TIMBA.COM CONTRIBUTORS

COLUMNISTS

Kevin Moore - Santa Cruz, California - kevin@timba.com Kevin provides the latest news on Cuban music and timba in La Última and edits the Artists section of timba.com. When not obsessing with every imaginable detail of the timba phenomenon, he writes music and plays violin and bass for the California salsa band, Orquesta Gitano. He also co-authored the 3-volume Tomás Cruz Conga Method for Mel Bay Publications.

David Figueroa - Miami, Florida  - David "Melao" Figueroa TimbaConMelao@aol.com is a deejay/timba promoter from Miami,FL. He has toured the world deejaying and promoting Cuban timba for years. Through his experiences deejaying he has met many contacts throughout the world; therefore he is always on top of many scoops. Melao is our Miami inside man with the latest news from Manolín, Carlos Manuel, CTA, El Pikete, and Danny Lozada. He is also the official deejay for the Cubamemucho Cuban Salsa Congress, and now writes for his own blog called "Timba Con Melao". Melao started his own yahoo group called the Miami Timba Connection with the idea of uniting timberos in Miami. Got myspace? Check out Melao's Myspace page at MySpace.com/DJMELAO

Ilán Greenfield - France - As well as being a gifted writer, Ilán Greenfield is a skilled professional trilingual translator who has translated almost all of the artists sections of timba.com to Spanish. Born in New York and raised almost entirely in Ecuador, Ilán holds a literature degree from the U.S., and has recently began studies at the Sorbonne. He has also been playing violin and guitar since childhood. Ilán writes feature pieces, such as Tema introducción, De Rodolfo Cárdenas y Pupy Pedroso, Un tipo loco, and the regular column Marcando la distancia.

Duniel Deya - Miami - duniel@timba.com - Duniel is a leading DJ and dance instructor in Miami who travels frequently to Cuba. He supplies us with excellent photography, plenty of late-breaking news scoops, and, along with Andy Pérez of our Timba in NY section, writes En Frequencia .

Ivette León Franca - La Habana - ivette@timba.com - Ivette is a skilled web-designer who lives in Havana and brings us regular reports on the concert scene there in a regular column called The Ivette Report.. She also writes the News sections for El Clan, Dayron, and Los Ángeles de La Habana and continues to add new Artists sections to timba.com's growing list.

Andy Perez is a Timba fan, he enjoy all forms but perfer Van Van over anyone. He has a special friendship with Lele (LVV singer). He was the organizer/promoter of the Carlos Manuel show in New Jersey back in December. He enjoys that field and plans to do more of that work. Now he is editor of the NYC Section after Linda Rodriquez handed over the duties to him. Feel free to contact him at APEREZ1026@AOL.COM. Andy also co-writes the news blog En Frequencia.

Marco Prado-Mas - New York - Born in Madrid, Spain, Marco Prado-Mas grew up listening to Cuban stories from his grandfather. Married to Saily, former dancer and currently Azúcar Negra's PR and assistant producer, he divides his time between Madrid, Havana and New York, where he lives. He contributes news scoops and regularly updates the Azucar Negra News section.

Kid Casino - Atlanta, Georgia - Kid Casino maintains the Dance Section of the site. Kid is originally from Michigan and grew up on Motown, R&B, Blues, Jazz and Motor City Rock & Roll. He has danced many styles of Salsa, but has become hooked on Casino and Timba since visiting Cuba in 2002. He is also an amateur percussionist and plays djembe with a local African dance group.

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS

Majela Serrano - Germany - Majela graduated with a degree in Musicology from the prestigious Amadeo Roldán conservatory in Havana, and is currently enjoying a successful singing career in Germany. Majela has an astounding encylopedic knowledge of Timba, the Spanish language, and all things Cuban. In addition to contributing articles of her own, she was an absolutely indispenable consultant on every part of our extensive section on Charanga Habanera. She was also the final editor of many of our lyric pages. Among Majela's contributions are the Team Cuba section, interviews with Maraca, David Calzado, Pupy Pedroso and Paulito FG, and the biographies of the members of Charanga Habanera.

