No Tirso, No Charanga, All Havana D' Primera

Preliminary reports coming in now.... It's looking like San Francisco is undoubtedly the capital of Timba in the United States. Even the beach town of Santa Cruz - one hour south of San Fran - outsells mid-town Manhattan in metropolitan New York.

No Tirso Duarte, no Charanga Habanera...guests include pianist Alex Tosca and an ex-Muñequitos singer. A pumped-up crowd going absolutely crazy over a brilliant show by Alexander Abreu & Havana D' Primera. The band is in incredible shape.

Havana D'Primera will be there (SOB's) tomorrow night. They are on fire and not to be missed. In regards to anything else your guess is as good as ours.

Havana D'Primera US Tour - Cuban Music News - Noticias de musica cubana Alexander Abreu y Havana D'Primera - Photo by Tom Ehrlich

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: If you're within striking distance of Manhattan, Queens or Bergen, go see Havana D' Primera - it doesn't get better than this and no amount of mixing and matching will make it any better. If whoever shows up and some special magic happens, all the better, but go to see Havana D' Primera because it's simply the tightest, most professional, most creative, and God knows, the most SOULFUL Cuban band you're going to see for a long long time.

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Monday, 26 November 2012, 02:24 AM

Fito Reinoso with Alexander - photo by Tom Ehrlich - click for full gallery

Next shows are SOBs Wed/Thurs.

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Sunday, 25 November 2012, 05:07 PM

Keisel Jiménez - in Felton - photo by Tom Ehrlich

Havana d'Primera completely sold out both Yoshi's shows. It was an incredible night - everything went perfectly - they're apparently already booked to return in March.

Tonight they'll be at The Place in Miami (another link here), then on to New York for four shows: Wed. & Thurs at SOB's, Friday at La Boom in Queens. and Saturday in North Bergen, New Jersey.

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Friday, 23 November 2012, 09:54 PM

photo by Tom Ehrlich - Enrique Pérez, Guillermo del Toro, Alexander Abreu

This is the first of Tom Ehrlich's Felton galleries, covering the soundcheck and part of the show.

Saturday's 10:00 show at Yoshi's SF is now (again) sold out, but this time it looks completely sold out, so jump on 8:00 while you still can. The band has been chilling its heels in SF for several days so they're well rested and loaded for bear (pardon all my dated slang) - just sayin' - get ready for this one!

And don't forget Beyond Black Friday: here's Tom's photo of Alexander and Orlando Vázquez checking out Beyond Salsa for Beginners before the Felton show:

Alexander is pointing out how the drumsticks are aligning with each other in Patrick Bonnard's killer shot of HdP in Europe. [Kevin Moore]