Lo siento por ti (Dany Lozada) [click here for full lyrics]

"Lo siento por ti", like "Dime que te quedarás", is written by Lozada but sung by Michel and arranged so as take full advantage of Maza's resonant two octave range. The cuerpo is sweet, but short, so a third verse is built by combining half of each of the others and modulating up three keys, which allows Michel to soar all the way up to Ab. This example [audio example 32] starts just before the modulation. After the second "no me choca a mí" a quick downward run returns us to the original key and the horns set the stage for a spectacular extended bloque which climaxes with a dramatically placed altered jazz chord (E7#9, #11) [audio example 33]. Like Stevie Wonder and Steely Dan, Charanga Habanera has a knack for borrowing dissonant "outside" harmonies from jazz and classical music and turning them into striking, but accessible pop hooks.

The mambo uses another dissonant harmonic device, the "whole tone scale", [audio example 34] which was first widely used by Debussy, but the idea may have come to Charanga Habanera from the aforementioned Stevie Wonder, whom they met in Monte Carlo and whom Calzado lists as an important influence. "Sunshine of My Life" was probably the first pop tune to incorporate the whole tone scale. [audio example 35]. Of course, Stevie was known to borrow ideas from Latin music as well. [audio example 36].

The mambo leads into a partially rapped coro, cleverly punctuated by Maza, who after a particularly rhythmic guía stretches his trademark catch phrase "sirvió o no sirvió, yo creo que sí" across the barline and ends it between the lines of the coro. The brilliant piano tumbao also takes part in the conversation of overlapping musical ideas. Listen to the way its melodic hooks keep rising up in the spaces left by the singers. [audio example 37].

Reversing the pattern of the second, the third coro starts out as rap and ends melodically, setting the stage for one of the album's most inspired and unique musical gems,. [audio example 38]. It's only a descending blues scale but the harmonies and syncopation turn it into something magical. When it first appears, Michel belts it out along with the horns. The second repeat is just the horns, and on the third and fourth, the bass drops out, bomba style. Then, on the fifth time through, the bass returns and the percussion section turns it into a powerful bloque. The final repeat is a capella (plus a bit of percussion) and ends on an absolutely gorgeous held chord in the voices. With this kind of Beatlesque attention to detail as late as the sixth track and the way it's followed by the strikingly original introduction to the seventh it begins to become clear that this is not a "front-loaded" collection of hits. Calzado is definitely thinking "album" this time. We're not going to shift gears into some sort of retro-Charanga homenaje -- the next track will provide a powerful second creative wind and the spell of "Tremendo delirio" will be maintained all the way to the stunning conclusion.