Los Van Van Front-Line: Juan Formell, Pedro Calvo, Mario Rivera, Roberto Fernandez
Since three decades Juan Formell and his Van Van are Cuba's most popular salsa orchestra. Los Van Van plays a style they created themselves, "songo" - a rapid mixture of Cuban and Caribbean rhythms which Formell mixed with jazz and rock elements.
Los Van Van Front-Line: Juan Formell, Pedro Calvo, Mario Rivera, Roberto Fernandez
The application of
flutes certainly is still another reminiscence to the traditional cuban music. Composer
and band leader Juan Formell changed the style in 1982 already and he started to
experiment with the conga. From here a special sound developed which seems rather
Caribbean, although with Edmundo Pino, Alvaro Collado and Hugo Morejon a strong brass
section was added.
Influenced by the style of Nueva Trova, they tried to find meaningful texts for their pieces. Especially their Spanish Cuban fans enjoyed that during the concert. But whenever singer Pedro Calvo draws a Cuban beauty on the stage, suitable to the Song "Sandunguera" - which is about the skill of a dancer - simply any text looses its importance.
Nomen est omen: "Los Van Van" means: "Man, it must work well!" When the
group was formed in 1969 this was a slogan which almost each Cuban heard and said daily.
At that time it was about increasing the domestic sugar production in Cuba. The suger
thing was not very succesful. Cuban music however sells itself excellently on the world
market.
Luitgard Koch in the newspaper "Süddeutschen Zeitung", 22.7.98
Did you know...
Los Van Van is the best known band in Cuba and one of the oldest, having played for over 30 years.
Cuba's Egrem label recently re-released their first 15 albums in CD format.
The CDs are titled "Vol. 1 Coleccion", "Vol. 2 Coleccion", etc.
This is actually not much worse than the original titles:
3 different releases were titled "Los Van Van", 3 were titled "Juan Formell y Los Van Van,
and 1 was titled "Orquesta Los Van Van".
In any case, these special albums cover the first 21 years of the band's music
as they quickly evolved from an American sounding pop style into their unique trademark songo rhythm.
During this period they transformed from an electric guitar, organ and drumset band on their first album
to the dance band that made them famous worldwide.
Tosco came in early, then left to form NG La Banda.
Changuito was in the band during most of this period, bringing an unbelievable collection of rhythms,
traditional and electronic.
Pedro Calvo brought his voice and stage presence to the band in the middle of this period.
The trombones and violins were added.
The Los Van Van Colecciones show the development of the world's greatest dance band
over the first two decades of their existence.
Fotos: Ulrich Wode.
Translation into English: Saskia, postbus@sastom.demon.nl,
The Timba Homepage
| Los Van Van Europe Tour July 1998 9th -10th - Switzerland 11th - 12th - Paris 13th - Montreaux Festival (Switzerland) 14th - Brussels 15th - Hamburg, Curiohaus, 20h, DM 41,50 16th - Stuttgart, Jazz Festival 17th - Munich, Muffathalle, Lilienstr. 1 18th - San Remo 19th - Seyne de Mer 21st - 25th - Spain 26th - Aug 1 - Italy |