Pepe Martínez - Spain - Pepe Martínez plays bass as a sideman with several acts in Spain: Coruña Big Band (Jazz), Combo Matías (Jazz-Fusion), and Bianca (Pop). He's currently arranging for and recording Cuban singer Yanko Tortolo on his first album, "Yanko y su Tinglao". Pepe has an encyclopedic knowledge not only of Timba but of pop music in general as well as folkloric music and jazz. His two extensive contributions to timba.com, the review of Los Que Son Son: Qué cosas tiene la vida and the interview with Alain Pérez, are must-read material for every timbero, with brilliant insights in every paragraph.

Maarten Hendrik Liefrink - Holland (The Netherlands) - Hendrik has contributed several sets of lyrics and the El Tosco interview of November, 2003.

Thor Anderson - St. Louis, Missouri - Thor and his friend Chuck Smart have contributed interviews with Michel Maza and Chuchito Valdés. Thor is the proprietor of Planet Cuba, a company which arranges for legal travel to Cuba. Thor holds the dubious distinction of taking an unsuspecting Kevin Moore to his first Timba concert in Cancún, and on his first trip to Havana, and as such can be held at least indirectly responsible for much of the madness and mayhem that is timba.com.

TRANSLATORS

Ilán Greenfield - France - Ilán Greenfield is a skilled professional translator who has translated almost all of the artists section to Spanish. He is available for large and small translation jobs to and from the following languages: English, Spanish, French. He also writes articles and columns (see Columnists above).

Thomas Voirol - Switzerland - Thomas, who did all the German translation on timba.com, is a serious dancer whose rueda troupe competes regularly in Europe. He's also a skilled HTML programmer. In late 2003 he will relocate to Sydney, Australia.

Alex Gendelman - Israel - Alex is another multi-lingual dance enthusiast who has translated several timba.com articles to Hebrew. Don't forget to read them from right to left!

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTWORK

Peter Maiden - San José, California - Peter is perhaps the world's leading photographer of Latin music. He's a regular contributor to Latin Beat magazine and his work has been shown in galleries such as The Mexican Heritage Center in San José, California. Peter's photos grace the covers of some of your favorite Timba CD's such as Charanga Habanera: Live in the USA. His photos can be found throughout timba.com as well as in his special Artist section.

Tom Ehrlich - Santa Cruz, California - Tom has been a jazz photographer for many years and began branching out into the field of Latin music in 1999, both as a photographer and as a timbalero. He has contributed many of the photos in our Musicians' Directory and special features such as this one on Bamboleo.

Andrés Vargas - Canada - Andrés continues to send in great shots from La Habana such as this series on Bamboleo and the photos for the soon to be added Tirso Duarte section.

Marcelo Lecours - Miami - Marcelo, the award-winning graphic designer of the timba.com website. has also done most of the artwork for Ciocan Music (Charanga Habanera, Manolín's El Puente, Vocal Sampling, etc.). He also contributed an interview with David Calzado.

Julia Peschel -- Germany -- Julia contributed the photos for Hendrik's interview with El Tosco.

Adi Rodriguez Carter -- New York --Adi Carter is an artist and designer residing in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from Skidmore College in 2002 with a degree in mathematics and studio art, Adi went on to form the design label 'synthesis designs' with help from Adam Bernbach and Nick D'Emilio. Together, the three of them have formed a unique design label creating designs for clients such as Prada, Absolut, Stella McCartney, Toyota, Urb Magazine, Neville Bean Design and Timba.com. In addition to designing, Adi exhibits artwork of various mediums in galleries in the NYC area. Her work is primarily installation based and reflects contemporary social images. Her first solo show, 'verdad.' focuses on an installation involving photographs and mixed media to present controversial trends in Cuban/American relations. Information on synthesis designs and portfolio work can be found at: www.synthesis-designs.com .

THE BRAINS OF THE OPERATION

Michael P. Lazarus - cyberspace - A pro bassist with a background in electrical engineering, acoustics and business development, Michael is the president and owner of Latin Pulse Music Inc., the parent company of Timba.com. His vision for his new media company is to opitimize the connections between the artist (content creator) and the latin music enthusiast. By deploying download technology for audio, video and sheet music products, as well as physically delivering the music to the people via a series of sponsored concerts, Michael's objectives are to both foment latino artists world-wide and maintain an on-line cultural repository of latin music.

"To say that Timba is about 'cuban musicians playing cuban music' is simply not accurate anymore. Timba is a world-wide phenomenon." -M.Lazarus