October Playlist Highlights

Africando – Viva Africando

Get out your dancing shoes, Africando has just released a brand new album and it’s awesome!  Up until September of this year the band from Senegal known as Africando had released 7 full length albums with the most recent being Ketukuba, released in 2006.   The 7 year drought without new Africando material came to an end a couple of weeks ago with the release of the band’s 8th album Viva Africando.  It’s got all new material including some amazing salsas,  cha-cha-chas and afro-salsa fusions along with guest performances by the likes of Santana and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.  And talk about being a truly international recording.  All told,  songs on the album are sung in 10 different languages.  There are plenty of tracks on this disk to put you in the dancing mood and to give you a sample of what I am talking about I have included some of my favourites in this weeks play list.

Brisas del Palmar -Santiago en Suños

An amazing Cuban band called Brisas del Palmar has visited Edmonton on a number of occasions this past summer.  They opened for Havana d’Primera at Encore, performed at Heritage Days and the Edmonton Latin Festival, and had several other concerts around town.  If you had the opportunity to see them live you will appreciate just how amazing this band is.   Originally from Santiago de Cuba, Brisas Del Palmar was formed back in 1999 and is well known in Cuba as one of the leading interpreters of traditional music such as boleros, sons and guarchas.  The band’s talents have definitely not gone unnoticed.  Only 2 years after their inception they won second place at the Festival of Singers of the Americas held in Guantanamo and 2005 these extraordinary musicians were chosen top quintet in Cuba. They are featured daily on Cuban national radio and recently performed for the Pope.  And this success at home has allowed them to travel the world.  This summer was the 8th time Brisas has been to Canada with their first visit being back in 2004.

The band has released 4 albums to date and in their most recent Canadian tour they brought with them their latest material.  This new music was released on an album entitled Enamorado de ti recorded in April at the EGAM studios in Santiago de Cuba.  It’s a great disk featuring original material from the band including the title track Enamorade de ti and Quiéreme along with covers of some salsa classics such as La Rebelion and Oiga, Mire, Vea.  Unfortunately, the album is only available at their live performances.  So if you didn’t pick up a copy while Brisas was in town you still have a chance to get your hands on this album if you happen to be visiting Vancouver in the next few weeks.  The band will be performing there until the end of October when they will be returning to Cuba.  There is one Brisas album that is available for purchase online called Santiago en Sueños. This album was recorded in Vancouver in 2012 and contains a great collection of traditional Cuban music.  You can find a few tracks from that album in this month’s playlist.

That’s it for this month. Questions, comments, requests?Send me an email Hasta la próxima