Mixed news from Cuba

Pupi y los que son son —Malecón, Sunday 19, 2005

This show was perfect in every respect, except maybe that Mayito Rivera, announced as a special guest singer, in the end didn’t make it.

The show ended a nationwide tour by Los que son son and featured Angel Bonne as a guest singer. Sometimes it is annoying to read reviews from sites that give glowing reviews to every single salsa album that comes out, so you end up with 500 best salsa albums of the year and must haves… And so, I am embarrassed to do the same, but here it goes… Pupi’s concert was superb, his band has not only created a new sound, that is Havana, but they have reached a professionalism that leaves one mouth-wide-open.

Los que son son are a perfect example of one of the great elements of contemporary Cuban music —the fact that great musicians often stay for a while in one band, with all their energies focused on that one band. I.e. in contrast to, for example, bands made up of studio musicians who are involved in a dozen or more projects and are hired guns for a number of different bands, etc.

This effect is multiplied by the fact that these bands, between working and practicing, may get together upwards of five times a week, with stunning results. While timba may be enhanced with the almost innate rhythmic virtue that growing up with the clave affords, the quality that timba lovers enjoy is mostly due to extreme dedication, like the 16 years that the average degree in music in Cuba takes (from age 8 through high-school plus a five-year university level course) along with constant practices and gigs.

The Los que son son show was a perfectly chiselled piece of art; a contrast to the Maza/Tirso show. The musicians are far more experienced —with the exception of the meter high fourth trumpet who couldn’t have been more than seven years old— and the band probably spends more time with each other than with their spouses and families. Also, the show seems to be completely pre-determined, similar as happens with Van Van, with shorter songs than the Maza/Tirso twenty minute average live song. Another standout element, the sound system was awesome.

Changuito was on hand for this show, playing what looked like Yamaha electronic bongo drum-pads. Angel Bonne came on stage for what was really a killer rumba version of Disco Azúcar, and left the stage after one song. Pupi, as always in his Stevie Wonder pose with his head cocked steeply to one side with a gigantic smile on his face, led his band seamlessly through the latest flood of hits from Mi timba cerrá. The concert, as mentioned, the embodiment of perfection, perhaps lacked from improvisation, other than the Angel Bonne section which featured good improvisation between him, Mandy and a little from the band.

If you want an avalanche of adjectives praising Pupi y los que son son, you can read the Drum Festival article.