Nelson González, Marco Díaz, Josiel Pérez, José Mangual, Jr., Carlos Caro - photos: Tom Ehlrich

The Arsenio Rodríguez Project plays two shows at Yoshi's SF tonight, Saturday. Tom Ehrlich and I were on hand for their rehearsal today and Tom's gallery will be up soon. This is an all-star band at the top of its game. Nelson González and José Mangual, Jr. are living legends, but every musician is a master: musical director Josiel Pérez and bassist Yosmel Montejo are familiar from their tours with Maraca; Carlos Caro (ex-Paulito, ex-Opus 13), Marco Díaz and Eduardo Herrera all hail from Vissión Latina; Niche Romero was in Manolín's incredible Cuban band of the 90s, Roberto Morris played with Sur Caribe in Santiago de Cuba and on lead vocals and clave is the amazing Perico Hernández, who captured the authentic flavor of Arsenio's masterpiece compositions. Both Perico and Eduardo channeled René Scull several times and gave me chills. Their all-Arsenio set list includes the drop-dead masterpieces Me boté de guaño, Dile a Catalina, La vida es un sueño, Kila Quiqui y Chocolate and many more. Don't miss this one. If you're not familiar with Arsenio - trust me, you'lll be addicted. Here's an article to get you up to speed.

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The Arsenio Rodríguez Project will be playing Yoshi's SF this Saturday night. This is an all-star group with New York legends Nelson González on tres and José Mangual, Jr. on bongó, plus Josiel Pérez on trumpet from Maraca's band and the Bay Area's own Carlos Caro on congas.

On Sunday, they fly to LA to play the Grenada in Alhambra.

Here's our new section on the band. 

In other Arsenio news, Beyond Salsa Bass, Vol. 2: Arsenio, Cachao and The Golden Age, will be out in a day or two. It has 120 pages on Arsenio. [Kevin Moore]

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Tom Ehrlich was present for most of the rehearsals, recording and two concerts of this 30th Anniversary New Yor-Uba project and has published the beginning of an extensive gallery/report.

You can buy the CD here.

Here are Tom's initial report and photos. A more complete report to posted soon.

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Gallery 6 includes Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Arturo Riera's award ceremony and Vissión Latina.

Arturo Riera - photo by Tom Ehrlich

Gallery 7 covers the big timba finale: Wil Campa y su Gran Unión and the all-star jazz group The Cookers.

Wil Campa - photo by Tom Ehrlich

In summary, here's our coverage of this great event:

Tom Ehrlich 1 - Peter Maiden 1
Tom Ehrlich 2 - Peter Maiden 2
Tom Ehrlich 3 - Peter Maiden 3
Tom Ehrlich 4 - Peter Maiden 4
Tom Ehrlich 5
Tom Ehrlich 6
Tom Ehrlich 7

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