurri
Sol Natural
Mi Mimi
Soy Todo
Ven Ven Ven, Come on Come on Come on
Qué Cosas Tiene la Vida
Timba, Temba, Tumba
Sol Natural (reprise)
encore: Quién no ha Dicho Una Mentira

The sounds was pretty bad, as they played in a big hangar, and the sound
was bouncing back from the roof etc. I hope to see them some other time
with a great sound system, but at least now I have one less thing to do
before I die: Hearing Mayito sing Soy Todo... =)

Belgium Concert Report from Bart DeBruycker

Yesterday LVV were playing at the Polé Polé Festival in Antwerp, Belgium with MAYITO.

They played :
Permiso que llego Van Van (Robertó)
Timpop (Sol natural) (Mayito)
Mi mimi (Jenny)
Soy todo (Mayito)
a great new song, sung by Roberton, something with a coro about 'La O'
Que cosas tiene la vida - Fuera de liga (El Lele)
Temba, tumba, timba (Mayito)
Timpop Reprise
encore: from Llegó Van Van: Quién no ha dicho una mentira (Robertón)

In total almost 2 hours of show with very long versions of each song but LVV in great shape. At the end of the concert Tania from Azúcar Negra joined the LVV singers in the coros. Interesting to note also was that Juan Formell left his bass during part of the concert to help sing the coros with Lele, Jenny, Mayito and Robertoó. Cucurucho was very much in control at the piano/keyboard.

Before the LVV concert, Azúcar Negra had warmed up the audience with the first concert of their European tour. The band looked and sounded great, Limonta in charge and Tania the leading lady who has improved a lot in stage performance since the last European tour which still had Haila on board. Tomorrow : Charanga Habanera at the same festival

For more pictures from both concerts

European Tour Dates

Monday, June 30, 2003 - Jacira Castro reviews Los Van Van's Tampa Concert on SalsaPower. In English y en Espanol.

Sunday, June 29, 2003 - LVV in San Francisco - It was probably the last San Francisco Timba concert for the forseeable future, but Los Van Van made it a memorable one. Bimbo's 357 Club was sold out and the crowd and band were both on fire. KPFA DJ Luis Medina opened with a perfectly-chosen 90 minutes of classic and more recent Timba tracks before Van Van, sin Mayito, played a two hour plus set that was met with a rock concert-like response by the deeply-deprived denizens of the Bay Area. The songs were Llegó Van Van, Tim-pop con Birdland (this time sung by Lele), Popurri (medley of LVV hits from the 70's), Mi Mimi (Yeni Valdés lived up to her reputation as a brilliant improviser and topped it off with a gender-bending version of the old Pedrito Calvo routine -- pulling a (phenomenally good) male dancer from the crowd and ripping off some tembleque moves that put even Bamboleo to shame), new song (sung by Lele, a slower, funky minor groove), Te Pone La Cabeza, Ven Ven Ven (a new song written by Cucurucho and sung by Roberto), Qué cosas tiene la vida, Yo sé que Van Van, and a riveting encore: Quién no ha dicho una mentira. Bimbo's is not as intimate as Yoshi's and much of the band was hard to see from the packed dance floor, but from the middle and back of the club the sound was clear, undistorted, well-mixed and at a significantly lower decibel level than the average Latin concert. From here, LVV returns briefly to Cuba and then on to Europe, where they play Stockholm on Thursday. If anyone has the rest of the European dates, please send them in. And send Van Van back here while you're at it!

Saturday Night, June 28, 2003 - LVV in San Diego - Timberos can heave a collective sigh of relief. Mayito Rivera will not be relocating to the Timba Graveyard (aka, Miami, Florida). He'll rejoin the band in Cuba before they begin the European swing of their tour, but apparently won't be present in San Francisco tomorrow night.

Like LA's LVV show, San Diego's Belly Up Tavern was sold out with timba-starved fans, and the SF show at Bimbo's is already nearly sold out as well. LVV played the same set they played in LA, which includes three items of extreme interest to those of us who have become almost too familiar with the same set they had been playing ever since early 2001. Lele has two new songs, one by Juan Formell and one by the new pianist Cucurucho. Both have gotten strong early reviews. The third change is simply that in Mayito's temporary absence, Roberto is singing "Tim-pop con Birdland", previously known as "Sol natural". Roberto is one of only about three living Cuban singers who can be considered the equal of Mayito and to hear him singing one of Mayito's numbers on short notice is a thrilling prospect, He's apparently risen to the challenge brilliantly. Were the situation reversed, I'd love to hear what Mayito would do with "Te pone la cabeza mala"! And it might well have been reversed as it's no secret that Robertón was less than thrilled to have had to drop out of the great "Team Cuba II" concert in Madrid last weekend which Melón tells us went very well.

In preparation for tomorrow's show, I listened to the most recent LVV album, "Concierto en Vivo: En el Malecón de la Habana", and have added it to the long list of great albums which timba.com needs to review! Cucurucho and Irving, the new violinist, sound great and the old tunes have lots of interesting new coro harmonies, revised mambos and inspired new guías. More importantly, the new material gets stronger with each listening. In terms of pure musicianship, this may be the best Van Van group ever, and from a creative standpoint, old JF & Co. still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Saturday Morning, June 28, 2003 - LVV already played Tampa! - We may have to change the name of "la última" to "yesterday's fishwrap". LVV played Tampa on Thursday night. You can read about it in the St. Petersburg Times Online at www.sptimes.com. Ya tocó en Tampa Los Van Van el jueves pasado.

Friday Night, June 27, 2003 - Mayito Missing in Action - Los Van Van played to a jam-packed house at Albert Torres' Sportmen's Lodge in Los Angeles but without one key member. Bandmembers said that they pounded on Mayito's door at the hotel in Tampa but told them to go away. The band left without him and no one knows what his intentions are. Nevertheless, LVV played their asses off. Robertón sang Mayito's number, Tim-pop con Birdland, and Lele sang a new song which they had debuted in Puerto Rico. Other than that it was basically the same set as the recent live CD, plus the "Popurri" medley of old hits that they used to feature in the late 90's. Saturday they'll play the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego, and Sunday, yours truly will be present to hear them at Bimbo's in San Francisco. Stay tuned for further developments.

Mayito no estaba con Van Van en su concierto en Los Ángeles anoche. Se quedó en Tampa y nadie sabe lo que va a hacer. Van Van tocó un nuevo número cantado por Lele, y Roberto cantó por Mayito en Tim-Pop con Birdland. Vamos a ver lo que va a pasar en San Diego el sábado y en San Francisco el domingo. Para los que preguntaron, ahora pienso que era sólo un rumor que LVV iba a tocar en Tampa. El grupo estaba allí, y TODAVÍA está Mayito, pero el grupo van a tocar en Suecia el 3 de julio, y entonces, creo que no van a tocar en Tampa. Lean la última el sábado y el domingo para más noticias, y como siempre, disculpen mi español!