Director Juan Formell (bass) and 'La Lele' (vocals)

 

¡Comenzo
la fiesta!
Los Van Van
is in town.

by Robin Davies

 

 

 

For weeks my friends yammered on and on about Los Van Van singing high lofty praises like "They‚re greatest dance band in the world! We're so lucky to have a ticket! I can't believe we're here!" With each comment I'd think, oh please, they can't be that good! Then on a blisteringly hot and muggy Saturday afternoon in 1991 I reluctantly stood in an extremely long ticket line, my lawn chair and ice chest in tow sporting fashionable sunglasses thinking to myself, this band better be good‚ all the while fretting the horrors of a racoon face sunburn.

Then the show started, from the moment the group stepped onto the stage they were engaging, sexy and Adonis like their persona echoed and warned something extordinary was about to happen. Then Van Van (as they are affectionatly called in Cuba) began playing first the congas then a chorus of Afro-chanting then boom! The band exploded with the force of a charging Roman chariot steered by the spirit of Chango fearlessly capturing the rallying the crowd.

Van Van took the audience hostage using their intoxicating mojito dance grooves to reel us in. The three lead singers Mayito, Pedrito and Roberto prominated across the stage eyeing their capatives using a wink, a smile and their golden scratchy velcro like voices to bring the audience to a frenzy. Every improved vocal lick the salseros sang the musicians matched them instrumentaly laying down skintight harmonically stacked syncopated notes that wraped themselves around the adudience like a bear hug from an unseen relative at a family gathering. For three plus hours the crowd swiveled, gyrated, bumped and grinded in unison like an army of Caribbean androids and after the show, drenched in sweat, I confessed aloud, "Eso! Los Van Van is the greatest dance band in the world!"

Thirty-two years ago Los Van Van was formed by bandleader Juan Formell. Formell a gifted songwriter of over 150 compositions, arranger, bassist, vocalist, an internationally renown recording artist of 25 CD's and despite the heated political opposition between U.S. and Cuba and a 1999 Grammy recipient for "Llego Los Van Van" on Havana Caliente Records in the category of "Best Salsa Performance". From the groups start Formell had a desire to develop musical ideas that would expand and reshape dance music in Cuba and unbeknowest to him around the world forever. The group today still remains one the most popular and innovative dance bands not only in Cuba but globally.

"We are in the best of times for dance music…In Cuban dance music it's really the dancers that motivate a musician to create changes," comments Sr. Juan Formell. "Every Cuban musical genre has a dance ---danzon, son, changuii, [they] all have their steps, and the dancers are the ones who show the musicians when a new style is needed by their new movements."

Vocalists Jenny and Roberton

Formell is credited with creating the genres songo in the seventies and later on timba. "I wanted to try to incorporate different types of instrumentation and other music styles that had influenced me and spoke more to my generation," recalls Formell. Songo is a style instrumentally founded in the traditional Cuban genres, weaving rock, jazz and Brazilian rhythms throughout the melodic line with close ties to the salsa format. The vocal lines are heavily steeped in harmonies dolloped with streetwise syncopated call and response conversation and Afro-Caribbean chanting.

The second form timba, is currently the hottest and fastest growing musical genre in the world with hundreds of websites, dance clubs and radio shows dedicated to the form. "Timba, like songo, is the sound of the island today. Timba is [about] what‚s happening now. it's the voice of the people today," explains Formell. "But describing its musical theory is difficult. Timba's foundation starts with the dancer ---like songo it's any Cuban rhythm, son, montuno, changuii, whatever, then mixed with Afro-Urban American styles, funk, jazz, soul, blues, rap, anything that jives the hips. Timba is more aggressive, harder, a faster pace."

The two key things Formell did with the formation of Los Van Van was change Cuban dance bands presentation instrumentally he combined charanga (flutes ad violins), salsa (hot hard edged horns) and rock (trap drums and electric bass) together creating six independent sections ˆthree vocalist, two violinist, three percussionists, three trombonists, two keyboardist, and a bassist. This as Formell says "allows the band to move in a progressive musical direction." The second element was replacing the "old style" of formal attire to casual. The players dressed as they would taking a stroll along the malecon in Havana.

Born in Pueblo Neuvo a district of Havana. Formell learned the foundations of musical theory form his father a celebrated professional bass player and awarded music teacher. As a teenager he was mesmerized with rock and roll, soul, jazz, and the Afros of Benny More. " I listened to everything on the radio and records," recalls Formell. By age sixteen, Formell was playing professionally traditional music with the Cuban troubadours of the day ---Odilio Urfe, Socarras, Guillermo Rubacaba, Charanga, Peruchins and others. His break came in 1967 when he began playing the bass, composing and arranging for Cuban icon Elio Reve's Orquestra. Two years later Los Van Van was formed.

Over the years Los Van Van has artisically conqured the world despite global political obstacles they have faced. The band has always maintained their non-political stance demanding being reconized as artist "The band represents not the country but the Cuban people and our music," comments Formell " The songs are about everyday life. Sometimes the stories [lyrics] are humorous, romantic, painful ---it's just about life," says Formell.

 

Robin Davies is a free-lance writer based in the Bay Area.

