Issac Delgado med NG La Banda og Necesito Una Amiga

Issac at the Monterey Jazz Festival

Her er eit klipp frå ein konsert i Miami.
Låta er Medley(Nescecito Una Amiga, Que te Pasa Loco, La Formula) frå den siste plata En Primera Plana.

"The dozens of brilliant timberos who have relocated to Miami in recent years have encountered two problems: achieving the level of popularity they enjoyed in Havana, and continuing to produce new music of the intensity and originality of their Cuban repertoires.

The latest arrival, Issac Delgado, has blown passed obstacle #1 without breaking a sweat. With the help of his savvy manager Elena Peña, he's landed a big record contract, and he's been playing major concerts and festivals to capacity crowds, such as his headliner appearance at the sold-out 50th anniversary of the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival and his upcoming two shows at the SF Jazz Festival on October 20th.
Issac, very much at home on the bandstand where Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding had made history 40 years earlier, had the large crowd in the palm of his hand in spite of the first rain California has seen in months.
The 60-minute set was broadcast on public radio, allowing us to provide a few choice audio clips. The 5-song set opened with the medley from En primera plana. Alain Pérez' skillful arrangement begins with Issac's first cross-over hit, Necesito una amiga, first recorded with NG La Banda in 1989. NG's leader, José Luis "El Tosco" Cortés, wrote the second song, Que te pasa loco, for Issac's first major solo album, Con ganas, and NG's drummer, Giraldo Piloto, now the leader of Klímax, penned No me mires a los ojos, a brilliant vehicle for live performance that was reinvented by each of Issac's legendary bands of the 90s.
Up to this point, I'd heard a clean professional rendition of these earlier songs, with nothing new added, but the closing section of the medley, Issac's Grammy nominated composition La fórmula, featured an absolutely gorgeous vocal improvisation in which Issac greeted the crowd and did his best to ward off the rainfall. For me, the two best live timba bands of the 90s were Issac and Paulito -- because they, above all others, had the ability to play each song very differently every night. I've heard dozens of version of No me mires -- all different and all wonderful. This new band doesn't have the type of adventurous bass and piano improvisation that Alain and Melón provided in my favorite live recordings, but Issac himself once again showed that when it comes to vocal improvisation, he's without equal. Improvising words and melody has been a feature of Latin music since the beginning and has had many great proponents. Some say Cándido Fabré is the greatest, but my vote goes to Issac, not only for the lyrical content but for the fact that he varies the melody more, and varies it more soulfully, than the other greast soneros. To illustrate my point, I submit one of Issac's glorious improvisations on Luz viajera from the legendary Y2K concert from Casa de la Música. I've heard over 50 live versions of this song - each one different - and the following passage is completely unique to the Y2K version. In other words, what you're about to hear was, like the Monterey clip, created on the spot by Issac - words, melody and rhythm:
Oddly, the retrospective medley was the only song Issac played from the new album.The second song was Melón's 1997 arrangement of Arsenio Dile a Catalina, from Exclusivo para Cuba. This one featured improvisation of the pianistic variety, first from Issac Delgado, Jr., who bears a striking resemblance to his papá, and then Milton Salcedo.
Next came Pregón de chocolate, written by Issac for Charanga Habanera, and modernized in 2000 for the La fórmula album, this time featuring percussion solos from Roberto Vilera, Cokey García, and, in fine form, Issac's conguero of almost 10 years, Dennys "Papacho" Savón, whose marchas have also, to my ear, evolved even beyond the level he reached in the late 90s."

Issac & Gonzalo Rubalcaba

"After El Macao, a bluesy Alain Pérez composition from Prohibido, the focus returned to improvisation La sandunguita, featuring another great impromptu Issac pregón to introduce the evening's third piano solo -- this time from músico invitado Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who had played earlier with an all star jazz band including Dave Holland, Eric Harland and Chris Potter."


September 21, 2007 by Kevin Moore

Issac Delgado i Miami

Her er Diane Padro frå Salsapower sin rapport frå Issac Delgado sin konsert i Miami 23. juni 2007.

" Ok- I`ll admit it- I`m one of those long-time traditional salsa fans who occasionally listen and dance to Timba, but it`s not really my thing, so i`m probably one of the contributing reasons why this style of cuban music has not really hit it big in this country. And true to my Puerto Rican/ New York style salsa roots, I was looking forward on the way to this concert, to hearing and seeing a live performance of Issac Delgado`s Mujer que mas te duele, one of the tracks on his first U.S. released CD, En Primera Plana( La Calle Records, May 2007.) It`s a fine tune- a cathy duet with salsa great Victor Manuelle- and has been getting a lot of play on the local radio stations.

Little did I know, that by the end of the evening, it wouldn`t even matter to me that Issac did not perform this song last night. I was too busy enjoying every moment of his Timba!

It was a triumphant night for the former lead singer from NG La Banda. Issac, after years of much success and popularity in his native Cuba, and in Europe( and up to now, marginally in the U.S.), quietly defected this past year."

The Knight Center was packed solid, but there were pleanty of empty seats- their occupants were all standing, dancing, singing, wawing their arms, and cheering Issac on, with every song Issac chose to sing.

He chose them well. Let me explain: Thanks to the definitive salsa- hit maker, producer Sergio George, En Primera Plana is already on it`s way to becoming another possible Grammy nomination for Delgado. It was, of course, a wise decision to cater to mass appeal by including some great songs( and some great names), in the traditional salsa style in this cd.

But the heart of Issac Delgado is Timba, and Timba was mostly what he performed.

Kind of a really cool bait and switch scheme- sell them salsa, but give them timba live!

And it is surely through his live performances, that Issac will win over the hard-core salsa public to include and support this genre more than ever before.

He´s just so good at at it. Issac has such a way with the audience. He`s gracious, personal and inviting. Last night he easily acquired nearly 4500 more back-up singers, as he invited fans to join in. They didn`t need much encouraging- they sang loudly, clearly, in tune and on clave, to every timba selection. It was quite amazing to experience this sea of people moving and singing in unison with Issac.

To my surprise, during some of the digressions from timba- ballads interspersed with( sometimes too long) commentary, I found myself counting the minutes to the next timba song. Obviously, so was the rest of the audience, because, without fail, it was the driving timba rythms and infectious lyrics that kept the place really jumping.

Last night, Issac Delgado took Miami, and me, by storm."