Miami is in for a real TIMBA treat..... El Pikete has been re-activated with all new music from composer / arranger, co-leader and electronic wind instrument (e.w.i.) player Jeans Valdés, AND THEY ARE OPENING FOR HAVANA D' PRIMERA at La Covacha on Friday May 24th !!!

Many fans will immediately recognize some of the new members as they are heavyweights of the genre in their own right. Reinier is an all-star veteran from Paulito F.G. and the Cuban Timba All-Stars, Ivette was the piano player for the Canadian timba band D'talle, Michel is from Havana Power Band, El Kid is ex-Tiempo Libre....not to mention El Pikete itself is Manolín El Médico's band when not backing Manolín. Another real treat is their new female lead Ingrid Leiva (any relation to Pío Leiva?), as Hany is expecting her first child. 

** UPDATE - Ingrid Leyva Fuentes used to be the lead singer for Azucar Negra (Limonta's project) and you can see her in the video I just posted under the band list... Enjoy! El Pikete's lineup is shaping up to be a a new all-star timba group.

CALL 305-594-3717 for tickets or click here = EL PIKETE & HAVANA D' PRIMERA at La Covacha

Here are the new members / aquí los integrantes del (nuevo) PIKETE:

Lead singer Ingrid Leyva Fuentes with Azucar Negra

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HOW TO MAMBO with the new Tutti Music Player
The new interactive, state-of-the-art multimedia standard for music instruction. 
versión en español = oprima aquí
para leer sobre este nuevo tocador y los ritmos afro-cubanos gratis

Last November I attended the Billboard FutureSound Conference in San Francisco and there was one product that totally blew me away... the TUTTI MUSIC PLAYER. A company called Tutti Dynamics has developed an interactive music player for Mac, PC (Windows) and iPad that enables students to practice playing their instruments with master artists. If you are a serious student of Afro-Cuban music this will blow you away! 

In a special partnership with TIMBA.com, Tutti is offering Timba.com readers a complimentary introductory offer to access two free Latin grooves (mambo & afro-cuban) from the Tutti Essential Grooves collection. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this FREE OFFER. 

We wiil keep you updated as more rhythms become available. Just click on the Tutti link on the top right of every page (next to the language flags) to the latest news from Tutti.

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click HERE for all official tour dates (so far) -- oprima aquí para ver las fechas

Ok IT'S ON and it's OFFICIAL. ALL VISAS APPROVED. No "pasaporte" required to get down with Alexander Abreu and Havana D' Primera. The tour opens with a performance at the Cuban Cultural Fest in Tampa on May 18 and runs through Miami, Folsom, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, New York, Virginia, Atlanta and Kentucky.   We'll be seeing you on the road people !!

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The first bass book in the BEYOND SALSA series of Afro-Cuban musical instruction methods, Beyond Salsa Bass Volume 1 (For Beginners) includes bass tumbaos for each of the piano tumbaos (aka, montunos) in Beyond Salsa Piano, Vol. 1, and contains many additional bass tumbaos plus other exercises, making this first bass volume is more than twice as long (compared to Beyond Salsa Pianio Vol.1). The book begins by categorizing the most common Latin bass tumbaos by their rhythms and then proceeds to tell the history of Latin music from a bassist’s perspective, with notation for bass tumbaos from each era covered: changüí, rumba, son, danzón, big band and son montuno (a detailed study of Arsenio Rodríguez). This is the first book in the new standard for contemporary Latin bass styles. 186 pages (186 páginas) with 212 audio tracks (212 pistas).

Click here to download the FREE sample pdf 

Click here to download FREE introductory bass audio samples 

Click here to visit Kevin's Beyond Salsa Bass Vol.1 hard copy book page 

The Audio product includes a fast and slow file for each bass tumbao in the book as well as various example files corresponding to the text. Note that for every piano tumbao in our sister volume, Beyond Salsa Piano, Vol.1, there is a corresponding bass tumbao in the Beyond Salsa Bass, Vol. 1 book and audio product. In these cases, the piano audio is included in one channel. In other cases, the audio consists of just bass and clave. If this seems confusing, think of it this way: Beyond Salsa Piano Vol. 1 is a subset of Beyond Salsa Bass, Vol. 1. The bass book has a bass tumbao for every piano tumbao in the piano book, but the bass book also has many more additional tumbaos for tracks not covered in the piano volume. 

For more info on the BEYOND SALSA series ploease visit = http://beyondsalsa.info

To read a more detailed introduction to BEYOND SALSA BASS Vol.1 please click on the continue reading link below (bottom right).......

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