MisterBryans

Eliades Ochoa in Toronto - Press Release

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB ARTIST ELIADES OCHOA to PERFORM TWO SHOWS AT The ROYAL, TORONTO"S INTIMATE ART DECO CONCERT THEATRE

Havana Arte Productions present two nights with the legendary Cuban singer/bandleader ELIDES OCHOA at the Royal Theatre 608 College St, Friday and Saturday April 23 and 24, Showtime 8:30 PM Information 647 403 7308
Admission $59.00 Tickets available through Ticketmaster

Buena Vista Social Club guitarist/singer Eliades Ochoa is one the living testaments to the universal popularity of Cuban 'son' music. Guitarist, singer and bandleader, Eliades Ochoa picked up his first instrument at the age of six years and  by his early teens he was leader of the legendary group Cuarteto Patria.

Not long after, Elides Ochoa was recruited into the Buena Vista Social Club, where he became instantly recognizable worldwide for the recording and film of his performance of the traditional Cuban song "Chan Chan" with the late Compay Segundo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOwpkd2mMR0

Since that time Elides Ochoa and his group have toured over 40 countries, released several recordings, and keeping the sound of traditional Cuban 'son' music alive for audiences all over the world.

Last seen in Toronto at Massey Hall, this presentation in April sees Eliades Ochoa and his 6 piece group perform an intimate show in the recently renovated Art Deco Royal Theatre in Toronto's Little Italy area.

With limited of 400 seats only each night, these concerts will be a once-in-a-life-time-opportunity to see some of the finest 'son' music performed in a  unique concert setting with fantastic sight-lines in all seats and a state of the art sound system.

Originally an art deco repertoire theatre,  the Royal was rescued from the brink of extinction at the cost of 2.2 millions by film post-production company Theatre D Digital and it’s financial benefactors, and has now become one of the finest locations for live music presentations.

Tickets available through Ticketmaster

Interactivo Launch Concert Line-Up

Interactivo will launch their new CD "Cubanos Por El Mundo" on March 8th at the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana with a special concert featuring MELVIS Santa, HAYDEE Milanés,  FRANCIS del Río, OSCAR Valdés, X Alfonso, DAVID Torrens, SANTIAGO Feliú, DESCEMER Bueno, GIGANTERÍA

the band line-up includes, on piano ROBERTO CARCASSÉS, drums OLIVER VALDÉS - RODNEY BARRETO, bajo CARLOS RÍOS guitarra RAUL VERDECIA, congas  YAROLDI ABREU, trompeta y voz JULIO PADRÓN, trompeta ALEXEY BARROSO,  saxo CARLOS MIYARES - DAVID SUAREZ,  trombón JUAN CARLOS MARIN, coros y guiro  BRENDA NAVARRETE,  coros LISSET OCHOA - MARJORIE RIVERA

Update

Just received the EPK

Yusa in Argentina and Brazil

Yusa is based out of Argentina these days and has a busy performance schedule there.

Marzo. 12 . Casa Nacional del Bicentenario . Bs As . - junto a Vero Condomí
Abril. 9 - 16 - 23 - 30 . Ciclo en Cafe Vinilo . Bs As . + Invitados
Abril. 24 . Teatro Auditorium Mar del Plata
Junio. 4 . Fest de Jazz Al Fin . Ushuaia
Junio. 13 . Universidad de Villa Maria . Cordoba

She is touring Brazil in August

Lots more info at her website

Rumba for a Friday Morning

Festival Fiesta del Tambor March 9-13 in Havana

 

Photo of Piloto by Roger at New Music Report

This is the one Cuban music festival I hate to miss. It's organized by Klimax director Giraldo Piloto

The 9th annual Festival Fiesta de Tambor pays tribute to some of the recently deceased giants of Cuban drumming including Ricardo “Papín” Abreu, founder of Los Papines; and Jesús Alfonso Miró, music director of Muñequitos de Matanzas. It's also dedicated to Changui and the music of Elio Reve.

The line-up is massive. Los Papines, Yoruba Andabo, Pupy Pedroso, Klimax, Conjunto Folklorico Nacional, Munequitos de Matanzas, Maykel Blanco, Pachito Alonzo, Eliio Reve, Bamboleo, Manolito Simonet, plus a latin jazz night lead by Maraca that includes  Samuell Formell, El Panga and Memo Acevedo - my original timbale teacher back in Toronto many years ago.

The Festival includes workshops, panel discussions and performances scattered around the best known Havana venues including Teatro America, La Tropical, Casa de La Música Miramar, Sala Atril and Hotel Occidental.

Update: Speaking of drums, here's a photo of my new caixe drum, brought directly from Belo Horizonte Brazil by Aline Morales. So you know it has good pedigree.

Carnaval Toronto 2010

Sur Caribe's new album "Horizonte Próximo"

I am enjoying it a lot. In terms of material and sound quality, I'd say it's their best yet.

