A Turning Point
Two the Conquest of the World
The Orchestra


"Los Van Van, a unique and an indelible phenomenon; an Antilles music made with great heat and at he same time fondling." El Comercio. Lima, Perú, 1971.

The Van Van orchestra emerged in 1969 and from that time on it has gained a prominent place in the vanguard of the contemporaneous popular Cuban music.

It was Juan Formell's idea, a young musician from Santiago de Cuba who felt a lot of uneasiness and needed to do something about it. Formell had been influenced by the sources of the Trove traditions and still many remember him during the bohemian nights of the 60's as he used to jam with his guitar at the Havana Libre Hotel. His songs showed a serious attempt to renovate the genre associated to the Son sonority and, in a certain way, proposing an area of interests that went further from the Filin (a movement of authorsingers who had harmonically enriched the song during the 40's and 50's).
Yet, Formell was to show his real revolutionary credentials in musical terms as a member of the Revé Orchestra. Here, he contributed with themes and arrangements that marked an epoch during the years 1967-1968. Such attainments would lead him to the resolution of having his own orchestra.

The Island was living a peculiar moment in its history. The whole country was consecrated to the preparations for the greatest sugar harvest of all times. The slogan of the time was "Los diez millones van" (The ten millions go) in relation to the goal of producing such amount of sugar tons. The Cuban, who tend to turn the most unusual phrases into everyday speech, started to use the expression "De que van, van" (They really go) for the good and bad things in common life. Thus, Formell, who has always lived keeping an eye on everyday life situations, named his project "Los Van Van." He used this name because his orchestra was getting forwards or at least that was his objective at the time.

By the beginnings of the 70"s, the orchestra was already heard on the radio and fans followed it. At the end of the sugar harvest, although the fixed production was not obtained, a historical record was beaten and the people celebrated it in a Babylonian carnival all through the Island. There was no public dance where the Van Van were not acclaimed. Then, the orchestra was included in an artistic Cuban delegation that would perform in Perú at the request of the Peruvian president Juan Velazco Alvarado. From that time on, the legend would begin to be knitted. Van Van was to become the orchestra of orchestras, the one that would never stop from being listened to inside Cuba and that would be among the most acclaimed within the international scene.



A Turnig Point

"The songo is a synthesis of Son and other rhythmic cells taken from the wide Afrocuban arsenal that inhabits our roots. And, of course, it includes our present-day sonority. "
Juan Formell, Bohemia magazine (Havana City) 1972

What made Van Van a revolutionary event? We would have to analyze what was going on with our Cuban music from the start of the 70's. It gave the impression that the Son tradition had been interrupted. Although the irruption of the Pop Era was not so dominant in the Island, a great part of young people was in touch with those genres and considered dancing with the typical orchestras (charangas) and traditional bands as out of fashion. Only an experience as Revé would make youngsters move, for they were much more identified with the Spanish bands (the best known) and with the Anglo-Saxon bands than they were with Son, Cha Cha Cha and Guaracha. Any other attempt for making popular rhythms had been ephemeral such as the case of Juanito Márquez 'Pacá' and Enrique Bonne/Pacho Alonso's 'Pilón'. Only 'Pello el Afrocán's 'Mozambique' could impose itself up to the point of exhaustion during half of the 70's.

Juan Formell and his Van Van could reach the top of a kind of up-to-date popular dance music, in which other bands such as Rumbavana, Los Reyes 73 and La Ritmo Oriental also played an important role.

The Songo was Van Van's battle horse, it meant something more than a new rhythm, it was a way by means of which both the orchestral coloring and the percussion design emerged with an absolute novelty, and at the same time, with an unmistakable signal of continuity.

In New York, Salsa music started to appear in the heaven of the Hispanic community. In Cuba, the Songo, without appealing to commercial resorts and from a totally authentic everyday life, conquered the dancer's space. The Casino choreographies were in harmony with perfection in relation to Formell and Van Van who knew how to combine the display of percussion to paying attention to intimacy with slightly Son-like ballads such as Marilú and Yuya Martínez.

Perhaps, the case of Van Van will be unique in its thirty years of existence. According to the radio station top ratings, Van Van has never stopped from including at least one of its songs, nor even for a year.

The merit lies on the authorial role played by Juan Formell, which was put at the orchestra's disposal. It was also present in the rigorous incorporation of other compositional values, some of them emerging form the band own members as is the case of César Pedroso, the pianist, Pedro Calvo, the singer or the young talents that have also got close with their themes. Yet, it should be insisted on the fact that the fundamental success of it is a direct result of Formell's work.

