Tom files this special report on an event featuring John Santos and Raul Gonzalez Brito "Lali" from Havana, Cuba. It's Lali's first tour performing in the United States.

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One of our long-standing and most elusive goals at timba.com has been to find one or more great writers in every area with a strong Latin music scene. This month we've filled two of the top cities on our wish list: New York (Ian Stewart's Gotham Report) and Los Angeles (Kay Torres' Curuyé in LA). We're still looking for regularly reporting from Lima, Miami, and ... oh yeah, Havana.

Speaking of Havana, Bob Fernández talked to Pupy's conguero Duniesky Barretto, who confirmed that both Manolín and Issac both now have working bands in Havana. We reported last week that Manolín had been touring around the island with Pachito Alonso, but now he's played Casa de la Música under his own name. If Issac and el Médico recruit some young geniuses from la ENA start cranking out new material, the level of competition could rise exponentially. Keep your fingers crossed. In other news, two popular young singers, El Noro and El Niño, have left Pupy and Revé respectively to form their own bands and there's some hope that Pupy will finally tour the US again late this year. [Kevin Moore]

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The Boyz from Belguim (via Cuba) Andrés (El Paisa) Fernández and Dennis Nicles of Grupo Contrabando just released the new video of their 2013 single FE CON BENDICIONES. The bassist Dennis also produced, recorded and mixed the tune. Keep the hits coming! 

http://www.grupo-contrabando.com
Director del grupo de música cubana de Bélgica "Grupo Contrabando" -- Andrés Fernández Ordóñez -- y el bajista / ingeniero / productor Dennis Nicles presentan su nuevo sencillo "Fé Con Bendiciones" (canta Fernando Blanco Moya). 

Trombón: Andrés Fernández (Director)
Voz Principal: Fernando Blanco Moya
Piano: Thomas Bottcher
Congas: Amel Serra
Timbales: Gilberto Quevedo
Saxo Tenor: Ruben Valle
Coros: Victor Pedroso, Rubén Hernández, Andrés Fernández 
Bajo / Grabacion / Mezcla / Productor: Dennis Nicles Cobas
Masterización: Michael Lázarus de http://latinmusicmastering.com

http://twitter.com/Contrabandomus1
http://www.facebook.com/elpaisatrombom
http://www.andresfernandezordonez.com

Harder to pin down is the new video from Alexander Abreu y Havana D' Primera.. La Bailarina, as it keeps popping up on different youtube channels and various sites touting it as an exclusive. We are not sure if this is the official channel but we would definitely like to know when it's really supposed to be hosted. In any case we hope this is it! If it is taken down please reach out to us in the comments section with the new YouTube channel location. Gracias.

Alexander Abreu y Havana D'Primera
Bailarinas: Lilianis Vázquez, Lidia Llanes, Lisandra Marín, Laurent Flores, Gretel Sánchez y Yusleivy (Yuyú) Vega
Dirección: Joseph Ros
Producción: Tania Menéndez
Producciones COLIBRÍ y YAQUIS PRODUCCIONES

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Paperback Book - eBook - Audio Files 

A free audio download is coming soon. This one has four major sections: a theoretical course on creating the rhythmic breaks that Arsenio called cierres, a massive 120-page survey of Arsenio's Cuban recordings, a chapter on Cachao López and a chapter called "The Golden Age" that provides bass tumbaos for each piano tumbao of Beyond Salsa Piano Vol. 2. I'm already about halfway through Volume 3: Salsa, Songo and The Roots of Latin Jazz.

Also new to LatinPulseMusic is a new book by one of my favorite writers, Chuck Silverman. Among many other publications, Chuck wrote the sublime "The Funkmasters" on the rhythm sections of James Brown, one of the greatest method books ever published in my humble opinion. His new book is called The Latin Rudiments. [Kevin Moore]

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