Maravilla De Florida på europaturne

October 22
Vienna, Austria
La Floridita

October 23
Munich, Germany
Circulo

October 24
Berlin, Germany
Havanna

October 25
Seville, Spain
Womex Showcase

October 27
Marseilles, France
Dock des Sud

"Maravilla de Florida has proved an extraordinary breeding ground for contemporary Cuban music. Alumni include Pupy's Pepito and Charanga Habanera's Leonid, but the most prolific is Manolito, who, when he left the band to form Trabuco, also took half of Maravilla with him, including conguero Lelo, bajista Mora, flautista David Bencomo, tecladista Osiris (now with Pupy), violinist Nicolas and cellist Orestes. The group must have had to rebuild itself from the ground up when Trabuco was formed. But rebuild they did: since then they have released only four albums - Vieja, pero se mantiene, Levantate y baile , 50 y más maravillas and this year's Luchando con fe released by Egrem. Well it's five if you count the early version of Luchando con fe recorded for Envidia in 2005 (on their web site - last updated in 05 - they refer to the Envidia album as Yo te doy la clave, after one of the album's more annoying songs, which happily doesn't make a reappearance on the new version). But this new version - rerecorded, with new songs and also some new musos, including a much less annoying singer - is a great improvement. In fact I've been thrashing it since I got back from Havana.
Manolito is listed as producer for this version; and other members of Trabuco (Bencomo, Miguelito) are listed as invitados. There are no indivdual credits however, so it's impossible to know whether it's Bencomo, or Maravilla's own Anais Casas Guerra who is responsible for the album's ripping flute solos.
The opening track features a rap in the intro, flagging the fact that this is no traditional charanga offering. Unfortunately it comes across as a bit try-hard - it's also completely unnecessary: the zestiness of the rest of the album - indeed the rest of the song - would have made that clear soon enough. Never mind. It's one flaw in an album that has very few indeed. And the song goes onto become one of the best in an album packed with great tunes.
La bola, which starts with a phat, squiggly synth riff, before the violins enter playing a percussive riff, is another.
As with a lot of timba, Maravilla take the energy level up and down and right back up again. It's infectious. A recogerse - played this year during the baseball broadcasts apparently - takes even more from timba with the traditional, almost lacklustre cuerpo, before opening up to fire on all cylinders with captivating coros and funky breakdowns.
I could have done without the ballad, Por estar contigo, but the rest of the album more than compensates."

Kjelde: yemayasverse.blogspot.com