Los Van Van | TheAudioDB.com

Artist Name
Los Van Van

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Modo Van Van (2023)	Legado (2018)	La fantasía: Homenaje a J (2014)
La maquinaria (2011)	Arrasando (2008)	Aquí el que baila gana (2007)
Vive (2004)	Llegó... Van Van (Van Van (1999)	Te pone la cabeza mala (1997)
Colección: El negro no ti (1995)	Azúcar (1993)	Los Van Van (1992)
Al son del Caribe (1987)	Eso que anda (1986)	Sandunguera (1986)
Qué pista (1983)	El baile del buey cansao (1982)	Orquesta Los Van Van (1976)
Juan Formell y Los Van Va (1974)	Transito (1973)	Musica de Cuba (1969)

Members
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1 Male

Origin
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Cuba

Genre
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Latin

Style
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Mood
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Active

1969 to Present...

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Alternate Name
Juan Formell y Los Van Van

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Artist Biography
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Los Van Van is one of the leading musical groups of post-revolutionary Cuba. It was founded in 1969 by bassist Juan Formell, who directed the band until his death in 2014. Formell and former band members Changuito and Pupy are some of the most important figures in contemporary Cuban music, having contributed to the development of songo and timba, two popular dance music genres.

Los Van Van
History
In 1967, Formell became musical director of Elio Revé's charanga orchestra. The sound of Orquesta Revé at that time was a unique blend of Cuban son and late-'60s rock. Formell reformed the group into Changui '68, and then founded his own group, Los Van Van, on December 4, 1969.

was convinced that he could capture the imagination of Cuba's younger generation by infusing Revé's arrangements with elements of North American rock and roll, creating an odd new style that he called changüí 68. Early the next year, almost exactly a decade after Revé's band had jumped ship to form Ritmo Oriental, . . . Formell incited the most famous of the Revé mutinies and absconded with the majority of the musicians to form a group which has stayed at the true leading edge of its country's music longer than any other . . . at first Formell relied heavily on the songs and stylistic tendencies of his previous work with Revé. The harmonies, never before heard in Cuban music, were clearly borrowed from North American pop—in some cases rather corny North American pop . . . their sudden commercial popularity shattered the formulaic limitations on harmony to which Cuban popular music had faithfully adhered for so long . . . rhythmically, the 1969 group made the transition from changüí 68 to the first incarnation of a style which Formell called songo (Moore 2011).

The original personnel of Los Van Van were Juan Formell (leader, bass guitar, vocals); Orlando Canto (flute); Raúl "El Yulo" Cárdenas (congas); Blas Egües (drum kit); Luis Marsilli (cello); José Luis Martínez (electric guitar, vocals); Julio Noroña (güiro); Pupy Pedroso (keyboard); Miguel Angel "Lele" Rasalps (vocals); William Sánchez (electric guitar), and Gerardo Miró, Jesús Linare, Fernando Leyva, and Iván Rocha (violins).

Juan Formell states that the main piano guajeo of "La lucha"s (1969) montuno section was inspired by the Afro‐Cuban folkloric batá drum rhythm chachalokefún.