Search Results for: Cuba

Cuban Cultural with José Alberto “El Ruiseñor” Nominated for Best Latin Tropical Album  “Mi Tumbao”For the 63^rd Grammy^®Awards.

Hollywood, CA. The 63^rd Grammy Nominations were announced on November 24, 2020.

The astonishing surprise was the Nomination of Cuban born José Alberto “El Ruiseñor”, Nominated for Best Tropical Latin Album “Mi Tumbao”.

The excitement is building and it could not have happened to a better man.

José Alberto Tamayo Diaz, aka The Nightingale. Born into a musical family, José’s parents played a key role in his musical journey; his father was a tres player and his mother was a singer.

At fourteen years young José flourished as the leader of the Cuban based band, Grupo Rock Lasser; his charisma and popularity spurred his passion, and the rest is history.

José Alberto has dedicated his love of Cuba through his music. A win for José Alberto on Jan 31, 2021 would make him the first solo Cuban male vocalist to win a Grammy in 21 years, since Chucho Valdez in 1999.

El Ruiseñor confesses, “The Grammy Awards are way up there, it is the Oscars for music, winning a Grammy award would mean a lot to my country.”

Hailing from Bayamo, the capital city of the Granma Province of Eastern Cuba, “Bayamo is my life”, Alberto admits proudly in reflection of his group BNM, Bayamo National Movement.

For over 30 years, Jose has thrived as a prominent citizen of Cuba, and has constantly worked hard for his city, his music and his valuable culture. As the most internationally awarded solo artist of Granma, José Alberto El Ruiseñor has dedicated many songs to his fellow countrymen.

With the pandemic numbers growing, he curated an online philanthropic concert, to recognize the efforts of doctors and nurses titled, “Cuba Saves”, broadcasted from his own backyard. Before the pandemic he was keeping up with his hometown roots by performing every Saturday in the main street of Bayamo.

The album title, “Mi Tumbao” translated to “swag” or “grace to move,” transcends the listener into the origins of Cuban music, and the raw roots of his Cuban nation.

The album breathes three decades of artistic life, composed of Guaracha, Son, Salsa, Cumbia, and Merengue. Homage is vibrantly paid to his influencers and godfathers of Cuban music; Sindo Garay, Ñico Saquito and Miguel Matamoros, all who were introduced to him by his father.

The album has 10 illuminating, action packed tracks, some unpublished and others adaptations of known Cuban classics.

In the feature track “Emigrante” (Immigrant), José narrates the overlooked struggles of migrant life with pure vulnerability, through lyrics such as “This has to change, down ambitions, there is only one heaven in this world, why so many divisions”.

A timely song meant for acknowledging all the current problems brought on by controversial governments. In contrast, José transforms the internationally known anthem, “Lagrimas Negras”  (Black Tears), to more of an inspired traditional salsa.

The project is backed by English label Tumi Music. With legendary A&R director Mo Fini at the helm, the UK based label specializes in authentic and original music from all corners of Latin America.

José Alberto’s innate vocal techniques, and the ability to relate to the common man through his music, will captivate and inspire any and all of its listeners.. Miracles do happen and this time it’s all rolled up in a profoundly talented troubadour, José Alberto; he is a force to be reckoned with. If you’ve never heard his music before, now is the time to listen; make yourself a cubano and a cafecito, take the old Victrola for a spin, your feet will do all the work. José Alberto’s contagious rhythmic vocals will get you going!

José Alberto

Tumi Records

www.tumimusic.com

Media Inquiries

Jodi Jackson

JJ Entertainment

323-356-0797

[email protected]

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The musician, arranger and composer who has yet to find the time to record and write music for some of the most influential bands in existence.

One might think that working for Tito Puente’s famous band can keep a percussionist busy enough.

But musician, arranger and composer Jose Madera had found time to record and write music for some of the most influential bands in the world.

Before joining Tito Puente over 35 years ago, Madera played for four years with the famous Machito Orchestra and recorded with many R&B artists (including James Brown, Diana Ross, David Sanborn and Aztec Two – Step).

Jose musical director of Mambo Legends Orchestra

As an arranger for Fania Records, he participated in several commercial hits, and over the years has composed music for Fania All-Stars, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colón and Celia Cruz.

Despite having recorded some 75 albums in 20 years, as well as numerous radio jingles and movie soundtracks, Madera still had time for his other career: for 15 years he worked as a teacher and director at a privately funded performing arts high school in New York City.

Jose has written many arrangements for countless commercial Latino artists and has also recorded or worked with many of them.

