1. SOMOS CUBANOS by Los Van Van. Version recorded live in the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana in 1999.
Who needs an electrical shower in Cuba when you'll have a baptism from the Gods with this particular album through the Moving Gemstones of Salsa Los Van Van? This double CD DVD set could make you shiver with delight and provide you with goose bumps from mind to foot. I really like the live versions of Los Van Van tracks because they capture all of the spontaneity and ecstasy of the live performance in Havana. The appreciation emanating in the local audience appears to boost the concentration of the background music and it makes sense just pure Cuban magic. I can’t imagine living existence or teaching dance with no live form of ‘Chapeando'. These tracks exceed things i hear in normal studio tracks.
The recorded albums are perfect to bop to when you're learning salsa, or perhaps in a golf club however when you will be ready to include that extra something, pay attention to the live versions and allow your body exercise the main difference. This 16 piece band play together as with every philharmonic orchestra. They take more time touring with one another on the highway compared to themselves, therefore the band be a family - playing together as you with love, virtuosity along with a highly tuned tight connection.
Somos Cubanos is filled with passion, pride and sophisticated multi-layered rhythms. It starts with billed Rumba with dynamic accents and breaks and Mayito sings such as the pressure of nature he's, because it moves into Boy, Salsa and Songo using the Afro -Cuban Orishas rhythms entwined without anyone's knowledge. At 4.55 mins, we hear the phenomenal Samuel Formell conducting a huge drum solo. He once explained he frequently senses the power and spirit of his god Chango with him, feeling an additional power and presence which for any couple of moments appears to create time stand still.
One Saturday night I heard him play such as this in El Capri. the glamorous 1950s dance salon in Havana. Certainly one of my clients banded alongside me and totally from character, practically entered trance as a result of his improvised solo. No question Madonna desired to steal him on her live tour - for any million dollars!
The track also revives great recollections of times I performed using the World Champion dancer Noel Roque Hernandez at Pontins where we'd an incredible time getting all of the flavours of Cuban dance contained in the background music, in to the choreography.
2. BESAME MUCHO Compiled by Mexican pianist Consuela Velasques in 1940, before her sixteenth birthday.
This song is my secret tranquiliser. My mother played it around the piano after i would be a kid and finally we started to experience it as being a duet. I've since trained it to my nephews and boy and even though it is not Cuban this straightforward song haunts the roads of old Havana every evening. There are several sublime versions available by Omara Portuondo, Cesaria Evora, an incredible early piano version by Consuela and the best - by Antonio Bocelli. A lot of occasions when I‘ve been going to class or perhaps a meeting in Havana and I've had to prevent within my tracks and pay attention to some amazing singer inside a bar or restaurant bring their very own special magic towards the song.
A few days ago I had been because of the best birthday surprise ever when my lady known as me on my cell phone and explained to be released to the balcony in our hotel. Below, he was waiting with roses in hands and three musicians performing Besame Mucho. The hotel security personnel were goosed! It had been a surreal, sublime Romeo and Juliet moment that I’ll always remember.
3. YO NO HACE FALTA, compiled by Lazaro Valdes of Bamboleo
This is actually the Gloria Gaynor ‘I Will Survive’ song from the salsa world. It packs a punch and thus will the video (I can’t believe the man really will get a quick kick at 2.31 mins!). The recording is shot in atmospheric black and white-colored with a few great salsa scenes so when the song is performed in Havana passions run high with everybody singing along very noisally, remembering some old lover that treated them badly. It is so inspiring to stay in a Cuban salsa club, as generally everybody is smiling, dancing, flirting and getting fun - you rarely use whatever serious or competitive faces within the crowd.
The song opens with 'When you left me, you thought I’d suffer, but take a look at me now, I am happy, now I've got a new love, that provides me his warmth, so leave me to reside in peace, I understand you're repentant' etc. Most Cuban salsa tracks possess a story, and for those who have a great dance partner they'll have the sentiment from the song and dance out a few of the drama along with you.
Jim Layne did a fantastic job getting all of the classic stars of Cuban Timba music together, with this particular finest hits compilation. It offers Charanga Habanera, Manolito y su Trabuco, Azucar Negra, Alexander Abreu, Los Van Van, Klimax, Maykel Blanco, Michel Masa, Elio Reve, Paulito FG, Pupy y Los Que Boy Boy and Sur Caribe. It is the best-selling Cuban salsa album in Europe!
You'll find it on 'The Beginners Help guide to Timba' which I’d recommend as gold dust to any or all individuals a new comer to Cuban Salsa Timba. It’s a 3 CD pack offered by Amazon . com or from DJ Jim Layne of Salsa Caribe.
4. Y QUE TU QUIERES TE Living room by Aldalberto Alvarez. (The Orisha track).
It is really an outstanding video and song. Alvarez is among Cuba’s respected musicians and composers which classic track celebrates the dances from the Afro–Cuban religion. Through this song and video you will get to understand the Cuban Gods known as the Orishas as well as their dances, movement, figures, colours, rhythms, attributes and movement characteristics. The recording provides a unique understanding of precisely how connected the Cuban individuals are towards the songs from the Orishas as well as their movement, and you may begin to see the audience participation and sense the pleasure within the theatre.
Based on my dance master in Cuba, the famous Juan de Dios, salsa was created of Boy, Boy was created of Rumba, and Rumba was created from the movement from the Afro-Cuban religion and Orishas. No question we're feeling good dancing salsa, we're really dancing the steps of the ancient African religion that may give back directly into trance states!
I've a lot respect for that Santeria religion and also the physical and health advantages that dancing the Orisha movements is wearing your well-being. This track is ideal for Salseros who wish to exceed the steps and turns of Casino style and dance the origins of Cuban Salsa. For me, if you want to bop Salsa well, with integrated core movement and flow, then studying Afro-Cuban dance is paramount.