Tom Ehrlich's Tiempo Libre Photos

Tiempo LIbre played with the San Francisco Symphony Sunday in historic and picturesque Dolores Park. Surprisingly, their kilted killer bassist Tony "Tebelio" Fonte was replaced by Wilbur "Wilvi" Rodríguez (ex-Carlos Manuel, Ntaya). We're trying to find out if the change is permanent or temporary. Click here for the rest of Tom's photos.

Wil Campa y su Gran Unión at Yoshi's SF Friday and Saturday. This is as tight a timba band as you'll ever hear, with almost no personnel changes for over 5 years, all members living and rehearsing in Havana and the mind-bogglingly great conguero Andrés "Negrón" Miranda, of Issac and Irakere fame. More on these shows soon.

Coming very soon: Peter Maiden's gallery/concert report on the recent Escovedo family reunion concert.

Book News: I'm getting close to finished Beyond Salsa Percussion, Volume 1: Latin Rhythms for Listeners, Dancers and Beginning Drummers. It's already over 200 pages with a long historical listening tour, so this should be a good one for people who don't play an instrument but want to get deeper into scene. [Kevin Moore]

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Thursday, 21 June 2012, 07:00 PM

Click here for Peter's album review-photo gallery of VL Trio's new CD, Tradicionando.

VL Trio is the nucleus of the larger group, Vissión Latina, which has two CDs of its own. Follow the link for audio samples.

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Monday, 04 June 2012, 09:40 PM

Jerry González on timbales - Alain Pérez - photo by Tom Ehrlich

Last week's consolation prize for the postponed timba mega-concert was a scorching hot Alain Pérez performance at Zinc Bar with pianist Manuel Valera (see Bill Tilford's post below on Manuel's new album), Robby Ameen on drums, and Fort Apache legend Jerry González on trumpet and percussion. Click here for Tom's full gallery.

Tom has video coming soon and Martin Cohen has already posted three great clips.

And if you missed it, I've recently published the second book-eBook-audio-video set for Alain - Beyond Salsa Bass, Vol. 7, and the corresponding Melón piano video. [Kevin Moore]

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Thursday, 24 May 2012, 01:27 PM

Volume 7 of Beyond Salsa Bass is out in both hard-copy and eBook, with accompanying audio and video. Volume 7 is the second installment of a 4-volume study of the style of Alain Pérez, one of the most talented bassists, composers and arrangers of modern Cuban music. The bass series follows the piano series exactly, covering the same songs, now from the perspective of the bassist. Both the notes and the percussive sounds that he uses to create his funky style. This volume features a 19 page bass transcription of "Por qué paró" (as made famous by Issac Delgado). There are corresponding audio and video products for each volume.

Volume 7 covers two of Delgado's greatest live timba arrangements: "Por qué paró" and "Luz viajera". The piano and bass parts are drawn from extended live performances at the legendary Palacio de la Salsa nightclub in the Hotel Riviera on the Malecón. This is the seventh book in a instructional series set to become the new standard for contemporary Latin bass styles. 154 pages (154 páginas) with 25 audio tracks (25 pistas).

Alain is playing tonight Thursday - 3 shows ($15 for the whole night) at Zinc Bar in NY.