March Playlist Highlights

 

Who is Mayimbe

 I was recently in  California with the Salsaddiction Rueda Team for the San Francisco Salsa Festival.   It’s the largest Cuban Salsa festival in North America drawing  instructors, dancers and musicians from all parts of the globe.   The dancing and dance instruction at the event was incredible and the music even more so.  Timbalive and Manolin el Medico de la Salsa performed live as did some local musicians.  These bands were excellent but there was another  group that really caught my attention and it apparently caught the attention of other dancers and Djs.   Their music was playing in workshops, during the main dances and at the after parties.  The name of the band is Mayimbe.

Based in Lima, Peru and established in 2010 Mayimbe is an amazing  15 member Timba band led by 29 year old pianist and composer Barbaro (Barbarito) Fine Fortes from Havana, Cuba.  Before starting Mayimbe, Barbaro had been a pianist for a variety of Cuban groups including Charanga Forever, Salsa Mayor and Alain Daniel.   Besides Barbaro there are a few other Cuban musicians in the band.  However, many of the band members are Peruvian.  Apparently, Cuban music is very popular in Peru and Mayimbe has quickly become one of the most popular Timba bands in the country.

The group released its first album in 2011 entitled De Habana a Peru.  I have included one of their tracks in this month’s play list (Intro Del Mayimbe).  It  you like it I recommend checking out the entire album available on iTunes.  It is delicious.

 

Latin Music and Dance in Edmonton This Month

March is a happening month for Latin entertainment in Edmonton.  Besides the standard dance parties and socials that can be found every week there are some big names coming to town from the music and dance community.

• March 2: Los Ex – Adolescentes Orquesta will be in town at the Sultan Banquet Hall (9248 34A ave).  The original Los Adolescentes was a Venezuelan salsa group made up of young Venezuelans.  The group was hugely popular in the 90s with hits like Hoy Aprendi and Arrepentida.  Ex-Adolecentes is made up of the singers from the original group and is backed by Orquesta Tropicana from Vancouver.  More details are available at fiestaval.ca.

• March 22: Pitbull, aka Armando Christian Pérez, will be performing at Rexall as part of his PlanetPit World Tour.  Pitbull is a Cuban – America (he was born in the US to Cuban parents) artist who has taken the world by storm in the last couple of years.   His popularity and talent has allowed him to collaborate with an impressive number of artists including Marc Anthony (Rain Over Me),  Shakira (Rabiosa), and T-Pain and Sean Paul (Shake Senora).   I would describe his music as Latin pop with many songs sung in English, Spanish or both and despite the fact that most of his music is not the best for partner dancing you will occasionally hear his songs at OTR.  Tickets for the concert are available through TicketMaster.

•  March 30-April 1: Duane Wrenn of Energetic Soul will be in Edmonton teaching some amazing salsa workshops.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to take one of Duane’s classes  I highly recommend you check him out.   He is fantastic salsa dancer but more importantly an excellent instructor and year after year Duane has been one of the most popular instructors at the San Francisco Salsa Festival.   He has taught Salsa all over North America and internationally and his unique  Soul-Sa teaching style is suitable for all ability levels.   Details about his Edmonton workshops will be available on the Salsaddiction website in the next week or two.  He will also be at the Salsaddiction Social on March 31.

Questions, comments requests?  Send me an email.

Hasta la próxima