"Nube Pasajera" [click here for full lyrics]

If "Pa' Que Se Entere La Habana" represented a move away from the style of the first two albums, its opening track, "Nube Pasajera", was the spectacular culmination of that style. Leonel Limonta's third and final composition for CH turned out to be their biggest hit ever and seven years later it remains a regular part of the live shows of the new Charanga Habanera, Charanga Forever, and whichever band Michel Maza is fronting at any given moment. The epic arrangement begins by challenging the listener to a rousing game of "where's one?" [audio example 1]. Here's a MIDI version with a 4 beat countoff. [audio example 2] This combination of piano montuno, bass tumbao and coro forms an overwhelmingly powerful hook that's completely original in the world of Latin music. Just a few notes of either the piano or the bass are all that's needed to identify the song -- and the relentless groove that they produce together is one of the most exciting and uplifting in all of Timba.

The first voice ("éste es el baile del mojaíto") is trumpeter Leonel "Qué Lindo" Polledo, whose good-natured rapping would playing an increasingly important role over then next two albums and in live performances. Michel Maza's auspicious debut comes with the cuerpo at 0:40. Michel has an instantly recognizable, deeply resonant voice and a unique style characterized by sweeping glissandi and adventurous melodic vocalizations. [audio example 3] The great majority of top vocalists in all genres, both male and female, tend to sing in the tenor range above "middle C" -- the octave which stands out best against the bass, percussion and chordal instruments. Only rarely does one find a singer whose voice is sufficiently resonant to create a dominant presence in the lower baritone range but Michel's voice is big enough to cut through almost anything, and when he does surge into the upper octave it's all the more exciting, as demonstrated by this excerpt from "Cuando Yo Sea Grande" from Calixto Oviedo's 2000 release, "La Recomparsa", which features Maza and a number of other Charanga members. [audio example 4]

So what is it that makes "Nube Pasajera" one of the best and enduringly popular Timba arrangements? The answer to this question can only begin with that devastating piano/bass tumbao. Listen again to [audio example 2]. With no horns, voices or lyrics, this 2-bar vamp is a shining example of what Timba is all about. Where did that musical idea come from? It's hard to hear the direct influence of Son, or Salsa, or Earth Wind & Fire, or Jazz, or folkloric music, or even Timba for that matter. This is the type of wonderful and completely original musical idea that inspired us to create timba.com in the first place.

Next, consider the 23 lovingly-crafted guías. The idea of coros and guías, "call and response", is of African origin. The chorus repeats an idea, sometimes worked out in advance and sometimes made up on the spot, and the lead singer improvises both words and melody, sometimes telling a story and sometimes commenting on events in the community, or on the people and goings on in the club or concert setting. But by the time a given song is recorded, the lead singer will tend to have worked out certain ideas and perfected them. There's still lots of room for vocal improvisation in Timba and Salsa concerts, more in some groups than others, but certain key set of guías almost always wind up becoming fixed parts of the song. One of David Calzado's huge strengths as a leader and arranger is the degree of creativity and perfectionism he devotes to guías, and this is a big part of his well-deserved reputation for being able to coax great performances out of his singers. Careful comparison of CH's studio recordings and live performances reveals two things about their guías. First of all, the guías in live performance are virtually identical to the recordings, and second, they are uniformly brilliant. There's never a wasted or gratuitous word; never a lull in the flow of creativity. To satisfy the maestro each guía has to have its very own musical hook. There is literally not a single weak guía on any of CH's records and the melodies of these guías are frequently more inspired and original than those of the songs themselves.

David Calzado

The final key to the magic of "Nube Pasajera" lies in the pacing. Each section of the arrangement, whether it be a set of guías, a horn mambo, or a vocal interlude, simply explodes out of the one before it.

The first coro repeats five times, [audio example 5]. The first phrase, "por que tú eres así", leaves a small hole of only two beats and the second, "como una nube pasajera, que moja cualquiera" leaves a full two bars. Notice how Michel has a different catchy interjection worked out for each of the small holes, and how all ten of the lead vocal phrases can be heard as weaving together into one long, continuous melody, punctuated by the coro. Rather than a series of cliche vocal utterances, every line Michel sings grows organically out of either the coro or the line he sang in the previous guía. For example, the short part of the second guía ("contigo") answers the long part of the first; and "mátame", from the third guía, melodically answers "mójame" from a full four bars earlier! Finally, listen to the percussion bloque and Michel's long melodic vocal run as the section climaxes powerfully into entrance of the aforementioned killer tumbao at the end of the audio example.

The second coro section is introduced by a four bar lead vocal section marked by a potent melody and a great set of lyrics:

y si tú quieres mojarme
y yo me quiero mojar
muchachos! canten el coro
que lo voy a improvisar

[audio example 6]

It's a bit ironic, of course, that Michel says "Yo, dudes! Sing the coro so I can improvise on it." While Michel has performed this song at virtually every gig of his life, with at least five different groups, and several other singers have performed it in later incarnations of Charanga Habanera and Charanga Forever, no one has ever improvised on it!! Every live version I've ever heard has featured the original guías, note for note. In some versions, Michel even runs through them twice!

The album draws its title from the second coro, "mójame, mátame, pa' que se entere La Habana, agua mala", [audio example 7], which starts out against the killer tumbao, but on the second guía the rhythm section unexpectedly shifts gears out of the Timba breakdown groove into straight ahead salsa. (Listen to the cowbell change its pattern as Michel sings "chin chin, chin chin, la lluvia cayó"). The coro remains the same, but all of the other parts change, including the chord progression. One of Maza's trademark phrases, "ésto 'tá bueno, rico", recorded here for the first time, decorates the entrance of the next mambo as the gears shift back and the coro is cut in half.

In the final guía of the next set, Michel introduces his apodo: "el menor de la salsa que viene echando candela" and ushers in a breathtaking whirlwind of bloques, breakdowns, coros, guías and mambos -- one of the most impressive bits of dance band arranging ever conceived. [audio example 8]

"¿Sirvió o no sirvió?" Creemos que sí!