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Havana Son Album Launch

Tuesday 4th September 8pm Crawdaddy, Old Harcourt Station, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2

Tickets: 12 euro Bookings : 01 670 3885

Evelio Galan – voice Conor Guilfoyle - bongos,campana
Carlos Talens – guitar Ariel Hernandez – tres Paul Williamson – trumpet Stefano Muscovi- trumpet Andrew Csibi - double bass Frailan Moran – congas

“Drummer Conor Guilfoyle's peerless Havana Son purvey some of the best Cuban music this side of the Atlantic” Sunday Tribune

Havana Son is the latest instalment in drummer/percussionist Conor Guilfoyle's fascination with Cuban music, and this time he's got the chemistry balanced to a tee. Having made a big impression on audiences around the country over the past year or so playing festivals and various regional venues, demand has been growing for the band to release an album. And release an album they shall,Sin Fronteras will be Havana Son’s studio recording debut, with ten authentic Cuban Son tracks capturing all the energy of their live performances.

The band is a pleasingly diverse snapshot of Irish multiculturalism at work, Guilfoyle has recruited talented musicians from Cuba, Argentina, Australia, Spain and Italy, all of whom have grasped the opportunity of musical life in Ireland, plus the cream of domestic Latin players. They gel perfectly.

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Havana Son present a rigorously authentic take on son, the guitar driven acoustic idiom that is the precursor to the modern salsa sound. Popularized so memorably by the global phenomenon that was BVSC, son is the soundtrack to Cuban daily life, as omnipresent on that Caribbean island as jigs and reels are on this one.

At its melodic core is the double act of the indigenous Cuban guitar known as tres, played here by Ariel Hernandez, and the Spanish guitar of Carlos Talens. Andrew Csibi's upright bass, Frailan Moran's congas, and Guilfoyle's bongos and all important campana, or cowbell, lend the rhythmic vitality that is the heartbeat of the island's music.

Soaring over the top, the declamatory phrases of Paul Williamson’s trumpet and the powerful, engaging voice of Habanero Evelio Galan, bringing the enduring music of his native city to his adopted homeland here in Dublin.

With Sin Fronteras, their first album, Havana Son evoke the spirit of old Havana with the best this traditional Cuban repertoire has to offer: fun to play, great for listening and even better to dance to.

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