It has been suggested that Buena Vista Social Club and its connected artists have rather cornered the flourishing Cuban music market in this country. Anyone looking for evidence would have found it at this performance by Los Van Van, a 14-piece group billed as "the world's premier Latin dance band". Whenever an Omara Portuondo or a Ruben Gonzalez comes to town the venue is packed to the rafters, yet this concert is so poorly attended that the upstairs levels haven't been opened at all.
Fortunately, the punters who have turned up are an exuberant bunch who need no second bidding to get up and dance. And the musicians are completely unfazed by the empty seats and are clearly intending to give us their all. Led by bassist Juan Formell, Los Van Van have been honing their craft since the 1960s, and have been called the Cuban Rolling Stones.
Unlike the Stones they have been keen to push their music in new and unexpected directions, introducing synthesisers and drum machines, dabbling with rock chord progressions and elements of jazz and psychedelia. Along the way they have invented their own dance rhythm (called songo) and proved enormously influential to the contemporary "timba" music of Havana.
Visually, they're not a patch on the sleekly stylised Afro Cuban All-Stars. Dressed casually and hanging loose, they have a sound that is less polished, more earthy and streetwise. The clattering barrage of the rhythm section sounds Cuban to the core, but some of the other sounds and textures are more leftfield; sassy funk horns, swirling fairground keyboards, Fela Kuti-style Afro-funk drum patterns. And while much Cuban pop music basks in its own sunny sentimentality, Los Van Van sometimes hit darker, more meditative passages imbued with the brooding atmosphere of African spirituals.
But the overriding impression is of a rousing party band willing to sweat blood so that their audience may shake their booty. Some people get pulled up on to the stage to join in the fun; others, still sitting in their seats, find themselves engaged in one-to-one conversations with band members. It would probably all work a lot better in a more intimate environment, where we could actually see the band's sweat flying off the walls. But for those who bothered to show up, this evening is nothing short of a blast.
