May 2007 Sabroso@Interval Café, Sheffield

This was the the first time for us back on stage since the Donut gig, and with a significantly changed line-up:

• Dan has moved from rhythm guitar to timbales and is doing a fine job;
• Mike joined us just a couple of months ago, and is a great trombonist whose sense of humour comes across when he plays;
• Nathan has emerged from behind the timbales to take on vocals (lead and backing) and hand percussion;
• Wib joined us as a direct result from the Donut gig and is our new conguero;
• I've also stepped out from behind the congas and am fulfilling the same role as Nathan.

I think it's great for many reasons:

• Dan and Wib have an understanding of each other's musicianship based on years of playing live together;
• Mike brings a wealth of experience of playing soul, jazz and blues which is something we very much needed;
• there is more opportunity for interaction in the melodic arragements, which augments the montuno section of our songs;
• the rhythmic 'thickness' of our sound has been increased with both Nathan and I playing hand percussion;
• having two lead singers with different vocal ranges makes a wider range of songs possible;
• we have a high level of redundancy, meaning we can take on more gigs; and
• (selfishly) I can have a rest from singing during a set.

Woo-Hoo! This signals the dawning of a brave new world. Long live Cuatro de Diciembre!

Okay, as with any change in line-up, there is a period of instability. But even with that in mind and based on last night's performance, there's plenty of potential to be realised in this new line-up.

Joy.
Loo