Maykel Blanco (Part 1)

It has been way too long since Aimi and I last saw a live concert by a Cuban band and it is as rare as ever to get the opportunity to see one of the Cuban artists in the UK. All the more reason why the news of Maykel Blanco playing in Edinburgh on 14th October has made us pretty much drop everything and organise an impromptu visit back to our Scottish salsa roots. We only found out about the event a couple of weeks ago and decided to cancel our Leeds and Selby class on the 14th and 16th for the first time in order to go to Scotland for the weekend and give our students the chance to join us. We are extremely excited about this event not only because it gives us the rare chance to dance to live music by one of our favourite artists who we listen and dance to regularly, but also because some of our students are now at a stage where they share our enthusiasm to the point where they are willing to drive for 4 hours to get to see the concert with us.

Maykel Blanco Cuevas aka Maikel Blanco was born on 21 January 1981 in Havana starting his first band when he was only 15 years old. Even though his family was not from a musical background he learned to play percussion instruments autodidactically playing mainly rumba both in the street and at school.
Since he formed his first orchestra “Suprema Ley” at the age of 18 he has become one of the best and most popular Cuban artists internationally receiving many prizes and tributes. He started out as a percussionist originally but went on to learn keyboard as he was not satisfied with the arrangements of other people. This particular background has led him to adopt a “percussive” piano style catching the attention of timba fans around the world.

Today he performs under the name Maykel Blanco Y Su Salsa Mayor with the orchestra Salsa Mayor which he took over in 2004 from Javier Sotomayor's at only 23 years of age giving him the reputation of the youngest director to ever have led a well-known Cuban orchestra. The band consists of 14 musicians who have risen to international fame particularly in Europe and South America producing many hits that are being danced to at salsa events around the world.

"Maikel Bianco en Janvier 2013" by JBy Jpbazard Jean-Pierre Bazard is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0