y mañana ... LOS VAN VAN!

Tom Ehrlich has posted a new photo gallery from Melón's recent solo concert and master class at Piedmont Piano Company.  Also, here's a video of a complete song from the same concert.

Van Van at Yoshi's SF tomorrow!
Click here's some photos on Los Van Van in Houston

email: contact

write: 
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

call: 202-456-1111

Thursday, December 2nd date postponed
Los Van Van Visa for Band Leader Juan Formell Not Issued 

Due to the last minute failure of the US State Department to provide three Visas, including one to band leader Juan Formell, the kickoff night for the Los Van Van tour at the Conga Room, will be postponed. The anticipated makeup date for ticket buyers to tonight's concert is expected to Wednesday December 15th, which have been committed to the Conga Room as part of the U.S. tour. 

The Conga Room has always looked to support Cuban music and culture, and unfortunately we are at the mercy of politics in this case. 

For ticket holders, your ticket will be valid for the new concert date and we will notify you in the next few days with confirmation of the exact date. If you wish to get a refund of your ticket at this point, please contact Sasha Ortega at Sasha@CongaRoom.com. Please note that if you seek reimbursement for your ticket, we will not be able to guarantee you access to the new show and it will be on a first-come, first-serve basis, as the show is expected to sell out. 

Feel free to consult our website for further updates and we will attempt to notify you directly via email. The Conga Room will be open tonight and will feature a Cuban band and a DJ. We will offer you complimentary admission with proof of your ticket purchase. We apologize for the inconvenience and are deeply committed to presenting the US Los Van Van concert at the Conga Room. It promises to be an historic event. 

Abrazos,
The Conga Room 

On December 17th & 18th the dark Stockholm night will shine with a glittering, hot Havana-style dance extravaganza by the dance troupe Tropicana Stockholm. The show entitled "Del Afro-Jazz a la Salsa" gives the audience a taste of the broad spectrum of Cuban dance and music from the early Afro-Cuban roots right up to the salsa of today. Accompanying the dancers with live music is Richard Ortega y La Jugada, bringing the authenticity of a night in Havana. But that's not all! When the show ends an afterparty begins with a timba concert by La Jugada and a DJ after the concert. The show will take place at Teater Replica at Hantverkargatan 78 where an art expo will also be held in foyer. It begins at 7:00pm and ends at 2:00am. That's 7 hours of Cuban dance and music! Tickets are only 250 SEK, so give yourself and all the timberos/Cubanophiles you love an early Christmas present. Don't miss this celebration of Cuban culture! For more information see Tropicana Stockholm's facebook event .

This project, as requested, is the approach used in the piano books, but for percussionists, but with one major enhancement. The piano books have audio, still don't have video - that will come in 2011, with Melón making the videos from the books, but with the percussion series, we did it the other way around. We started with three days of filming Calixto, with the Bay Area brain trust egging him on and requesting specific rhythms and approaches. We added several hours of interviews, and then I spent five months writing the books from the videos. The approach is to take a bona fide master of Cuban music and let him do thing, then break it down into bite-size pieces so that jazz and pop drummers can learn Latin, salsa drummers can learn timba, timba drummers can learn Calixto timba, and beginners (and non-drummer arrangers such as myself) can get a clearly-presented dose of "the big picture". As before there are hard-copy and eBook versions, fast and slow audio loops, and this time ... a wild video-looping component that's - if I say so myself - is amazingly cool. All of this is explained in the tutorials and Question & Answer sections of the home page, timba.com/percussion. 

VOL. 2 CALIXTO OVIEDO           •         VOL. 3 CALIXTO OVIEDO
BASIC RHYTHMS                                      TIMBA GEARS

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