Presente - Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor Examples – Music

Campana 6/8 "tata ta ta ta ta tatata ta ta ta ta"

Video: Presente - Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor

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Incomplete

I'm working on this song and probably incorrect or incomplete, improving as i go.

Notes:

  • Changed Mambo bridge -> Breakdown/Parada/Drop section (Breaks).
  • Looking into Presion part is correct or not, i found something about Descarga, which is new to me.
  • Afro section is 6/8, but what to dance?

lyrics

A.I. about santería in this song

No, no orisha is named, and there are no traits of one particular orisha either (no colours, numbers, attributes, or invocations). There is a religious layer, but it is about egun — the dead and the ancestors — and not about an orisha.

What does point to Santería

  • "Dale que llegué yo al güiro": in Cuba a güiro is also a festive ceremony for the orishas, with chekeres, singing, and dancing. "Going to the güiro" therefore also means "going to a santería party". A güiro can be dedicated to any orisha, so you cannot tell which one from this.
  • "Presente" and "en cuerpo y alma presente": this resembles the roll call of the dead, which is answered with "¡presente!".

What the lyrics are really about In the middle section he tells who he saw "antes de llegar aquí", and that they were "arriba" and "bendiciéndome":

  • Don Juan "Forquel" is almost certainly Juan Formell (Los Van Van), "hablando de cuatro cuerdas", i.e. the bass.
  • Chapottín, the trumpeter.
  • César Pedroso on piano.
  • Adalberto (Álvarez) with el Benny (Moré).
  • "el Torco" with the flute is probably El Tosco (José Luis Cortés, NG La Banda), so a mistake in this version of the lyrics.

All these musicians have passed away. So they bless him from "above". That makes the song a tribute to the departed greats of Cuban music. In Santería terms this is egun: the ancestors who are honoured first at every ceremony (ibae). That fits the güiro image well: he arrives at the party and the spirits of the great musicians are there.

If you really want to link one orisha to it, Changó is the most obvious. He owns the drums, the dance, and the party, and "llegó la alegría" suits him. That is an interpretation, though; the lyrics themselves don't say so.