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Cuba based rap duo, Zona Franka, blends traditional rhythms with the grit and swagger of hip-hop and rap vocal phrasings. Their clever shout choruses create instant tropical dance classics using their unique self-titled "changui con flow" style.
Authentic Latin Music Catalog for SYNC - TV & Film Music

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viernes, 22 marzo 2013, 05:14 pm

Bebo Joins The Descarga Upstairs

In Memoriam: Bebo Valdés 9 October 1918 - 22 March 2013

(Photo courtesy Bebo's Facebook profile)

One of the true giants of Cuban music, composer/bandleader/pianist Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro, whom we all know as Bebo Valdés, passed away on Friday, March 22 in Sweden at the age of 94.

Bebo was born in Quivicán, Cuba on October 9, 1918, slightly less than a month after another key figure in the music, Israel "Cachao" Lopez.  Bebo began playing piano at about 7 years of age and entered the conservatory in Havana at age 16.  He later began playing piano in the nightclubs of Havana in the 1940s and worked as an arranger in the mid 40s with the great Ernest Lecuona.   From the late 1940s to the late 1950s, he was at the Tropicana, and his band, Sabor de Cuba, was one of the groups that regularly backed legendary performers such as Pio Leyva and Beny More. He was also the arranger and pianist for Rita Montaner during that period. In 1960, he went to Mexico for a time where he worked in television and the studios and ultimately settled into a decades-long residency in Stockholm in 1963.   

Bebo helped further the development of the Mambo and also created an additional rhythm, the Batanga, which competed with the Mambo in Cuba.  He also participated in some of the historic Afro-Cuban Jazz recording sessions commissioned by Norman Granz in the 1950s and was a pioneer in the use of the bata in popular dance music. In the late 1950s, he also made a recording with Nat King Cole. He endured a period of relative obscurity internationally after moving to Europe, but in 1994, the recording Bebo Rides Again (his first album after three decades of mostly playing hotels in Stockholm and mentoring other musicians) helped revive international awareness of him. That awareness spread even further after Bebo's appearance in the 2000 film Calle 54  (a film which absolutely belongs in your collection if you haven't purchased it already) and his 2003 album Lagrimas Negras with Diego El Cigala, which fused Cuban rhythms with flamenco vocals.   He went on to win multiple Latin GRAMMYs and GRAMMYs including  two for El arte del sabor (2002), one for Lagrimas Negras (2003),  two for Bebo de Cuba (2006).  His album with his son Chucho Valdés, Juntos Para Siempre,  won both a GRAMMY and a Latin GRAMMY award (2009) for Best Latin Jazz Album.  In films, he also appeared in  2004's El milagro de Candeal, and more recently, he composed the score for the wonderful film Chico y Rita, which also drew some pieces of its plot from aspects of his life. 

In addition to all of his personal musical accomplishments, he is also the founder of an important musical dynasty including his son Chucho Valdés (whose many milestones include his key role in Irakere) and his grandson Chuchito Valdés.  The 2009 3-CD set Dinastia Valdés showcases music by all three of them. 

His full discography is extensive, and given his work in multiple countries over several decades, we are uncertain as to whether a truly complete one even exists at this writing.    We'll close for now by sharing a You Tube clip from Calle 54 posted by the Instituto de Musica Contemporanea in Lima of Bebo and Cachao performing Lagrimas Negras.  We chose this particular clip for a couple of reasons: one, it's a beautiful clip;  two, there are some parallels between these two men.  They were born a few weeks apart, both were classically trained yet also revolutionized both popular Cuban dance music and Afro-Cuban Jazz, both had major career comebacks after periods of being out of the public eye, and (perhaps most noteworthy), both had long lives (Cachao passed at age 89, Bebo at age 94) while pursuing an endeavor that the popular imagination sometimes believes to be an eater of its own young.  An interesting coincidence is that Cachao also passed on the 22nd of March in 2008. For today's young musicians, there are lessons here about the value of formal musical education and a lifestyle that doesn't cause your departure before you turn 50.  

Goodbye Bebo, and thank you for all that you left us.  We would say "Descanse en paz", but our guess is that you are probably already jamming with some of those other cats who came before. 

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sábado, 16 marzo 2013, 11:45 am

The Chicago International Salsa Congress - A Timbero's Perspective

Part III: More Comments, Photos and Some Music Samples

Article and all Photos by Bill Tilford, All Rights Reserved

(This installment is for both Salseros and Timberos in the hope that they may remember that there are some common challenges that are faced by all.)

