Good evening dear readers!
Today I am glad to present you a very suave and melodic composition called Veneno by NG La Banda (the group credited with creating Timba as a musical genre) and the wonderful singer Yenni Valdez, well known for singing with Los Van Van.
I think that this smooth, soft and melodic, yet powerful and polyrhythmic composition is just what we need to start a great weekend.
Disfruten !
Good evening dear readers.
Today I’m glad to share a rare masterpiece from 1996 !
This is a track from the wonderful “el bueno soy yo” album (by Paulito FG y su elite) which came earlier that year, and features quite a legendary constalation of Cuban musicians, such as Alexander Abreu.
The song is from the “golden age” of Timba, also being Paulito’s best period…
Disfruten!
Good evening dear readers.
Today I am glad to present you a song from Son 14, the original band of Adalberto Alvarez!
This wonderful conjunto is a modern Son titan, producing lots of great Cuban music like Son, Guaguanco, Bolero, Mambo and much more.
The band released its 1st album in 1979, with Adalberto as a leading member until the late 1980’s.
This song is a Guaguanco-Son actually composed by Puertorican composer Roberto Anglero, and appeared on a 1973 CD by the wonderful El Gran Combo.
Disfruten!
Good day dear readers!
Last week, after I published the weekly post, I received a comment from a fellow named Bobby Martin, who told me the story of Son D’Acosta.
Son D’Acosta is a group playing traditional Cuban music from La Habana.
The group was founded by Jose Acosta, and had a fair amount of success.
Over time, Jose felts that the fine tuned and virtuoso group was not fulfilling its full potential, and with a heavy heart decided to defect to Spain.
After some years have passed, Jose moved to miami, (Fllorida, USA), and gathered the band once more.
In this video clip you can hear a medley of traditional Cuban music, representing the group’s style.
Disfruten !
Good day dear readers.
Recently, I came across a very nice album called “Son X Tres” by the wonderful Tresero Pancho Amat.
The album was great, but one song caught my eye, and the name is in the title; It caught my eye because I have been doing photography for 8 years now, with this being my main hobby outside Cuban music & dancing… so the song strikes my right in the heart 🙂
Leonel Francisco Amat, known as Pancho Amat, is a teacher by education, but more importantly a great Cuban tresero, arranger and composer.
His musical career started in 1971 with the establishment of Grupo Manguere, named after an ancient musical instrument of the people indigenous to south and central America.
The group toured over 25 countries.
After 15 years with the group, Pancho went on to a solo career, working together with such artists as Oscar De Leon, Pablo Milanes and Silvio Rodriguez, touring Europe, north America and Japan.
Pancho is also a winner of many musical awards, such as Cubadisco’s national prize (1995) and best traditional music album of the year (2002).
So, have a good time with this wonderful Son composition!
Disfruten!
Good day dear readers.
Usually I post great pieces of Cuban music, but today it’s different – this weekend I will not be accessing the internet or any sort of communications, as I will be busy learning and dancing a variety of Afro Cuban social, popular and folkloric dances at a local salsa event.
For this 3 day \ 2 night event the organizers arranged for the arrival of
These are a couple of quite successful professional Cuban dancers \ teachers \ performers currently living in Spain; Yunaisy is from la Habana and Danger from Camaguey.
Both are hugely talented, award winning professional dancer educated in some of Cuba’s best dance schools, academies and dance troupes.
Both are, no doubt, great dancers and performers, but personally I can also say that Danger is a very good teacher; I came to one of his seminars at the 2013 “remeneate” festival in Italy, learned a lot and had a great time.
So, I hope that his blog entry will give you enough motivation not to miss any good and well organized Cuban dance events in your part of the woods, especially if there are international artists involved!
🙂
Disfruten !
Good day dear readers!
As you might have already guessed, my favorite artist \ band is Adalberto Alvarez (y Su Son), with others like the Reve family and Dan Den half a step behind.
For me, this artist has everything there can be in a salsa song; Cadencia (strong rhythm), elegance, sabor (this unique “feeling” of Cuban music you can’t really describe in mere words…), great singing, virtuoso playing and all of this mixing traditional Cuban music and lots of improvisation… I couldn’t ask for more!
Also, Adalberto has been composing since the 1970’s, and has been really doing a great job at capturing the spirit and events of the times;
This song is from an album of the same name from 2008, a time when “dance tourism” in Cuba (and especially at la Habana, the capital where the country’s international airport is located) was peaking, and multitudes of Europeans were flocking to the wonderful city to learn the secrets of Cuban dancing (this still goes on today, and quite a lot, by the way…) .
The song is exactly about that – an Italian girl named Susanna, that comes to Havana with the dream of learning Cuban dancing.
What happens next? listen to the song and you’ll definitely find out!
Disfruten!
Good afternoon dear readers!
Is grammar important? I think it is, and apparently Adalberto Alvarez is in complete accord with me on this thought, and even composed a song about it !
This is the song for this week, a song about how spelling errors, and lack of knowledge in general, can turn you off…
This great song is from the 2010 album “El Son De Altura”; So, paraphrasing the ending “y yo les dejo con la cancion, y no se la escriben con ka!”
Disfruten!
Good day dear readers and blog followers !
Today I’m glad to present you a wonderful concert of NG La Banda, the group credited with making Timba a standalone genre, from the palacio de la salsa in Habana from 1996.
The band plays some of their best songs from these days.
Also, one can clearly hear the difference between the “studio versions” of songs and them being performed live.
I just love it – for me there is nothing like dancing to the wonderful plethora of Afro Cuban sounds live, almost as one with the musicians, which are only a short distance away, on the stage, or as it often happens, on the floor with the people.
For me, this is a great part of the whole phenomenon of Cuban music and Casino dancing.
Disfruten !
Good day dear readers!
There is a reason why the call Adalberto Alvarez y Su Son that way; Adalberto and his band specialize in Son music, which is the basis of all salsa in existence.
This band also often has some traditional instruments not by others, such as the Tress guitar, which is a defining characteristic of Son music and of many “old school” pieces.
Camina y Prende el Fogon is a classic Son composition, originally by Arsenio Rodriguez, Chappotin and Miguelito Cuni.
Adalberto and his band give it a fresh, more modern interpretation, but still stay true to the origin, thus respecting and paying homage to this wonderful piece of Cuban music.
Disfruten!