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Archive for the ‘salsa’ Category


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Posted on June 3, 2007 - by

Maikel Blanco Y Su Salsa Mayor

Maikel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor (Maikel on keyboards)

(Yes, I’m still going on about Cuba…)

I finally found the name of the salsa band who played in Casa de la Musica the night I first took my teenage daughter to Galiano in Havana. Yes, naughty me, I passed her for 18 when she’s only 14 and introduced her to a world of loud timba music, the best dancing in Havana, the raunchy dance moves of Bustamente and Yoandy who were grinding away with their latest dance pupils (who we met weeks later in Oxford), the Cuban hottie who tried to get my daughter to fall for him…and to this amazing timba band Maikel Blanco Y Su Salsa Mayor, who had us mesmerized.

Their hit son “Esto Esta” (This Is…) is my FAVOURITE salsa song to dance to. I hear this and I have to dance…

Here’s the video of “Esto Esta”:


Posted on June 3, 2007 - by

Soneando en Oxford – Claro Que Si!

What a pleasure last night to see a halfway decent homegrown salsa band – Soneando.

The creation of a Bristol-based keyboard player, Sara and two British conga/bongo players, Soneando also feature Jimmy, a Columbian bass player and Cuban tres-player and frontman (I think they called him Jesus…?). Yesterday they added in a terrific singer from Santiago de Cuba whose sultry, high voice blended brilliantly in the harmonies with the two male singers. It was a set of classics of Cuban son, but with groovy piano lines and pretty-darn-good improvisations.

They were as good as any small (i.e. non-famous) band we saw in Cuba. Seriously.

After dancing son all night, David and I felt as though we’d been at the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba – another place with zero air conditioning.
I went to talk to the lead singer afterwards. “You guys were great!” I said. He shook his head, embarrassed. “No…we were RUBBISH!”.

A Cuban from Las Tunas, he was amazed and then sceptical to hear that I’d liked Las Tunas, through which we’d passed on the bus to Santiago, about two months ago. Jesus has a nice line in stage patter – in English too. He likes the word “Wha’eva”.

Posted on May 16, 2007 - by

Non-Stop Solemn Salsa

I have worked out…that from now to September, I’ll be attending a salsa event OR going on holiday every single week.

Including:

That should keep me very cheerful, all summer long! I’m a firm believer in the milestones-of-happiness approach.

I’ve dropped my writing target to a manageable 500 words per day. The plan is all done, in mega detail, so barring illness or other setbacks, I am aiming to finish a draft of ‘Jaguar’s Realm’ in time for my birthday at the end of August. That way I can have a joint celebration at…where else but Floridita. Yay!

Ah, the best laid plans…


Posted on May 12, 2007 - by

Pupy y Los Que Son Son

A small break from thinking about superhero films. (Hint: there are only three different comic books in the final 5 – getting the order right, that’s the thing.)

To reminisce about Cuba (again) and about how great Pupy y Los Que Son Son are. I’ve been listening to their terrific CD Mi Timba ‘Cerra’. It’s so amazing, really hot salsa/timba, infectiously danceable. Almost as good as Los Van Van’s Chapeando.
Here’s the video for the delicious De La Timba A Pogolotti.
Pupy (Cesar Pedroso) is the greatest. This is what I love about salsa; some of the biggest stars are in their 60s. My daughter and I saw Celia Cruz on stage in London when she was in her 70s. She danced all the way through the show!

Like any of you care. I have to get some fellow salseros reading this blog.
Meanwhile, here’s a photo of one of their three soneros (improvisational lead singers) – my favourite, Pepito. He’s like a fiery, red-haired gypsy from Andalucia. This is actually taken in Casa de La Musica, Galiano, where my teenage daughter and I danced the night away with two Cuban hotties. While my lovely husband babysat. What a star!

Posted on May 6, 2007 - by

Orishas Dancing at Buena Vista Club in Oxford

Not the Buena Vista Social Club of massive Cuban-band-fame, but a monthly Oxford Cuban salsa event organised by local Cuban dance fans who arranged for us to have our very own locally-based professional Cuban dance teacher, Ariel.

I’ve been chatting to Ariel quite a bit since we happened to coincide in Havana when we were over there. I’d mentioned to him about seeing Yoannis and partner doing an improvised Afro-cuban dance in Santiago de Cuba. Maybe he remembered that, because at the end of the afternoon workshop in which he taught us the dance of Eleggua, one of the orishas, or Santeria deities, Ariel offered to dance to the song “Y Que Tu Quiere Que Te Den?” (And What Do You Want Them To Give You?) and show us the dances of all the orishas who are sung to in that song.

Which was a major bonus for me, because of something I’m planning for an important scene in my latest project codenamed ‘Jaguar’. No more info for fear of spoilers… Perry, one of the organisers of Buena Vista in Oxford, is going to put up a video on Youtube.

Another one of those weird coincidences – I saw a British woman dancing reggaeton and recognised her from the world-famous dance hall, Casa de La Musica, Havana, a few weeks ago. She was pretty unmistakeable – I’ve rarely seen a white woman, let alone British, move like that! When my daughter and I went to Casa de La Musica, the Cuban guys we were with were amazed and said about this woman – “She moves like a Cuban.” I went over to talk to her and her friend, and they were indeed the two women we’d watched dancing with two quite well-known dance teachers from Havana.

She told me that just over a year ago she went to Cuba to learn to dance for the first time – as a beginner! I was staggered!

That does it. I must practice reggaeton at least half an hour a day from now on.


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