I've always been intrigued by their sound, with the horns and vocals sounding Van Vanish, but their rhythms coming from a different place. (Which I've always assumed to be Santiago, where they are from)

Their big hit a couple of years back was "Añoranza Por La Conga", and as you can see on the above video for "Arrollando por la Ciudad" they have stayed with that sound. But they also dip into the reggaeton, feature a song with Omara Portuanda and Juan Formell. And for the first time,(as far as I know) they have recorded a flat out salsa hit with the tune "Todos Por El Son"

I downloaded the album from www.cubamusic.com the company based out of Italy specializing in both traditional and modern music. It's a pretty useful service for all kinds of Cuban music.

...and son

This is a promo shot of Roberto Carcasses from the upcoming Interactivo album "Cubano Por El Mundo". More than once, last year when Roberto was in Toronto for the Havana Cultura shows, people would arrive at the shows expecting Bobby. I guess they must get that a lot.

Bobby Carcasses in The U.S.

More info

Eliades Ochoa in Toronto April 23 and 24th

Telmary In Montreal - February 28th

(I always liked this Sophie Giraud photo with the *big* eyes)

Telmary is back in Montreal on Sunday feb 28th  for the first time since her Havana Cultura Interactivo show of last September, appearing at the legendary African music club Balattou (where I once spent a memorable two days as a fill-in drummer for the Congolese soukous band Loketeo).

Will update with details asap.

Hilario Duran Hosts Babaluu Benefit for Haiti

From the press release

Hilario Duran Trio will host a benefit concert for the earthquake victims in Haiti on Sunday February 7th

 It will be an intimate performance to  guests, with all around great energy for all to just give the gift of giving.
 
The Haitian Relief Concert will be held at Babalu’u Supperclub, Yorkville.
 
There will be a silent auction. Full proceeds from the concert and the auction will go towards to the families affected by the devastation.
 
For those interested in donating product, in kind, gift certificates or dollar amount towards the cause, please contact 416 884 0097 and provide cell.

Attendees are encouraged to rsvp their spot in advance as its a limited performance opportunity. Your presence will be appreciated.

Musicians include Hilario Duran, Max Sennitt and Roberto Occhipinti. Cover is $20.00

My Fave Reggaeton These Days

I know, we are hopelessly out of date, what with this song being at least six months old, but whatever, it's rocking the dancefloor at Babaluu on Sundays.

I discovered it on o Los Salvajes street CD that I picked up last November in Havana. Love the slooooow tempo...

As you can see, the artist credits are different (Cogico 113) from Los Salvajes, but it's all the same group....I hope to find out from them this Saturday (when they come to town for a show at Six Degrees) what is up with the Cuban reggaetoneros, who love to have different names for the same group.

Interactivo "Que No Pare el Pare"

From their new album "Cubanos por El Mundo" which is due to be released in march of 2010

Yoani, El Yuma and Cuba 2.0

Yoani Sanchez and her crew

Ted Henken at the El Yuma blog has translated Yoani Sanchez's fascinating story of The Making of (her blog) Generation Y (Original Spanish post here). On one level, it's about the trials and tribulations of building a blog in Cuba with no tech support and no info, but ultimately, "The Making of Generacion Y' is the universal story of someone with something to say, who builds a support network saying it, and succeeds way beyond what was ever imagined possible. Kind of like what good music is supposed to be about.

For me, Generaçion Y was the first blog from inside the island that mirrored the conversations that I was hearing on my frequent visits to Havana. And since Yoani lives in Vieja Habana and I was staying in Centro Habana and then Vedado,  she became like another one of my Cuban friends.....articulate, educated and frustrated as hell at the glacial pace of change in their country.

So Yoani went ahead and did something about it, and has now become an internationally recognized symbol for all Cubans who, despite the insane limitations on internet access imposed by the doble bloqueo****, are blogging, Facebooking, tweeting, using their Myspace pages and Flickr groups to express their opinions about whatever is on their minds.

Examples include Alexander Abreu of Havana de Primera using Facebook to test out his new lyrics, the virtual "repudiation brigades" (mitin de repudio) against Yoani on Twitter ... photo blogs, pro-government journalists blogs, political prisoner blogs, the list goes on.  It's an online version of Calle G y 23rd, the square in Vedado across from the University of Havana where all the Cuban cultural and political tendencies are on display. (My fave new read is the English translation of La carpeta de Ivan)

The El Yuma blog has quickly become indispensable in keeping track of this new Cuba 2.0. Ted Henken is a professor out of Baruch College in New York who is a colleague of both Ned Sublette (they will be are co-teaching a class in NYC at Baruch - "New World Cities: New York, New Orleans, and Havana..." ) and Phil Peters of The Cuban Triangle blog. So he travels in circles of people who know what they are talking about, plus  - unlike so many other U.S. pundits on the right and the left - he has actually been to Cuba.

Henken has posted extensively about the Cuban government's campaign to discredit Yoani, but there's lots of other developments (A Facebook campaign on the island against the tarjeta blanca,  a confererence on Cuban Information Technology and Social Media) that keep him updating El Yuma on a regular basis. I'm hoping he has some new information on the news yesterday about the expulsion of a U of Havana journalism student for running a controversial Facebook group.

