P18

You might well have noticed how, in the wake of Buena vista social Club, there have been a number of Cuban albums released - the words flood and deluge spring to mind, really. Some of it is very good, but the majority is mediocre, at best. Which is why something like P18's Urban Cuban stands out, mixing the range of Cuban music with European dance culture whilst still keeping its heart and soul intact. It's quite a balancing act, and the way it succeeds - with full integrity - makes it a remarkable album.

P18 (named for the Paris arrondisement where they record) is the brainchild of Tom Darnal, the former keyboard player in Mano Negra. But it wasn't the product of jumping on Cuban bandwagons; instead it was quite a protracted labour of love.

"At the beginning, P18 was just a small collective, friends from the neighborhood, in a home studio," Darnal explains. " We made a couple of records, and then I wanted to make something with more acoustic instruments, because I didn't want to be on the computer all the time. I'd known the Cuban people on the record for eight years, I'd met them when I was on tour with Mano Negra in ‘92. They were all playing in their own bands. I went to visit them in Havana every year. Barbaro Garcia was playing with Sierra Maestra. When he was on tour in France, he'd stay with me, and came to the studio to put some trumpet on tracks I'd done with DJ Sree. And that's how it started. We did a couple of songs together. Then I went to Cuba to record some percussion, and also Barbaro's sister's band, Ire Ire. In ‘95 we had a big party in Cuba, and the only music we had was a tape from a Mexican DJ. We started playing with it, and decided to do something like that one day."

"I want everyone who plays on it to be really involved, to be sure of what we're doing; I don't want to be making Cuban music on my own."

But you know what promises made at parties are like - they evaporate with the smoke and beer fumes. So it was all forgotten, at least for a while. The next year Darnal was in Cuba, doing more recording of local musicians - the tracks that would eventually become Urban Cuban.

"When we were done, we wanted to present it on stage," he continues. "But it was difficult, wih half of the band in Havana, the rest in Paris. In December ‘98, a French festival called me and asked if we had P18 ready to play. I said it was a virtual band, but he invited us down to play on December 4. I called the Havana people; they said December 4 was the day of Satna Barbara, the Christian name from Chango, so we had to do it, it was a good day. They came, the show was quite good, and we got a lot of other offers. Then the record came out, and we could get the Urban Cuban band going properly."

And they really are doing it properly. There are ten of them playing live, along with a sequencer, billed as the Electropical Show, with horns, dancers, light show and the full works. They played a lot of festivals in ‘99 all over Europe, then moved into the clubs, where the music fits equally well.

"Now we're recording a new album. We've got a lot of new songs that we've been playing live, and with this band, the fusion is more complete. We've been offered some shows in America, if we can get visas for the Cubans. We'll be in Canada, and Mexico, Chile, and Argentina."

So, from a recording project, it's all developed into something that works excellently live - think of them, in a way, as a sort of Franco-Cuban Sound System.

"We should have the recording finished in the autumn, so the new record should appear next year sometime. I want everyone who plays on it to be really involved, to be sure of what we're doing; I don't want to be making Cuban music on my own. Right now I'm going around South and North America, to get to know what it's like, and to make contacts for when we play. And as it turns out, there's a lot of interest in our work, which makes me happy! Then, this summer, we're doing a tour with some other bands, so we have to get everyone together and rehearse for that. The year is fully booked."

And, as more people discover the record, the clamour might grow. If the Afro Celts can at least get a Grammy nomination, then people are at least listening to good music - and P18 offer some very good music indeed.

This article first appeared in Folk Roots

P18

"I want everyone who plays on it to be really involved, to be sure of what we're doing; I don't want to be making Cuban music on my own."

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