UPDATE: Due to BuenaFeMania and the incredible demand for tickets, Buena Fe have just announced that they will have a third concert on Sunday February 10th at 6:00pm!

Fuera de aquí se desplaza un dial que me quiere decir cien ideas por igual
Creo que voy a escoger la que, a l menos feliz, emociona, edifica, enamora
                                                                                               "Dial" por Israel Rojas

Ladies and gentlemen, after much waiting for what is probably the most eagerly anticipated of all of Buena Fe's CDs to date, it has been declared "Dial Week" at Buena Fe's official Facebook page and Timba.com is ready for the party! The activities begin today with a press conference that is taking place at Bar Bilongo at EGREM even as I write. They are announcing the plans for the concerts and the personal exposition of artist Jesús Lara. The official CD release takes place with concerts at Karl Marx Theater on Friday the 8th at 9:00pm, Saturday the 9th at 9:00pm and Sunday the 10th at 6:00pm. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at the ticket office at Karl Marx at 9:00am, but fans are already saying they plan to start camping out in front of the ticket office tonight. It's BuenaFeMania!

Buena Fe will follow the two Havana concerts with a major event at Miami Dade County Auditorium on February 22nd. Organized by Blue Night Entertainment, the Miami concert will be filmed for subsequent release of a concert DVD. Tickets are already on sale via ticketmaster. According to an article in the Venezuelan periodical Primicias24, there are also plans to do a worldwide live stream of the concert! This would be historical and more than that, it would be a dream come true for all of the fans in Europe and South America who can't attend any of the release concerts. If we get any more information about a live stream we will update Primera Plana of course!

"Dial" is the 8th studio CD released by Buena Fe, and without ever having heard it, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that it will be another hit and another Cubadisco winner. Buena Fe seems to live by the credo that anything worth doing is worth doing superbly. Every detail of the production is given the same attention. The album cover itself is worth a design award! The original intent was to release the CD in 2012 for the 90th anniversary of Cuban Radio.  We are used to an eclectic mix of styles from Buena Fe, but this time the idea was to have different songs representing the changing of stations on the radio or different types of songs you would have heard on Cuban Radio over the years. "Dial" may end up redefining eclectic, but I have so far only heard six songs from the album, so this is pure speculation on my part.

In a recent interview in OnCuba, director and lead singer Israel Rojas said that the CD contains 13 tracks, 12 written by himself and "Volar sin ti", which he wrote together with Galician singer/songwriter Andrés Suárez. Interestingly, I have a list of 17 songs! Four of them are from soundtracks of radio programs that all Cubans will recognize. I am going to assume that it is the other 13 original songs that Israel was talking about in the interview. The CD should be on sale at the concerts, so bring some extra money to get yourself a copy. I still don't know what day the album will be available for MP3 download, but I will post an update when I know. The following is a track list for "Dial" minus the four soundtrack songs:
Acompáñame
Buena hembra, mala sangre
Pasa o parece
Ojeo
Volar sin ti (con Andrés Suárez)
Si yo fuera
Pablo
Se bota a matar
La culpa
De proa a popa
Papel en blanco
Dial
Corazón universidad (Bonus track con DcoraSon)

And to do our part in BuenaFeMania, here is a YouTube playlist with five of the songs from "Dial". Enjoy, and stay tuned for further updates during "DIAL WEEK"!

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On February 2nd Septeto Santiaguero will celebrate their 18th anniversary with a concert at noon at the legendary Salón de los Grandes de la Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba. The band's latest CD, "Vamos pa' la fiesta", was selected as one of the best albums of World Music in 2012 by About.com (owned by The New York Times). And the Septeto's new CD was listed among the best salsa and latin jazz CDs of 2012 by the prestigious sites Descarga.com online music sales, ElWatusi.com, Brazil Salsa, Latin Beat Magazine, the Colombian radio station Javeriana Estereo, American stations KPFA 94.1 (Berkeley) and WMNF 88.5 FM (Tampa) and the French newspaper Le Monde, through the blog Mundo Latino. The album includes collaboration with internationally reknowned artists Rubén Blades (and his alter ego Medoro Madera), José Alberto “El Canario”, Cheo Feliciano and Edwin Colón Zayas, Jimmy Bosch and Luisito Quintero. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the heart of Cuban music and the soul of timba, guaranteed to get you dancing!  If you haven't heard "Vamos pa' la fiesta" yet, click here to check it out at Spotify. 

Septeto Santiguero will take their rico son to Mexico with concerts the 14th in Salón Los Ángeles in Mexico City, the 15th in Cuernavaca and the 16th in Veracruz. Don' t miss your chance to party with Septeto Santiaguero! Check out the first video from the album, "Esa familia a mí no me conviene"!

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It is always good news when a new timba band is born. First we had an explosion of timba bands in Stockholm and now my homestate Colorado has it's first timba band, "La Maquinaria". I have blogged about their upcoming concert February 10 at Fox Theater in Boulder, but like you I didn't know much about the band. So I got in touch with Calixto Oviedo and Armando Santoyo to get a little music sample and to find out about what inspired Armando to put together a timba band in the middle of cowboy country. 

**Update - La Maquinaria on the Fox Theater website + ticket link here...
http://www.foxtheatre.com/2013/02/10/0730PM/La-Maquinaria-Cubana
Call (303) 443-3399

The video above is a sample song that Calixto sent me, although Armando says the band has not yet recorded any demos. Instead they will make a professional quality DVD of the Boulder concert.  After hearing the demo and  interviewing Armando I am very excited about this new group! To read more about the origins of the band, their mission statement, the band members and how they began their collaboration with Calixto and Pepito, click here.

Booking for La Maquinaria Cubana
lamaquinariacubana@aol.com
Contact: Mandy Sant
1-303-475-7894

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David Calzado y su Charanga Habanera on tour in Europe in February

The 2013 Tours season is already in full swing in Peru with Charanga Forever and Charanga Habanera performing together in Peru last weekend, and Calle Real, Havana D'Primera, Maykel Blanco & Salsa Mayor and Klímax performing together Friday, February 1 in Lima.

Here in Europe Maykel Blanco is just finishing up his solo promotional tour for the "A toda máquina" CD, while La Charanga Habanera will start their European winter tour next Thursday with a concert at Cuba te quiero in Rome. David and the boys will hold 16 concerts across Europe and then head to Japan in March. Their Tours Page has the list of all concerts we know of thus far. If you know of any we are missing, please send me an e-mail.

Gente D'Zona on tour in Europe February

Also on tour in Europe during the month of February is Cubas hottest reggaeton act, Gente D'Zona. They have 12 concerts in 4 countries, including Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Click here to see the full list of concert dates and find one near you. Again, if we have missed any concerts, please send me an e-mail.

Later this spring we have Elito Revé y su Charangón and Havana D'Primera visiting so stay tuned for tour updates.

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