“We missed you so much! » The slogan of commercial signs at the end of the pandemic seems perfectly suited to the 27th edition of the festival Latin time which will take place from July 28 to 31 at Vic-Fezensac in the Gers.

Mecca of Latin music

For almost three decades, Vic-Fezensac has attracted thousands of Latin music lovers every last weekend of July, making Tempo Latino a unique event in Europe. This is to say if the two years of deprivation due to a pandemic may have seemed long to the regulars.

Out of loyalty to the artists, the organization had promised to postpone all of the programming. We will therefore find a poster almost identical to that which was announced in 2020, with a few more surprises. Detail review.

PMO’s west coast mambo

After inviting Orquesta Akokan et Hold off ! in 2019, Tempo Latino receives a new large ensemble: the Pacific Mambo Orchestra and its almost twenty musicians. Beyond contractual mambo, the PMO offers a repertoire that will delight dancers with salsa adaptations by Chaka Khan and Stevie Wonder or even a new version of the Pantera King of the 33. The big band based on the west coast of the United States does not forget Latin jazz with a cover of the standard One Night In Tunisia or even a tribute to the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Los Van Van, still and always the locomotive of salsa in Cuba

Its front line may have changed several times, but its founder Juan Formell to have left us, Apart From Van has accompanied the daily lives of Cubans for fifty years. After the songo of the 70s, Los Van Van jumped on the bandwagon of timba (a modernized Cuban version of salsa) at the turn of the 90s, when the world got to know the Buena Vista Social Club. It even becomes its locomotive with Llego Van Van, 1999’s Grammy Award-winning cult album. This is the era of the magic trio bald pedro/Mayito Rivera/Robert Hernandez. Twenty years later, when the release of ” Legacy “the first album led by Samuel Formell, the son of Juan, Los Van Van is still an icon in Cuba. For its fiftieth anniversary in Vic-Fezensac, Los Van Van invites a star of choice: Alexander Abreuleader of Havana D’Primera, number one salsa in Cuba

Interactivo, urban experiments made in Havana

Much is expected of the arrival of Interactive at Tempo Latino. The international audience was able to discover the tape of Robertico Carcassès about ten years ago thanks to the program Havana Culture of Gilles Peterson. Regulars of Havana nights know his residence at the Bertold Brecht. Urban, with hip-hop, rock, trova, jazz and of course Afro-Cuban influences. Experimental, Interactivo is a collective whose line up is constantly evolving. Interactivo introduced the hip-hop singer Telmary. Brenda Navarrete et Cimafunk passed through its ranks. On the musician side, we find top names: Oliver Valdes, Yaroldy Abreu, Rodney Barreto, Carlos Miyares and the essential Julito Padron. Interactivo has just celebrated its 20th anniversary with a flattering anniversary album.

Con Tumbao, le All-Stars surprise d’Issac Delgado

The coming ofIssac Delgado is already an event in itself. It has been several years sinceEric Dufau, musical director and founder of the festival, was trying to bring in the Cuban crooner. From his beginnings with NG La Banda, Issac Delgado has become a benchmark for salsa in Cuba. Thirty years later, his last album “Rain and Fire” is remarkable. Issac Delgado does not come empty-handed. He will be accompanied by an All-Stars made up of incredible leaders and sidemen. Imagine: Pedro Martinez, Oscar Hernandez (Spanish Harlem Orchestra), Alain Perez, Tony Succar (the Michaël Jackson project seen five years ago), Robby Ameen or Conrad Hedwig. The premiere will take place in a few days at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Since we tell you that it is an event!

The contagious energy of the London Afrobeat Collective

Honesty forces us to recognize that we don’t know much about London Afrobeat Collective, except that it arrives preceded by a flattering reputation and that the practiced style, afrobeat, has often seduced the public of Tempo Latino. On the other hand, we know well the charismatic singer with the powerful voice Juanita Euka whose first album has just been reviewed in “Le Jazz et la salsa”. In short, Londoners have some serious tricks up their sleeve.

Alain Pérez, the poet of the timba

If he is a star in Cuba, Alain Perez is still little known in France. The singer-bassist began with Celia Cruz and worked for ten years with Paco de Lucía. With his personal texts and elaborate melodies, the bassist singer arrived in the world of the timba with a decidedly different proposal. If the success of his last two albums ADN et The Tale of the Good Pipe certainly helped to make it better known among dancers, “Jazz and Salsa” we got stuck on the magnificent melodies of the previous one Talking with Joan. After a New Morning before the pandemic, this will be Alain’s first big stage in France. Impossible not to honor him on Sunday.

With regard to the quality of the programming, the columnist can only encourage his readers to come and discover or reconnect with “the spirit of Vic. »