©2001 by Robin Davies
Photos ©2001 by Peter Maiden
©2000 by salsasf.com
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission

Director Juan Formell (bass) and 'La Lele' (vocals)

 

¡Comenzo
la fiesta!
Los Van Van
is in town.

by Robin Davies

 

 

 

For weeks my friends yammered on and on about Los Van Van singing high lofty praises like "They‚re greatest dance band in the world! We're so lucky to have a ticket! I can't believe we're here!" With each comment I'd think, oh please, they can't be that good! Then on a blisteringly hot and muggy Saturday afternoon in 1991 I reluctantly stood in an extremely long ticket line, my lawn chair and ice chest in tow sporting fashionable sunglasses thinking to myself, this band better be good‚ all the while fretting the horrors of a racoon face sunburn.

Then the show started, from the moment the group stepped onto the stage they were engaging, sexy and Adonis like their persona echoed and warned something extordinary was about to happen. Then Van Van (as they are affectionatly called in Cuba) began playing first the congas then a chorus of Afro-chanting then boom! The band exploded with the force of a charging Roman chariot steered by the spirit of Chango fearlessly capturing the rallying the crowd.

Van Van took the audience hostage using their intoxicating mojito dance grooves to reel us in. The three lead singers Mayito, Pedrito and Roberto prominated across the stage eyeing their capatives using a wink, a smile and their golden scratchy velcro like voices to bring the audience to a frenzy. Every improved vocal lick the salseros sang the musicians matched them instrumentaly laying down skintight harmonically stacked syncopated notes that wraped themselves around the adudience like a bear hug from an unseen relative at a family gathering. For three plus hours the crowd swiveled, gyrated, bumped and grinded in unison like an army of Caribbean androids and after the show, drenched in sweat, I confessed aloud, "Eso! Los Van Van is the greatest dance band in the world!"

Thirty-two years ago Los Van Van was formed by bandleader Juan Formell. Formell a gifted songwriter of over 150 compositions, arranger, bassist, vocalist, an internationally renown recording artist of 25 CD's and despite the heated political opposition between U.S. and Cuba and a 1999 Grammy recipient for "Llego Los Van Van" on Havana Caliente Records in the category of "Best Salsa Performance". From the groups start Formell had a desire to develop musical ideas that would expand and reshape dance music in Cuba and unbeknowest to him around the world forever. The group today still remains one the most popular and innovative dance bands not only in Cuba but globally.

"We are in the best of times for dance music…In Cuban dance music it's really the dancers that motivate a musician to create changes," comments Sr. Juan Formell. "Every Cuban musical genre has a dance ---danzon, son, changuii, [they] all have their steps, and the dancers are the ones who show the musicians when a new style is needed by their new movements."

Vocalists Jenny and Roberton

Formell is credited with creating the genres songo in the seventies and later on timba. "I wanted to try to incorporate different types of instrumentation and other music styles that had influenced me and spoke more to my generation," recalls Formell. Songo is a style instrumentally founded in the traditional Cuban genres, weaving rock, jazz and Brazilian rhythms throughout the melodic line with close ties to the salsa format. The vocal lines are heavily steeped in harmonies dolloped with streetwise syncopated call and response conversation and Afro-Caribbean chanting.

The second form timba, is currently the hottest and fastest growing musical genre in the world with hundreds of websites, dance clubs and radio shows dedicated to the form. "Timba, like songo, is the sound of the island today. Timba is [about] what‚s happening now. it's the voice of the people today," explains Formell. "But describing its musical theory is difficult. Timba's foundation starts with the dancer ---like songo it's any Cuban rhythm, son, montuno, changuii, whatever, then mixed with Afro-Urban American styles, funk, jazz, soul, blues, rap, anything that jives the hips. Timba is more aggressive, harder, a faster pace."

The two key things Formell did with the formation of Los Van Van was change Cuban dance bands presentation instrumentally he combined charanga (flutes ad violins), salsa (hot hard edged horns) and rock (trap drums and electric bass) together creating six independent sections ˆthree vocalist, two violinist, three percussionists, three trombonists, two keyboardist, and a bassist. This as Formell says "allows the band to move in a progressive musical direction." The second element was replacing the "old style" of formal attire to casual. The players dressed as they would taking a stroll along the malecon in Havana.

Born in Pueblo Neuvo a district of Havana. Formell learned the foundations of musical theory form his father a celebrated professional bass player and awarded music teacher. As a teenager he was mesmerized with rock and roll, soul, jazz, and the Afros of Benny More. " I listened to everything on the radio and records," recalls Formell. By age sixteen, Formell was playing professionally traditional music with the Cuban troubadours of the day ---Odilio Urfe, Socarras, Guillermo Rubacaba, Charanga, Peruchins and others. His break came in 1967 when he began playing the bass, composing and arranging for Cuban icon Elio Reve's Orquestra. Two years later Los Van Van was formed.

Over the years Los Van Van has artisically conqured the world despite global political obstacles they have faced. The band has always maintained their non-political stance demanding being reconized as artist "The band represents not the country but the Cuban people and our music," comments Formell " The songs are about everyday life. Sometimes the stories [lyrics] are humorous, romantic, painful ---it's just about life," says Formell.

 

Robin Davies is a free-lance writer based in the Bay Area.

©2001 by Robin Davies
Photos ©2001 by Peter Maiden
©2000 by salsasf.com
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission