IT'S ALIVE!!! Beyond Salsa Bass Volume 3 is a historical behemoth of a Latin Bass Book! Doubling as a history and music appreciation course, at 442 pages, Beyond Salsa Bass Vol.3 is by far the longest of the 26 Beyond Salsa books and the first to extensively cover New York and Puerto Rican salsa and pre-salsa as well as Latin jazz. Its audio product (separate purchase) has 616 tracks (a generous selection of 60 free audio tracks is also available by download). The book includes a bass tumbao for every piano tumbao in each of Volumes 3 and 4 of the Beyond Salsa Piano series, but it also includes hundreds of bass tumbaos from and historical analyses of areas of Latin music not covered in the piano series: Puerto Rico, New York, Latin Jazz, the Cuban descargas and additional aspects of the Cuban music of 1959-1989, i.e., from the Cuban Revolution to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. 

CLICK HERE for a FREE pdf sample of Beyond Salsa Bass Volume 3

CLICK HERE to download 60 FREE Tracks from Beyond Salsa Bass Volume 3

In other news about the Beyond Salsa Series, in addition to Bass V3, the next book is almost done as well - Beyond Salsa Piano, Vol. 12 - Pupy Pedroso, Pt. 3 - Los Van Van in the 1990s. The book is equal parts history and piano - covers Van Van's amazing transition into the timba era, arguably van van's greatest period, which includes the top two songs in the timba.com readers poll - Soy todo and Te pone la cabeza mala, and the top album, Llegó Van Van. 

It was during this period that Samuel Formell replaced Changuito and that Ángel Bonne, Mayito Rivera and Robertón Hernández all joined. The seven (7) albums covered are Crónicas, Aquí el que baila gana, Azúcar, Lo último en vivo, Ay Dios ampárame, Te pone la cabeza mala and Llegó Van Van. The book includes some of pupy's most famous tumbaos, including Qué tiene Van Van, El negro está cocinando, Disco Azúcar, Que le den candela, Tranquilo Mota etc. It also includes piano and bass parts for each tumbao PLUS awesome photos by Tom Ehrlich, Patrick Bonnard and others. [Mike Lazarus]

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** Breaking News Update - Singer José Antonio Rodríguez González (Pepitin)
leaves Manolito y su Trabuco **

A new homaje to the classic salsa sounds of the 1970's has been released by Miami-based pianist, Grammy winner and band director Marlow Rosado y la Riqueña. The current track on RADIO TIMBA features Cuban singer Marlon Fernández siging the hit "Señor Sereno".  This new album, called RETRO, is an all-star release that counts with the participation of singers Bobby Cruz, Ismael Miranda, Tony Vega, Luigi Texidor, Marlon Fernández, Kevin Ceballo, Sonora Ponceña pianist "Papo" Luca, Salvador Cuevas (bass with Ruben Blades), Tito Puente Jr., and Quique Dominich (cuatro).

The new single "Fuego A La Jicotea" featuring Tito Puente Jr. is available on iTunes here.

Pavel leaves LVV: Bassist Pavel Molina announced he has left Los Van Van, possibly over some controversy generated from facebook comments he posted in regards to the recent death of beloved LVV conguero Manolo Labarrera. (photo courtesy of SalsaMadrid). Pavel and Manolo were very close.

New Maykel Blanco photos: Timba.com photographer Peter Maiden has a new feature in an International Salsa Digital Magazine. Check out this veryslick gallery here.

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UPDATE (a quick note from Issac Delgado): "Conocí a Alain Pérez cuando estudiaba guitarra en la Escuela Nacional de Arte en la Habana, Cuba, con sus prodigiosas manos con uñas largas para ejecutar... Me siento parte responsable y complice en su transición de la guitarra al bajo, el ha sido un aglutinador e inspiración para los músicos a su alrededor, su condición de arreglista, compositor y su talento lo han llevado a una condición natural de ser respetado y admirado como un “musico total”. He seguido y compartido su carrera como bajista, para mi es el más “ritmático” de los que he conocido. El bajo como instrumento en la música afro-cubana ha sido siempre “la columna vertebral” de una agrupación. Alain es capaz de sostener esa responsabilidad, sin embargo su capacidad rítmica le permite hacer figuraciones sincopadas en los lugares mas insólitos e inesperados de una obra musical, sin perder el sabor, la cadencia y sentido de la misma que imprime el bajo a nuestra música. Su paso por el flamenco ha madurado su forma y estilo musical, para mi modesta opinión: actualmente es “El Bajista Timbero” de Cuba, como referencia internacional." -- Issac Delgado

Finally ! The first book of the Beyond Salsa Bass series has been released. Volume 6 of Beyond Salsa Bass begins our 4-volume study of the style of Alain Pérez, one of the most talented bassists, composers and arrangers of modern Cuban music. The bass series follows the piano series exactly, covering the same songs, now from the perspective of the bassist.  hardcopy 

Both the notes and the percussive sounds that he uses to create his funky style. Each musical example is provided in 16th note notation, 8th note notion and bass tablature. There are corresponding audio and video products for each volume.

Click here for the full story and details....   

Havana Live Music Listings are up - Click here to see the live music schedule for Havana.

Sierra Maestra upcoming US shows - This classic son band has shows coming up in ...... click here for the full story and details

Eddie Palmieri 75th Birthday celebration show is taking place at ....  click here for the full story and details

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Another breakthrough for all timba pianists and bassists! The VIDEO portions of Beyond Salsa Piano and Beyond Salsa Bass (both for Volume 6) have been released. Beyond Salsa Piano 6-9 focuses on Iván "Melón" Lewis -a central player in one of the most important bands of the entire timba era, the Issac Delgado Group of 1995-1998. Beyond Salsa Piano is an instructional (eBook + audio + video), play-along history and anthology of the role of the piano in the Cuban rhythm section –from its first appearance to the present. Melón's 48 video clips were filmed with two cameras, one from the side and one overhead. For every tumbao, we provide three separate videos: a widescreen version of each camera angle and a split screen version combining the two.

Click on the image above to check out the video and for more details on the Alain video clips.....

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