&quot;Innovation&quot; by Rafael Monteagudo and The Music Connection Now Available!

Back in September, we wrote a sneak preview of this exciting new Jazz recording, but the actual release to the public was delayed until now. (You can read our review here.) Rafael Monteagudo and his bassist, Carlos del Pino, are part of the exciting and creative wave of Jazz artists originally from Cuba who now live and work in New York. The pianist, Chiemi Nakai, is originally from Japan and made a name for herself in the music there prior to coming to the US.
This CD, which we highly recommend for Jazz listeners (this goes triple for bassists), is now available on CD Baby. The page includes some audio preview clips.

monday, 19 november 2012, 06:55 am

Havana d'Primera's Fall U. S. Tour opened at LA's Conga Room on November 15th and drew a crowd estimated at 500 for a knockout concert with a different bongosero and the premiere of the new song Mi Bailarina . A live video clip of the song can be found in the November 9 post on the Havana Buzz Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HavanaBuzz?filter=1

We haven't heard any feedback yet regarding the Oregon and Washington concerts, but next up on the calendar is Tuesday night, Nov. 20, at Don Quixote's International Music Hall in Felton (Santa Cruz County) at 6275 Hwy 9, Felton, CA: http://www.donquixotesmusic.info/
Doors open at 7:30pm and the cost is $20.00 in advance ($23.00 at the door) for the whole night!

Later, on Saturday, November 24, Yoshi's will host two shows in San Francisco:
http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/2620

The East Coast gets a taste the following week with Miami on the 25th, NYC on the 28th and 29th, and North Bergen, NJ on December 1.

We would be including a review of HdP's fantastic new album, Pasaporte , but we have received word that it has been removed from on-line distribution in order to substitute two tracks before redistributing. This means that those of you already in possession of the original will have a collectors' item eventually. We'll do a full review when the new version is available including a comparison of the original version and the revised one.

Have you attended any of these concerts? Tell us what you thought! There are two ways to do this: You can leave a comment on this blog (see the lower left hand corner of this post) or go to our Forums page and start a thread.

sunday, 04 november 2012, 09:29 am

Hector Silveira and his Orchestra gave Chicago a much-needed Timba/Rumba/Son performance last Saturday. For the concert review and photo gallery, click here.

monday, 08 october 2012, 09:04 am

The Chicago Metro area had two exciting events this past weekend:

For Bill Tilford's review and photos of Arturo Sandoval's concert at Viper Alley, click here.

For special guest photographer Joshua Bennett's wonderful photos of the Septeto Nacional de Cuba concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, click here.