Good day dear blog listeners, readers, followers, ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!

Today we shall enjoy a fine Timba composition from Pupy y los que Son Son‘s latest album so far, Pasandola Bien.

The album came out during 2018, and received much acclaim and love in charts, radio stations and dance floors worldwide, and in my opinion, rightfully so, with the title track often being called “Timba of the year”.

Today we’re going to hear one of the less known and played compositions from this album, which is a gem non the less, standing firmly on its two feet.

Name of the composition for today?
Los Reporteros.

And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutanto la musica Cubana!

Good day dear blog readers, listeners, followers, ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!

Today we are going to have a great time listening to a very suave Timba composition from the latest album of Nelson Manuel y la Corte from La Habana…

Composing since his days in middle school, Nelson Manuel was discovered in 1994 singing at a house party for his friend, by music producer and director of Orquesta Monumental Daniel Rojas, who offered him to transform this hobby into a career as the orchestra’s vocalist.
Nelson sang with La Monumental for several years, also composing some of the songs performed by the band.

In 2003, after participating in several international shows (including several featured at cabaret Tropicana) and releasing a CD with the group “Clave Cubana”, Nelson decided to form his own band, La Corte.
The band’s style has been much influenced by the music of Los Van Van, Issac Delgado, Manolito y su Trabuco, Adalberto Alvarez and Yumuri y sus Hermanos, with members graduating from ENA and ESA in La Habana.

For now La Corte released 4 albums,  the latest (2018) one being “Completamente Diferente”, from which today’s composition is from.

So, here it is!
And always remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!

Good day dear blog followers, readers listeners… ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!

Today we shall be enjoying a composition originally released by Orquesta Mayimbe, but covered in an interesting way by vocalist Mandy Cantero and virtuoso jazz and popular Cuban music Pianist, Pedro Andres Justiz Marquez, better known as Peruchin Jr.

Son of the great pianist, arranger and composer Pedro Nolasco Justiz Rodriguez “Peruchin”, Pedro Jr. stepped on the path of music from an early age, studying at some of Habana’s best schools of music, graduating from the National school of art (ENA).

Peruchin Jr. plays the guitar and piano, arranged, authored and composed, working with Los Zafras, Orquesta Reve and Los Reyes 73, also playing at various Jazz events and festivals worldwide with his group Peruchin y su Grupo, which he founded in 1983.

in 2018 Peruchin Jr and Mandy Cantero, currently singing with Los Van Van, collaborated to record their own version of “la fama se te fue a la cabeza“, released by Mayimbe in 2014.

This is the composition we shall be enjoying today.
And remember… ¡sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!

Good day dear blog listeners, readers, followers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!

Today is March 8th, so first of all, happy international woman’s day to all lovely ladies enjoying the blog.

For today’s post, I’m going to share a wonderful composition, one of the most romantic, lyrical and touching in the history of Timba, if you ask me… and maybe for this reason, and maybe not, I have not yet met a lady who listens to Cuban music a\o dances Cuban social dances, and did not like this song (it applies to most men I know as well, but we are not today’s focus by any means…) .

This award winning masterpiece by Los Van Van is sung by none other than one of the best voices and most expressive and talented vocalists of contemporary Cuban music – Yeni Valdez.

So, I hope you are all having a great day, and that I might have even made it a little bit better ))

¡Disfruten la musica Cubana!

And here is a live performance of this wonderful composition!

Good day dear blog readers, listeners, followers ¡y todos los amantes de la musica Cubana!

Today we shall discover an interesting story, of music going a full circle, back to its roots… the story of the band Africando!

As we all know, Cuban (and other Caribbean) music has its roots in the musical traditions of west and central Africa, as these regions are the origins of a large % of Cuba’s population, descendants of slaves brought over by the Spanish imperialists to toil on plantations since the mid XVI century.
These slaves of Congo, Yoruba, Bantu, Caravali and other African ethnic origins brought a rich culture with them, a culture which had well developed music and dance traditions.
Cuban music in the last 100 years has been influenced quite strongly by these musical traditions, and this is imminent in rhythms, instruments, melodies, themes, harmonies… you name it!

Thus, it is very interesting to see Cuban music reemerging in Africa, and this is the story of Africando.

Cuba has been assisting in peace keeping missions in Africa since the late 1960s, so Cuban soldiers were present in the thousands, and naturally brought Cuban music with them.
This added to the popularity of classic Cuban genres such as Son, which has been enjoyed by the masses in several African countries since the 1930s.
More recently, during the 1970s, Cuban music artists from new york, registered under the “Fania records” label, also performed a concert tour of the continent, sparking more interest in the field.

It was, thus, inevitable for a project such as Africando to emerge, and not so long after the above mentioned events, it did!
Africando was formed in 1992 by producer Ibrahima Sylla from Cote d’ivoire, arranger Boncana Maiga from Mali, vocalists Nicolas Menheim, Pape Seck and Medoune Diallo from Senegal, and various musicians of Latin American origin based in New York.

Over more than two decades of musical career, more and more African and Latin American musicians have joined the band, forming a unique and original style of music – Afro Cuban music, mainly classics of the various genres, but sung in Wolof and other African languages, some times also in a mix of those with Spanish.
Later on, the orchestra also started incorporating original compositions of popular African artists, performing them with stylistic influences of Afro Cuban music.

Over the years, 9 albums have been released.
Today’s composition is called “Viens Danser Sur le Son Africando”, is from the 2006 album “Ketekuba”, and is a Son Montuno with Guaguanco, sung in Wolof, French and Spanish.

Hope that you’ll like it, and always remember… ¡Sigue disfrutando la musica Cubana!