As I could not attend this second Buena Vista concert this month, I asked a good friend, Dani, to write about it. Here is how she felt it:
“Thursday, 25th May a great concert took place at Sala Palatului - “Live from Buena Vista – Havana Loungeâ€. The concert was held in the memory of Pyo Leyva who should have made this concert if he hadn’t passed away because of a heart disease on March 23rd. It turned out to be a genuine show that was definitely worth the money, due to an excellent performance of all the artists present on stage: Teresa Garcia Caturla, Guillermo Rubalcaba, Yanko Pizaco si Alberto Virgilio, Valdéz, Maria Viktoria Rodriguez and many more.
Teresa Garcia Caturla, the lead singer managed to electrify the entire audience and made everyone dance and have fun. She even came down from the stage and started to dance with the audience. In the end she played with the spectators a popular Cuban sport very alike to baseball.
Another star of the night was Guillermo Rubalcaba who managed to make magic every single song thanks to his piano. The solo he made entertained the audience to the maximum and at one point he even joked about leaving the stage as everybody sang along with him.
Other solos were given by the percussionists, the two guitarists and the trumpeters, the main attraction being Yanko Pizaco – the first trumpeteer of Afro Cuban All Stars. Every artist from the band succeeded in making the public feel excellent.
And now a few things about the beginning of the show: a very lousy one. The band that started the concert was Mandinga which, despite its change of image and style their music didn’t improve. Their performance only managed to underline the value of the true artists like Buena Vista.”
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2 comments so far
The concert was great indeed, for its final part it resembled a party, rather than a concert. Which is quite normal, considering the culture they come from.
Some things I believe are worth stressing… the string trio was also great, their group had a special moment whithin the show, when they were the only ones on stage… they played in all the possible ways with those instruments, making them sound very cheerful. I appreciated their irreverence in approaching some classic pieces, like the 9th symphony (I hope I remember the name correctly, in Romanian it’s “Oda bucuriei”) or the famous Funeral March. I also couldn’t help noticing how all-covering were Maria Viktoria’s clothes – there was almost no skin showing, you couldn’t even guess the shape of her hips or her waist. And it was red! Of course, made me think about the regime…
A question: is Dani sure that the game proposed by the singer was a popular Cuban sport? ‘Cause to me it seemed more like a “I’ll throw this to you and you’ll throw it right back to me” thing. Oh, well, it definitely had an effect.
Last comment, I promise…. I have a slightly different opinion about Mandinga – the reason being the context in which their music is judged. They are not, nor they want to be, a mainstream band. They are more what is called a ‘salsa orchestra’. They are the only ones with this role in Romania, they are supposed to perform in events like salsa parties, or parties that have latin dances as a theme – and their popularity with the mainstream public is simply a side effect. And for that – for the – well, I’ll call it ‘community’ – they do their job well. Outside this context… well, what can I say, I don’t like them either, but I can appreciate the feeling they try to transmit.
Ok. Sorry for the long comment. And thanks.
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