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"It’s been about 6 years since a Cuban musician last toured Australia, so when we heard nearly a year and a half ago, that Mixael Cabrera would be coming to Australia in 2022, we got super excited. It’s not often that Cuban musicians or bands take a detour and visit the salseros of Australia.
It was truly a special night, knowing that this might be one of the only times we get to see Mixael on Australian shores, so we made sure to get tickets early. With a couple of friends from our Newcastle salsa community joining us for the concert, we were heading down on Thursday afternoon, ready for doors to open at 7:00 pm at the Oxford Art Gallery.
After dinner just around the corner, we ducked back over to the Oxford and headed downstairs to the concert stage. With DJs laying down some awesome salsa and son tunes, we were really excited by now and the atmosphere was building.
We were careful not to get worn out from dancing before the concert began, so we had energy to dance to our favourites from Mixael's amazing list of timba, son moderno and changui tunes.
Speaking of which, it was this night that really revealed the amazing capabilities of Mixael’s cuban musical repertoire, drawing on the improvisational skills of his local band members, who played into the extended segments and pulled out some cracking solos on the metals, timbales and congas.
Fortunately, we also had the opportunity to see our good friend Juan Carlos rubbing shoulders and supporting one of the best known Cuban musicians of today with his epic handling of the congas and cajon."