2023-12-11 20:11:23
Photo: Pepin the worker
Text: Hugo León
Van Van, one of Cuba’s most iconic orchestras, celebrates its 54th anniversary this December and there was no better way to celebrate than to make Cuba and the world dance. For this reason, the group will debut on the 22nd, the day their new album will be released.
Samuel Formell, director of the group, pointed out on social networks that the proposal will be called “Van Van Mode”, since “the word has become fashionable”, referring to the airplane mode of cell phones.
“There we thought that the Van Van logo could be in that position,” added Samuel, son of the band’s legendary founder, Juan Formel.
The new record production is the result of joint work between the companies Bis Music and Amboss Media. It is made up of 9 songs, among which several nods to technology stand out, such as “Friendship Request” and “Van Van Mode” itself, which gives its name to the album.
A publication this Monday on the band’s official Facebook profile previews other songs that will arrive on the phonogram.
Van Van asked his followers to identify who would sing each song, and thus he slipped on social networks names of other songs such as “You have to stop”, “Come, give me a hug”, “Land, Sea and Sky”; “Bla, Blah, Blah”, “Your time has passed”, “Perfectly imperfect” and “Sing the Ceiba”.
Among the names of artists mentioned are Marlon Pijuan, Efraín Chibás, Jorge Leliebre, Abdel Rasalps, Roberto Hernández, Calixto Cayava and Samuel Formell himself, to which Internet users responded that with any of the singers, “it will be a resounding success.” ”.
Others commented that there are few orchestras capable of generating so much expectation with the release of an album, and mentioned Van Van as a group that has managed to survive the passage of time and the passing of any fashion.
Los Van Van have been called many things, from “The Train of Cuban Music” to “The Rolling Stones of Salsa.” This last nickname came to them from the hands of another great singer: Fito Páez and quite a few creators have played with words to consider that the Rolling Stones are “the Van Van of England”.
The band’s presentations in the East in recent weeks were a kind of preview of the phonogram that is to come at the same time as a party for the band’s birthday. At the same time, in several cities in Cuba, such as Havana, they paid tribute to the group and its first leader, Juan Formell, to whom the Vanvanera group dedicated a plaque on the central corner of 23rd and P, in Vedado.
This year has been especially eventful for Van Van, full of joy but also with hard news that shook his cast. On the one hand, the group has had an extensive international tour that has taken them to Japan, Spain, Germany and the United States, but during a presentation in the latter country bassist Juan Carlos Formell suddenly died.
For more than five decades Van Van has remained the preference of several generations of Cubans. In fact, some of his songs are part of the popular imagination and have resulted in phrases or expressions that allow Cubans to be identified, wherever they are. This is a band that, in addition to bringing together talented voices and musicians for years, has experimented and mixed the island’s own sounds with diverse instruments and rhythms to give shape to its own label.
Saying Van Van, in many ways, is saying Cuba. It will not be a surprise if with this new album millions of Cubans on the island or dispersed in other geographies, leave the phone on the table and enter “Van Van mode”, to dance to the rhythm of this great band that Cuba has given to the world. .
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