Ayva Records, producers of Alain's 2005 album En el aire, have made several tracks available as free downloads. To get the free tracks you have to click the "GET IT NOW" button, not the picture itself. Check out the solo on the title track. That's Alain on two of the batás, by the way.

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Those of you within traveling distance of Louisville, KY can see Charanga Habanera on Friday, March 30 at the Coconut Beach Nightclub, now in a new location at 2787 South Floyd St., Louisville KY.   Advance tickets (cheaper than at the door) may be purchased at 
https://www.ticketriver.com/event/3218-charanga-habanera-2012-kentucky-tour

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La Timba y  Los Estados Unidos, Parte II: La Recepción Inicial de la Timba en los E.E.U.U
(Para leer este artículo en español oprima aquí)

          If musical merit was the only ingredient necessary for mass popularity  in the United States, Timba would have quickly  taken the country by storm the same way that the Mambo did years earlier.  However, that  is not enough, as many Jazz musicians have also learned the hard way over the years.   An infrastructure to support the music is  also required for any genre to reach large numbers of listeners, and that was not in place for Timba when its sounds first reached the United States. In order to fully understand the reasons for this, we first need to briefly revisit the three decades prior to Timba’s emergence as a distinct style.           

          In the 1960s, there was no significant ongoing cultural exchange between the United States and  Cuba.  This does not mean that there was no exchange of ideas of any sort -  musicians both here and there were listening to each other by various means, and radio enthusiasts such as this writer were keeping up with what was happening in Cuban music via shortwave stations such as Radio Habana Cuba, Radio Rebelde etc.  However, most of the general American public remained....click "continue reading" below for the full article

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Another breakthrough for all timba pianists and bassists! The VIDEO portions of Beyond Salsa Piano and Beyond Salsa Bass (both for Volume 6) have been released. Beyond Salsa Piano 6-9 focuses on Iván "Melón" Lewis -a central player in one of the most important bands of the entire timba era, the Issac Delgado Group of 1995-1998. Beyond Salsa Piano is an instructional (eBook + audio + video), play-along history and anthology of the role of the piano in the Cuban rhythm section –from its first appearance to the present. Melón's 48 video clips were filmed with two cameras, one from the side and one overhead. For every tumbao, we provide three separate videos: a widescreen version of each camera angle and a split screen version combining the two.

Click on the image above to check out the video and for more details on the Alain video clips.....

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