Bar Brasil's annual Carnival Cruise Stockholm is fast approaching. Every year the Baltic Sea goes Caribbean for 23 hours with dancers, bands, percussionists, and DJs. This year over 100 artists will take part, including Laritza Bacallao - one of the most popular young artists in Cuba. 

Laritza comes from a family of singers. Her grandfather Rafael "Felo" Bacallao and her father Ernesto Bacallao were both singers of the legendary Orquesta Aragón. It seems natural that Laritza would also study music - choral direction and piano - and become a singer. She has a versatile voice and can sing a bolero as well as cha-cha-chá a son or a reggaeton. But the style for which Laritza has become known is the pan-Caribbean dance music that swept her to the top of the charts in Cuba where she has remained for the past couple of years. The arrangements mix everything from samba to salsa to merengue to rumba and conga...you get the idea. She has collaborated with many Cuban artists, such as Pablo FG, Candido Fabré, JG, and Los 4 to name a few. Her infectious party music caught the attention of Puerto Rican salsa star Victor Manuelle, who will soon release a salsa version of her hit "Que suenen los tambores" by composer Osmany Espinosa.

Although she has toured Europe before, this will be Laritza's first Scandinavian performance. She will be backed by an eight-piece band. If you will be in the area, book your cabin now and get ready to rock the boat with the Scandinavian carnival elite. A YouTube search will give you a number of videos with Laritza, but in honor of the Carnival Cruise, I leave you with her hit "Carnaval".

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(above: Harold López-Nussa) Click here for Tom's final gallery from this year's Monterey Jazz Festival. Afro-Cuban All Stars is next, then Klímax.

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It turns out Klímax conguero Julio López is also a tremendous rumbero - photos by Tom Ehrlich

Klímax's debut Northern California tour is ending all too soon. In many ways they're playing an even tighter and more aggressive form of timba than they did in the 1990s. The percussion section - together for 15 years now - is absurdly tight, even by Havana standards, and the metales are by far the cleanest, most powerful and most in-tune trumpet-sax section since Los Metales de Terror. Vocal harmonies sublime and great dance routines - although Julio López overshadowed everything with his multi-part rumba-changó tour de force performance, with local hero Christian Pepín covering the congas.

Don't miss tonight - the Giants game will be over by the time they hit at 8:00 and Yoshi's has a nice screen in the lobby.

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all photos by Tom Ehrlich

The Klímax entourage is now safely in the Bay Area for Piloto's drum clinic in the Mission at 6:30 tonight. Here's a downloadable PDF of the handout for the clinic, including all sorts of information on Piloto and Kosa's other educational programs.

Transportation problems delayed the Felton show, but when Klímax hit the stage, they played a two hour-plus set that blew the roof off the joint. The horn section was as tight and clean as any I've heard out of Cuba and conguero Julio López is truly a force of nature. Ryan and Sidney's Klímax dance class was brilliant as always (they also do classes before each Yoshi's show). For that matter, the stage dancing was also extraordinarily tight, even in the limited space available, but if you want to see Noel Díaz's patented "splits" move, you'll have to go to Yoshi's.

Here's a google map of the clinic location (544 Capp Street, SF CA 94110 | 415-647-6015).

 Community Music Center in San Francisco's Mission District (home page here)

Tomorrow begins two nights at Yoshi's SF (one admission for the whole night). Then off to Seattle and Portland.

Tuesday, 10-21 - San Francisco - Yoshi's SF
Wednesday, 10-22 - San Francisco - Yoshi's SF
Thursday, 10-23 - Seattle - Seattle Club Sur
Friday, 10-24 - Portland - The Conga Club

Julio López - photos by Tom Ehlrich

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