David Murray is at Yoshi's this weekend (not with Melón), but here he is on youtube with Melón playing a killer solo on El bodeguero - Melón's solo begins at 7:30. Check it out, meng.

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As everyone knows, timba geeks are as superstitious as baseball players, so I'm releasing Volume 11 of Beyond Salsa Piano, the second on Pupy Pedroso, at 11:11 today, 11-11-11 (Nov. 11, 2011). The convergence of all those elevens was just too tempting. And if you're really a crazy numerologist, consider that PupyPedroso, BeyondSalsa, and TimbaDotCom each have eleven letters! Of course, "coincidence" also has eleven letters ...

But in ANY case, Volume 11 covers Pupy's work with Van Van in the mid-80s, during which time he wrote several of the songs Los Que Son Son now plays live, like El buenagente and Calla calla. For these, we include complete piano/bass charts of the modern versions he's playing now. So, the book (144 pages) and its companion audio product (94 tracks) will hopefully go live at 11:11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, but there's a small chance that it will get delayed to 11:11 p.m. [Kevin Moore]

LINKS: Physical Book - eBook - Audio Files

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¡Timba en Serbia! Ya tu sabes. Can't get tired of saying timba is an international phenomenon. This three day Cuban music & dance festival open with a performance tomorrow from Manolito y su Trabuco on November 11, 2011. World-class dancers and instructors are featured throughout.

Finally! Cool videos from Maykel Blanco's US tour are surfacing on youtube. Maykel's band was TIGHT and very well rehearsed. Here's a take on Esto está from New York's packed S.O.B's show. 

Word on the street (pun intended) is that Washington D.C. has a new timba band called TIMBA STREET. They will be playing in New York at the Kennedy Center on November 21rst. A dance floor will be installed. Dance instruction will be provided at 5 p.m. by Casineros. Part of Swing, Swing, Swing. Haven't heard anything yet of quality from Timba Street, mostly partial live segments in need of a tune up. 

And this from La Timbera Mayor Michelle White - If you need a serious recalibration, turn up the volume (the audio level is pretty low) on this excellent documentary on the roots of Timba and the famous Team Cuba. For a complete report on the Team Cuba concerts, musicians, etc. see http://www.timba.com/artists/show/teamcuba

This documentary includes concert clips and interviews with Juan Formell, José Luis Cortés, Adalberto Álvarez, Issac Delgado, Manolín El Médico de La Salsa, Paulo FG, David Calzado, Mayito Rivera, Ralph Mercado, Julio Montalvo and José Loyola.

Special thanks to the following people: Richard Ortega López, Kevin Moore, Gabriel Wilder, Curtis Lanoue, Orlando Fiol, Magnus Lindgren and to the people at SF for inspiring me to subtitle this video and make the information available to a wider public and maybe help answer the question "what is Timba?". If you're already a fan, this documentary is an important historical document. If you're not into timba, maybe it will at least give you an idea of why the rest of us are so crazy about it .

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After years of listening to people argue and pull their hair out about clave, and pulling out a fair amount of my own in the process, I finally decided to clarify it once and for all. My premise is that it's impossible to understand this stuff by talking about it - you have to clap, dance and sing it until it's completely ingrained and THEN you'll be able to understand it and talk about it to others without losing your sanity.

With that in mind, there are three main sections. The beginning section - designed for non-musicians - simply teaches you how to clap and name the various clave patterns. The intermediate section uses dancing to clear up all the confusion about "2-3" and "3-2". It never tries to explain a concept until it's gotten you to memorize and become comfortable with a clapping-singing-dancing routine that you can use to relate the concept to.

Finally, the "advanced" section - for true masochists - explains "clave changes", including the really difficult ones like Sandunguera, Se acabó el querer, Todos vuelven and Llegó la música cubana.

There are also some really stunning clave photos by Tom Ehrlich throughout the 90 page book.

LINKS = PHYSICAL BOOK ($15)   -   eBOOK ($10)   -   AUDIO FILES (free)

Free Audio Files: With all the other Beyond Salsa books, the book and audio are separate products, but for this course, you have to have them both for it to make any sense, so the audio files are a free album download. If you are new to the LPM site be sure to check your spam folder so that you can click on the activation link, because you must either login or register to be able to download the free audio album. Let me know what you think! [Kevin Moore]

More book news: I'll be releasing the second Pupy book (Vol. 11) at 11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11 - more on that soon. Meanwhile, Curtis Lanoue's and José Eladio's excellent Afro-Cuban Percussion Workbook now has a companion DVD product which is so well-done that it's inspired me to add a DVD product for the Calixto Oviedo books. Also getting rave reviews is Roberto Vizcaíno's Método para la eseñanza de la Percusión Latina. Vizcaíno and Eladio taught side by side at la ENA (as did Pupy, actually) for many years and are among the most important Latin percussion players and teachers on the planet.

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