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that was most definitely the most intense 10 days of my life in music. 10 days on the back of quite a few months of heavy touring etc.
I left London with an idea but not much else. an idea to do a sort of Nuyorican Soul (without the disco) type project. I only had 5 days in the studio,
the 'Vatican' like Egrem where Ibrahim Ferrer and so many others have recorded. Roberto Fonseca was my musical typesetter and Vince Vela who
I'd met only a few weeks previous at Life (thanks James) as my co producer. I'd taped a few tracks in advance of the session to give Roberto some
clues to the direction and we ended up re doing things like 'Chekere Son' (Irakere), 'Afrodisia" (Kenny Dorham), and "Roforofo Fight'
(Fela Kuti) plus a couple of Fonseca originals, a version of Ogguere's "La Revolucion del Cuerpo" rumba style and a Cuban Descarga
twist on Jay Dee/Donald Byrd's 'Think Twice" - all in under a week - it sure was a challenge, and all this in the intense heat and humidity
of Havana in June - I think its turned out really well though and will be part of a double CD I'm releasing on Brownswood in October called
Havana Cultura - the other CD is a 16 track comp ranging from hip hop (Obsession, Aldeanos etc) Reggaeton (Gente de Zona, Free Hole Negro)
Spanish sung soul (Diana Fuentes, Danay,Yusa) Jazz (Harold Nusa Lopes) and a couple of descargas...I managed to pick up some additional bits
before our recordings at Egrem by spending a day and half recording a doc for Radio 1 where I visited a bunch of artists I'd first met last September.
so hanging out a little more with people like Edgar from Doble Filo who played me some rude old Cuban disco breaks and took me to a
great record dealer from whom I spent around 130 convertible pesos (£80) and returned with around 40 scratched up but fascinating records of
Cubana Musica Moderna...and after we finished the recordings last Sunday I ended up back on the streets of Havana with photographer and
film crew doing the most content I've ever done...brilliant because the photographer Uri is a Havana expert and Leah is super cute(ha ha) but it was also exhauting because we started at 8 and ended at 9 each night...
but now that I'm back and able to breath for a moment I'm slowly reliving the past 10 days and realizing how amazing a trip I had! I also got to
spin at the Turf Club on the Thursday with DJ Wichy and DJ Dark - crazy! although you had to see the look in their eyes when I played a couple of Reggaeton bits - not altogether happy about that - a bit like the first time I went to Brazil and played Jorge Ben to the puzzlement of all those present!!!
The one thing I didn't do was change my diet of fried chicken rice and beans all week - that was about all I ate
apart from the odd bit of over cooked fish - but the food's about the last thing you think of there - I was more into seeing Los Van Van playing at 'home' in the
Casa de Musica or doing as many Rumba and Santaria sessions as any grown Rum drinking adult can handle in a week...
anyway, you'll get to hear some of the bits we recorded soon I hope - although I'll have to get special permission to play my own tunes on Radio 1
as it may be deemed as 'conflict of interests' - but I'll def do a podcast etc. The highlight of the trip musically though was working with Roberto Fonseca's
amazing band - he's like a Cuban Glasper - super flexible and ridiculously tight on the keys, and also working with the singer Danay - she'll
blow your mind when she tours later this year (I hope) - like a Jill Scott in Espanol!
I really enjoyed producing this record and hope its the beginning of a new direction for me. major thanks to Yuset, Francois and SImon for making me realize
a dream - now to the remixes!
1:04 PM
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