Afro-Cuban and tropical music styles are highly featured in the upcoming barrage of Bay Area big band performances, one that includes special concerts by and the Pacific Mambo Orchestra and Marlow Rosado y La Riqueña.

The Pacific Mambo Orchestra is a (19) nineteen-piece Latin Salsa Big Band formed by trumpeter Steffen Kuehn and pianist Christian Tumalan (both experienced bandleaders in their own right), to bring back and build upon the great Latin big band sounds of the 1940s through 1960s. P.M.O. plays the music of Latin giants such as Machito, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and many others, along with their own contemporary and original arrangements. The group’s instrumentation consists of 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones, 5 Saxophones, Piano, Bass, Timbales, Congas, Bongos plus guest vocalists.

The Pacific Mambo Orchestra will be performing at the San José Jazz Festival, Friday, August 10 at 6:30pm, at the Kaiser Permanente Salsa Stage (click here for more details). For those that attend, there will be a special announcement from this Bay Area supergroup regarding their upcoming, self-titled debut album (click on the album cover to view it in a larger size).

The album is in progress and we've got the scoop on the track list and featured guests:
1) PMO Intro - 2) El Cantante - 3) Overjoyed - 4) La Ambición - 5) Cuando estoy Contigo - 6) Mr. 5.0 - 7) Bolero Cócomo - 8) Muévete Con Prisa - 9) Querer Como ayer - 10) Bolero Cócomo (Instrumental). Featured guests include Karl Perazzo, Willy Torres, Carlos Cascante, Kenny Washington, Ray Obiedo and Tommy Igoe. Latin Jazz collector's take note and stay tuned!

The next concert highlight takes place Wednesday, August 15, 8pm, at Yoshi's San Francisco, with Miami's hard-hittin salsa dura band Marlow Rosado y La Riqueña. In support of their new album, RETRO, the band and record are a new homaje to the classic salsa sounds of the 1970's. RETRO has been touted as a "major DJ alert" with it's "army of salsa greats and killer dance-club ready tracks that throw fireballs left and right" by the editors of Descarga.com. Click here for Bill Tilford's full CD Review of RETRO.

Marlow comments: "I think our industry suffers from very few releases from orchestras (bands as opposed to individual artists). I hope this album works up an appetite for the "roots style sounds" that that we are used to hearing. This production is full of energy, with modern sound production and new arrangements, but each songs is a theme that reflects the core of "salsa dura" (heavy sauce). This record is part Eddie Palmieri y la Perfecta, Papo Lucca and La Sonora Ponceña, Raphy Levitt and La Selecta, Willie Rosario and His Orchestra, Los Hermanos Lebron....and all the other great orchestras right through the years that delivered strong and original music. This new album carry the title "Retro" because it's a throw-back and homage to a decade that all salseros and salseras remembers with real nostalgia, and for the new enthusiasts of the genre, it's a great opportunity to explore the works of the masters that have been crowned as the pillars of our Latin sound. See you at Yoshi's (click here for tickets). 

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SALSA RUEDA FESTIVAL LAS VEGAS
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER for the 2012 SALSA RUEDA FESTIVAL LAS VEGAS
August 3-5 2012 -- Flamingo Hotel & Casino Las Vegas
888-373-9855

Be a part of the first annual Las Vegas Salsa Rueda Festival: The Party of the Year! Do not miss this unique event coming August 3-5, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV by the producers of the Salsa Rueda Festival in San Francisco.

SPECIAL PERFORMANCE by Miami's EL PIKETE on Saturday August 4th

* All-star instruction with the best of Cuba, Europe, and the US!!   20 workshops to choose from in Cuban Salsa, Casino, Rueda de Casino, Son, Mambo, Folklore and more with some of the best instructors from the States, Europe and Cuba.   
* Performances by the Salsa Rueda Festival Vegas Instructors 
* Performances by U.S. and local dance companies
* Casino Jack & Jill Competitions Re-invented
* Social Rueda de Casino Competitions
* Guerilla Rueda on the Vegas Strip
 * No Last Call for Alcohol!
 * The best dance tunes from DJ Walt Digz and MV

Happy to announce that our Italian correspondent CUBASOYYO, in collaboration with Corazón Timbero, present Alexander Abreu y Havana D' Primera in concert , Tuesday July 24 2012 at the Villa Caribe Resort - Via Ortale, snc, Spigno Saturnia (LT).