****doble bloqueo is a term I learned from a Cuban friend to describe how both the U.S. and Cuban governments deprive Cuban people of normal lives as citizens of the world.

SalsaTO.ca's Haitian Earthquake Relief Fundraiser

Mike at Salsato.com is organizing a fund-raiser for Haiti to be held on February 1st. He sends along this message with the details

Please pass this on to each, all and everyone you know - in and out of the dance community.

There is room for performers, one team or couple at this time. Dressing room space at Acrobat is limited, and there will be no time to train or rehearse, so please be prepared to perform when you arrive. CD with one track greatly appreciated.

Donations for the prizes are greatly appreciated - goods, services, sessions, dance lessons, passes to events... all monies going to the Canadian Red Cross.

*** Dance & Donate ***

SalsaTO.ca's Haitian Earthquake Relief Fundraiser
Monday 1 February at Acrobat
2464 Yonge Street. 3 1/2 blocks north of Eglinton.
$10 cover at the door. All of the cover goes to the Canadian Red Cross.
Other Proceeds go to the Canadian Red Cross.
8:00pm. Doors open to the public. .
9:00pm. First Set of live Music.
Performances - draws - monies go to the Red Cross
Salsa - Cha Cha - Latin Hustle - Tango - Swing - and more...

Confirmed - DJ Romantico, DJ Billy Bryans, DJ Julio Cezar!
Confirmed performers - DanceTOLive, SalsaTO.ca
Confirmed prizes - TorontoDanceSalsa.ca;StepsDanceStudio.com; GoDancemambo.com;

Will be confirming other DJs, names of the bands and the performers in the next few days.

Printable Link to Print - Post - Pass Around
http://www.salsato.ca/ads-images/haiti-85x11-flyer-b-w-otlns.pdf

Cubanos En La Red: Pichón de Haitiano

via DesdelaHabana

Luanda!!!!

With Aline Morales, Mike Sloski and I didn't catch the name of the bass player (sorry). This was recorded sometime late last year when Luanda was releasing her new album... Nice work by the CBC camera crew.

Tiempo Libre in Toronto

Tiempo Libre bring their classical-infused timba concert to Toronto on February 20. Here are the details..

Saturday, Feb 20, 2010

8:00 PM

Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto (Bloor & Avenue Rd.)

"Their new CD, Bach in Havana, blends Bach melodies from pieces such as the Mass in B Minor and the Well-Tempered Clavier with infectious Cuban rhythms including the cha-cha-cha, the son and the danzon." (NPR Music)

Tiempo Libre line-up

Jorge Gomez, piano & musical director
Joaquin (El Kid) Díaz, lead vocal
Tebelio (Tony) Fonte, bass
Luis Beltran Castillo, saxophone & flute
Leandro González, congas
Cristobal Ferrer Garcia, trumpet
Armando (Pututi) Arce, drums

Tiempo Libre will perform two sets with a 20 minute intermission. There are designated dancing areas. Afterwards, there is a post-concert party with DJ Billy Bryans in the Conservatory Theatre which is licensed.

Tickets for the concert are available online at www.rcmusic.ca, by phone via the RCM Box Office at 416-408-0208, or in person at the RCM Box Office at 273 Bloor Street West (Bloor & Avenue Road, in the TELUS Centre For Performance and Learning building, which is the home of The Royal Conservatory.)
 
The direct link online is: http://performance.rcmusic.ca/performance/index/year/2010/month/02/day/20/time/2000/venue/koerner

Supported by Marilyn and Charles Baillie. Media sponsor is Jazz FM

Here's a review of Tiempo Libre in Ottawa in January of 08 from our friend Celeste.

Another review, this time of Tiempo Libre's "Bach in Havana" CD (Mona Malarsky)

The official Tiempo Libre website

Lhasa de Sela R.I.P.

As many of you know, Lhasa died of breast cancer last weekend. She was 37 years old.

Considering how inspirational she was to so many people around the world (and to so many other singers here in Canada) her death at such a young age seems inexplicably cruel.

Here's a very fine tribute from U.K. writer Peter Culshaw that combines an interview that he did with the singer back in 2004 with some added comments by another writer Robert Sandall. It offers a glimpse at how Lhasa thought about her music, her nomadic upbringing, her life in Montreal, the circus influence of her three sisters, and the changes she went through after the unexpected success of her first recording.

Make no mistake, when Lhasa's first album "La Llorona" was released in 1997, no one imagined this ethereal sounding record, by an unknown artist, that referenced Aztec mythology and was sung entirely in Spanish, would sell a few hundred thousand copies. Especially one that was actually made in Canada.

I can't say I realized it at the time, but given how the DNA of our country has been so defined by the neverending debate between English and French (our two dreary solitudes), Lhasa's music, what the Guardian called her "21st century songs of enchantment", was a welcome sign of something entirely new and different and very healthy going on.

She will be missed.

