Born in Havana in 1982, Maykel has been at the forefront of progressive Cuban dance music since his early teens, as songwriter, vocalist, arranger and musical director, first for Afro Cuban jazz heavyweights Habana Express and dance band La Suprema Ley, before finding his current calling as leader of Salsa Mayor more than fifteen years ago.
LatinoLife: Timba’s history extends back at least 30 years now, from those early, ‘local’ NG La Banda albums of the late 80s and songs, through the Special Period, and on to today’s worldwide acceptance and recognition. Why do you think it’s had such firm staying-power?
Maykel Blanco: I think that timba is a musically very strong genre since it is enriched by different genres such as Jazz among many other genres, both Cuban and not. Timba is very flexible to changes if the orchestrator proposes it; In turn, it is designed to make people dance both for its lyrics and for its choirs and it is very high- energy music, so much so that without the support of large companies it has survived to this day.
LL: Your own involvement with Cuban music – and your extensive experience with innumerable top Cuban bands like La Ascencion, La Constelacion and Gen-Cortes `La Banda- extends beyond Timba to Afro Cuban jazz and production- at least in the early 2000s when your jazz group Habana Express released two excellent albums when signed to Barcelona’s Envidia label. Salsa Mayor is a far cry from ‘traditional’ Afro Cuban jazz, though. Do you have a personal, aesthetic preference between the two forms? Or do you believe that they are simply different aspects- different ‘faces’- of the same art form?
MB: I think that the music I make with Salsa Mayor is never that far away and is influenced by many rhythms including Jazz but always from the base of Son, Songo mostly as well and a lot of Nueva Trova, so I agree that it is I could say that they are different faces of the same art form, but from my perspective.
LL: In the 90s, Timba’s lyrics took many traditionalists aback because almost for the first time, they were addressing social and political issues in a critical way. Those preoccupations seem to have drifted away from Timba in recent years, being replaced by rap, hip hop, groups such Gente De Zona, and artists like X Alphonso. Clearly, one main reason is that the Cuban government continues to censor music. But do you think that there may be other, less obvious reasons for this, too?
MB: I don't think so, I have more than 400 songs composed where I strongly address our social problems and the daily life we live. A very recent example of this is the song "LO QUE NO HAY ES QUE MORIRSE" and it has never been censored; I think that previously the composers of this genre were more in search of those aspects and now there is more facility or perhaps the lack of search and creation on those realities.
LL: The new album Llegué has tight production and not a single weak track! You must be very happy with it. Do you have any particular favourite songs off it- and why?
MB: Well, the most recent Salsa Mayor album under the name "ENFOCADO" falls into the mini album category because it only has 6 songs and I'm very happy with the sound and everything achieved init, it has songs like "YA ESTOY DE VUELTA" which seems to be one of those numbers that are here to stay. "LLEGUÉ" is a single that I really created in the studio with no fix given that it was a request
from a friend who organizes a festival in Europe and several years ago he was asking me for it. With the little time that I always have, I had not been able to meet him and that day I said: today I do it because I do it and there it is.; Everyone is very happy, as are the older ones.
LL: Does it trouble you- and maybe other Timba artists, too- that the excitement, beauty and alegria of live Timba performance has, to some extent, been neutralised by the comparatively staid, somewhat disciplined Timba dance -lesson/dance congress culture that seems to be ubiquitous in Europe and the USA these days? Or do you think it’s a good thing?
MB: I am not worried at all. I get up every day to work and overcome the obstacles that life throws at me and I trust in what we do without wasting time looking back, it is part of life and I think it makes us grow.
LL: Is there a difference, in your experience, between how non-Cuban audiences react to your live performances, compared with Cuban audiences at home?
MB: Each market has its characteristics and I believe that the success or part of the success of an artist is to identify with each one of them, be respectful and never forget where we come from in order to continue to identify with each one, obviously CUBA is our home and there are ways of expressions by theme of ideocincracy,language and others that makes communication easier, but if we take into account the aforementioned aspects, that rapport between public and artist can be achieved without any difficulty.
Orchestra Maykel Blanco Y Su Salsa Mayor performs at the Electric Brixton, on Saturday 27 August Tickets here
