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