These two worked together in the wonderful El Último Trago, and now Buika and Chucho Valdés are about to separately release new CDs that are worth having:

La noche más larga, by Buika, is a delightful album that pairs her with Iván Melón Lewis and a supporting cast that includes several other notable Cuban musicians.  You can read our review in English here.

The year is young, but Border-Free, by Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban Messengers, is already a contender for best new Latin Jazz release of 2013.  You can read our review in English here. 

Ellos trabajaron juntos en el maravilloso El Último Trago, y ahora, Buika and Chucho Valdés están a punto de lanzar por separado nuevos CDs que valen la pena tener: 

La noche más larga, por Buika, es un álbum delicioso en que ella trabaja con Iván Melón Lewis y un reparto que incluye a varios otros notables músicos cubanos.  Se puede leer nuestra reseña en español aquí. 

El año es joven, pero Border-Free, por Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers, ya es un competidor para el mejor nuevo lanzamiento de Jazz latino de 2013.  Se puede leer nuestra reseña en español aquí.

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continue reading Sin Clave No Hay Na

The dust is beginning to settle over Havana after the wave of changes sweeping over La Charanga Habanera in its twenty-fifth year: first the departure of Randy Malcom to Gente D'Zona, then the return of "Lachy Fortuna", Lázaro Maya, to La Revé and most recently and, perhaps most surprisingly, the departure of veteran charanguero Aned Mota to work on projects together with his wife, Diva Haila Mompie. But as Paulo FG might say las aguas tomaron su nivel with the return of Yulién Oviedo to the group, at least for the time being. Indeed Yulién himself sang no hay mal que por bien no venga, and the first video I've seen of the new line up shows us a move back to serious timba, the band having recently won at Cubadisco for their second foray into Latin pop called "Charanga Light 2". According to a recent interview with David Calzado on "23 y M", the new CD will be out soon and will get back to some serious timba. 

With that I leave you to ponder the world of musical chairs that is Havana's music scene, and with a sample of what is to come and a look at new singers El Dandy and El Guay; now re-named El Chapy Guay it seems. Say what you will about the hair styles but trust me, after the dance routine, you will enjoy what you hear! 

La Charanga Habanera - Partienda la tarima (estreno)

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continue reading Timbera Mayor

As is the case with Transcribe!, AmazingSlowdowner and Emulator X, if you showed Tutti's new music education software to a musician from the Dark Ages (2005 or earlier), he or she would pass out in disbelief. In the case of Tutti, you see a whole band playing together in little video squares on your screen. If you click on a musician, you now see four different camera angles of just that musician and there are many other bells and whistles, like slowing the tempo and viewing sheet music as it scrolls along under the video.

The best news is that Vasík Greif and Michael Caba - the Czech Republic geniuses who brought you the video for the books on Alain Pérez and Melón Lewis - have filmed Calixto Oviedo playing all four parts (each with four camera angles) for a variety of Cuban rhythms. This will be a Tutti product soon!

Vasík, Calixto and Marek Caba (Calixto cooked the pasta - a man of many talents)

Calixto will also be playing in New York on July 9 as part of the New Dimensions Jazz series with Calixto's Way, featuring Gustavo Ramírez (ex-NG), Armando Gola (ex-Manolín), Mauricio Herrera (ex-PFG) and Carlos Averhoff, Jr. (ex-Issac). What a band!

Meanwhile, Calixto's son, Yulién, has rejoined Charanga Habanera - at least for their upcoming tour, replacing the departing Randy Martínez - Aned and Lachy Fortuna have apparently also left the group.

Here's Yulién with fellow ex-Charanguero Tirso Duarte, the subject of the soon-to-be-released Beyond Salsa Piano Vol. 14, which, in addition to being packed with piano tumbaos that will leave you speechless, tells the great Charanga Breakup story in greater detail than ever before, with lots of juicy new details from the world's leading Charangalogist, Majela Serrano van der Heuson.

Havana d'Primera: Next tour stops are today in Folsom California, May 30, at the historic Los Globos club in LA, and the two nights at Yoshi's SF, next Friday & Sat. 5-31 and 6-1 and then in Santa Cruz at Kuumbwa on Tues. June 4. These last two will sell out soon. You can take your HdP ticket stub to Cócomo afterwards on Saturday to hear Mayimbe for $5 - and their set starts after midnight, so you can do it without missing a note. Sorry for being Bay Area-centric here, but seriously, Miami, you've got nothing to be centric about. Miami is absolutely the least supportive Cuban music city in the world. Hang your heads in shame - and your basketball team is also choking. Okay, enough cross-coastal trash talk for one post - but this ain't over! [Kevin Moore]

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continue reading La Última

Here's Tom's article (with video and photos) on hip-hop artist Danay Suárez and the Bay Area's DJ Leydis. They'll be performing on May 29 at The New Parish in Oakland.

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continue reading La Última