After 24 years of operation, Descarga.com has ceased operations and posted a farewell message on their website.  For many years, especially their early years, they were the most important source of hardcopy CDs of Cuban music in the United States, but they were much more than that - album reviews, articles, in the early years they even had a wonderful newsletter until it eventually went the way of most newsletters in this industry as people began reading less and watching video more.  I was a customer myself for many years (admittedly less so in recent times, but that had more to do with my own circumstances than with theirs). In the 90s, they were even written up in some articles about e-commerce as being in the vanguard of Internet businesses.  

They weren't done in by a competitor doing the same things that they did, but rather by the changing patterns of how many people now consume music (including, unfortunately, the free file-sharing which is gradually destroying the chances for physical recordings to be sold effectively in the marketplace anywhere other than concerts and impairing digital sales in our genres as well). 

Congratulations to Bruce Pollin and the Descarga operation for many years of excellence. This is a sad day for the Tropical Latin music industry and for Latin Jazz as well. 

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Leoni Torres has arrived in Europe where he will begin his September/October 2016 tour "Bajo La Piel" with a concert at Salsa Republica in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday September 18th.

There has been much speculation in the media lately concerning Marc Anthony's interest in Leoni. In the meantime his European tour will include the following dates, among others.

September 18 Barcelona, Spain
September 22 Madrid, Spain
September 23 Paris, France
September  25 Montpellier, France
September 29 Naples, Italy
September 30 Rome, Italy
October 2 Zurich, Switzerland

Stay tuned for more concert dates or click here to follow Leoni at his official Facebook page .

I think most timberos are familiar with his recent hits "Es tu mirada" and "Para que un día vuelvas". Most recently he released the video for the single "Soledad", another collaboration with Yeandro Tamayo featuring Leoni in a more cinematic role than before and also starting his partner of 12 years Yuliet Cruz.

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Click here for the full list. Also Liga Habanera, El Noro, Maikel Blanco, etc.

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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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