Creole Choir Photos

The Creole Choir of Cuba or Grupo Vocal Desandann as they are called in Cuba, formed in 1994. Their ancesters are from Haiti and the group is from Camagüey, Cuba. The Creole Choir sing and dance to traditional Haitian music, using only drums, percussion instruments and beautiful lush vocal harmonies. Their first US tour began in September, 2011. I caught them in San Francisco on November 3, 2011 - click here for the full gallery. [Tom Ehrlich]

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Monday, 28 November 2011, 01:57 PM

As you know, we've had downloadable video files (also here) for the two volumes of Beyond Salsa Percussion for about a year. The downloadable .MOV files come with fancy video looping .XSC files, which we think are amazingly cool, and we were convinced that "DVD is dead" but apparently no one told the rest of the world about this, and, as they say, "the customer is always right", so here you have both Calixto volumes combined into one regular commercial DVD.

It also has some "raw footage extras" in the form of one extra solo and Calixto playing along with four NG La Banda classics (Santa Palabra, Picadillo de soya, Échale limón, and La bruja, with an excerpt from Murakami Mambo). These of course don't have the audio from NG track - all you hear is the drum parts. The downloadable videos are $10 each and the DVD, which contains both, plus the extras, is $25. In other video news, I now have footage, thanks to the indispensable Czech timbero Vasik, for Melón AND Alain Pérez, so Beyond Salsa Bass in all formats, and Melón's videos will be coming soon. Also working on Beyond Salsa for Ensemble, and the long-promised Beyond Salsa Bongó, featuring Carlos Caro should be out sometime in 2012. Here's some insane footage of Carlos soloing in my backyard (I wish my yard were as good as the solo!).

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Thursday, 24 November 2011, 07:35 PM

The superlatives keeping pouring in for master ENA percussionist Roberto Vizaíno's new book/double CD package, a combination of instructional material and non-educational art compositions for percussion. For more see our Chicago section.

Meanwhile, another percussion legend of la ENA, José Eladio, has now added a DVD for his recent book. I was so impressed with the quality of the DVD that I decided to make one from Calixto's videos, already available as downloads. The DVD version should be out in about a week. Also check out my new books on Pupy and Clave. [Kevin Moore]

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Friday, 11 November 2011, 05:24 PM

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.