What's your Favorite Van Van Album?

timberamayor

timberamayor

Son Montuno
I personally hate choosing favorites because it's too hard. I guess to make it easier on myself I'll say Chapeando, because it has so many songs I like, it was feally the last of their more "timba" era IMO and also just the fond memories I have of being in Cuba when it first came out and finding a quemador copy at a roadside store on the way to Havana. Finally found a real copy at the airport on my way back to Sweden.

So what's your favorite album and why?
 
hehehe........ very difficul for me to choose a favorite, also to make it easier on myself I choose La Maquinaria, I'm also a songo fan

best regards
 
Azucar! (1992)... Big time!

All songs in this album are hits with no fillers. Pedro Calvo at their best. They defined their most recent sound and style with this album. Pure Songo and Sabrosura.
 
Los Van Van, Vol. II

It's weird, because I have not heard it and I don't know where to buy it. But I've heard couple songs from it in various quality and I've heard later albums that come on CD's. Those songs are the best! :)
 
Smejmoon said:
Los Van Van, Vol. II

It's weird, because I have not heard it and I don't know where to buy it. But I've heard couple songs from it in various quality and I've heard later albums that come on CD's. Those songs are the best! :)
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I wonder if Kevin knows where it can be found for sale. Here is his comment on it from the discography section
"We don't have a picture of Tránsito, LD-3421 and we don't know why it was re-released as LD-3425 using the cover pictured above, but the 1974 album was a stunning masterpiece, setting the tone for Los Van Van's undisputed historic position as the most popular band in Cuban history."

Here is Formell talking about the CD when I interviewed him in 2008
http://www.timba.com/artists/losvanvan/video/formell_21Hi.wmv
 
one of the biggest problems I'd found while searching Cuban releases is the wide variety of album covers with different cover art. most of them got little information with no liner notes or credits. it gets worse when we talk about compilations. this is mostly related with changes in record labels and inconsistencies with smaller, international and local labels as Egrem.

in the past 15 or 20 years this has improved significantly, but when you try it on albums released before the 90's is very hard to find what you may consider the original stuff.

let's take Van Van's Azucar as an example. I've lost the count on how many different art covers has been released since the early 90's.

azucar1.png azucar6.jpgazucar2.jpg azucar3.jpg azucar4.jpg azucar5.jpg
 
Abayarde said:
one of the biggest problems I'd found while searching Cuban releases is the wide variety of album covers with different cover art. most of them got little information with no liner notes or credits. it gets worse when we talk about compilations. this is mostly related with changes in record labels and inconsistencies with smaller, international and local labels as Egrem.

in the past 15 or 20 years this has improved significantly, but when you try it on albums released before the 90's is very hard to find what you may consider the original stuff.

let's take Van Van's Azucar as an example. I've lost the count on how many different art covers has been released since the early 90's.

View attachment 1208 View attachment 1213View attachment 1209 View attachment 1210 View attachment 1211 View attachment 1212
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Yeah they have kind of had to take what they can get in terms of getting albums out. In the case of Tránsito it was first released in Spain with one cover, then in Cuba with another. Fortunatley in recent years things have gotten better and Chapeando and La maquinaria have great covers. But as the digital age sweeps in it's now getting harder and harder to get hardcopy at all, and the digital retailers are often not including more than the front cover.
 
Had to sign up for this! Can't miss the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite bands.
I got into timba thanks to hometown heroes Guaco and that led me to Van Van. I listened to lots of Ruben Blades and classic Fania stuff when I was a kid, but then I got into rock and its many offshoots and sort of left the salsa world behind. However I always had the dream of joining salsa and beatle-style melodies together and thought that marriage would be quite revolutionary.

Needless to say, the moment I heard Chirrin Chirran I really lost it...I was so amazed. Immediately I needed to find more and more of that stuff. That got me into van van. I listened to Van Van obsessively for about a year, immersing myself in songo.

Now to answer the question, I've got two and they share some similarities
Transito, because it's songo at its finest and where Van Van would define their sound for the rest of the 70s. it's much more of a singles compilation more than anything, but it's pretty much flawless. Changuito's drumming is jaw dropping and awe inspiring and the melodies are so great, really tapping into the brittish invasion kind of sound, while the music is straight up soul but with rumba accents.

Then my other favorite...Lo Ultimo En Vivo. I was a changuito follower and this is where LVV sound started to change into what would become their groove for the rest of the decade. Samuel plays rather different than Chango and I was a bit in denial about his ability to carry the groove...I should add, this happened about 18 months ago. Mayito was already out of Van Van while I was making my way through their discography. So all my Samuel related doubts are anything but me trying to make sense of the albums. He does a stellar job, of course, but he's a lot more controlled than Chango, it never really explodes (plus all songs are faded out!) It snuck up on me though, and then I realized what an amazing collection of songs, mayor key cuerpos and minor key tumbaos it is (ie. Un Socio, Pura Vestimenta, Normal Natural). Really really strong stuff and arrangements.

I love them all though and I find their music is still revealing to me. I'm wasn't that big of a fan of the Lele and Jeni era (where the groove changed yet again) until I spent two weeks listening obsessively Chapeando, Arrasando and La Maquinaria. (I do find the malecon concert a disappointment, again for the fade outs).