This is the case of an author who keeps an eye on what takes place in the neighborhood, in the street. His themes are considered as Cuban everyday life chronicles that have taken place during the last three decades.



To the Conquest of the World

'I pay attention to what people speak about. I only make chronicles of a country whose development is very complex and has many things to tell. Comments come out from an anecdote or situation that is taking place at a national level, be it because something is positive, funny or whatever. But, above all, it is always a joke. He who dances is enjoying himself. So you shouldn't tell him, look at this or that. You just let him know by joking. And meanwhile, he is enjoying it. That's the idea.'
Juan Formell. Clarín newspaper (Argentina) 1997

The internationalization of Van Van is related to the Cuban musical vanguard prestige in the center of the tropical music during the last decades.

Ever since Rubén Blades adopted the famous 'Anda, ven y muévete (Come on, come here and move), along with the homage that the Cuban musicians paid to Formell when interpreting many of his themes, and the reception of his work made in Puerto Rico and New York, Van Van and its conductor have become a shining example. They are considered as elements of a continuos renewal for both the creation of cannons and the interpretation of this kind of music.

An unmistakable and incombustible orchestra as this one has filled the rooms in the European Latin Jass Circuits, in festivals and stages in Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, The United States, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Japan.

Among other merits, the following have called our attention. First, it is the orquestra that has come into the Cuban movie history with the best of luck because of its presence in the films 'Los pájaros tirandole a la escopeta', 'Se permuta', and 'En tres y dos'. It is the only orquestra that has made the public dance while being on the screen as it happened during the premier of the Cuban-American documentary film 'Yo soy del Son a la Salsa' by Rigoberto López. It is the Cuban orchestra that has been able to congregate the highest amount of persons at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It has won four EGREM Awards, five Girasoles from Opina Magazine, a Latin Grammy Award and it is the only insular orquestra that from 1995 to 1998 has more frequently appeared in the top ratings from the Latin Beat publication.

Internal migrations, love affairs of mature men with younger girls, false social ambitions, the pulse of the Island's cities, movement, sensuality, jealousy, passions, everything can be included in the well interpreted orquestra themes, regardless any concessions to poor taste or stridency. The most legitimate and roguish of Cuban life is what becomes visible.

From the musical point of view, Van Van's success is backed up by a very coherent evolution towards the contemporary dance music tendencies in the Island. Formell and his musicians take into account the dancers'demands, but they also tell them about many problems. It can be spoken about a strong interrelation between what takes place during the dance and what cheers up the orchestra. Through the years, the sound of Van Van, without betraying itself, has emphasized its potency within what Formell has called Timba himself.

The Timba combines the display of percussion to the highest degree, always under a definite mark, with the keyboard 'tumbao' and the banjo pulsation configuring a characteristic rhythmic structure. Some people are right when calling this style hard Salsa, so as to make it differ from the light versions that are predominant in New York and Miami orchestras and from the erotic Salsa boom.

The Orchestra

'Van Van sounds as an orchestra that is alive: its percussion imposes its authority to the dancers who cannot stop from moving their bodies and specially their wrist, at the same time as their attention follows the Cuban deities invocations.'
The New York Post (The United States) 1998

Another singular contribution made by Van Van has to do with the instrumental format on the basis of Charanga. Juan Formell introduced the sound of trombones in the typical formation and he widened up both sections the melodic one, when doubling the flutes, and the rhythmic one, when adding the 'batería' to the traditional percussion.

Another distinctive aspect can be found in the voice projection: aside from the improvising leader, there have always been important singers that can guide the melodies, and at the same time adjust to the choirs. By means of this, Formell achieved a unique timber, to such an extent that Van Van is one of the fewest orchestras that can be recognized by any ear.

The International Critic recognizes Van Van style. Many have been the praises that have appeared in newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico), Reforma (Mexico), Le Monde (Paris), The Guardian (England), and in specialized magazines as Billboard and Jazz Magazine (United States). Different Formell's pieces have become part of The Real Latin Book, a collection of musical scores that is usually looked for by fans either for interpreting them at parties, balls, or simply for the pleasure of studying them. Leo Brower, one of the most important musicians from the 20's century, summarized in a few words the significance of Juan Formell and Van Van for the culture of the Island: 'There is both Cuban condition and originality in Van Van, a musical culture and a popular sensitiveness.

Pedro de la Hoz
Cuban Art Critic
Havana City, 1999.

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