When the sky is grey we console ourselves with the thought that summer is just around the corner. We all waited, and we waited, in Berlin, for brilliant blue, cloudless skies, the desperation, for the sun, the warmth … and finally, deep breath,the season has arrived. Wednesday however, still had in it, this air of summer needing desperation. That low slung, grey cloud settled itself across Berlin like a dreary damp dish cloth. Facing such a crisis we must do or die! So, I decided, to fake it. On Wednesday evening I ventured out to the Tausend Club on Schiffbauerdamm, Friedrichstraße for a night of Cuban music and culture. The pining for summer was forgotten, a while, as I kicked up my heels to the sun inspired beat of the Cuban drum.
Tausend Club is decked out well in trendy red and black with beautiful hosts on hand. I arrived and was immediately offered a complementary Cuban cocktail with lime and ginger flavours, if there was anything to lift the spirits! The evening really began at around 11pm when Gilles Peterson took to the stage. He's been a bit quiet lately, and with good reason. Peterson has been in Cuba (lucky for some) working on his new album with a variety of artists including Descemer Bueno, Yusa, Telmary, Kelvis Ochoa, Cubanito,Yusa, Kumar, Harold Lopez Nussa and Francis Del Rio whose sound celebrates Havana Cultura. After introducing his new album 'Havana Cultura Remixed', the Club Tropicana sound took off with a live Cuban band who got the audience bouncing to the sound of sea, sun and djemba! The bar very quickly began to Cha-cha to the band who were a mass of live, infectious energy, and fabulous, deep bass. This transpired into maraca inspired dance movements on the floor and plenty of smiley faces. By the time I was leaving, the gorgeous audience was a seething mass of sweaty, gyrating, tongue rolling rumba, showing all the signs of a crazy party lasting well into the wee hours.
The Havana Cultura project supports Cuban artists across all genres and brings them to an international audience with the help of Gilles Peterson, whose album is a happy assortment of Cuban Club Tropicana, fusing jazz, latin and hip-hop to create a fresh sound, without a sniff of Wham insight. The next day, summer arrived, coincidence? Or destiny?
