Havana
Good Time in London!
By
Local SalsaPower Correspondent in Santiago de Cuba.
Translated
to English by
November 28, 2005
London, United Kingdom
Havana
Good Time
and the solidarity with the musicians in London
On an early
evening in late autumn, London is happily dancing to the sounds of Latin
music, and the energy is emerging from numerous clubs and restaurants
where Cuban rhythms are predominant.
Three
nights in London, and for three nights I have experienced the hospitality
of its people and my friends in three distinctive concerts, where hundreds
of people danced to the rhythms of cha-cha-chá and Cuban casino.
Since the first experience at the Chiswick Catholic Church Club, where
DJ and dance master Paul Harris organized his Cuban
Bachata, several members of the Cuban community, many Englishmen
and Latinos gathered and made me feel something new: The solidarity
among the musicians.
What is
this solidarity? In my opinion, is when friends and musicians from other
clubs and musical bands attend somebody else's concert one night, knowing
that those persons will be attending theirs another night. There is
an exchange of invitations, an appreciation of musical mastery and the
sharing of maybe some beer or juice. The solidarity and human spirit
was plainly visible when Paul Etgard helped
Keith Robert Johnson carry the instruments for his concert
and on the way back, Paul Etgard and jazz musician
Peter Hammond helped return those instruments in their
cars, in spite of the sharp cold of the early morning.
Normally
the Cuban
Ministry of Culture, through its network of cultural institutions,
annually dedicates a portion of its budget to secure free locations,
the sound systems, the lights and the artists and transportation for
the instruments in each community and including the Carnival celebrations.
Everything is free, including the promotion on radio, television and
the printed press.
Here
in London, that budget is non-existant, but replaced by the growing
friendship between musicians, artists and some sponsors and music lovers,
and it is then when the weak London sun heats the hearts of those who
are, now more than ever, my friends too.
Today,
I participated in the third concert. It felt familiar due to the similarities
between this cultural activity and the music and dance vocational workshops
so popular in Cuba. At moments, it reminded me of artists like Eddy
Ochoa and his group Primavera, with
its music and dance vocational workshops, and Tania Bell,
with her dance workshops at the Martí Theater or Heredia Theater.
And then,
the Havana Good Time band invited us to its end-of-class
concert at the Leisbury House Club. I enjoyed something extraordinary
when Paul Etgard invited all of his music workshop
students, under the direction of trombonist Phil Hall,
who replaced Master Tim Sharp in a public concert.
The location
was already crowded at 8:30 p.m., when dance master Paul Harris
organized a salsa class for anyone interested. This way, the general
public, the invitees and the musicians were able to practice. At one
time, everybody danced to the count and rhythm indicated by Paul
Harris.
At 9:30
p.m., the Havana Good Time Concert started with an
orchestra of eighteen musicians in a 4m x 4m set with outstanding acoustics.
At the beginning, some of the musicians showed little enthusiasm, but
that soon changed, thanks to the force of other musicians.
The repertoire
(Sonando, Mambo No. 5, Rosa, Nica’s Dream, Verdadero, Cuba
te llama, Compadre Pedro Juan, Mambo Batirí, Oye como va, Ran
Kan Kan, Qué rico el Mambo, Rico Vacilón, Helena toma
bombon, Capullito de Aleli, Canto Bailo, Mambo Inn, Mi Negra and Yumbambe),
the Cuban inspired outfits of the London public made everyone dance
with total abandon. But when I got out on the dance floor, I broke up
the linear and coordinated movements of the participants! From La Rumba
they went right into Son, and from La Conga they moved to free style
Salsa. Even a 78 year old lady danced to the rhythm of a Son Montuno!
Havana
Good Time, with Paul Etgard, brings together
an eclectic crowd of Latin musicians in London. There are musicians
from England, Peru, Spain and Cuba, similar to Keith Johnson’s
Cosa Latina Orchestra. The musicians performed
under the direction of Phil Hall, reading from a peculiar
schematic in the shape of drawings with the instrument distribution,
designed by Paul and photocopied for all. I kept a copy as a souvenir
to be shown to musicians, audio technicians and lighting technicians
under my direction in Cuba.
And
the public? The Cuban spirit of the musical performances was validated
by the active participation of the public and the dancers. Havana
Good Time, with its cha-cha-chá, made us feel like being
in the Cuba of the fifties.
The musical
repertoire, with numerous Cuban musicians, is rich and diverse. What
they showed was enough to keep the public, especially the workers of
the National Physical Laboratory and the members of Skiff Club in Teddington,
dancing non-stop and heating up the dance floor into the wee hours.
The
night of musical solidarity carried over into the after hours when the
musicians, the public and friends picked up cables, microphones and
other audio equipment provided by Paul Etgard, put
them into cars and headed to the Indian restaurant Lal Bagh
at East Sheen. There, in good American style, they shared the bill,
lots of beer and excellent food by candlelight, and celebrated the birthday
of the musician Tony Jackson’s Chinese wife, the beautiful Chabe.
Walking
down Lancaster Avenue and Picadilly Circus, I visited other Salsa Latina
clubs in London and I got the feeling that all of them work with the
same spirit of solidarity I have felt during these first three days.
Thanks
for the opportunity of discovering a bit of Cuba in London!
José
Antonio Prades Hung
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02-Dec-2005
