Apologies for absence, music pals. Real life has been coming first for quite a while.

Going locland down in Oakland: Gina Harris with big band belting behind her.

I recently had some big band arrangements performed in Oakland CA – couldn’t be there but I’m told all went well. It got me to thinking about some posts I’ve been meaning to write for a while about the practical business of arranging, which I’ll get down to over the next few weeks.

One of the arrangements was a straight-up Cuban affair, which put the band somewhat out of their comfort zone but they were definitely up for the challenge.

I’ll get into some specifics about this kind of music later, but for now I’ll just address a question I’ve been asked many times over the years.

MAMBO OUT

A lot of musicians really love Cuban music but don’t know what to listen to. Invariably they wind up playing the Aebersold charts (I’ve even seen the books on stands on pro gigs). These are fine as far as they go but there’s so much more. And if I hear Mambo Inn one more time I think my teeth will fall out from the grinding…

So welcome aboard Salsa Air and if you’ll look to your right you’ll see I’ve added a link to my Latin Spotify playlist for your convenience. As with any playlist it really just scratches the surface and a lot of the choices are personal. But they’re mostly classics and just about every important artist is in there, so you can use it as a springboard.