Havana d'Primera in Miami Tonight

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, 01:54 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]

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Thursday, 22 November 2012, 10:00 PM

paperback book - eBook - audio - FREE AUDIO - paperback book - eBook - audio

What do you give a timbero who has everything? Beyond Salsa for Beginners: An Introduction to Latin Music for Dancers and Listeners is for the diehard music fan who doesn't necessarily want to learn an instrument. It's a full history of Cuban music from the very beginning, including changüí, rumba, comparsa, son, danzón, son montuno, charanga, mambo, Arsenio, Arcaño, Aragón, the descargas, Cachao, Beny, Celia, Tito, Machito, Rubén Blades, mozambique, pilón, songo, Irakere, Afro-Cuban folkloric music, and my most thorough timba history to date. There's an extensive glossary and a special guide to Cuban Spanish for English speakers complete with tips on pronunciation, accent marks, and slang. I have to admit that I went through a period where I thought the world began and ended with timba, but as I started trying to understand where timba came from I found an endless well of priceless music from every decade of the era of recorded music. The book tells you how to find it, understand it, warm up to it, and see how and why it's so critical to timba. It's almost impossible to find a timba song that doesn't have multiple references to these earlier genres in the lyrics, melodies and arrangements. There's also an analysis of the growth of salsa and the way Cuban and Nuyorican music have influenced each other over the years. The book also has a full set of very basic clapping and singing exercises to learn the most basic rhythms that even non-musicians should know: clave, dancing "on 2" and "on 3" the most basic rhythm of each bell and drum and so on. There's also a history of how each bell and percussion instrument evolved over the decades and a huge section explaining how to listen to trickier Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms.

The second book, Beyond Salsa Percussion, Vol. 1 is for beginning drummers and timbaleros. The idea is that before you take your first lesson you should learn how to sing and clap all the basic rhythms - first one at a time, and then in combinations of 2 and 3. This way, you can spend your lessons working on technique, posture and tone production without being distracted by coordination.

IMPORTANT NOTES: These two books share several sections. BS Percusion V.1 has a lot more rhythms, but doesn't have any of the history and discography stuff that in BS for Beginners. Each one is ideal for its target audience, but if you buy both, you'll be annoyed to have purchased some duplicate material. So if you want them both, send me an email so you can get a big discount to account for the duplicate material.

AUDIO: This is also a bit confusing so please read carefully. There are 107 free tracks that you can download here. These tracks are covered by both books, so you'll need the free tracks no matter which book you buy. By the time you get through the free tracks, you'll know how well the method works for you and you can download the rest for the usual fee at LPM.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you buy both eBooks, the audio for both is free, so buy the books on LPM, then email me to receive the free audio. So in summary, for people who want both books: if you want both paperback books, email me for a discount, and if you want both eBooks, buy them on LPM and then email me for the audio. (kevin - at - timba.com). [Kevin Moore]

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Wednesday, 21 November 2012, 01:12 PM

photo by Peter Maiden

Update: 10:00 tickets now back on sale. Original Post: Click on the photo for Peter Maiden's photo gallery from the Havana d'Primera Santa Cruz show. Note that Yoshi's SF has stopped selling advance tickets for the 10:00 show. I'm not sure if they're holding any back for night-of-show. There are still a small number of 8:00 show advance tickets.