Some of them include: Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Chico O’Farill, the Lincoln Center Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Celia Cruz, Tito Rodriguez, Fania All-Stars, Willie Colon, Joe Farrell, Machito, Graciela, Mario Bauzá, Willie Rosario, Earl Klughand, Eddie Palmieri, to name a few. Jose also worked and recorded with many pop, R&B and jazz artists.

Some of them include Diana Ross, James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D’Rivera, George Benson and Lionel Hampton, among others.

Jose has participated in over 250 recordings. He has worked on several television show soundtracks, including The Simpsons, and several film soundtracks, including The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, where he was the musical arranger and conductor for the Tito Puente film segment.

Jose also taught the art of playing Latin percussion instruments at BOYS HARBOR in New York City for 28 years.

Jose has done and continues to do musical clinics around the country at various schools.

He was the musical director of the Latin Giants of Jazz from 2001 to 2009.

Jose continues his musical direction with Mambo Legends Orchestra, a band composed of former members of the Tito Puente Orchestra, which is dedicated to the execution of new and creative Latin and Latin Jazz concepts, as well as some of the music of Machito, Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente.

Jose has personally recreated and re-arranged much of the music that the bands performed during the heyday of the mambo at the Palladium Ballroom in New York City, which many critics consider to be the “Greatest and Most Innovative Era” in the history of Latin music.

Madera’s father, Jose “Pin” Madera, a saxophonist, was one of the original members of the Machito Afrocubans.

The young Jose was influenced by Machito’s drummer (“the best Latin Big Band drummer I’ve ever heard”). He was later influenced by José Mangual and Tito Puente himself.

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Leosbel Jiménez Licea is Hanny the Voice of Cuba

Born on July 8, 1972, Havana Cuba in the Vedado neighborhood. For the love of the songs I used to listen to on the radio at home, the love for music was born, especially for the guitar. That’s why since I was 4 years old all my toys were musical instruments, a drum set, drums, harmonicas, triolas, until I had a little toy guitar with which I used to invent concerts on the balcony of my house, the neighbors would pass by and laugh when they saw me so small believing me to be a star.

Hanny the Voice of Cuba

9 years old, I begin to study the basics of the guitar in the house of culture of the neighborhood at the same time that I was practicing fencing, at the age of 11 I won the national infantile championship of fencing earning me a scholarship to the school of sport incision (Eide) in the city of Havana, school from where many glories of the Olympic and world-wide sport of Cuba have come out.

14 years for disenchantment with the sport life I decide to leave the sport and to concentrate only in the music, in a self-taught way of course, there I begin to write my first songs that were poems that I was musicalizing at the time that I was learning new chords.

At the age of 19 I already had some songs that were sometimes played on some programs of the radio station in the province on the Havana City Radio.

So I was trolling the streets meeting many street artists until one day, an Englishman David Butlle, known as Mr. Bongo, arrived in Cuba in search of an orchestra to produce a record in Britain, a few days before leaving Cuba wanted to buy several albums of Cuban music from the 50s and did not know how to speak Spanish, my friend who passed by helped him with the translation into English, thanked him and told him who he was, my friend told him about my music, then we recorded a demo of 11 songs of my authorship then took them to London.

Between August and September of 1996, I was flying to London to record my first CD titled (Athe Voice of Cuba) production of 11 themes of my authorship and a danzón of the composer Niurka Díaz and Daniel Rodriguez, recorded with British, Cuban, Venezuelan, Colombian musicians all settled in London, my first recording work came out two themes that were in the French movie “Place Vomdome”, with the famous actress Catherine Deneuve, a British novel called Coronation Street, I also use my music, novels and series from Argentina, one called the Lola from Colombia and Israel, my first cd enjoyed good reviews in the best known and respected media especially in the UK opening the doors to the Royal Albert Hall, jazz cafe in London, the most prestigious jazz festivals and world music generally from the UK, as well as taking my music to all Europe, Colombia, Peru, etc, making for the success of the album concerts in Norway, Spain, Turkey, and Finland.

In 1998 I recorded my second album produced by my company (Hanro Records) and this time we recorded between the laboratory of electroacoustic music of Cuba and London with the participation of musicians from the Orchestra of Elio Reve, Paublito fg and Irakere, plus some British and Latin musicians based in London, at the same time conducted and directed a radio program in Spectrum radio called Cannonazo in England. Then came a period of just a few acoustic concerts to prepare all the new songs that we will start recording at the end of the quarantine. In 2019, I did 6 concerts in Finland, 5 Acoustic and one with a band in one of the most prestigious halls of Helsinki, I did 5 concerts in Ecuador and one concert in Cali Colombia, now we were preparing a group of concerts in Colombia, Chile and Peru everything is stopped until normality arrives, with 3 albums ready to start recording little by little.

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