Following on the heels of the recent concert by La Charanga Habanera, El Tosco & NG La Banda will perform June 16th at SOBs in New York. You can already order your tickets on-line. Don't miss out on your chance to see the band that started it all! And if you're a reggaeton fan, SOBs will feature Gente D'Zona and El Chacál on June 11th!

The musical genre we now call Timba was created by NG La Banda, but as Cuban music expert Arturo "Marcané" Gómez points out, it was not created out of thin air. As our "Genealogy of Timba Family Tree" shows, Pachito Alonso and Gérman Velazco played with Orquesta Revé and he and José "El Greco" Crego, Carlos Averhoff, and José Munguía played in Irakere along with flautist and leader, José Luis "El Tosco" Cortés, who had previously written and played for Los Van Van.

NG La Banda amalgamated the innovations of the groups that came before it with many of its own to create a type of music that wasn't Son, Songo or Rumba - nor was it Rock, Jazz or Funk. It had ample amounts of each blended in, but its most potent component was something entirely new - something that was born in the streets and barrios of Havana in the late 1980's as the Berlin Wall crumbled. Cortés called it "Timba". illustrates, NG began as an all-star group which drew members from the most important pre-Timba bands.

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Tiempo Libre's My Secret Radio is very hot, take-no-prisoners timba, laced with all sorts of great bloques, gear changes and slick arranging. The new member (2nd from the right, standing) is Pututi III, and he's an amazing drummer who lives up to the reputations of his two older brothers (who recorded all the classic Manolín records) and his cult legend father (who should be Pututi I, and everybody else should have one number added, but ...). Anyway, the album is mostly pure timba dura, with one clever Earth Wind & Fire cover (it works well in Spanish) and a guest appearance from Albita.

Here's the latest tour info. They're in Oregon now and will play Montana and New York.

This just in: TL was just confirmed for an October date at the SF Jazz Festival!

Note: Two other TL CDs can be bought at LPM.

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La Época is a documentary about the music and dancing from the pre-Salsa period in the U.S. when the mambo, son, guaracha etc. were still distinct in the minds of the dancers as well as the musicians.  Since the Palladium ballroom in New York was an epicenter of the "Mambo Craze", there is a lot of coverage including historical footage of what happened there along with interviews with key musicians and dancers from the period.    This is touring multiple cities and includes a Q and A with the producer, Josué Joseph, some social dancing and some filming of dancers for footage for an upcoming film segment.

This is an opportunity to learn more about how la musica Cubana took parts of the U.S., especially New York, by storm.   We'll review the Chicago showing after it comes here.  Meanwhile, for more information, see the film's website at   http://laepocafilm.com/

In the future, Sin Clave No Hay Na will have interviews, reviews of CD releases, major concert reviews and other items of interest.  Stay tuned.

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In the future we'll be reserving this space for global news, so please get into the habit of checking our new BAY AREA REPORT for local NoCal news. You can always see when it's been recently updated by looking under NEW STUFF-LO NUEVO to your right. We've been adding a lot of local sections lately. Bill Tilford's REPORT FROM CHICAGO has been especially active and contains information of interest to those outside of the Windy City as well.

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