Good day dear readers!

Today I’m writing from a local Cuban salsa festival, called “Otra Festival”.

The atmosphere is great; very happy but at the same time very relaxed and suave…

So, this week’s song is just that way; It is “oh no” by Pupy y Los Que Son Son, from the wonderful album “siempre Pupy”.

I sure hope that all can relax during this weekend, and that this song will help out a bit in that task 🙂

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

After a 2 week long break due to my wonderful vacation in the great country of Belarus, the blog is back on track!

Today I wish to present a song I heard at one of the (great, from all possible aspects) salsa parties in Minsk, a new composition by the Soneros All Stars.

The song is called “homenaje a la Rumba”, and definitely stands up to its name with several interesting Rumba parts strategically embedded throughout this high gear Timba composition.

The song is from the band’s new album “Lolo” which came out earlier this year, and personally I like quite a lot.

I had a wonderful dance on this song in that party, and surely hope you will have some as well!

Dusfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Today I’m glad to present you something with a clear conscience, or in Spanish, con la conciencia tranquila 🙂

This is actually the name of the wonderful 1997 album by Paulito FG, on which this week’s song is listed.

The great Paulito, one of Timba’s most unique and outstanding figures, is quite a diverse musician, which provides the listener and dancer with anything and everything from hard hitting, fast paced, Afro-Cuban groove infused tracks to lyrical and romantic compositions such as this one.

So, have a good time with this great music, disfruten!

Good day everybody.

Recently a friend of mine had to go quite a long way to get a visa necessary for a trip to a certain country.

This experience made me recall a wonderful song by the ingenious Alexander Abreu and his current group, Havana De Primera.

The song is called “Pasaporte”, and is the title track of the band’s album by the same name which came out in 2011.

This song was released even earlier as a promo, and became a world wide hit right away.

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Today I have the pleasure of presenting an interesting band from… Japan!
Even that their singers have a French accent 🙂

This little known group was formed in 1987 in Japan, and has been making wonderful Cuban music since then, also visiting Cuban in 1991.
Over the years the band’s compositions made it into top ranking places in European salsa charts, also with the band touring many countries.

Although hard to get, there exist 6 albums of this fine band which I can definitely recommend getting your hands on (some albums and singles are available on itunes: http://www.chevere.asia/disco.html ) :
Grupo Chevere (1996), Chevere que Chevere (1998), Chevereando (2000), Cheverelax (2002), Cheverenacer (2007) and Cheverisimo (2012).
Personally, I can recommend “Cheverelax”, which is my favorite of their work.

Youtube clips of this band are hard to come by, unfortunately, both studio and live recordings alike… but I did manage to find a video of one of their concerts in a Japanese salsa club, as a part of the band’s 25 year anniversary tour, and thus this I with you share 🙂

Disfruten!
(p.s: the song itself starts at ~01:50)

Good day my friends!

This week I am glad to present you a “Family orchestra” from Los Angeles, USA.
Why “family orchestra”? because this band was formed in 1955 by the Pulgar family (from Ecuador) in 1955.

The band has 12 members, and plays various rhythms and styles of music, most being Latin, but this is not exclusive (they also play Jazz, for example).
Today the band is run by some of the original members, but also some of their children, and performed all over the USA, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Canada.
The band also has their own recording company and studio.

Although not usually their style, the song “Asi No” sounded very “Timba influenced” to me, and IMO, managed to incorporate the feel of contemporary Cuban music quite well.

Disfruten!

Greetings dear readers!

I’m sorry if this “post” will be disappointing, but there shall be no blog entry this week, as this weekend I’ll be attending a local salsa event, featuring Wilmer & Maria and some other dance artists.

So, for you not to get entirely bored, here is a nice clip of Wilmer & Maria dancing.

Have fun, and see you around next week!

Good day dear readers.
Today I wish to present you an interesting Cuban artist which currently lives in Spain.

Chan Junior, known as “el boom de la salsa Cubana”, started his musical career as a vocalist in an early age during the 1970’s.
After finishing his studies at the Ignacio Cervantes musical school, Chan sang eith various orchestras and bands in Cuba in various venues and concerts.

In 1993, in Habana, Chan formed his own orchestra “Chan Junior y su Orquesta”, which performed all over Cuba, appeared on radio and TV shows, and later that year, toured the Caribbean and Latin America, with a gran finale concert at Cancun, Mexico, together with such renowned artists as Celia Cruz, Tata Guines and Oscar De Leon.

In 1996 the band was invited to attend various events in Italy,  touring the whole country, appearing at such events as the “miss Italy 1997”, and giving concerts at the Bari stadium.
In late 1997 the band moved to Spain, and started collaborating with the “Chanson Records” recording company, with whom they still work today.

The latest album of Chan Junior y su Orquesta is “Mi Homenajo a Los Grandes”, a tribute album to the classics of Cuban (and other Latin) music, which was recorded at the USA (Sony), with many songs becoming “hits” at the states, in Puertorico and in Spain.

This song “Tu Movimiento al Caminar”, is from that same album, and currently has an official video clip, containing the song and some dancing as well!
Entonces, como siempre… disfruten!

Good day dear readers.

You know, as much as one might be proficient in some field of interest, you can never “know it all”;
Even considering the fact that I have been collecting Cuban music for over 8.5 years at the moment, there are times when you discover (or maybe, re-discover) something you were not familiar with, and in some unexpected circumstances.

For me, this is the case with the wonderful “Leccion De Amor” by Adalberto Alvarez, from the album “Mi Linda Habanera” which came out in 2005.Although I have the album, I was surprised not to recognize this song when I heard it in a Salsa lesson the other day.

I find the song to be very nice and well arranged, and can definitely recommend you to get your hands on the album!

Disfruten!

Good day dear readers!

Today I like to present you a very nice Timba by Pupy y LQSS, from Pupy’s latest album – Sin Limite which came out earlier this year.

This song is called “Para Que”, which means “for that” or “in order to”, and has a phrase in the coro which I specifically like quite much: “para que buscarte lógica en este mundo si el mundo esta loco, loco…” and means “for that you keep looking for logic in the world, even if the worlds seems to be quite crazy”, which basically means never give up, even when things seem dire and crazy.
Now that’s a song with a strong message!

So, here it is; Disfruten!