Nils Fischer & Timbazo

Homepage of Timbazo

To purchase Gracias Joe Cuba

Nils Fischer is one of the top percussionists in Europe, touring and recording constantly with the likes of Nueva Manteca, Fabian Nordarse, the Cubop City Big Band, Carlos Matos, Drums United, and many others, sharing the stage with such legendary figures as Giovanni Hidalgo, Orestes Vilató, Pío Leiva, Paquito d'Rivera, and Chocolate Armentieros.

In 2007 he enlisted the help of two of the giants of timba, Alain Pérez and his close friend Pepe Espinosa, to record an ambitious album of timbafied arrangements of songs made famous by the New York salsa icon Joe Cuba.

As with Juan Ceruto's tributes such as Gracias Formell and A puerto padre, it's fascinating to trace these cutting-edge modern arrangements to their origins.

For example, let's take the opening track, Ariñañara, which was written by Chano Pozo in the 1930s and first recorded by Miguelito Valdés and Casino de la Playa in 1940. Here's the opening (source). About 30 years later, Joe Cuba recorded this version (source), which inspired the young Nils Fischer as he learned his trade listening to old vinyl LPs he had sought out in European record stores.

Now let's skip forward yet another 30 years and see what Nils, Alain, Pepe, Grammy award-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch, and Jon Fausty (arguably the world's greatest Latin music recording and mixing engineer) did with the same passage (source). By the middle of the track, the band is playing pure timba, with a bloque-laden "pedal" gear change leading into a torrid solo from Pepe.

Finally, let's listen to Nils' solo from the same track.

To hear the rest of the album and learn more about it, check out Timbazo's extensive website.

In addition to his other talents, Nils Fischer's astounding abilities in the areas of transcribing and analyzing percussion parts has caused us here at timba.com to give him the nickname "Orejón". He's made many behind-the-scenes contributions to timba.com's educational articles as well as making contributions such as this exquisite transcription of Juan Claro Bravo's conga part on Ritmo Oriental's Yo bailo de todo.

Nils Fischer & Timbazo Website