El que esté que tumbe (into El puente)

Yet another of Manolín's seemingly endless supply of "greatest hits", this Luis Bu arrangement from "De buena fe" has been a concert staple for years and for good reason. It has three great coros, two great mambos, a lot of inspired guías, and one of Manolín's best cuerpos. Manolín the songwriter is frequently forgotten amidst the excitement over his great coros and arrangements and the furor over his singing and political controversies. He actually began his career as a writer for other artists. He's written Vuela paloma for NG La Banda, Charanguéate, Te voy a liquidar, Concéntrate en mí and Para el llanto for Charanga Habanera, and Se le fue la mano for Bamboleo. His guías, which he writes rather than improvises, are also excellent. So in many ways, it makes more sense to compare him to other writer/leaders like Juan Formell, José Luis Cortés and David Calzado, rather than to golden-throated colleagues like Issac, Paulito and Michel Maza. I've often wondered how things would have turned out had Manolín, like his mentor El Tosco, delegated some of the more exacting singing chores to others.

In any case, El Gola is all over the intro to El que esté que tumbe. [audio example 26] If you get a chance to listen to this guy warm up before a gig or rehearsal you'll see that he has prodigious technique and jazz chops and he uses them very responsibly. He doesn't overplay, but always has a nice lick at his fingertips when the situation calls for it.

Luis Bu's mambos are an irresistible mixture of blues licks, gospel harmonies and more than enough clave cubana and creative tumbaos to turn this time-tested musical vocabulary into something completely new and different. [audio example 27]

It was on this song that Manolín first started experimenting with the coro that ended his career in Cuba. We heard a taste of El puente at the beginning of Disc 1, but here we get the full treatment, including two verses and a mambo. As mentioned in part I, if the band gets back together, this section will almost certainly become a separate arrangement, just as many of these songs began life as coros tacked onto the ends of earlier songs.