At a press conference on November 29th, Samuel Formell announced that Los Van Van will release their tribute to Juan Formell - "La fantasía" - on Friday, December 5th at the final concert of their national tour, which will be held at the steps of the University of Havana. This will be only one day after the band celebrates its 45th anniversary.

The new CD - recorded at Estudios de 18 EGREM - contains 14 tracks with compositions and arrangements by Juan Formell, Samuel Formell, Juan Carlos Formell, Boris Luna, Jorge Leliebre, Pacho Chibás, Robertón, Mandy Cantero and Juan Ballestero. Alexander Abreu makes an appearance with a brilliant trumpet solo on track 14 - "Soy Van Van". Various DJs have posted short sections of some of the songs, and I am going to say that from what I have heard, I believe that "La fantasía" will be Van Van's strongest album since "Chapeando". Samuel has the daunting task of taking the helm of Cuba's most famous musical instituion, and all indications are that his father prepared him well by making him musical director several years ago. El tren va por buen camino. 

As we were discussing the new album via e-mail, Kevin made the following observations on the subject of remakes, of which "La fantasía" contains two.

Kevin Moore:
1) "Es mucho" is from vol. 5 - 1979 - I think I'm on firm ground in saying the vols 5 & 6 were by far the worst sounding Van Van albums but had some great songs that were unjustly debuted with bad recordings - thus, re-recording anything from those (especially "La rumba no está completa" and "El montuno" - which they've already done and which are two amazing tracks) is a great idea because now Van Van has world-class singing and infinitely better recording capabilities.

2) "Me basta con pensar" started as the B-side bolero of the early 70s single "Que se sepa" - neither of which ever got onto an official album - unless the version Omara did of the A-side with them did got onto one, but "Me basta" was turned into an uptempo arrangement in 1990 for Los Van Van - not by Formell, but by Pupy (this only happened twice and both were masterpieces in my opinion). That version of "Me basta" contains within it - among many other things - the seeds of Manolito y su Trabuco's whole harmonic sello - it sounds like late 90s Trabuco back when Manolito was still in Maravillas de Florida. It's a hugely important timba precursor and one of the best post-revolution tracks period in my opinion - no idea what the new one will be like, but it's definitely anything but a tired old song swept out of the closet for lack of creativity. I'm very curious to hear this whole album.

As are we all Kevin. The first thing I plan to do Friday morning is buy "La fantasía" from whichever on-line store uploads it first. I predict that it will be a great holiday gift for all the Cuban music fans on my list.

leave a comment

continue reading Timbera Mayor

Our last Beyond Salsa video had a cameo by JS Bach - this one has Kenny G.

The new concert, Issac from Café Cantante, finally gives the world YouTube access to the only known version of Issac's legendary La competencia, aka Hit Parade. It also contains the ultra-killer version of Por qué paró featured in Volume 7.

Also... any minute now we'll have a lot of details on the impending new Van van album, La fantasía -  stay tuned.

leave a comment

continue reading La Última

ENGLISH:  As the recorded music industry in Cuba continues to evolve and diversify, a growing number of new recordings are being made either completely independently or by using the services of Cuba's major recording companies a la carte. (These companies acquire some of those projects later.) A relatively new aspect of the environment is the consideration of crowdfunding by some Cuban artists. The above example is for a new project by Yissy García, an exciting member of the new wave of music in Havana today. Genre labels can be misleading, but the term Acid Jazz as it was used in the United States (her quintet includes a turntable) comes to mind. The crowdfunding company is based in Barcelona, and the campaign is happening now. To see the crowdfunding website page, click here. 
ESPAÑOL:  A medida que la industria de la música grabada en Cuba sigue evolucionando y diversificándose,  un número cada vez mayor de nuevas grabaciones se están haciendo ya sea totalmente independiente o mediante el uso de los servicios de las principales empresas discograficas de Cuba a la carta. (Estas empresas adquieren algunos de aquellos proyectos más adelante.) Un aspecto relativamente nuevo del medio ambiente es la consideración de crowdfunding por algunos artistas cubanos. El ejemplo anterior es para un nuevo proyecto por Yissy García, miembro emocionante de la nueva onda musical en La Habana de hoy. Etiquetas de género pueden ser engañosos, pero el término Acid Jazz, ya que se utiliza en los Estados Unidos (su quinteto incluye un giradiscos) viene a la mente. La compañía crowdfunding se basa en Barcelona, y la campaña está sucediendo ahora. Para ver la página web de crowdfunding, haga clic aquí.

ENGLISH:  Young but already-renowned tresero Renesito Avich is now offering lessons to the entire planet via Skype.  To register for classes, you can contact him at renesitoclass@gmail.com
ESPAÑOL:  Joven pero ya reconocido tresero Renesito Avich está ofreciendo lecciones a todo el planeta a través de Skype.  Para inscribirse en una clase, puede ponerse en contacto con él @ renesitoclass@gmail.com

leave a comment

continue reading Sin Clave No Hay Na

Here's Tom's first gallery from the amazing but way-too-short Klímax tour. 

The new Van Van album, La Fantasía, is coming very soon - we'll have a lot on this almost immediately.

leave a comment

continue reading La Última