Classic Meets Cuba

Went for the Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion concert on Monday evening at Esplanade Theatre.

The concert was a one-night, 2h extravaganza, touted as "Classic Meets Cuba", but in reality a showcase of some of the quintet's other works as well, both from their "Jazz meets Cuba" and "Symphonic Salsa" albums as well as new pieces which may or may not appear in their fourth album, tentatively entitled "Mozart meets Cuba".

The five musicians, who are:
Kilian Forster (bass)
Tobias Forster (piano)
Tim Hahn (drums)
together making up the Classical-Jazz group formerly known as the Klazz Brothers

and
Alexis Herrera Estevez (timbales and bongos)
Elio Rodriguez Luis (congas)
together forming the Cuba Percussion group,

got together in Cuba by chance, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The concert was an exercise in contrast. The many contrasts seen (and heard) include:

- the jet-black background giving prominence to the all-white suits sported by the quintet
- the abject difference between the classical instruments and the Latin percussion set
- the dynamic control the group exhibited, clearly and seamlessly contrasting the loud tutti sections against the softer solo sections where the group would cut back to allow a single instrument to take the lead.

and others.

The group's forte is in its ability to take popular pieces and play them with a distinctly Latin, or Cuban feel. This is in no small part due to the two Cuban percussionists, who, despite being 2 out of 3 percussionists in a band of 5 members, manage to blend in effortlessly with the other instruments. The repertoire of easily-recognized pieces, such as favourites from Beethoven and Mozart, was well-received by the audience, and the short introductions provided by Killian Forster were both humourous and engaging.

Random sound bite: "The next piece is an original ballad written by Tobias. He wrote the ballad while thinking about a lot of things, but he could not find a name for it. He considered naming the piece after scenery, love, and even erotica, but he could not make up his mind. Finally, he decided on a name, and he will now play for you, 'Ballad Number One'."

What is left to say is that I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, and am waiting eagerly for them to release their fourth album.

However, the cincher of the night was when we saw the non-existent queue forming at Via Mar for the autograph session. We had initially not wanted to attend the autograph session, fearing crowds and citing the time, but when we saw all of five people milling around, we had to join the queue. Finding ourselves without any merchandise for the players to sign, we went to Gramophone to pick up the concert flyers which we then presented for the players to sign when they appeared. The wait was approximately 20min, which was fairly acceptable considering that the artistes had a prior committment to attend a reception for ABN-AMRO cardholders (ABN-AMRO being the main sponsor of the event).

The result of that being that I am now the proud owner of a Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion autographed flyer. Obviously, I have had it laminated.