Good day dear reader, listeners and blog followers!
The amazing Maykel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor are on tour in Europe, and the concerts have already begun… videos are there on youtube, for those who can’t wait.
So today, we shall enjoy another beautiful composition by this highly talented Cuban pianist, composer and song writer and his band of virtuosos…
Today’s featured composition is a wonderful Timba called “lo bello por dentro”, from la mayors’ first album, the masterpiece “Recoje y Vete” that came out in 2005.
As it is the case with many Timbas, this song is full of references to the African roots of Cuban culture, gears, solos & improvisation and rhythm changes… fun fun fun!
Good day dear blog followers, readers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today I present you a fine composition by talented Cuban bassist, pianist, singer and arranger Yorgis Goiricelaya…
Yorgis Goiricelaya comes from Matanzas, Cuba, where he started studying piano at the age of 8, joining a musical group only 2 year later, at 10 years of age.
Yorgis moved to Costa Rica in 1997, and soon started performing professionally as a pianist and bassist.
A bit later, in 1999, Yorgis started writing and arranging music as a musician and manager of the country’s most well know Timba band, Conjunto Chocolate, with whom he received several national level awards for 2 successful album released by that band.
Yorgis released his first independent album, Abriendo Caminos, in 2005, exceeding the expectations of critics, bringing about a series of concerts noted as the best Cuban music concerts in Costa Rica by the country’s leading newspaper, La Nacion. In late 2005 Yorgis moved to Miami, and since then have been performing around the world with such artists as Issac Delgado, Oscar De Leon, Irakere, Celia Cruz, Xiomara Laugart, Malena Burke and many more.
In 2010 Yorgis released his second Album, Elegance, containing mostly Latin Jazz, together with such special guests as Paquito De Rivera, Isaac Delgado, and Tony Perez among others.
In 2013 he was nominated for the Latin Grammy awards.
Today’s composition comes from Yorgis’s first album, Abriendo Caminos, and is called Otro Loco Que Se Enamoro.
¡Disfrutala!
Good day dear readers, blog followers and listeners!
Today I present you a nice new composition by Azucar Negra.
A bit less then a year ago, the band released a very nice collaboration with Alexander Abreu as a promo for their upcoming album by the same name, which has been available for purchase since August 28th.
I still haven’t heard all of the album, but some of what I have heard, such as the title track with Alexander or a cover of a Charanga Habanera Timba classic from la epoca del oro, is pretty good.
Another good composition is the one presented here today, a romantic Timba called “Porque Me Miras Asi”.
Good day dear blog followers, readers and listeners!
Today I present you yet another fine Timba by one of my favorite non Cuban bands, the Marvel of Nippon, Grupo Chevere, one of the best creators of Cuban & Latin music in Asia and a personal favorite band of mine, who have been on the market for almost 3 decades now!
Now, for today’s composition, it comes from the bands’ wonderful 2012 album, Cheverisimo, and is more on the romantic, calmer side of Timba, but still loaded with a sweeping groove, nice melodic riffs, good vocals and energy levels that slowly increase to a burst during the later part of the song (just the way I like it!) .
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Everybody has their own story to tell, and Timba bands are no exception, especially such major and influential veterans such as the author of today’s featured composition – a wonderful Timba by non other that Cesar “pupy” Pedroso.
Today’s composition is “Cuentame Todo”, and (as one can see above) is from the wonderful (Timba, as yet can be seen…) 2005 album “Mi Timba Cerra”, which truly stands up to its name!
The song features the usual driving, rolling, groove the band always has, wonderful piano riffs and some great trumpet solos together with powerful vocals, all mixed and spiced up at a BPM at the higher 90s, perfect for social dancing.
With such compositions as the title track, La Bala de Billy, De la Timba a Pogolotti, La Borrachera and the track featured today, the album is considered to be one of the bands best, and among the best albums of 2005.
So, here it is, a true Timba success story…
So, do you have a Cuban music \ social dancing story tell?
Feel free to comment and share!
P.S:
By the way, a composition which goes by same name, which came out at roughly the same time yet by a different, no less talented, Timba persona grata, has already been featured here at the blog some time ago, so you can listen to that as well 🙂
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers!
Today I present you an interesting all girl orchestra of talents from the golden age of Timba!
Orquesta Las Chicas del Sol was founded at La Habana, on September 15th 1993 by bassist, composer and arranger Griffith Lopez, more or less at the time that Timba was starting to gain ground at the capital, and soon driving the music and dance scene of Cuba almost mad with excitement and bliss – a new age of Cuban music was steamrolling through the island, claiming some “victims” outside it as well (the NG La Banda tour of Japan is an example of how far it went).
