Those of you within traveling distance of Louisville, KY can see Charanga Habanera on Friday, March 30 at the Coconut Beach Nightclub, now in a new location at 2787 South Floyd St., Louisville KY.   Advance tickets (cheaper than at the door) may be purchased at 
https://www.ticketriver.com/event/3218-charanga-habanera-2012-kentucky-tour

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Today is International Women's Day, so here's a shout out to all of the women in the music, past and present, especially Orquesta Anacaona, Cuba's all-female band that is still going strong after 80 years with a new generation of performers:

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Coky García, Carlos Caro, Leo García (photo by Kevin Moore)

After backing up Manolín on Saturday, Timbalive closed out the massive and extraordinary SF Salsa Rueda Festival with two burning sets, highlighted by these percussion solos from Los García: Leo, the leader of the band, Coky, his older brother, who played with the original NG La Banda, back when they were called Nueva Generación, as well as Emiliano Salvador, Opus 13, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Mamborama, their cousin Miguelito, who just arrived, having been a founding member of Havana d'Primera, and guest artist Carlos Caro, the subject of the soon to be released Beyond Salsa Bongó, a former member of Opus 13 and Paulito FG. Enjoy!

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This is a really shocking and tragic development, which we delayed posting in the hope that it was only a rumor, but Manuel "Manolo" Labarrera, conguero of Los Van Van since 1980, has passed. He looked very young and very healthy when Tom took this video of him at Yoshi's SF last year.

Manolo "de la sonrisa amplia" (of the big grin) took over as Van Van's conguero for Joel Drigs, who played on only one album after the departure of founding conguero Raúl "El Yulo" Cárdenas, who, many years later, while a member of NG La Banda, himself died in a tragic car crash. By all accounts, Manolo was every bit as wonderful a person as a conguero and in the latter department he was legendary, playing a central role in the hellacious groove that resulted in Van Van's apodo, "el tren del Caribe" (the train). Manolo is survived by his son Rafael, who sang with Bamboleo and penned such classics at La tremenda and El protagonista. Rafael was residing in Perú when last we heard. R.I.P. Manolo - it will never be quite the same without you.

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