Exactly What This City Needs

From Toronto Star reporter and Manolito Simonet connoisseur Morgan Campbell

The Blue Jays may have moved a little closer to signing the first impact free agent of the Alex Anthopoulos era.

According to a report published Friday in El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language version of the Miami Herald, the Jays have offered $23 million (all figures U.S.) to hard-throwing Cuban southpaw Aroldis Chapman.

The report also states the Los Angeles Angels have offered Chapman an undisclosed sum believed to be close to Toronto's offer, although the term is not specified. Chapman has been reported to be looking for a five-year deal.

Who knows if the Jays will sign the former Holguin player, and then who knows if he'll actually work out as a big-league pitcher. The jury is still out on that question.

But the party would most definitely get started if Toronto signed Aroldis Chapman. With David Calzado due to show up here on April 10, and the Blue Jays opening day in T.O. on April 12, 2010, spring would be sweet in El Norte.

Patrick Danquah and Jorgito Molina

Patrick Danquah and Jorgito Molina

The Most Important Link You Need

...if you are visiting Havana, and you want to see the salsa/timba bands.

http://yemayasverse.blogspot.com/2009/11/timba-geeks-guide-to-havana-part-1-2009.html

Gabriel wrote this post in November of 09, so things may have changed somewhat (they always do). Many of the bands go on national or international tours from time to time.

If the bigger bands (Los Van Van, Pupy Pedroso, La Charanga Habanera) are in town, they often play these same venues on the weekends.

I recommend the matinees, because they are cheaper, and therefore the rooms tend to fill up with Cuban people. Which is half the fun.

Kelvis Ochoa, Leoni Torres and Los Salvajes in Toronto

The first show of Cuban music this year in Toronto takes place on February 6th at Six Degrees. It's an eclectic line-up (trova/fusion, salsa and reggaeton), but all the artists are very well known in Cuba.

Here's a link to the Toronto Hispano site with more information. The promoter is Havanarte. I am helping with the publicity and will DJ the night.

I'll be posting more info on the artists as we get closer to the gig.

Still haven't heard any confirmation about Gente de Zona, who are rumoured to be coming to Canada in March. So the first major Cuban reggaeton group ever to visit Canada will be Los Salvajes.

Van Van Discography

http://www.taringa.net/posts/musica/2194192/Juan-Formell-Y-Los-Van-Van---Egt;-Discografia.html

thanks Cris Butcher

Kelvis Ochoa: La Conga de Juana

Two years ago.... (Via Cubadebate)

Ghana Football Fan

Sign Of The Times

Los Aldeanos

'El rap es guerra'
by diariodecuba

via Diariodecuba

Protest In Tehran

from the Tehranlive.org site, chronicalling the anti-government demonstrations in Iran on Ashura Day Dec 27, 2009

Sfiso Ntuli

Photo by Rick Simon

For those of us who lived in Toronto in the 1990's, Sfiso Ntuli was a very prominent figure on the African music scene as leader of the group Siyakha, as a show promoter, and as an activist for the liberation of South Africa.

Siyakha was Sfiso's group, for which I played drums for several years. Other members included - at various times - Victor Shiffman, Merill Matthews, Guillomar Campbell, Bruce Burron, Colin Campbell, Kim Roberts, Lizzie Mahashe, another South African whom I only knew as Wendy, the late Jamisse Jamo, Kobena Aquaa Harrison and others who i cant recall.  We were basically an mbaqanga band, with a few other SA rhythms thrown in. I don't think we were very good at it, at least we wern't as good as the bands from SA who originally made this music, but we had the spirit of the music, and Sfiso himself performed a lot of the dance. His leadership style came more from being an ANC activist than a bandleader, he would call the band together before a show for a rousing talk before the show, addressing us as 'comrades', and then we would open with the African national anthem.

We played a lot, it was the golden days of the African music scene in Toronto. We went to New York city to play at SOB's visited Montreal, but mostly we gigged in the Toronto area at Harbourfront, Ontario Place, Afrofest, Toronto City Hall, the Bamboo Club, as well as various anti-apartheid events that were numerous in those days. I recall Queens park concerts for Oliver Tambo and a welcome night for Winnie Mandela. But the evening that is most vivid took place on April 27, 1994, when Siyakha headlined a show at the Bamboo Club on the night that Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa's first Black president. (Something I thought a lot about last year on the night Barack Obama was elected president of the U.S.A.)

The above photo is of Sfiso in his club in Joberg that he runs/owns/manages - I'm not sure which. If you look at the poster for the Politburo Sessions right above Sfiso's head, you'll see the list 'musos, dancers and dj's'. Hard to believe, but in the 90's here in Toronto, no one had really put that connection together. It was Sfiso who first proposed those three elements as necessary for any good party, and then tried to assemble them best he could in shows that he called Dark City Jive. No one really understood what he was trying to do, he was way ahead of his time.

He looks like he is totally in his element now.

