Third Melón Book Goes Live

Continuing our survey of one of the great Cuban pianists, Beyond Salsa Piano Volume 8 moves on to Deja que Roberto te toque, Brindando con el alma, and La chica del sol.

The first two go deeper than ever into the ways that Melón is able to create continuous variations on the same tumbao, while the section on La chica leads to an interesting discussion of salsa versus timba versus Latin jazz.

At this point, the first eight volumes are all available digitally and only Volumes 5 and 8 are straggling behind in hard-copy form. Volume 9 is in the works but before completing that I'm going to start working on Beyond Salsa Percussion.

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viernes, 05 marzo 2010, 09:12 pm

Volume 7 of Beyond Salsa Piano analyzes Melón's tumbaos and general style on Por qué paró and Luz viajera, and also includes rhythm play-along tracks.

Meanwhile, Volume 6, whose eBook and audio files have been online for several days, is now also available in hard-copy.

Volume 5 is still only digital. The hard-copy version will go online Wednesday.

Volume 8 is coming very soon.

Meanwhile, I'm shifting my focus to Beyond Salsa Percussion. Stay tuned!

And don't forget - although Pupy has been postponed, his ex-cantante/ex-compositor Pepito Gómez is a definite go for Friday, March 19th at Club Antón in Berkeley (around the corner from Yoshi's).

QUESTION: Have you tried to log in to timba.com to comment and given up in frustration? If so, please email us and let us know.

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viernes, 05 marzo 2010, 02:40 pm

Damn ... visas didn't come through in time.

I'm thinking of changing the theme song of La última:

OLD SONG

NEW SONG

There's a "Plan B" in the works, but no dates yet.

Actually ... that's a pretty slick keyboard tumbao, eh?

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jueves, 04 marzo 2010, 12:41 pm

Mark Levine is one of the most melodic and creative Latin/Brazilian jazz artists in the world. Tonight he's on the Brazilian side, playing a tribute to Moaciar Santos at Kuumbwa Jazz Center. See you there!