¡Ay Dios, amparame!

Van Van, Los

The Zippiest Van Van Ever

Salsa scholars are prone to calling veteran dance band Los Van Van, which was founded by bassist Juan Formell in 1969, "the Cuban Beatles." It's not an entirely reckless comparison: Like the Beatles, this ensemble has both refined and transcended established forms, as well as broadened the orchestral possibilities for everyone working in the genre. Its sly arrangements show how an ornate tangle of violins, trombones, synthesizers, and three lead singers can operate as one mighty machine.

Watch Los Van Van perform in a packed club, and you might get an additional impression: This band is also the Cuban Rolling Stones—raucous and wild, well skilled at pushing dancers toward the kind of bliss that's possible even with clothes on. This isn't always easy to hear on their studio recordings, of which many, alas, are dim and compressed affairs that inadequately capture the band's polyrhythmic attack.

This problem is rectified by the crisp ¡Ay Dios, ampárame!, perhaps the best representation of Los Van Van on disc. It was recorded shortly after the rhythm-centered dance offshoot known as timba swept Havana in the early '90s; as it has done with previous dance crazes, Los Van Van takes timba to new heights in terms of complex arrangement—anyone who says synths don't belong in salsa is referred to "Soy todo" here. The powerhouse band's energy doesn't overwhelm the singers, particularly gritty-voiced Mayito, whose taunting adlibs include riffs on Santeria deities and the challenges of keeping a romance alive in modern Havana. Essential for any comprehensive library of dance music.

Genre: World, Cuba
Released: 1996, Caribe
Key Tracks: "Deja la ira," "Soy todo," "De igual a igual"
Catalog Choice: Lo ultimo en vivo.
Next Stop: NG La Banda: En la calle
After That: The Fania All Stars: Commitment
Book Pages: 800–801

Share this page:

Comments:

Post a Comment:

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Note that your comment will be reviewed by an editor before it appears on the site.


About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

This is an online version of the list (published alphabetically in the book). The entries in the book break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated.

More about the book

site design: Juxtaprose