Salsa Cubana 09

Again, a playlist taken from a CD giveaway for my Sunday night at Babaluu. Not necessarily a 'best-of' list, and certainly not in any preferred order, just an indication of the salsa/timba music released in Cuba in 09 (mas o menos) that i played on a regular basis - or in the case of Tumbao Habana - which I just received last week that i will play on a regular basis. 

I agree with Gabriel that it wasn't a great year for Cuban salsa. However, Los Van Van did release the highly orchestrated 'Arrasando' which yielded three or four great songs for the dance-floor; God's new gift to Cuban music, Havana d'Primera released their debut album 'Haciendo Historia', and the above mentioned Tumbao Havana came out of second-line obscurity to drop an album that will get a lots of play in 2010.

Certainly Charanga Habanera had the song of the year (see earlier post), but I don't think the album 'La Caratula' holds up musically to some of David Calzado's previous work. I thought the two 'Swedish" bands (Calle Real and La Tremenda) put out solid records, i just didn't find the songs that i felt worked for the dancefloor. Same with Azucar Negra.

In 2010, I'm looking forward to a new CD from Manolito Simonet, from NG La Banda (the new songs sound great!), from Paulo FG (who may have finally found the salsa/reggaeton balance that he has been looking for) and from Interactivo, who could surprise a lot of dancers with their new CD Cubanos Por El Mundo.

One last thing. It's customary to put a local band on the best of list and La Crisis by Roberto Linares Brown could be listed because Roberto is a nice guy (he really is), or because he has raised the level of the Toronto Cuban music scene though his talent as an arranger (he most definitely has). But the reality of being a club DJ is that you measure a song by the response of the dance floor, and La Crisis - with another great friend Alberto Alberto singing - got the job done every time I played it.

Anyways, here's the list.....

Lucha Luchador    6:45    NG La Banda   

Cuando El Rio Suena    5:10    Havana d Primera

La Familia Cubana    5:17    Tumbao Habana   

Mi Songo    4:59    Los Van Van  

La Crisis   4:44     Roberto Linares Brown  

Despues De Un Beso    5:13    Havana d Primera     

Cuando Llegue A La Casa    4:19    Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor      

La Madrugada    6:05    Michel Maza  

Un Amigo En Madrid    4:46    Alain Daniel  

La Nena    3:24    Tumbao Habana   

Si No Te Quieres Tu    5:56    Los Van Van   

Reggaeton Cubano 09

Face it, Cuba is awash in a sea of homegrown reggaeton. It's everywhere, with so many songs being released that it's impossible for an outsider to keep track of it.....

What I do is pick up these street compilations called La Fiesta del Reggaeton which have all the popular songs, and then I play the ones I like, or the ones that get the most reaction from Cuban dancers at Babaluu. (I think we are about 6 months behind Havana) In 2009, Gente de Zona, Yulien Oviedo and Insurrecto, El Chacal, Baby Lores all had many hits, but the group that rose to the top was Los Salvajes (los 4) with their omnipresent "Si Se Va A Formar Que Se Forma"

However, the song that blew everything else out of the water was La Charanga Habanera's "Gozando en la Habana", about the young Cuban who moved to Miami and misses life in Havana. It has become almost like a second Cuban national anthem and was still being played in Havana when i was there in November - even though it was released way earlier in the year. Without doubt the single most popular Cuban song i have ever DJ'ed.

Gozando En La Habana     5:18    La Charanga Habanera               

Si Se Va A Formar Que Se Forma    3:37    Los Salvajes               

La Sandunguera    4:02    Yulien Olviedo y Insurrecto               

Ella Me Gusta    5:22    Paulo FG y Marvin               

Me Quiedo En La Habana    4:20    Gente de Zona y Orishas               

Ahora Como Te Mantienes    4:55    Los Salvajes              

La Gallina    4:14    El Chacal              

Washusay    4:38    Gladiator and Power Ranks              

El Trio    4:29    Yulien Olviedo y Insurrecto               

Homenaje al Beny    3:58    Gente de Zona               

Me Gusta Te Amiguita    4:36    Los Salvajes               

Volver A Su Tia    5:05    Baby Lores y Micha    

The best way to keep track of the Cuban reggaeton scene is through a website out of Miami called SomosdeBarrio, which posts a constant stream of videos, mp3 downloads, interviews and gossip.

Update: Franz from PlanetTimba pointed me towards this compilation, available on iTunes, that is a pretty decent collection of current reggaeton from Cuba. (Also available in Canada) 

Update #2: I forgot, Jen Paz has a great documentary out about the Cuban reggaeton scene called 'Animals of Cuban Music'

Update #3: There's an intriguing anarchy that makes it confusing for the outsider to figure out what is what. Fr'instance, the group Los Salvajes are also known as Los 4, and Los Intocables. The songs 'El Trio' by Yulien Olviedo - one of my faves - has been called in certain places  'Agua Noche' and it has had at least two versions with two different MC's William Sanchez and Blad MC.

We Are All Postmamboists

Ned Sublette has a new word to inject into the vocabulary of music studies. Postmamboism.

