Yoel Páez with Julio Montalvo & Rafa Sulbarán
during the filming of his new DVD "El Arte de la Independencia 360º"

Yoel is known to timba fans as one of the top percussioninst in Timba. He was part of some of the most important groups of timba during their greatest moments: Paulo F.G. y Su Élite & Issac Delgado. Kevin explains Yoel's style in the following words; "In addition to being a virtuoso and a groove machine, the defining quality of his style is his musicality. He never plays a "rhythm pattern" for its own sake. Everything he plays seems directly linked to whatever is going on musically in the arrangement at that moment." For more about Yoel check out his musician page here at Timba.com.

Over the past 10 years Yoel has been playing with important bands in Spain, and has been busy giving Masters Classes all over Europe. But now he has filmed a DVD called "El Arte de la independencia 360º". He says that he and trombonist Julio Montalvo (Paulo F.G., Pachito Alonso, David Bisbal). Julio produced the DVD with him. 

Yoel says that the idea was to do something different from other products in the market. His DVD goes through more than 10 different types of sets. And the 360º is because the course was shot from many angles and with many instruments such as drums, batá, congas, bongos, timbales, cajon, djembe, etc. Here is a 15 minute video that Yoel has uplaoded to YouTube. For more info contact Yoel at facebook http://www.facebook.com/yoel.paezgonzalez

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In preparation for the European Summer Tour 2012, Maykel Blanco has released a teaser from the upcoming CD. A 2:54 clip has been uploaded to YouTube and it includes the list of concert dates. The song is a guaguancó called "Bembe" with Yordis on lead vocals. Candela! If you didn't keep up with the dates in the video, we have posted them on the Maykel Blanco y Salsa Mayor Tours page .

The new CD should be out in the fall. The band still has to finish recording the horns on some of the songs before it can be mixed and mastered. I the meantime, enjoy the clip and I hope to see you at one of the concerts!

And a little Behind-the-scenes video from the recording studio...

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Only about six weeks since they left, Elito Revé y Su Charangón are back in Europe for a 40 day tour kicking off the summer tour season here in Europe. Check their tours page for the concert nearest you! There is some nice video making the rounds at Facebook of Andy Fornet on timbales and Renesto the new Revé tresero. But I can't embed that here. And  a series of ridiculous technical problems have conspired to prevent me from downloading the video and interviews I filmed during the Viking Line cruises. Hopefully that will be resolved shortly and I will be able to give you something a little more recent. But for now I'll leave you with a classic video of my own from the 3rd National Changüí Festival in Guantanamo, Cuba, 22 December 2007.

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A big thank you to Lani Milstein for keeping us up-to-date on what is happening in Timba Canada! Here is her report on the recent concert with Pupy y Los Que Son Son featuring Mayito & Tania!

May 19th was a fantastic explosion of great timba in Toronto, thanks to cubaintoronto.com, Casineros Unidos and Lula Lounge’s Lulaworld Festival, who presented Pupy y los que son son at The Phoenix Concert Theatre. The evening began with rising star DJ Bernal, who spun the latest and greatest timba, and the show kicked off with a dance performance by Afrolatino Dance Company. This was followed by a very special performance for Yemaya, by Melissa Noventa, in honour of the late icon and friend to many in Cuban music, Billy Bryans, who we lost recently to cancer. Billy had been a co-producer of many Cuban concerts in Toronto, and was perhaps Canada's key proponent of Cuban music. He is greatly missed by all!

Cesar “Pupy” Pedroso y los que son son blessed the Toronto crowd with an electrifying concert, adding a special twist: invited guests Mayito Rivera and Tania Pantoja. You can imagine how those vocal duels went, right? Electrifying de verdad! Mayito singing with Pupy sounded, well, just like Van Van. Pupy’s band was in top form and has such a youthful energy (Bombon is truly an animal.) The crowd was loving every minute and they played for almost 3 hours- right up until around 2:30am, when the soundman pulled the plug. Noise curfew! Oh, Canada…

No matter! The fun continues June 15th with Gente de Zona and their 12-piece band feat. El Micha and Yulien Oviedo, at the Opera House in Toronto. Presented by the Cubaneando festival, once again Toronto will prove itself as one of the greatest hotbeds of Cuban music in North America, as timberos, casineros and la farandula que tu conoces come out to break it down, Torontón style.

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