The Night in Havana Orchestra is a 13-piece Latin jazz band, directed from the timbales by Conor Guilfoyle. They were performing as part of Dublin Jazz Week and their sold-out Whelans concert was a triumphant success.
Rhythm is fundamental to this music, and the orchestra has a solid foundation, with no less than three percussionists - Guilfoyle, Nigel Flegg (congas) and Kuco Castellanos (bongo and campana). This trio worked brilliantly together, creating a complex polyrhythmic web. Three trumpets, three saxophones, two trombones, keyboard and bass completed the line-up.
There was a surprise guest at the start of the second set - soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman showed up and played on two tunes. His solo on Gingerbread was highpitched and virtuosic. On Ritmando Cha Cha Cha he was truly awesome, mixing atonal inflections into an impassioned bluesy solo. The band retained an incredibly high level of intensity for the remainder of the set, and the audience loved it - most of them were dancing by the end.