Ivan 'Melon" Lewis brings the US debut of a new project, the Cuban Swing Express , to the North Beach Bandshell  (7275 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach) from 7-10pm, Thursday, September 9.   It's  free (suggested donation $5.00), and the repertoire has been announced as a very eclectic mix of composers including some of Melon's own works.  This is a 10-piece band consisting of Cuban musicians living in Europe.   
For more information, visit
http://northbeachbandshell.com

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Pedrito Martinez Group , City WInery
Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, September 7 

The PMG has become a regular here and in the NYC flagship location; in fact, City Winery has even made a custom wine a couple of years ago (we are not sure whether it is still available).   

 Habanarte , Various Locations
 Havana, Cuba
 September 8-18

This is the third edition of an extended festival of the arts; in edition to concerts, there are events designed to sponsor collaboration between artists, producers and managers.  This edition will feature a forum sponsored by WOMEX in addition to the other events.  Art on La Rampa , an exposition of arts and crafts that also features textiles, footwear, jewelry, ceramic, garden furniture and other items for sale along with books, multimedia and photography presentations, already in progress in the Pabellon Cuba, has been extended until September 18 this year to permit visitors to enjoy both events simultaneously.
Habanarte has not updated its website for 2016 but does have a Facebook Page . 

and on the radio....

From the Isle of Music,   a shortwave radio program dedicated to all genres of Cuban Music (even Cuban chamber music), has a short segment with special guest William Roblejo this week; it includes a special theme that he recorded for this year's Habanarte . This week also includes a segment with special quest Maria Ochoa , sister of Eliades Ochoa . She has an interesting career of her own. For several weeks, Guido López Gavilan has been on the program narrating selections from one of Cubadisco 2016's Gran Premio winners, Caribe Nostrum . From the Isle of Music has a Facebook Page with complete program information including how to listen. 
During the two weeks following, the program will feature some of Timba 25 , a forthcoming EGREM release dedicated to a quarter century of Timba. 

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Next week Alaín Almeida y La Constelación de Cuba will release their first CD "Pa'lante y Con Fe" on the Cubamusic label, and the album could not be more appropriately named. It has really been an effort of heart and soul as the band struggled to overcome problems that delayed the release for over a year.

The original plan was to release the CD in March 2015, but the band faced problems with both time and financing (the project was self-financed). Alaín spoke with Timba.com about the reasons for the delay of the album.

Alain: Sometimes I had time to record but not the money, and sometimes I had the money but not the time. Here the work schedule is really rough. We average 12 presentations a week. We start playing Wednesday and don't stop until Monday morning. We only have Monday and Tuesday to rest.

The delay was also caused by situations that we have had to face in the collective. At first the orchestra wasn't mine. I just joined the group to make music and continue my career. One day because of differences with of the owner of the orchestra, the musicians and I decided not to continue working with him. But he owned the instruments, and when we broke the association with him, we had to take a loan of 20 000 soles (about 6000 USD) to buy our instruments.

We played to pay off the instruments ... one thousand soles a week. For 20 weeks the money that we could have used to record and other things, had to be used on  the new instruments. From April to late October we were paying one thousand soles a week. After we paid the instruments off, we were able to resume recording.

Making music is a constant struggle. This CD is a dream come true. I've been writing songs since I was 12 or 13, and I have never sold a song or given my songs to anyone. I've been waiting for a moment like this. It's a dream that has motivated me all my life, why I became a singer and why I'm here. It's a great blessing from God.

Timba.com is happy to congratulate Alain Almeida & La Constalación de Cuba on their first album, "Pa'lante y Con Fe". The album will be available next week at all the digital retailers and the band will also press CDs, mainly for the Peruvian audience.

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Here's Tom Ehrlich's second gallery from SFJAZZ's historic Cuban piano festival, this time featuring Melón Lewis's quartet with Jimmy Branly & Román Filiu.

Click here for my series of books on Melón's timba career with Issac Delgado.

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