As promised we have published all the date of the winter tour, which begins with a concert in Essen, Germany on February 11th. The band will visit, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland. Click to find a concert near you.

Although they will be promoting their latest CD "Más Duro" on this tour, we know they have been performing new songs in Havana. Here is a little taste of the percussion section during the reprise of the new hit "El Profesor", courtesy of Matias Loyttyniemi. I recommend checking out his YouTube account because he has a lot of nice video from various concerts from last year.

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The news has been all over Facebook since Sunday - Yenisel Valdés is leaving Los Van Van to begin a new life with her husband Dancer, singer and percussionist Erick Barbeira. The newlyweds will be settling down in California, and Yeni's relocation is what caused her to leave the orchestra. Timba.com wish them both much happiness in their new life together. It will certainly be interesting to see what she does with that voice of her in La Yuma. Bay Area watch out! Kevin, are you paying attention?

During her career, Yeni had to face down tough, macho audiences that were not receptive to seeing a woman in timba bands such as NG La Banda and later Los Van Van. But her combination of grace and humor on stage with that incredible voice earned her the respect and love of the Cuban and international audiences. Where once people thought Maestro Juan Formell was crazy to bring in a woman after the departure of the iconic Pedrito Calvo, now they mourn her leaving and can't imagine Van Van without La Van Vanera.

But the world moves on, and while Yeni has an exciting new life to begin, bandleader and drummer Samuel Formell has the unenviable job of deciding what to do now. Maybe he will find another amazing talent from Cuba's seemingly endless fountain of musical geniuses. Or maybe he'll decide that no one can fill her high heels and stick with three voices. As always, changes in Cuban orchestras fill me both with sadness and yet also a sense of excitement and possibility.

Yeni, I want to leave you with a short clip from an interview I did with Juan in January of 2008. He was talking about how he decided that to fill the space left by Pedrito's departure he would add two singers to the band - Lele and yourself. And here is what he had to say about you. Congratulations and best wishes - Michelle .

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As promised we have uploaded the full program for the 2015 Havana Rhythm & Dance Festival. Over six days music and dance events will be held in nine venues across Havana. In addition to the percussion competition and the Casino competition, highlights include the Giants of Percussion at Teatro Mella March 4th at 8:30pm and the concerts at La Tropical on March 7th and 8th with Paulo FG y la Èlite, Pupy y Los Que Son Son, Cándido Fabré y su Orquesta, Lazarito Valdés y Bamboleo, Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco, Giraldo Piloto y Klimax,  Jose Luis Cortés y NG la Banda, Compañía Santiago Alfonso, Maykel Blanco y Salsa Mayor, and El Niño y La Verdad. Click here to check the full program or to download the program in PDF format, click here.

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La Clave Cubana was founded in 2000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as an 8-man band that played traditional Cuban repertoire. In 2014 they were reborn as La Clave Cubana Timbera , a 15-man band performing their own compositions with more updated arrangements. Today the single "La Chismosa"   from their upcoming debut album "Llegó La Clave", has dropped at Cubamusic.com. It will also be available soon at the other on-line and streaming sites such as iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon and Spotify. You can check it out in the video also released today.

La Clave Cubana Timbera band is under the direction of tresero Eduardo Suárez "El Guajiro" with pianist Hubert Garcia as the musical director. They write the arrangements while the compositions are by this duo and vocalist Geovanny Ruiz Perez. See below for the list of musicians and the instrumentation.

To keep up on the latest you can follow La Clave Cubana Timbera at their Facebook page .

Band members
Eduardo Suárez "El Guajiro", tres & coros. (Cuba)
Hubert García, piano & coros. (Cuba)
Yoedis Oconor, baby bass. (Cuba)
Erick Ricardo Hernandez, keyboard, coros. (Cuba)
Geovanny Ruiz Pérez, vocals. (Cuba)
Daniel Vera, vocals. (Cuba)
Fernando Cruz, vocals. (Cuba)
Eddy Gomez, vocals, coro & minor percussion. (Cuba)
Cristian Ceccardi, congas. (Argentina)
Choco Drumss, timbales. (Cuba)
Moises Quiroz Gomez, trombone. (Peru)
Gabriel Leonetti, trombone. (Argentina)
Javier Sedeno, trombone. (Venezuela)

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