CHUCHITO VALDES DOES THE GREEN MILL

One of the most intense Jazz/Latin Jazz pianists playing today, Chuchito Valdes, youngest member (so far) of the Bebo Valdes/Chucho Valdes/Chuchito Valdes dynasty, was a nominee for a Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album this year and just played two very exciting performances at The Green Mill in Chicago Illinois on November 9th and 10th, 2011. Chuchito's performance style is so powerful that there have been a few jokes in the musicians' community about the safety of pianos whenever he comes. Click here to read our review and view the photos.

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domingo, 04 diciembre 2011, 11:45 am

(CLICK HERE TO READ ALL ABOUT IT AND CHECK OUT OUR PHOTOS )

Up until now, we thought that the odds of our using the words "Timba", "dance band" , "explosive" and "quartet" in the same sentence were roughly equal to our chances of feeding a real live unicorn at the local zoo. Well, two nights of the Pedrito Martinez Group in Milwaukee and Chicago have persuaded us that we might need to consider the possibility that those unicorns could be real after all. This quartet really is an explosive Timba dance band with added measures of killer funk bass and excellent Rumba chops. They tore the roof off in Milwaukee and Chicago and lifted the crowds out of their seats both places. What's more, they did it without the electronic toys that some bands use for cheating.

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domingo, 13 noviembre 2011, 04:42 am

A couple of weeks ago, we observed that the Latin GRAMMY awards didn't appear to being paying that much attention to Timba as a genre. This is not so much a complaint about whom is getting recognized - there is some worthy music getting recognition - but rather that Timba doesn't seem to be registering on the radar. For some reason, the regular GRAMMY awards have done a better job with this over the years with Los Van Van winning an award over a decade ago and the nominations of Tiempo Libre more than once. Unfortunately for many excellent bands around the world, the regular GRAMMY rules stipulate that the recording be a US release, and the genre is now a global one, so we still have a vacuum that needs to be addressed.

We observed that there is a case to be made for either creating a separate category for Timba (where does it really belong right now? Salsa? Contemporary Tropical? Traditional Tropical? Urban?) or combining it with some of its cousins for a new category. Here are three bands - two from Cuba and one from the US - that don't quite fit the usual labels people try to apply to the music.

First up is Sergio Valdes y Elevense, from Cuba, who were featured in some of the soundtrack of the recent film Juan de Los Muertos:

Next is Interactivo, one of the best and musically diverse bands in Cuba that many Americans aren't familiar with:

Finally, from Miami, Florida, here's a fairly new video from Palo! :

So what is the point, you ask? What do these have in common with each other or with Timba for that matter? Two things: 1. This is all as "Latin" as it gets, but where does it all fit in the category structure of the Latin GRAMMY awards? 2. Like Timba, this other music is underexposed in North American media markets. I'm not really sure that these bands belong in the same pot with Timba, but they are examples of an entire spectrum of the music that is intelligent, exciting, and relatively ignored compared to more traditional and/or commercial recordings.

The lack of media exposure is the more important issue of the two, and in the near future, we will begin an in-depth series on how Timba and other progressive Cuban music is received in the US, how it is all treated by our media (especially radio), and how these things are all connected. Stay tuned.

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viernes, 04 noviembre 2011, 10:27 am

Timba Battle: Tiempo Libre vs. Timbalive, Collins Park, Miami Beach FL

5 November 2011 10 PM

As part of Miami Beach's sleepless night, Tiempo Libre and Timbalive will be facing off in Collins Park for a three-hour dance concert. These groups are two of the very best Timba bands based in the US, and what's more, the event is free! For more information, see the Fundarte announcement at Fundarte.us.

If you have heard either of these bands, you already know why this is a don't miss. If you are new to either the bands or to Timba in general, this event is a great no-risk introduction to this music, and you'll be glad you went if you can still walk after dancing into the a.m.