I was really heartbroken when Juan died (mi tocayo!) even though his health problems were no secret. A leyend. Long Live Formell.
 
jcarru said:
Had to sign up for this! Can't miss the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite bands.
I got into timba thanks to hometown heroes Guaco and that led me to Van Van. I listened to lots of Ruben Blades and classic Fania stuff when I was a kid, but then I got into rock and its many offshoots and sort of left the salsa world behind. However I always had the dream of joining salsa and beatle-style melodies together and thought that marriage would be quite revolutionary.

Needless to say, the moment I heard Chirrin Chirran I really lost it...I was so amazed. Immediately I needed to find more and more of that stuff. That got me into van van. I listened to Van Van obsessively for about a year, immersing myself in songo.

Now to answer the question, I've got two and they share some similarities
Transito, because it's songo at its finest and where Van Van would define their sound for the rest of the 70s. it's much more of a singles compilation more than anything, but it's pretty much flawless. Changuito's drumming is jaw dropping and awe inspiring and the melodies are so great, really tapping into the brittish invasion kind of sound, while the music is straight up soul but with rumba accents.

Then my other favorite...Lo Ultimo En Vivo. I was a changuito follower and this is where LVV sound started to change into what would become their groove for the rest of the decade. Samuel plays rather different than Chango and I was a bit in denial about his ability to carry the groove...I should add, this happened about 18 months ago. Mayito was already out of Van Van while I was making my way through their discography. So all my Samuel related doubts are anything but me trying to make sense of the albums. He does a stellar job, of course, but he's a lot more controlled than Chango, it never really explodes (plus all songs are faded out!) It snuck up on me though, and then I realized what an amazing collection of songs, mayor key cuerpos and minor key tumbaos it is (ie. Un Socio, Pura Vestimenta, Normal Natural). Really really strong stuff and arrangements.

I love them all though and I find their music is still revealing to me. I'm wasn't that big of a fan of the Lele and Jeni era (where the groove changed yet again) until I spent two weeks listening obsessively Chapeando, Arrasando and La Maquinaria. (I do find the malecon concert a disappointment, again for the fade outs).

I was really heartbroken when Juan died (mi tocayo!) even though his health problems were no secret. A leyend. Long Live Formell.
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I guess I need to revisit Tránsito but you and I both have Lo último en vivo as #2. I started listening to timba right around the time Llegó Van Van came out, so I am more a fan of the recent stuff and haven't really immersed myself in the classics deeply - just a few songs here and there. that's the thing, is that htere is so much left to delve into that I can't see myself ever getting bored with Cuban music, not just timba but going the other way with rumba and changüí, which I am also interested in.

EDIT: Oh and BTW, I didn't really "get" Yeni until I finally danced to Después de todo and then I got it and I love her since then. I've always liked Lele, even if seeing Pedrito leave was hard.

EDIT2: I am also a fan of Mandy. Loved the Tirso, Mandy, Pepito era of Pupy. It was the best! Seeing Mayito leave Van Van was also hard, but I doooo love me some Mandy.
 
By far for me it is "Esto te pone la cabeza mala".....it has everything, couldn't stop listening to it. I guess the fact I was living in Switzerland at the time may have had something to do with it.
 
Mine is Llego Van Van. Every song on this cd is fantastic. It has tremendous cross over appeal. In the U.S., it won a Grammy award, which is impressive considering that it is a Timba genre. Not too many Timba bands have won Grammys if I recall correctly.

Here is the song list:

1. Permiso Que Llego Van Van
2. Temba, Tumba, Timba
3. Eso Damelo A Mi
4. La Bomba Soy Yo
5. El Negro Esta Cocindando
6. Somos Cubanos
7. El Cheque
8. Quien No Ha Dicho Una Mentira
9. Mi Chocolate
10. Consuelate Como Yo
11. Appapas Del Calabar
12. Havana City
 
Zaperoko said:
Mine is Llego Van Van. Every song on this cd is fantastic. It has tremendous cross over appeal. In the U.S., it won a Grammy award, which is impressive considering that it is a Timba genre. Not too many Timba bands have won Grammys if I recall correctly.

Here is the song list:

1. Permiso Que Llego Van Van
2. Temba, Tumba, Timba
3. Eso Damelo A Mi
4. La Bomba Soy Yo
5. El Negro Esta Cocindando
6. Somos Cubanos
7. El Cheque
8. Quien No Ha Dicho Una Mentira
9. Mi Chocolate
10. Consuelate Como Yo
11. Appapas Del Calabar
12. Havana City
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Love 4 and 5!!!!
 
Zaperoko said:
Mine is Llego Van Van. Every song on this cd is fantastic. It has tremendous cross over appeal. In the U.S., it won a Grammy award, which is impressive considering that it is a Timba genre. Not too many Timba bands have won Grammys if I recall correctly.

Here is the song list:

1. Permiso Que Llego Van Van
2. Temba, Tumba, Timba
3. Eso Damelo A Mi
4. La Bomba Soy Yo
5. El Negro Esta Cocindando
6. Somos Cubanos
7. El Cheque
8. Quien No Ha Dicho Una Mentira
9. Mi Chocolate
10. Consuelate Como Yo
11. Appapas Del Calabar
12. Havana City
Click to expand...
Ok, two favorite albums! That one too! :)
 
And the song "Arrasando" is fantastic, too!
Together with "Si no te quieres tu" the only two tracks I really like of the album "Arrasando"
 
Chapeando and Arrasando are for me the best albums :-)

Some older albums I do like but for dancing timba and rueda i prefer these albums.
 
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