The brand new state-of-the-art SF Jazz hall plays host to Juan d'Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars for the next four nights. The acoustics are supposed to be absolutely sublime and the band definitely is. Juan will also give a lecture/demonstration (same venue) on Saturday afternoon. See you there!

Click here for more info and tickets.

Click here for the rest of the tour (WA, Canada, Arcata, etc.)

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In less than two weeks the annual Havana Rhythm and Dance Festival will kick off with an inaugural carnival at La Fuente de la Juventud. This is the biggest percussion event of the year with percussion conferences and classes, dance shows and concerts by the biggest timba bands, jazz groups and rumba/folklore groups.  The event includes the participation of international artists from Venezuela, Puerto Rico,Curaçao, Canada, the USA, Japan and Chile. Performances and conferences will be held at Palacio de la Rumba, Hotel Habana Libre, Teatro Mella, Hotel Occidental Miramar, Hotel Melia Cohiba, Casa de la Música Miramar and Salon Rosado de La Tropical. If you will be in Havana during this period don't miss this amazing event. It is a union of some of the world's greatest percussionists. All the information including the full program can be found at the Fiesta del Tambor website.

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February 19th is an important day in Latin music history. In 1932 Cuba's first all-women dance band, Anacaona, was formed by Cuchito Castro and her sisters Ada, Bola, and Ondina. Also part of the original band were Isabel Álvarez, Berta Cabrera, Elia O'Reilly. Despite prejudices in what was then an all-male industry, Anacaona developed a following and at the height of their popularity, they performed in New York, Europe and Mexico.

Eighty-one years later Anacaona is still releasing hit songs, although the band has a younger look and modern musical style. Congratulations Anacaona!

Today is also the 50th anniversary of the passing of the great Benny Moré who died on February 19, 1963 at the age of 43 due to liver disease brought on by alcoholism. Born in Lajas, Cuba, Benny Moré was a self-taught musician who got his start playing for tips in Havana and by the time of his death was the leader of one of the most popular latin dance bands in the world. It was his voice that got him his first jobs with bands such as Sexteto Cauto and later Conjunto Matamoros with which he traveled to Mexico.... click here to read the full article >>>

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Article and all photos by Bill Tilford -- All Rights Reserved

PRELUDIO As I type this, I can already hear the screams of some of my most hard-line Timbero friends and colleagues that I have committed the supreme blasphemy by writing an extended article here about a Salsa Congress, so please allow me to begin by addressing those dear friends. For quite some time now, I have been wandering about looking for insights into whether there are ways to effectively tackle the biggest challenge facing Timba music in the United States:  we as a community have basically failed to attract the levels of mass paying (that word "paying" is important) audiences that the music truly deserves, and at the very time when it is politically easier than it has ever been for bands to tour the United States from Cuba, the economic realities of the position of Timba music in the marketplace have slowed what could  be a flood of amazing bands touring the country to a relative trickle touring  primarily the East and West coasts.  Even in those places, the audience numbers have frequently failed to live up to initial expectations. What's more, many of the US-based bands that play Timba have either fallen upon hard times, adapted by playing more fusion and/or Salsa and/or survived by touring extensively out of the United States. There are a prosperous few, but they are exceptions that prove the rule. This problem is truly odd because much of the Salsa audience is already halfway home - many of the songs they listen to were written and originally performed in Cuba, and most of the most important roots of Salsa come from Cuban music..... click here to read the full article >>>

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