Manolín, el Médico de la Salsa comes back to Miami!
Bongo's Cuban Café
November 30, 2005

By
President and Co-Founder of SalsaPower
Translated by

Miami received a well-deserved Doctor's visit!

Salsa's Doctor, Manolín, after a long wait, finally visited his Miami fans this past November 30th at Bongo's Cuban Café. It was Wednesday night, but the Club was packed with excited fans.

Manolín's Concert was scheduled immediately after the presentation of Luis Miguel at the American Airlines Arena, but was delayed until after midnight. Every second of the wait was worthwhile, since he sang uninterrupted for more than two hours.

The Cuban singer, Marcelino Valdés preceded him. Marcelino has a beautiful voice, but he sang with a recording, without an orchestra, and consequently, the public showed little interest.

Immediately after Manolín reached the stage, Timba infused the dance floor with its contagious rhythm, which was crowded with dancers and fans taking pictures.

The majority of the songs were from past albums, but he also sang new material. I will be giving more details about those new songs in an interview he promised to give us during the month of December, 2005!

Before the concert he told me about his upcoming album, which will be titled, "Contando Estrellas", likely to be released by the end of January of 2006. For years, we have been waiting for this new production, so you can bet that right here at SalsaPower we will have a review of the CD as soon as we can get our hands on it!

Those contagious choruses created by Manolín, as usual, were present:

Todo está bien, mi hermano
Todo está bien, ¡como no!
Lo que le falta a la Habana...
A la Habana le falto yo!

Manolín successfully brought together the best of Miami's Cuban musicians, with the exception of Tomasito Cruz, who was "enjoying" the New York cold. One of the Pututi Brothers was there, along with Joaquín "El Kid" Díaz as the principal chorus voice, were present. El Kid is really phenomenal, and in my humble opinion, under-utilized as a singer. He is an incredible talent!

The beautiful Daymmi and Manolín's brother, Lázaro, made up the chorus with complete syncronization and harmony.

One of the group's founders, Víctor Nápoles played the bass, with the exception of a song in which Manolín took over the instrument by himself. Our beloved Chaca played the keyboard with his tremedous "tumba'o". This group has such incredible talent and it is the best I have seen in Miami in years!

Is so nice to hear Timba in South Florida... it was time! I was checking everyone at Bongo's but, strangely, found very few familiar faces. Where are all those "rumba" buddies that we used to meet with at the late Starfish some years ago?

I can guarantee you that Manolín hasn't lost his magnetism. When he sang the song, El Puente, the public went wild and screamed. Manolín's dream of building a bridge, a long bridge, so the people from Havana could come and the people from Miami could go.... is still alive!

This concert was brought to you by Havana Productions & Publishing, Inc.

More concert reviews in SalsaPower HERE

Last updated 05-Dec-2005