José Mangual, Jr. - Yoshi's SF - photo by Tom Ehrlich

Tom Ehrlich files this photo-report from the recent SF appearance of the Arsenio Rodríguez Project. Stay tuned for news on a related tour featuring big band arrangements of Arsenio classics. Next up from Tom is coverage of Yosvany Terry y los Parranderos.

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Planet Records has just uploaded "Dale lo que lleva" to YouTube. It is the official video of the new single by Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor featuring world renowned Cuban dancer Maykel Fonts on vocals! The song in a nutshell is about the two Maykels, both of whom learned their art more or less on the street, rather than through the Cuban schools of the arts, and both of whom have gone on to international fame. It is a fun, dancable song even if neither of the Maykels is really a lead vocalist. The video is great fun with some footage of Maykel F trying to teach Maykel B som dance moves.

Currently Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor are in Peru for two weeks where they will have their official CD release for "A toda máquina" on October 30th at Drama. On November 3rd the band will do their first ever 2 hour concert in Peru at Guajiros Room in Tiro Libre. Click here for the full list of concet dates in Lima.

Dale lo que lleva

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Tom files this special report on an event featuring John Santos and Raul Gonzalez Brito "Lali" from Havana, Cuba. It's Lali's first tour performing in the United States.

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One of our long-standing and most elusive goals at timba.com has been to find one or more great writers in every area with a strong Latin music scene. This month we've filled two of the top cities on our wish list: New York (Ian Stewart's Gotham Report) and Los Angeles (Kay Torres' Curuyé in LA). We're still looking for regularly reporting from Lima, Miami, and ... oh yeah, Havana.

Speaking of Havana, Bob Fernández talked to Pupy's conguero Duniesky Barretto, who confirmed that both Manolín and Issac both now have working bands in Havana. We reported last week that Manolín had been touring around the island with Pachito Alonso, but now he's played Casa de la Música under his own name. If Issac and el Médico recruit some young geniuses from la ENA start cranking out new material, the level of competition could rise exponentially. Keep your fingers crossed. In other news, two popular young singers, El Noro and El Niño, have left Pupy and Revé respectively to form their own bands and there's some hope that Pupy will finally tour the US again late this year. [Kevin Moore]

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