Great Albums to Close the Year

Sur Caribe’s new album is hotter than a mid-summer day in Santiago de Cuba. These guys are putting out great albums at a yearly pace. Hyper, eastern-Cuban, congo laced son, once again, watch out for this band…

Haila, after a monster year in Cuba with her David Calzado produced Differente that had her singing half voice, has stated that she is working on her next album that again will be produced by David Calzado. Haila says it will be pure dance and "pure Cuban timba." Great news, sitting where she is now, Haila could really create some big waves in timba with a hard dance album. Currently she has a very nicely done regueton single out with the Cuban group Eddy K.

And to end on a fantastic note, Manolito Simonet’s new album is out, and its solid! After a decade of what might be called the best run of solid album releases from any Cuban band, and with little recognition, Manolito put out the dodgy Locos por mi Habana, and skyrocketed to fame —albeit in a year with few good offerings.

Thank the santos that this success didn’t convince the trabuco to go further down that path. Instead, Manolito is back to his classic style, a nice comeback album.

This album is a pure listen, from start to finish, with no ballads, little foreign genres, but a good mix of Cuban genres. El Indio is in top form with nice traditional touches, the new Rumbero singer ? plays a good, supporting role singing some great rumba.Amaray has a few of his typical romantic compositions with the sweeping cello and violin orchestration, but this time they are formed more on the basis of Cuban salsa, rather than the softer elevator approach.

The album features the formulaic Amaray-composed Trabuco-timba Comunícate, that while very familiar, is always welcomed. There are traditional sons featuring elegant piano solos from Manolito and trumpet licks; 1970s flavoured sons, that start with the piano hooks reminiscent of Barry White, sweeping violins, and full on Superfly bass lines, before heading into Camaguey son. This look back to 1970s funk/disco —Bamboleo’s recent great funky/disco instrumentals; or how about the bass in Pupi’s Bala de Billy…— is a promising sign.

I’m eager to review this whole album. I’ll will leave-off saying —perhaps prematurely, after just two listenings— that this is one of the best things to happened in 2005, all in all, a good year in Cuban salsa.