On the California homefront, Los Angeles favorite, Andy García & Cineson singer and ex-Arte Mixto lead singer IRIS SANDRA with be debuting her new original project -- an intimate sextet -- in support of her latest album Dos Palabras at...

MAMBO's CAFÉ
1701 Victory Blvd. Glendale, CA 91201
Phone: 818 545-8613 Fax: 818 545-1149

F.Y.I. FIRST SHOW SOLD OUT! 
Happy to report a second show has been added for that same night. 

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click on the READ MORE links immediately following each segment to read the full stories
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Verse 3 - A Concert Against All Odds - by Bill Tilford

Story and photos by Bill Tilford, all rights reserved
(para leer en español oprima aquí)

When Saturday arrived, I knew that I wasn’t going to try to do the VIP “Meet & Greet” with the fans. For one thing, as a writer, I have learned over the years that it really is better for my own blood pressure to let the regular fans have their own time at those things. For another, I had no idea where and when it would be. (I later learned that it was in the Rooftop 760 section of the club complex.) 

I did want to see the sound check, and after some effort and assistance, I was able to get into the club around 5 PM.  (There was still no noticeable poster outside the entrance to the club. Did someone decide that the event was top secret?)  I saw a few microphones and an engineer who was eagerly awaiting musicians and instruments. No musicians, no disc jockey, no sound, no sound check, just an engineer and equipment eagerly awaiting something to happen. As 6 pm approached, things didn’t look much different. Since the show was supposed to start at 6, this was not a good thing. More time passed. No real crowd was coming in either. One of the club’s staff, a brave young fellow named Denis, finally decided that there really should be music one way or another. By his own account, he was not a disc jockey and knew nothing about Cuban music but did know how to operate almost all of the equipment in the club including the DJ equipment. Heroically, he began assembling a downloaded playlist in the booth so that the audience would at least have something to dance to until the bands came in.  By this time, there was no escaping the fact that this concert was going to start – sometime - without a sound check by the engineer standing near me.  Bad sound can ruin even the best bands and sometimes has when bands from Cuba have performed in the United States, so I began mentally preparing myself for an impending disaster.    

...Testing, zero, zero, zero...

As the crowd began trickling in, music began playing from the DJ booth.....click HERE to read Bill Tilford's full report on the New York Timba Mega Concert

De La Habana a New York Concert Review - by Rosy Estrada

June 16, 2012 - Despite a very late start, mass confusion about the VIP tickets, and technical sound difficulties, the only thing that saved De La Habana a New York from becoming a Mega disaster was the pleasure the audience drew from watching the pure raw energy pour out of the musicians.  Bamboleo, Pupy Pedroso, and Manolito delivered an engaging performance in a rare appearance of all three groups at the famed Copacabana in New York City.

As the Washington, D.C. Timba.com correspondent and organizer of Distrito Cubano, DC's only Cuban social group, it seemed quite logical for me to organize and encourage a group of Cuban music followers/friends from our nation's capitol to travel to NY to soak in some live Cuban music.  What I didn't know was how much the lack of communication from the concert's organizers would affect my overall enjoyment of the concert.  Having attended both very successful Cuban concerts from visiting artists and others not so well promoted in the DC area, I still haven't been able to properly discern the root causes of what seems to be developing into a pattern and practice of over-promising and underdelivering when it comes to U.S. timba concert peformances.

In our case, we ended up purchasing the VIP Meet and Greet tickets....click HERE to read Rosina Estada's full report on the New York Timba Mega Concert

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Here are some preliminary images of the New York Mega Timba Concert. It wasn't the event that the promoters originally advertised, but it was still an excellent concert chock full of Cuba's best Timba stars. Check out the full gallery here. Articles and photos by Bill Tilford -- All Rights Reserved / Derechos Reservados. Stay tuned for Bill's full report on his blog "Sin Clave No Hay Ná". 

César Pupy Pedroso and Pedrito Calvo take the stage

Hanging out backstage with Manolito Simonet and friends

Pupy and Pedrito playing some classic Van Van tunes

Bamboleo's new front line-up (singers)  - Aliyn on the far right

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