Cuba's recording industry has diversified rather dramatically during the past two decades, and one of the most fascinating new companies is Colibrí, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year by (among other things) receiving the largest number of awards (including the Grand Prize) at Cubadisco 2013. We are following them with great interest because they are attracting artists like Klimax, Havana d'Primera and Ernán López-Nussa.   

We have inaugurated a new section about Colibrí and its new releases, which you can visit here.

La industria de la grabación en Cuba se ha diversificado muy dramáticamente durante las últimas dos décadas, y una de las nuevas empresas más fascinantes es Colibrí, que celebra su décimo aniversario este año recibiendo la mayor cantidad de premios (incluyendo el Gran Premio) en Cubadisco 2013. Los estamos siguiendo con gran interés porque están atrayendo a artistas y grupos como Klimax, Havana d'Primera y Ernán López-Nussa.

Hemos inaugurado una nueva sección sobre Colibrí y sus nuevos lanzamientos, que se puede visitar aquí.   

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Border-Free, the sensational new album by Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers, can now be heard on NPR's wonderful program First Listen. This innovative concept lets you try before you buy; you can listen to the album -not just a few seconds here and there, but the actual album - on NPR before it is formally released to the US market, and then if you purchase it through the program's links, a portion of the proceeds helps National Public Radio. This is good for all of us because the overwhelming majority of the radio programs that will play modern Cuban Jazz, Timba and other current Cuban music are on stations that are affiliated with National Public Radio. (See our album reviews in English and en español ,)  
You can hear NPR's First Listen on the web here.

The rest of radio isn't always a wasteland all the time, however: in March 2013, CNN radio's Music Notes did a very nice interview in English of Yosvany Terry and Gema Corredera about their recent releases Derramando Luz and Today's Opinion , and you can listen to it here.

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Volume 14 is the first volume of "Beyond Salsa Piano" to focus on Tirso Duarte, pianist, arranger, composer and singer for the great late-1990s incarnation of Charanga Habanera, recording artist and bandleader under his own name, and ex-singer for NG La Banda and Pupy y Los Que Son Son. This book covers the songs Charanguero mayor, Confianza and El bla bla bla, with note-for-note transcriptions of Tirso’s piano tumbaos and a NOTE-FOR-NOTE TRANSCRIPTION for his entire performance on El bla bla bla. The entire bass part is also transcribed as are the bass tumbaos for each piano tumbao. There is also extensive explanation of the conga marchas and the gear and efecto system used by the late 1990s Charanga Habanera.

Click here to download a sample pdf of the eBook 
Oprima aquí para descargar una muestra pdf del eLibro

Author Kevin Moore explains: "The obsession with Cuban music that led to the writing of the Beyond Salsa series began – in many respects – in February of 1999, on the night that I first heard Tirso Duarte play the piano. It was at the legendary Disco Azúcar club in Cancún, on the evening before my first trip to Cuba. Tirso’s piano‐playing was so astounding – and so moving – that I found myself incurably addicted by the end of the night. I’ve thought of very little else in the intervening 14 years – returning to Cuba, collecting music, studying Spanish, and studying Cuban and Afro‐Cuban music and history. On each of my subsequent trips to Cuba I met with Tirso and recorded many hours of MIDI files that, to this day, continue to yield amazing insights and on which the material in this book is based." 

He continues: "In this book we’ll study three songs: Charanguero mayor (Chapter 2), Confianza (Chapter 3), and El bla bla bla (Chapter 4). Charanguero mayor and Confianza have three completely different piano tumbaos each and El bla bla bla has four. Each tumbao is first presented on three staves, in its most basic form, along with the accompanying bass tumbao and chord symbols. The three‐staff notation corresponds to the “c” and “d” audio files, which have the piano alone in the left channel and the bass in the right. Next, the rhythm section context is discussed in a “Gear Studies” section, corresponding to the “e” and “f” audio files, which have the piano alone in the left channel and the full rhythm section in the right. Finally, each individual tumbao has a “Controlled Improvisation” section containing a series of variations as played by Tirso. The variations have corresponding “a” and “b” audio files with the left hand of the piano in the left speaker and the right hand in the right."

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The fourth annual Festival Cubano in Chicago expands to three days, and the closing act is Manolin, El Medico de la Salsa.  Read all about it here...

...and remember, Mezcla is at the Old Town School of Folk Music Saturday, June 29.  If you have been reading us lately, you already know why you need to go.  If you haven't, where have you been?

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