The long-awaited date has finally arrived! Emilio Frias "El Niño" y La Verdad celebrate their 2nd Anniversary at Salon Rosado de la Tropical Benny Moré with the great José Alberto "El Canario" . Other guest artists include Manolito Simonet , Alexander Abreu , Septeto Santiaguero and Osain del Monte .

El Canario arrived Thursday and has been rehearsing with the band since then, so get ready for an amazing concert! I can't tell you how much it hurts that I was not in Havana this weekend. Tonight is also the final concert of three for the presentation of "Soy" - Buena Fe's new album at Karl Marx Theater. But more on that later.

Below you can enjoy a clip from rehearsal uploaded by Emilio to facebook yesterday. To all the timberos in Havana - enjoy the concert! To El Niño y La Verdad - happy anniversary!

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continue reading Timbera Mayor

Now that Miami practically has a commuter culture of bands from Cuba coming up to play festivals and concerts without serious incidents, cultural events in cities like Chicago have been long overdue to catch up.  Therefore, it is a great pleasure to share the news from today's press conference held by the organizers of Chicago's Festival Cubano at the 90 Miles Cafe:  the performance lineup for the final day of the festival will include Pedrito Calvo and Miguelito Cuni Jr.    Pedrito sang for years with Los Van Van before starting his own band, La Nueva Justicia ,  As for Miguelito Cuni Jr ., he has been performing with Conjunto Chappottin.
The lineup also includes José Alberto "El Canario" .  It would have been even better to see him with Septeto Santiaguero , with whom he recently released No Quiero Llanto , but it is still nice to see him on the bill.  
Congratulations to Festival Cubano for finally crossing the bridge.  I'm  already looking forward to next year when the conversations will progress to which are the most worthy acts from Cuba rather than whether it''s time to start bringing some.  In the meantime, I look forward to Pedrito and Miguelito.
This is the sixth edition of Festival Cubano, and advance discounted tickets are now available at
www.thecubanfestival.com. 
You can see some pictures from the press conference in the Report From Chicago entry for July 23. 

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continue reading Sin Clave No Hay Na

OK, so Tiempo Libre didn't go back to Havana physically, but musically, their new recording, Panamericano, which will be released June 30, for the most part recaptures the feel of that wonderfully rowdy Timba band we all first met a decade ago.  As a lead-up to the CD release, they have rolled out two videos.    Here's the first one:  

To see the second one, go to my sneak preview of Panamericano, which you can read here. 
Tiempo Libre has some key tour dates coming up in July:
July 9-10:  Subrosa, NYC
July 12: Square Roots Festival, Chicago
July 19-30:  tour of Spain incl. Festival de Segovia
August 13, 2015: Pershing Square, LA
October 10-November 15:  Winnestad Theatre, Portland, OR*
* This is a five week run of a new musical, Cuba Libre. 
November 19-25: Tour of UK including London Jazz Festival


Miguel Zenón at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, Thursday, July 25-Sunday, July 28
No, it's not Cuban music, but it is some truly fascinating Latin Jazz happening in the US right now, so I'm going to cheat and sneak it in here.  Mr. Zenón brings his quartet to this four-night stand (two shows nightly plus a matinee on Sunday), which includes himself on sax, Henry Cole on drums, Luis Perdomo on Piano and Hans Glawischnig on bass.  These guys are deep. You can read my review of his last recording, Identities are Changeable, here. 

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continue reading Sin Clave No Hay Na

The most innovative timba band in the world has finally returned to California. You can see them in two shows at SF Jazz on Sunday, June 21st, and at Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz Monday night, June 22nd..

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continue reading La Última