Guest blogging over at the Boing Boing site, the author of Cuba and it's Music and a new book on New Orleans called A Year before The Flood, Sublette introduces this new disciplne that....

begins with the study of African and African diaspora musics, given their historical centrality to the music of the world and their deep connection through slavery, neoslavery, and liberation struggles to fundamental questions of colonialism, capitalism, and civilization. Postmamboism calls for a thorough knowledge of music of the black Atlantic, and implicitly has much to do with the emergent field of Atlantic studies, but its techniques and perspective can work with any musical culture.

Somewhere in the past (sitting in with tourist bands in Veradero, Cuba 1981, seeing Eddie Palmieri at an upper east side club in NYC circa 1978, Bob Marley at Convocation Hall in Toronto in the mid 70's, my first encounter with a Fela Kuti vinyl) I became a postmamboist. The seed was probably planted with soul music of the 60's (Sam and Dave, Aretha Franklin, etc) with it's history and culture and authenticity compared to other pop music of the day. Or maybe it was that movie The Tami Show, (1964) when all of us white kids got to see James Brown smoke the Rolling Stones.

An interesting aspect here is this awkwardly worded passage (italics mine)

Postmamboism acknowledges a dialectic between its essential reference point of music that is popular (literally, of the people, signifying music that springs from historical roots and, relying on memory and person-to-person transmission, is infinitely renewable), and pop, which is presentist and must be mediated, consumed and replaced. Postmamboism speaks in the vernacular, deprivileging jargon, cultic language, and hyperpolysyllabicism. Postmamboism values the testimony, experience, and vocabulary of cultural practitioners, because for Postmamboists as for musicians, theory must be connected to practice.

I am spinning a gig at lula tonight.

New Years Eve 2009

Maninho Costa has a group at Lula Lounge that night as well, so it will be a complete evening, musically speaking. Cuba and Brazil.

I was trying to remember what what going on ten years ago and of course it was 1999 and the year of the Y2K hype. I was DJ'ing at Caoba (Radames Nieve's place on College St), and i seem to recall that the whole city had one of the deadest NYE's ever. People just stayed home and then nothing happened.

It wasn't until 9/11 that the 21st century really kicked in, as far as I'm concerned.....

Havana Tweets

If Cuba had normal internet access, these are some of the tweets I would have sent

Six Feet Under (the TV Show) is "Seis Pieds Bajo La Tierra".

There is way less food on the island than there used to be

"Le Gusta Mambo la mujer de pelotero"

The most distinctive voice in Cuba is not a singer, it's Hector Rodriguez, one of the play by play announcers for the TV broadcasts of the Industriales games. Basso profundo.

Two years ago, no one knew who Joani Sanchez was. Now, at least with university students, she is famous. I got asked many questions about Yoani.

Unlimited access to the internet is the universal right of all peoples including young Cubans.

"Vamos mirar Randy por Mesa Redonda", is still one of my most popular jokes in Havana.

I hate soap operas. I can handle the heat, the bureaucracy and the lack of internet, but soap operas will drive me off the island.

The house music DJ's down here are improving.

I wondered why this Cuban colleague spoke the most non accented English I had ever heard. It's because she learned it in Napanee Ontario.

If you really really really want to get married, the 'Club de Chevere' in Kholy is the place to do it. Beautiful dance floor, lovely stage, indoor/outdoor gem of a room set in bowl of lush tropical vegetation.

Course it helps to have Havana de Primera as the band.

Manolito at the Thursday matinee at Cafe Cantante. Ooops, Manolito is cancelled, it's Chispa. Discusión. Sorry Chispa.

Every tomato salad in Havana is the best tomato salad ever in the history of tomato salads.

La casa de Robertico. Finally get a chance to reveal my true feelings about the original version of Marylou.

Turns out that Van Van's "Esta te Pone La Cabeza Mala" was recorded at La Tropicale.

Now that I stay in Vedado, going back to Centro Havana is like entering a noise chamber for the testing of ear plugs....

Good to know that the strobe light at Casa de La Musica Miramar is still working. And working.

Always a pleasure to see Leoni Torres. What a sweet guy he is.

The jiniteras and chicas of C de la Musica just aint what they used to be.

Cuba has many many issues, but developing music talent is not one of them. Watch Rodney Barretto for a few minutes.

Alexander Abreu is a big Black man with lots of grace and presence. And then there are those songs.

I was recognized three times in one day because of Facebook.

Alas, one of my favorite personaities of Havana is no longer there. Her name was Dore, she sold the records on Neptuno west of Galliano. I used to enjoy sending the hottest Canadian women to her store.

On the streets of Havana. In 05,06 it was salsa vs reggaeton. Reggaeton won.

Fascinating story from a graduate student who received a knock on her door one day. It was state security, and they were there to recruit her into their information analysis section. They knew everything about her.

Cuban people live under a 'doble bloqueo'.

Damn, am missing Yusa again. This is getting serious.

Flying to Havana via Veradero is not really worth it unless you are paying $100 CAD for your ticket. Too long a drive...

