After years of listening to people argue and pull their hair out about clave, and pulling out a fair amount of my own in the process, I finally decided to clarify it once and for all. My premise is that it's impossible to understand this stuff by talking about it - you have to clap, dance and sing it until it's completely ingrained and THEN you'll be able to understand it and talk about it to others without losing your sanity.

With that in mind, there are three main sections. The beginning section - designed for non-musicians - simply teaches you how to clap and name the various clave patterns. The intermediate section uses dancing to clear up all the confusion about "2-3" and "3-2". It never tries to explain a concept until it's gotten you to memorize and become comfortable with a clapping-singing-dancing routine that you can use to relate the concept to.

Finally, the "advanced" section - for true masochists - explains "clave changes", including the really difficult ones like Sandunguera, Se acabó el querer, Todos vuelven and Llegó la música cubana.

There are also some really stunning clave photos by Tom Ehrlich throughout the 90 page book.

LINKS = PHYSICAL BOOK ($15)   -   eBOOK ($10)   -   AUDIO FILES (free)

Free Audio Files: With all the other Beyond Salsa books, the book and audio are separate products, but for this course, you have to have them both for it to make any sense, so the audio files are a free album download. If you are new to the LPM site be sure to check your spam folder so that you can click on the activation link, because you must either login or register to be able to download the free audio album. Let me know what you think! [Kevin Moore]

More book news: I'll be releasing the second Pupy book (Vol. 11) at 11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11 - more on that soon. Meanwhile, Curtis Lanoue's and José Eladio's excellent Afro-Cuban Percussion Workbook now has a companion DVD product which is so well-done that it's inspired me to add a DVD product for the Calixto Oviedo books. Also getting rave reviews is Roberto Vizcaíno's Método para la eseñanza de la Percusión Latina. Vizcaíno and Eladio taught side by side at la ENA (as did Pupy, actually) for many years and are among the most important Latin percussion players and teachers on the planet.

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continue reading La Última

COWELL THEATRE, SAN FRANCISCO - OCTOBER 29, 2011
TOM EHRLICH reporting from San Francisco - view the full story & gallery here 
** Notice to the politically paranoid - this article contains this author's honest attempt
 at accurately reporting the background information and context for the story of the theater performance, any political biases or interpretations are your own. **

La Colmenita, a group of extremely talented actors/musicians (ages 5 to 15 years old) from Cuba performed in New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Bay Area.  I was fortunate to catch their last show in San Francisco.  La Colmenita is a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador.  Unicef is a branch of the United Nations which specializes in issues related to children.  While in New York, La Colmenita presented a special performance at the United Nations.

During their U.S. tour, they performed various plays which included Abracadabra, which was presented the night I attended.   Abracadabra is described as introducing Americans to the Cuban youth perspective on everything from the Beatles and well-loved fairy tales to the plight of the Cuban Five, a group of men who sacrificed their lives to protect the Cuban people from terrorism.  

The play is short skits which show interactions in classrooms between teachers and students, blending in musical interludes with the young actors singing, dancing and playing all instruments. The music was salsa and timba (mostly Adalberto Alvarez and Los Van Van songs).  These kids smoked (meaning they played at an extremely high and impressive level),  especially a young female drum set player who is ready to replace Samuel Formell any day now.   The show was a class act in every way - the acting and performing were top notch and the writing of the play and how it was put together were superb.

Abracadabra a sympathic protrayal of the Cuban 5.  In case you have not heard, the Cuban 5 are five Cubans who came to the United States and inflitrated some of the anti-Castro organizations in the Untied States which were planning and carrying out actions against Cuba, including attacks and bombings in an effort to topple the Cuban government.  

The Cuban 5's mission was to monitor these groups.....read the full story here. 

One of the youngest actors in La Colmenita is the grandson of the great Cuban band leader and composer, Adalberto Álvarez. What follows are some photos I took at the joy filled and emotional performance.

Back stage before performance - Kevin Lázaro Pérez Álvarez - grandson of Adalberto Álvarez

This young lady had some mean timba licks.

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continue reading Pa' Ponerte en Talla

Oprima aquí para leér este artículo en español - We Love Timba de Feri Dj - Perú Report 

Pinch me I'm dreaming....our Perú connect Feri DJ reports on an upcoming concert event of historical proportions. For this great collaboration to happen, the Cuban music agencies held a meeting in Lima with local promoters discussing a hold on all timba tours -- a vision led by Juan Formell of Los Van Van. The lineup is so loaded that a really concentrated effort was needed to assure participation from all the band leaders. Are you READY FOR THIS....

The concert counts with the participation of up to 40 artists of top calibre, among them...

• Juan Formell y Los Van Van (most of the band is coming)
• Adalberto Álvarez, "El Caballero del Son", and his daughter Dorgeris (pianist)
• drummer Giraldo Piloto, leader of Klimax 
• Alexander Abreu (trumpet) director of Havana d' Primera
• Maykel Blanco, director of Salsa Mayor.
• singer Leo Vera  ex-Irakere & ex-Charanga Habanera, "Hombre casado" & "Mi estrella" 
  
• singer Emilio Frías, "El Niño",  from Orquesta Revé
• Lázaro Valdés,  pianist & director of Bamboleo
• José Luis Cortés “El Tosco"  (flute) director of NG la Banda
• singer of NG fame, Tony Calá 
  
• ex-Bamboleo singer Tania Pantoja
  
• among others...Can You Believe It!!

Here's the first official video of the event:

For tickets contact - Teleticket de Wong y Metro (http://www.teleticket.com.pe/ )
Facebook page = https://www.facebook.com/festivalcubanisimo

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Haila (ex-Bamboleo) has a new album and she will be performing this Friday at S.O.B.s in New York City. Bassist Danny Rojo of PornoSon fame will be directing a group of local heavyweights (anyone have the complete list?).   

The official Los Van Van website is down = www.vanvandeformell.com = but after months of rumors that lead singer Mario "Mayito" Rivera left the iconic band (a press release was made on the Los Van Van website), no one has yet to report that they have seen them perform with the alleged new replacement Armando "Mandy" Cantero (formerly of Pupy y los que Son Son among others). Los Van Van performed in Mexico recently without Mayito but Mandy was not present, even though it was reported he was in Mexico at the time.  In related news Mayito has been singing with Monika (Mesa) y la Máquina Perfecta.  

Manolito y su Trabuco are in Hamburg, Germany today then covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Serbia and the Netherlands. Cuban music is truly international. Check out the tour page for all the official dates. 

Maykel Blanco's recent, independently produced US tour was well received and attended. The band was really TIGHT and executed consistently with tremendous energy. I really missed their recent hit "Un Kilo" which was not featured in any of the shows. I saw them in 2007 and this is by far the best group configuration, rhythm and horn sections. The pedal and bomba gears were in full, hard-hitting force. The singers delivered pure fun. Hoping they will be back next year for sure. Rumor has it Miami has 2 new singers and one smoking keyboard player. 

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