The 2013 Latin Grammy nominees have been announced! Four (4) out of the five (5) nominees for the Best Traditional Tropical Album category are Cuban music artists (Sentimentales by Lucy Fabery and Humberto Ramírez is a release from Puerto Rico). Here they are:

Un Siglo De Pasión     Arturo Sandoval   Label: E35		La Canción Cubana Ernán Lopez-Nussa y Rolando Luna Label: Producciones Colibri/Cinquillo (read our review)
La Habana Tiene Su Son Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñeiro Label: Bis Music (read our review)		Vamos Pa' La Fiesta Septeto Santiaguero Label: Picap, S.L.  (read our review)

In the LATIN JAZZ category, the both Valdés father and son recieved nominations. I would put my money on Border Free as our executive summary says it all. Read our review here. La resenà del disco de Chucho Valdés padre aquí. 

Another highight is a Lifetime Achievement Award for the leader of Los Van Van... Juan Formell. read below...

From LARAS - "Oscar D'León, Juan Formell, Roberto Menescal, Totó La Momposina, Palito Ortega, Eddie Palmieri, and Miguel Ríos will be honored with The Latin Recording Academy®'s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mario Kreutzberger aka "Don Francisco" and Pedro Ramírez Velázquez are the recipients of the prestigious Trustees Award. These honorees will be acknowledged at a special invitation-only ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas as part of the weeklong 14th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards® celebration."

FELICIDADES JUAN!

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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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Tom's latest gallery features Roberto Fonseca's killer Latin jazz band at Monterey Jazz.

In other news, prepare for Revé! Saturday, Oct. 12 at Café Cócomo, San Francisco ($30 in advance for the whole night) and Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz - $20 in advance for the whole night.

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Sometimes technology does make marvels. So this Timba.com reader from Hungary starts sending me some MP3s -- sequences of music he is working on for his band -- because he is looking for a timba singer. Questions, emails, Skype messages...but I never got around to listening to the music. Finally it's 2am one morning and I'm coding and I put it on. Cuerpo, mambo, bloques, BOMBA....man...it's all there! Who is this guy? Turns out it's a project called Barrio Latino. And they really are from Hungary.

Formed in 2005 by trumpeter and composer Tamás Bodzsár and a group of young jazz musicians, BARRIO LATINO is the first Timba orchestra in Hungary.  A full album is in the works with Italy-based singer and cubano Leo Wilber. Thanks to the internet, I was glad to collaborate with Tamás, playing bass and mastering this new single.

Free MP3 download here = http://music.barriolatino.hu -- full track credits here

With this first single from the upcoming album -- entitled "Con Clave Y Tambó" -- we give you the initial sample of the new sound of Barrio Latino, a track that counts with the participation of singer and "charanguero mayor" Danny Lozada. We sincerely hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends. 

Also on RADIO TIMBA, you will find a very diverse mix of Cuban music, with nods to our blogger Mayito Rivera, Calle Real, Paulo FG, Robert Armas y Los Conquistadores de la Salsa, Los Ángeles de la Habana, Tirso Duarte, La LIga Habanarea, Pupy y los que Son Son, Beny Moré, Conjunto Casino, Clave y Guaguancó, Andrés Fernández y Grupo Contrabando and the Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

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