Calle 23 y Avenida G (Presidente). I am learning what to look for. The freakies (rock and roll kids) the government sponsored trova singers, the reggaeton party. The cops....

Bombing around Playa at night in an original VW bug trying to explain to Ileana how useless these things were in the snow.

Hoder and Yoani: Tough Week For Bloggers

This is the first anniversary of the incarceration of Canada's most famous blogger Hossein Derakhshan's, (aka Hoder) who has been in an Iranian jail for reasons that no one is clear about. Jesse Brown at TVO's Search Engine has the latest info.

Last Friday, Cuban authorities detained and beat up Yoani Sanchez of Generçion Y. Here's her post on what happened.

From Celeste In Ottawa (Click to Enlarge)

Nice tune from El Tosco

That comic, Antolin, was in Toronto last week. Couldn't understand a word......

There was a live/pre-release mix of this tune from NG la Banda kicking around a while ago, dunno if the song ever got recorded properly. It's a good one.

One Year

(Photo of me and Sarita blowing out the candles - courtesy of AJHW)

Looking back, I'm not entirely sure that anyone (myself included) was really convinced that a weekly club night dedicated to Cuban music would actually work. A year later it seems obvious that it was something whose time had come.

The three dance schools sure make a difference. Sarita Leyva, Vladimir Aranda and Albena de Assis (Afro-Latino Dance Company) now have many students who are familiar with the music of Manolito, Van Van, Pupy Pedroso etc etc and who have found a home on Sundays at Babaluu

No doubt the 'embargo' (or bloqueo if you prefer) of Cuban salsa music still exists within the Salsa establishment, but it is far less unanimous than when I started playing Cuban music 7 or 8 years ago. The dance teachers listed above are part of the reason why things have changed...but also many of the salsa schools now teach casino rueda, (badly or not is another question) and many of the salsa teachers are familiar with afro-cuban dance. As well, most of the local salsa musicians are from Cuba and many of the bigger live salsa shows have been Cuban artists.

Also, very importantly, the website/blogs have created a different climate. This site, CubainToronto.com,(Cuban events updates) and Muchoswing.com (with it's clips of the latest Cuban dance and music from Havana) have all provided places for the audience to go for more info.

Another reason why the Sundays at Babaluu have worked is because Cuban people are more and more intergrated into the Canadian system, and there are enough Cubancanadians - usually younger - who will go out on a Sunday night.

Musically speaking, as a working DJ, it's been a great opportunity to play a weekly 4-5 hour set digging deep into the catalogue of Charanga Habanera, Bamboleo, NG La Banda, Pupy etc etc, to mix it up with the latest Cuban reggaeton, ....and if something doesn't work, well no probs, we just move along to the next song. We have 'broken' songs in that room (Havana de Primera's 'Cuando el Rio Suena', Charanga Habanera's 'Gozando en La Habana') which is something that every DJ aspires to do.

So thanks to all who have made the evening successful.

Cuba Bla Bla

Here's a new blog for all you Cubophiles. it's called El Yuma and is written by Ted Henken, a university professor from NYNY. Another aplatanado. So far he has written mostly about bloguera Yoani Sanchez, who is a friend it seems, but it sounds like Henken knows a lot more about Cuba than just the dissident bloggers. Lets see what he writes about.

Speaking of Yoani Sanchez, I dont know if you caught this a few weeks ago, when Yoani, denied permission to travel yet again, unloaded on the poor sleepy bureaucrat who had the misfortune to be the one who had to give her the bad news.

Beware the wrath of a highly intelligent, highly pissed off Cuban woman. With a hidden camera.

Meanwhile, the U.S.- Cuba thaw continues sort of, as the Latin Grammys have announced that Omara Portuando will be one of the presenters for this years gala on November 5th....However, a Miami friend, who is very familiar with the changing U.S. immigration policies vis a vis Cuban artists, cautions that we shouldn't expect of flood of Cuban musos coming to the U.S. next year for summer tours. More like a trickle, especially of older, more established artists, who present less of a threat of defecting while in the U.S. (I think the phrase is 'flight risk.')

Myself, I'm going back to Cuba for the first time in a couple of years. Leaving for Havana on the 17th. Yessss! I desperately need sun, and I need to be in a room with Manolito, or Havana D' Primera or Van Van, surrounded by Cuban dancers. It's been waaay too long. I hope to do some meetings, and I will also attend a wedding of two friends who are getting married. Two friends (Christian Muñoz, well known timba photographer and Jensy Menendez) whom I introduced - come to think of it.

I'm Baaaaack!

Apologies to for total lack of updates but sometimes real life takes over from blogging...

One of the most time consuming projects that I have ever embarked upon is almost over. Namely, digitizing my music library in order to use the Serato Scratch Live DJ software. Going back to the original (and mostly unsorted) CD's, dumping the music over to my external hardrive, and then selecting the songs that i need for my DJ'ing - it's amazing how much time it takes. But the work is more or less all done now, so i can now enjoy DJ'ing without lugging around a trillion CD's that i continually misfile or misplace.

