Mike Racette, producer/drummer of the highly recommended Havana Heavy Hitters was at Los Van Van's three hour concert in Toronto and reports that none other than the iconic Pedrito Calvo (Sandunguera, Que le den candela, El negro está cocinando etc.) was singing with the band. Meanwhile, Melao reports that the visas came through for la Yuma, so next up are LA, Houston, Austin, three nights at SOBs and then four nights at Yoshi's SF, then finally on to Tampa, Miami and Louisville. For the full tour click here.  [Kevin Moore]

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I've spent almost every waking moment since July on these six new products, but it was well worth the effort. Calixto Oviedo is truly amazing. In addition to the NG La Banda masterpieces we've all been listening to for years, his style is so all-encompassing that I was able to cover timba drums and timbales in a much more global way than I had hoped to at the beginning.

This project, as requested, is the approach used in the piano books, but for percussionists, but with one major enhancement. The piano books have audio, still don't have video - that will come in 2011, with Melón making the videos from the books, but with the percussion series, we did it the other way around. We started with three days of filming Calixto, with the Bay Area brain trust egging him on and requesting specific rhythms and approaches. We added several hours of interviews, and then I spent five months writing the books from the videos. The approach is to take a bona fide master of Cuban music and let him do thing, then break it down into bite-size pieces so that jazz and pop drummers can learn Latin, salsa drummers can learn timba, timba drummers can learn Calixto timba, and beginners (and non-drummer arrangers such as myself) can get a clearly-presented dose of "the big picture". As before there are hard-copy and eBook versions, fast and slow audio loops, and this time ... a wild video-looping component that's - if I say so myself - is amazingly cool. All of this is explained in the tutorials and Question & Answer sections of the home page, timba.com/percussion. 

VOL. 2 CALIXTO OVIEDO           •         VOL. 3 CALIXTO OVIEDO
BASIC RHYTHMS                                      TIMBA GEARS

Purchase Bound Paperback Book           |           Purchase Bound Paperback Book

Purchase eBook                         |                         Purchase eBook

Purchase Audio Files                      |                      Purchase Audio Files

Purchase Video Files                     |                     Purchase Video Files

Download Free Promo                    |                    Download Free Promo

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I've been working around the clock since July when I spent 3 days filming Calixto Oviedo for a new series of books: Beyond Salsa Percussion. 

Many announcements coming in the next few days, but if you want to get yourself in the mood, today's big news is that LPM has finally added Simplemente lo mejor de NG La Banda. The title, for once, is dead-on accurate.

It has all the best masterpieces from the Calixto era including Santa palabra, Échale limón, La bruja, Picadillo de soya, etc. Audio excerpts are available for every track. Enjoy.

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Tonight should be a very interesting night. Piedmont Piano Company holds only about 90 to 100 people, and has what may be the best piano currently available in the world, a 9-foot Fazioli concert grand. The concert is only $20 and the ticket is free if you buy the $170,000 piano. (Delivery is free!).

I'll be on hand with all 9 volumes of Beyond Salsa Piano, which you can have Melón personally autograph. There's also a discount for the full set, and a separate discount for the full set of Melón's volumes. Last but not least, I've completed two of the Calixto Oviedo Beyond Salsa Percussion volumes. They're not published just yet, but I've printed up mock copies of each for people to check out (and find typos if you can!) Tom Ehrlich will also be on hand and you might be able to convince him to take a shot of you with the maestro. Also a great opportunity to meet Bay Area luminaries such as Walfredo de los Reyes and other special guests.

Monday, Nov. 8 - 8:00 p.m.

Piedmont Piano Company 

call 510-547-8188 to reserve tickets

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