The band was formed from various young & talented graduates of La Habana’s various conservatories and music schools, including such (future) stars as Yousy Barbara Ruiz (Maravillas de Florida, Ritmo Oriental) and Ailyn Dallera (Azucar Negra) to name a few…
A “first class female group”, as officially recognized by the Cuban national institute of music and the Adolfo Guzman center of music, the band has formed it’s own unique style over the years, recognizable by powerful vocals, hard hitting percussion, great bass groove, catchy piano riffs and plenty of improvisation, combining the great traditions of Cuban music with other Afro-Caribbean genres and socially oriented lyrics about current themes.
The group participated in an international music festival for the first time in 1995 and recorded its first CD, called “La Habana”, in 1999, and since then performed with some of the greatest stars of the Timba genre, such as Klimax, Irakere, NG La Banda, Pachito Alonso Y Su Kini Kini, Los Van Van, Isaac Delgado, Adalberto Alvarez, Paulito FG, Yumuri Y Sus Hermanos, Manolito y Su Trabuco, Charanga Habanera, Bamboleo and many others.
The group also toured the Caribbean, South America, Africa and Europe.
Except the great “La Habana” (the CD to which today’s composition belongs) the band also took part at a wonderful compilation of traditional Cuban music called “100 lindas Cubanas”, performed only by All female groups, together with Anacaona, Son Damas and other bands.
As typical of Timba bands, the band even has it’s own “catch phrase”:
Camina woman… y goza man!
Personally I think that this might be an influence of Charanga Habanera’s “Hey you, Loca!” (the album and the song) that came out a year before the band was formed, becoming an instant hit.
Also, Charanga Habanera songs are often quoted by the band – can you spot the references here?
Good day dear readers, listeners and blog followers! Today we shall be enjoying a very nice cover version to a Timba classic.
When asking readers of Timba.com to name several memorable Timba compositions many included “el protagonista”, also known as “se le fue la mano” in their answer, and rightfully so;
This great composition, by Bamboleo, comes from “la epoca del oro”, the golden age of Timba, being the mid 1990’s to early 2000’s, a time when this band (and many others) were in their element 24/7, and produced an incredible harvest of great Timba for us fans to enjoy.
This song comes from the amazing 1999 album “ya no hace falta”, and today is presented in the 2005 cover version by a band called Junito y su Secreto a Voces, from their 8 track and highly varied album “bailalo…” .
The lead vocal is by the wonderful Betsy Lopez, and the band is a personal project of Julio Albino, a timbalero who in the past worked with Lalo Rodriguez, Grupo Niche and Frankie Ruiz among others.
So, while definitely not a mighty beast like the original, this cover is quite decent, fun, finely arranged and well executed…
So today I’m sharing with you one yet another of my favorite compositions by this artist, as it has been a while since I shared any of his wonderful Timba here 😉
The song is called “Eso Que Es”, and is from the amazing 2010 Timba album “Soy Lo Que Te Hala”.
This composition is a rapidly developing “energy bomb” which offers a set of interesting moments right from the start, and keeps rolling forwards for another 4 whole minutes with not a second of boredom…
Good day dear listeners, readers and blog followers!
Today we will be enjoying a new song by one of my favorite artists, who’s one of many (many… many…) compositions was the first one to appear on my blog.
Good day dear blog followers, readers, listeners y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!
Today, after a 2 week break, the blog returns from Moscow, with lot’s of great memories and some new songs to present.
During my stay in Moscow I had the opportunity to visit many of the city’s wonderful salsa venues, but the most memorable and enjoyable of all was the open air party under the Andreyevskiy bridge, on the banks of the Moskva river.
The 2nd half of the party was dedicated to el dia de la revolucion (July 26th), and so it was packed full not only with great dancers but also wonderful Cuban music, lots of Son, Son Montuno and Timba…
One of the best dances I had during my stay (at this party or otherwise) was on a beautiful Son Montuno composition (which I shall present here today, in a few brief moments…), with a gracious young lady that although claimed to have never danced Son \ Casino a contra-tiempo before, proceeded to dance wonderfully, with great following skills, body motion, a clear & distinct understanding of the rhythm and even with that special spark in her eyes and a smile from ear to ear smudged all over her face 🙂
The beautiful composition being played at those moments was the one I shall share here today – Palo Santo, interpreted by the band Asere.
The composition itself is a decent salsa composition from the 1980’s, by Puertorican Henry Fiol, which kind of went under the radar, as except the nice, eco friendly, lyrics there isn’t much to it.
But grupo Asere has completely remade the composition into a classic Son Montuno with very strong ties to Son, it’s original genre.
Asere is a septeto (7 member band) from La Habana, which came together during the late 1990’s, following the success of Buena Vista Social Club and the rise of interest towards Son music.
The band based it’s format on Son and other genres of traditional Cuban music and released it’s 1st album, Cuban Soul, in 1998.
Since then the band has expanded it’s repertoire to Timba as well as the traditional genres, toured Europe and the Americas, and released 3 more albums, being Yo Soy el Son (2000), Destinos (2005) and the latest one, to which this composition belongs – Junio Groove from 2010.