The main difference in using the Serrato software comes in the retrieval of the music. For 10 years, I had developed a system whereby i could dig through my box of CD's and find what i needed, knowing that a particular song was (for instance) track 4 on this or that CD. I didnt really even have to remember the title of the song, and because Spanish is not my main language, i sometimes didn't really even know the proper title of that song, I just knew where it was and how to find it. Now, most of the time anyways, the songs are in alphabetical order which means......that I'd better learn Spanish asap.

Salsamundo Thursdays at Babaluu

The good folks at Babaluu (Nubia and Pilar) have asked me to take over their Thursday nights. So starting October 22nd, I will be DJ'ing a night that I am calling Salsamundo.

It's a format that I started to develop at Lula on a Saturday night, where I'd string together a mix of music in every genre  from Colombian, Cuban, Vintage, Romantica through to African....

On one hand, I don't want to play the same format as I do Sundays, (about 80/20% cuban/non-cuban), on the other hand I couldn't possibly play an evening of salsa without Issac,Adalberto, Van Van, Manolito etc etc,. So there is a blend somewhere that I want to develop into something unique to the dancers and party people of Babaluu's.

My good friend Erica (Colombiana by background, VanVanera by inclination) was very influential in opening my mind to these possibilities.

In 2003, I found myself bombing along the Malecon in my buddy Luis' crapped out Lada, grooving to Puerto Rican Power at ear-splitting volume. I was in my 100% Timba phase at the time and didn't get it at first, listening to Puerto Rican salsa in Cuba.

I understand a lot better now.

Canada, the U.S. and Cuban Music

There's a growing flood of mini-developments in the 'deshielo' (thaw) between U.S. and Cuba, but this link from Cuba Colada is the most significant for Canadian music audiences and Canadian producers.

The flow of artists and musicians between Cuba and the U.S., choked off since 2003, has begun to trickle again. The most famous voice to hit stateside from the island is Omara Portuondo, the lone female artist from the Buena Vista Social Club, who has received a visa to perform in the U.S. in October. Omara, who just got a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Tropical Album for her album Gracias, will perform during the San Francisco Jazz Festival on Oct. 20 and at UCLA on Oct. 23. The Latin Grammys will be held on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas; no word yet on whether Omara will attend.

Which makes it all but official that come the 2010 summer touring season, Cuban music artists will be touring the U.S. on a regular basis.

The question for Canadian promoters of Cuban music - and it wont really be answered until agents start making phone calls toward the end of this year - is, will there will be more Cuban groups available for the Canadian market, and will they be more expensive than before, or hopefully, less expensive, because Canadian promoters wont have to bear the costs of flying the musicians from Havana to Toronto or Montreal.

The real cost of Cuban salsa bands was never really in the fees the bands charged, the costs were in the price of flying 15-18 people from Cuban to Canada.

Theoretically, you strip away those flight costs (because the bands could start a tour in Miami) and the bands become much cheaper to present...Therefore more money can be spent on promotion, etc etc.

Theoretically.

Adonis Puentes News

Cool news from one of my oldest friends in the business, Adonis Puentes. He's the lead vocalist on master percussionist Orestes Vilató’s album “It’s About Time,” recently nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in the category of "Best Traditional Tropical Album"

Apparently Adonis was originally asked to sing a couple of songs for this album, and the producers liked his voice so much they got him to sing the whole album. Which is not surprising to me. He has a great voice.

Meanwhile, I just got some new music from Alexis (Alex Cuba) which I'll post up soon.

(Still recovering from Havana Cultura)

Ogguere with Cucu Diamante at Paz Sin Fronteras

Decadencia - Eskuatron Patriota

One of the most widespread of the so-called 'dissident' Cuban hip-hop videos in circulation

The Pacemaker DJ

From the Telegraph U.K.

The next giant leap forward in dj-ing is a miniaturized device that’s not much bigger than an iPhone.

The Pacemaker does for the DJ set-up what the Walkman did for the home stereo by making it mobile. It also makes DJing accessible for even the complete novice. It takes an hour or so to get to grips with and all the MP3 mixes are saved to the gadget’s hard drive. These can be played through headphones or through a home or club audio system. “We’re aiming to put the focus back on to the music,” says Ola Sars, the man behind the Pacemaker which comes in 60gb (£299) and 120gb (£399) hard drive options.

Demo sessions have seen pro DJs mixing tracks while they’re out in the crowd on the dancefloor. Does this now mean Djs will need a new device to help improve their dancing?

Honest to God  i have waved my iPhone at the speaker system at the club and told my friends "soon, this is how we will DJ".

And here's what it looks like....

Maybe i should just skip the Serrato Final Scratch

Fun with Francis

It was on a break at the Ogguere rehearsal, where Francis and Roberto were brought in to beef up the backing band which included Glenda del E and Jalidan Ruiz. The drum set was just sitting there, waiting for someone to hit it, and Yasmina had the camera.