Our last Beyond Salsa video had a cameo by JS Bach - this one has Kenny G.

The new concert, Issac from Café Cantante, finally gives the world YouTube access to the only known version of Issac's legendary La competencia, aka Hit Parade. It also contains the ultra-killer version of Por qué paró featured in Volume 7.

Also... any minute now we'll have a lot of details on the impending new Van van album, La fantasía -  stay tuned.

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The Premios Lucas (Lucas Awards) are Cuba's video awards. The past few years have seen an explosion of Cuban music on the Internet and the Premios Lucas have been an important part of this movement. The official website brings together and tracks the most popular videos in Cuba. It is an excellent source for those of us living outside Cuba to keep up with what is popular on the island. In addition, every year fans can vote for their favorite video as part of the Premios Lucas. The Premios Lucas also have an active Facebook page that you can "Like" in order to keep up on what is happening in Cuban video. This may help you understand how popular the premios Lucas are in Cuba: they sold out all 2500 tickets and set up big screen TVs outside the Karl Marx theater where about 1000 people went to watch the performances and the awards.

The ceremony included performances by Buena Fe & Havana Queens, David Blanco, Yuli y Havana C, El Niño y La Verdad, Charanga Latina, Haila, Osamu, Waldo Mendoza and Los Ángeles, among others. There were tributes to Juan Formell and Santiago Feliú and EGREM was presented with a special award for its 50 year anniversary. The show was closed by Alexander Abreu & Havana D'Primera performing "Me dicen Cuba", which was given a special recognition prize by the Premios Lucas.

The big winner last night was filmaker Ian Padrón and Buena Fe who won Best Production, Best Fusion Video and Best Video of the Year for the song "Se bota a matar" from the album "Dial". The video features the dancers from "Havana Queens, who also participated in the beautiful video "La culpla", also from "Dial".

Buena Fe feat. Havana Queens "Se bota a matar" from the CD "Dial"
Director Ián Padrón

The category closest to our hearts at Timba.com is "Popular Dance Music" and the winner was José Rojas for "Que no que no" by JG (you know him, his name is Juan Guillermo) from his last album "Que no me controlen".

JG "Que no, que no" from the album "Que no me controlen"
Director José Rojas

Other winners in dance categories include Alejandro Pérez and El Micha for Best Reggaeton for "Bla bla bla", Manuel Ortega and Los Ángeles won Most Popular Video for "Besando tu boca" and Joseph Ros and Sexto Sentido for "Brujas". Alejandro Pérez also won for Best Traditional and Folkloric Video and Best Photography with "Alcé mi voz" by Ivette Cepeda. Best Choreography went to Sadaise Arencibia who choreographed both the original Descemer Bueno & Gente D'Zona version of "Bailando" and the Enrique Iglesias version. For more about the Premios Lucas 2014 visit their website (in Spanish).

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Beyond Salsa Percussion is featured in the September issue of Modern Drummer magazine, probably the most high profile exposure we've got since the series was launched. This is Calixto's second feature in the magazine, the last one being in 1994 as part of a "The Drummers of Cuba" series along with Enrique Pla and Changuito.

In other Calixto news, the maestro has actually moved himself and his talented family to Denver, CO. He'll also be featured on an ongoing basis as an "artist in residence" in conjunction Cal State LA's prestigious Latin Music graduate program. And he'll be playing three gigs in Northern California as part of Edgardo Gambón's "A Tribute to the Timbales" concert series. The first will be on Aug. 10th at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest..

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Here's the latest Beyond Salsa video - in honor of Van Van's upcoming 45th Anniversary (actually it just turned out that way ...). And three new galleries from Tom Ehrlich: Klímax in SF-Pt. 2, Roberto Fonseca and Gente de Zona in Oakland.

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