Manolín, El Médico de la Salsa

And then there was Manolín.

One of his new songs has an addictive hook: "pero me falta la Habana, y a la Habana me falto yo". After 8 years of constant study of Cuban music, I can bear witness to the truth of this statement. Manolín misses Havana, and Havana most definitely misses Manolín. I was there in January 2001 when the government refused Manolín a license to play in public with an insanely great new band featuring Sergio Noroña, José Miguel, los Yoeles, Alexander Abreu and many others. That same month David Calzado decided he could get by without the services of Tirso Duarte. I could feel the energy escaping from the Timba scene like air leaking from a balloon. The Timba explosion was made possible by a delicately balanced and complex set of cultural and economic conditions and Manolín was the match that lit the fuse. Just as his presence pushed each member of CTA into a peak performance last weekend, his absence from Havana since 2001 has taken the creative pressure off of Paulito, Issac, Calzado and the others and resulted in a much weaker scene there.

Click here if you need to brush up on the rest of the back story. Since then Manolín had a long dry spell with no new material except for a decidedly non-Timba pop album, Giro total, which was a disappointment. Things started looking up again last year when he started spending more time in Europe, playing and recording with Joel Domínguez, who played with Paulito and Issac, wrote the arrangement for Issac's La fórmula, and has now begun arranging for Manolín, including the afore-mentioned Me falta la Habana. That recording also featured the incredible pianist Melón González. Equally new and exciting was Tarea pa' la casa. CTA played new arrangements of both of these and got a great response.

The onstage chemistry between Manolín & Yordamis was electrifying, as was the reunion of Chaka with his former mates Reinier, Tomasito & Braily. Hopefully we'll hear more of this combination soon.