Barcelona Guaguancó Festival 2012

The 3rd Annual International Guaguancó Festival will be held from June 22-24 in Barcelona, Spain. This year's festival is dedicated to Gregorio Hernández better known as "El Goyo", a legendary rumbero who passed away earlier this year.

The festival offers classes with live music for both students and teachers in a wide variety of Afro-Cuban dances such as: Yoruba dances, Rumba Guaguancó, Columbia, Yambú, Contemporary Afro, Congo: Makuta, Palo & Yuca, Timba, Afro-Rumba, Franco-Haitian, Abakuá, Arará, Rumba Casino, Folkloric songs, Rueda de Casino, Son and Cubatón.

There will also be dance performances and live music including the amazing line up of La Charanga Habanera Friday the 22nd and Tirso Duarte & La Mecánica Loca Sunday the 24th!

3ma Guaguancó festival internacional- Barcelona

Check out the Guaguancó Festival 2012 promotional video below.

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Wednesday, 04 April 2012, 08:16 AM

Ladies and Gentlemen this year, as every year, it is time for me to remind you that timba was "officially" born this month in 1989 with the formation of NG La Banda by Maestro José Luis Cortés on April 4. So today we celebrate that momentous event that eventually changed all of our lives. Thank you El Tosco for starting the timba trend!

How will you celebrate International Timba Month? In the US you should catch one of the remaining concerts by La Charanga Habanera . In Europe you can find Los Van Van and here in Scandinavia we have the Viking Line Cuba cruises with Elito Revé y Su Charangón, La Charanga Forever and Yumurí y Sus Hermanos. I plan to celebrate with a few timba cruises assuming I can get free from work which has been unusually busy for me this spring.

So let's all look back with a bit of nostalgia on the band that started it all: NG La Banda with one of my favorite songs, "La Bruja" from back in 1992.

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Tuesday, 03 April 2012, 07:35 AM

The trailer of "7 Days in Havana" is now up at YouTube and I was thrilled to see the segment with Alexander Abreu! As far as I know this is his movie debut and he plays a taxi driver / musician. Felicidades de Timba.com Alexander!

The film has 7 directors who each took one day of the week. The segments in order of appearance are: El Yuma by Benicio Del Toro, Jam Session by Pablo Trapero, La tentación de Cecilia by Julio Médem, Diary of a Beginner by Elia Suleiman, Ritual byGaspar Noé, Dulce amargo by Juan Carlos Tabío and La fuente by Laurent Cantet.

I don't know when it will be at theaters but the trailer looks great, although the girl-on-girl dancing action is a bit unrealistic for Cuba. Anyway, check out the trailer. If you look closely you cna see some of the other musicians from Havana D'Primera as well. Look for the movie at a theater near you!

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Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 10:12 AM

Calixto Oviedo

Master Percussionist Calixto Oviedo will be back in Boston June 18-20 for the Berklee Percussion Festival. Calixto will be teaching Masters Classes as well as performing in a concert. This is an invaluable opportunity to learn directly from one of Cuba's most important modern percussionists! You can apply now on-line to attend the workshops.

If you're not able to attend the Berklee classes, check out the Beyond Salsa Percussion series. In this series Calixto teaches drums and timbales, both basic patterns and timba gears. You can choose from books, videos and audio files.

Calixto Oviedo: Beyond Salsa Percussion