Things are heating up again in Northern California. 

Paulito FG returns for the first time since 2001, sporting a new album which can be auditioned here. The tracks sound quite good to me and Paulito live is always incredible. He'll be at Yoshi's Oakland on March 18, 19 and 20 .

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas  will return to Mission High School Auditorium on April 4   for the first time since the 1990s.

Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All-Stars,  with Calixto Oviedo on timbales, will return to Zellerbach on April 19th . The rest of the tour, including, New York, Nashville and Oregon, among others, can be found here .

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Havana d'Primera's long-awaited new material is finally starting to come out. They've released two tracks - a "single", as it were - for digital download. They're called No me importa and Carita de pasaporte, and they're both fantastic. And folks - can we all agree that each fan should buy his or her own copy? It's only $2.80 for both tracks. We're all conditioned to send everything out to everyone we know and it's not realistic that we're going to change our habits at this late date, but let's think ahead a little. If HdP makes money on these tracks, more will follow. If there was ever a group to make a positive example of, this is the one, with a musician-friendly leader and lineup of some of the true class acts of the Havana scene. Remember that the catalyst for the timba explosion of the 1990s was the sudden financial opportunity brought about by the reaction to the fall of the Soviet Union. There's some kind of economic catalyst at play in almost every great musical era. If we all agree to buy our own copies of the best new timba, we can create our own. For a mere $2.80 you can do your part. I bought mine, Gabriel of Yemayá's Verse bought hers. If you buy yours, add your name in the comments to this post.

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Volume 10 of Beyond Salsa Piano is almost done! It'll be the first on Pupy Pedroso and pick up his career with Van Van in 1979, when he began to write his first songs. 

We'll go chronologically through Van Van history, covering all the songs Pupy wrote, plus a selection of other classics with interesting piano tumbaos.

When we hit a song, like Hoy se cumplen seis semanas, that was re-recorded later, we cover both versions.

One difference this time is that bass tumbaos are included, so instead of having the audio file pan the right hand to the right and the left hand to the left, the entire piano is panned hard right while the bass is hard left, so you can practice along with the bass by turning your balance control all the way to the right.

There's also a full cuerpo arrangement, and a transcribed solo. 

Melón Clinics: Don't forget that Melón will be in Los Angeles starting Feb. 28th to give at least one clinic and will also be available for private lessons. Click here for more on the Melón books.

           photo by Tom Ehrlich

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Tom Ehrlich has posted another great gallery from Los Van Van's recent engagement at Yoshi's SF. Van Van in performance and backstage with Bay Area luminaries Carlos Aldama, Walfredo de los Reyes, John Calloway and Rebeca Mauleón.

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