Leyder Chapman's Dos 4 y Los Míos is primarily a reguetón group but it's a reguetón group with live timba musicians, and several of the very best live timba musicians in the Bay Area, including Colin Douglas on drums and Jason Möen on piano. DJ Walt Digz is also in the band, so  if you're looking for an excuse to warm up to reguetón before it takes its rightful place beside Disco in the music history books, this is the gig.

Dos 4 y Los Míos - Yoshi's - San Francisco - Tuesday, May 18

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Click here to visit the photo gallery  -  Oprima aquí para ver las fotos

On February 26, 1993, after spending at least six years as musical director of Maravilla de Florida, pianist Manolito Simonet departed along with most of the group's members, added a horn section, synthesizer and kick drum, and started playing timba under the name Manolito y su Trabuco.

El Trabuco is one of the largest timba bands - a "super-charangón" if you will - with violin, cello, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, flute, and synthesizer in addition to the standard piano, bass, drums, congas and güiro.

Manolito is one of Cuba's most meticulous and prolific arrangers, making excellent use of the vast timbral resources at his disposal and frequently finding time to produce side projects such as his recent Tributo a Lilí Martínez. As of 2009, the group has released 8 studio albums, toured the world countless times, and risen to the top tier of the Havana club scene.

El Trabuco other main composer is singer Ricardo Amaray whose R&B influences are perfectly balanced by Simonet's encylopedic mastery of all the traditional forms of Cuban music.

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Even though Los Van Van has been postponed you will get your major fix with César "Pupy" Pedroso's powerhouse band "Los Que Son Son". Pupy will play the same venues Albert Torres hooked up for Manolito: the Sportmen's Lodge in Los Angeles and Café Cócomo in San Francisco. Click on the venue text for links to the ticket pages or call 310-445-9705.

Pupy will blow you away....read a concert report from Michelle La Timbera Mayor....click here.

César "Pupy" Pedroso (aka, "Pupi Pedroso") is one of the key figures not only in Timba, but in the last 40 years of Cuban pop music. As well as being one Cuba's best and most prolific composers, he played a seminal role in revolutionizing the art of salsa piano playing.

He started with Orquesta Revé and then became a founding member of Los Van Van. In the summer of 2001, he left to form his own group, "Pupy y Los Que Son Son", which has now released four of the best CD's of the decade.  

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Tom Ehrlich's Foto del Día gallery is up and full galleries are on their way from both Tom and Peter Maiden. You can hear Manolito in Miami on the 14th (this Friday at Kaffé Kristal) and on the 20th at SOB's in NYC. There have also been unconfirmed rumors about shows in Chicago and conceivably Detroit.

Also, Pupy Pedroso has apparently cleared the visa hurdle and will follow Manolito's pattern of back to back shows in LA (June 11 - Sportsmen's Lodge) and SF (June 12 - Café Cócomo).

Meanwhile, Maraca has put together what may be his most aggressively timbafied band to date with El Nene on vocals and a great new pianist named Andy Rubal. Check it out:

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