there will be no dancing with the enemy...

Rants and raves from the Monterey Jazz Festival By CHARLES LEVIN SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT September 23, 2003: "The contract was signed, the deposit was in the bank. But Cuban singer Issac Delgado was a no-show, another casualty of a federal law that restricts trade and travel between our countries.
'We spent the last nine months trying to get him here,' said festival General Manager and Santa Cruz resident Tim Jackson. 'We had plenty of lead time, but we couldn’t get enough clearances.'
The booking agency brought in an immigration attorney. Jackson even sought help from Congressman Sam Farr. Still, no Delgado."  ¶ 12:02 PM

  Bamboleo, Pupy, Paulito FG, Adalberto Alvarez and more are gigging this week in Havana. This site has the lowdown.  ¶ 1:31 PM

  TheBostonChannel.com - Entertainment - Miami Latin Grammys A Baby Step In Right Direction: "'The Grammys without Cuban Music is like arroz con pollo without the pollo,' says Max Lesnick who led the best-attended protest during the Grammys. Lesnick says it was a conspiracy between the State Department, Latin Grammy organizers, and local politicians in league with powerful exiles that delayed the visa process. "  ¶ 1:22 PM

  Here's a Mamborama interview en español on an Argentinian web site: Del Pop a la Salsa - AmericaSalsa.com Gracias a Sergio Lleonart por la entrvista!  ¶ 1:52 PM

  "and the loser is..."

Cubans Wait for Visas for Latin Grammys (washingtonpost.com): "Cuban musicians nominated for the Latin Grammy awards in Miami held little hope of receiving U.S. visas in time for the ceremony, a problem that Cubans said was due to politics but American officials attributed to red tape."  ¶ 1:23 PM

  The Washington Post has a nice photo essay on Timba:
Camera Works: Timba Brava (washingtonpost.com): "This is a place beyond salsa. This is the realm of timba brava, the innovative Cuban dance music that fuses elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop with traditional Latin rhythms to create a unique sound "

  ¶ 12:54 PM

  Chances are you're already familiar with it, but if you're not, Timba.com is THE place on the web for info on modern Cuban music. Thousands of pages, most of them written by timba lunatic and expert Kevin Moore, who should receive an honorary doctorate in ethnomusicology for all the research he's done. They also have an online store for those hard to find CDs.

Speaking of online stores, the granddaddy of them all for Latin music is Descarga.com. If you can't find that obscure CD there, you aren't ever going to find it. CDs, DVDs and videos and even conga drums. A great resource.  ¶ 10:58 AM