Welcome to the third installment of our series.  We'll have a lot of photos later on along with the first in a series of sound clips that we hope will help illustrate that many common misconceptions about both "Cuban Salsa" and Timba music are exactly that.   In the meantime, I would like to expand a little on some earlier themes from the first two chapters.... read the full article here >>>

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sábado, 16 marzo 2013, 12:29 am

Some Key Music Events in the US This Week

Global Cuba Fest in Miami Beach, Afro-Cuban All Stars in Louisville

AC Jazz Project, John Santos in San Francisco

This is a great week for musical events throughout the United States.  In Miami Beach, the Global Cuba Fest is in progress with several different performing artists including Hilario Bell, who is doing both a workshop and a performance on Saturday, March 16 at 2pm; the Yosvany Terry Quintet, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez & Italuba, who are in concert later at 7pm, and The Creole Choir of Cuba, which is performing on Sunday, March 17 at 7pm. All of these events are at the North Beach Bandshell.  For more information, a link to FUNDarte's page is here

After a few days (March 13-17) at the Blue Note in NYC, The Afro-Cuban All Stars tour continues throughout the United States, but we wanted to bring special attention to their performance at the Clifton Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday March 20 at 7:30pm. Over the course of the past few years, Louisville has become an important locale for Midwesterners to see this music, and this will be the only Midwest stop for this group during this tour.  (Chicagoans, it's a 5-6 hour drive for you and worth the trip if you can manage the time.) The ticket link to their website is here. 

On Saturday, March 23 at 7:00pm, the AC Jazz Project with very special guest Jimmy Branly, which like Maraca can do both dance and Jazz material, will be bringing what we are told is primarily a Timba dance set to Yoshi's in San Francisco. This truly is a group of all stars - the leader/trumpeter Josiel Perez played with Maraca and Klimax; pianist Fermin Sifontes played with Grupo Afrocuba; bassist Carlos Cuba played with Pablo Milanes and Klimax, and drummer Jimmy Branly has played with NG La Banda and Ernán López Nussa. The group also features conguero Joey De Leon, vocalist Alberto Tomayo, trumpeter Ronal Segovia and saxophonist Camilo Puche. We recently heard a couple of tracks from their forthcoming recording which is currently in production, and if the rest of the tracks are as solid as what we heard, this is going to be a welcome addition to the scene in the United States.  We'll share more when the project is ready. For now, the ticket link for Yoshi's is here.

The Jazz option in San Francisco this week  is a series of 4 concerts by John Santos from March 21-24 at SFJAZZ featuring different guests each evening including Pável Urkiza & Ricardo Pons on the 21st, Papo Vazquez and the Mighty Pirates Troubadours on the 22nd, Filosofía Caribeña II on the 23rd and Omar Sosa, Kenny Endo and Abhigit Banerjee on the 24th. For more information, see their website link here. 

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lunes, 11 marzo 2013, 06:00 am

This Week: Panel discussions in Miami and Chicago

Also: Creole Choir of Cuba to perform in Chicago

Two different roundtable discussions in Miami and Chicago this week look promising for those who are able to attend. The Chicago event, From Cuba to Chicago: Pedro Páramo and Havana Blue, will take place on Thursday, March 14 at the Instituto Cervantes and is a panel discussion about artistic exchanges with Cuba.  Artists from the River North Dance Chicago, the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Chicago's Goodman Theatre and Cuba's Teatro Buendía will participate in the discussion. Chicago will host the world premieres of Havana Blue and Pedro Páramo in the near future.  
This event is free to the public, but reservations are needed (for reservations, see the web page at  GoodmanTheatre.org/CubatoChicago)

The Miami event, Cuban Music in the Transnational Context,  is a panel discussion featuring the musicians Gema Corredera, Yosvany Terry and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez with additional panelist Eva Silot Bravo.  This is also on Thursday, March 14.  According to the announcement, there will be a music demonstration along with the panel discussion.  This is also free to the public and will be focusing upon  the impact of musicians who have emigrated to cities like New York, Miami and Madrid and how they are affecting the music globally. Timba.com's regular visitors will note that Yosvany Terry (as well as Yunior Terry) has been mentioned on our site more than once as an artist of special interest in the new music being produced today. 

Also, the Creole Choir of Cuba returns to Chicago after their triumphant performance there in 2011 (you can read our review of that performance here.) This time, they will be performing at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Wednesday, March 13 at 8:30pm. This is a full audiovisual experience, and we recommend it highly. 

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