Tuesday July 1 2008 ! CARIBE GIRLS ! at the SIX DEGREES nightclub .They are in town for a couple of weeks direct form Cuba. This will be a great party from 9pm- 2am . SIX DEGREES is at Yonge/Eglinton 2335 Yonge street . Call Vladimir 416 416 666-2441 for further info .

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Orchestra Baobab will be performing FREE at the Harbourfront Thursday July 3 at 9pm . For a great article that came out todaay in the Toronto Star click : HERE

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We have the honor of accompanying Lilita Penalver to the Omara Portuondo concert tomorrow. Lilita is part of the quartet LAS De AIDA ( with whom once Omara also sang) . They have just recorded in Pablo Milanes’ studio . Lilita performed recently in Ottawa where she is staying while visiting family members . Publicist Celeste Mackenzie organized these shows for her and she was very well received.
Hopefully we will also take her out to meet Desendann at one of their concerts so she can sing for us.
Here are Las De Aida past and present. Lilita’s voice is in the background being interviewed.

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Thursday

Glende del E and Mixology
Chicken Deli
Mount Pleasant and Eglinton
8pm

Friday

Jane Bunnett with Grupo Vocal Desandann
Harbourfront
9:30pm

Saturday

Hilario Duran and Arturo Sandoval
Nathan Phillips Square
8pm

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DJ Billy Bryans holds a monthly party where he spins a five hour set of all the latest Cuban timba music combined with soukous, zouk and other dance rhythms.

The Canada Day edition takes places at Lula Lounge on Monday June 30th. Doors open at 9pm. Cover is $10.00.

Everyone is allowed to go a little crazy. The next day is a holiday.

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GILBERTO GIL
& the Broadband Band
Friday, June 27, 2008 at 8pm
Massey  Hall | $69.50 – $49.50

Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil and his six-piece Banda Larga perform their trademark fusion of bossa nova, samba, salsa, rock and folk music at Massey Hall. Plus, Gilberto invites you to record your experience by taking photos and video of his concert to post on his website for fans to enjoy worldwide!

Click on this LINK for a huge Collection of You Tube videos .  You have permission to bring you cameras and videos to the show for an INTERACTIVE experience

OMARA PORTUONDO
with special guest Roberto Fonseca
Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 8pm
Roy Thomson Hall | $79.50 – $39.50

Cuban diva, Omara Portuondo, one of the featured vocalists from the Grammy Award-winning album The Buena Vista Social Club, brings to the stage smoky and quietly tragic vocals and a taste of Havana nightlife. She is joined by Roberto Fonseca, one of Cuba’s most promising young pianists.

The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall
60 Simcoe Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2H5
A Charitable Not-for-Profit Organization

FOR TICKETS CALL 416-872-4255
www.roythomson.com | www.masseyhall.com

"BUT what can I do on THURSDAY??" 

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Okokan wants to thanks everybody for their wonderful support of our PUPY Y LOS QUE SON SON concert. We are taking a little break while thinking of the future in the hopes of presenting many more fantastic concerts. We only do what we really love !

In the meantime we will be supporting and helping many of our promoter friends with passing the word around about their events and trying to keep our calendar up to date .

Here are some of our favorite upcoming concerts and events :

FRI JUNE 27th : Direct from BRAZIL legendary GILBERTO GIL in concert at ROY THOMPSON HALL . He will be coming on this occasion with a full band  . Check http://www.roythomsonhall.com for tickets and further information

SAT JUNE 28th : Direct from Cuba legendary Omara Portuondo with pianist Roberto Fonseca also at the Roy Thompson Hall  http://www.roythomsonhall.com

SAT June 28th : Direct from Brazil Sergio Mendes and his band at the music gallery on the danforth www.themusicgallery.ca

SAT July 19th : Direct from COLOMBIA  and festivity is part of Colombian independance day : SON de CALI  at the Sound Academy formerly know as the Docks . This concert will be in our prediction one of two sold out summer events. Son de Cali are one of Colombia’s most polular salsa bands . They are travelling with a full 14 piece. For any dancers worried about sore legs on teh concrete; there have been major changes at the Sound Academy. They have just set a gorgoeus and enormous wooden dance floor which takes up most of the room .

Tickets can be purchased at any ticketmaster outlet www.ticketmaster.ca  – More information at www.myspace.com/sondecalitoronto

THURSDAY JULY 31st : The other for sure sell out ! Direct from Martinique/ Guadeloupe – the fathers of ZOUK  ( or as Billy calls them the Los Van Van of the french Antilles ) KASSAV -  at the Sound Academy - for all information check out  www.lipentertainment.com  -  This band has a history stretching back to 1974 and is a show in itself as well as a great band. Kassav always travels with professional dancers who appear at various moments throughout the performance.

Here is a great video

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BRAZILIAN legends – Hermeto Pascoal and Egberto Gismonti- Cuban Acapella group DESANDANN – An Afro Cuban dance party on Friday June 6 with Telmaty – Salsa on SIX : Free and ticketed events at the Distillery district.
Cubaintoronto.com has a pair of tickets for each event – e mail with your name and tel #  at cubaintoronto@yahoo.com for a chance to win tickets – winners will be posted
cubaintoronto@yahoo.com

ART OF JAZZ

The 3rd Annual Art of Jazz Celebration will transform the Distillery Historic District in Toronto into a place where jazz legends, lions and lovers come together. Where jazz is everywhere and freedom of expression, creativity and no fixed beat are the only rule on the street.

Hear the sounds of Brazilian Brilliance

2008 Art of Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Hermeto Pascoal and the Art of Jazz Orchestra
Conducted by Jovino Santos Neto

Saturday June 7, 2008
Fermenting Cellar, Distillery Historic District
8:00 PM

2008 Art of Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
An Evening with Egberto Gismonti
Featuring the Penderecki String Quartet, Trichy Sankaran, Don Thompson and Jane Bunnett

Sunday June 8, 2008
Fermenting Cellar, Distillery Historic District
8:00 PM

Don’t miss this high voltage Cuban Cocktail that will keep the dance floor moving.

Afro Cuban Party

This Afro Cuban Dance Party features Salsa ‘N Six. It’s the cream of the crop of Canadian/Cuban musicians including:  Ricky Franco, Telmary, Alberto Alberto, Luis Mario Ochoa, Grupo Vocal Desandann and more.

Friday June 6, 2008
Fermenting Cellar, Distillery Historic District
10:00 PM

Tickets available at www.ticketweb.ca or 1-888-222-6608 or visit www.artofjazz.org

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Thanks to Joyce Corbett ( writer) and Roger Humbert from the LIVEMUSICREPORT  for their careful and detailed review of the PUPY Y LOS QUE SON SON Sat May 24th night in Toronto. To see the review and pictures in their context click HERE . Each participant in the show was noticed and it was great to see that the trouble we went to to decorate the venue with elaborate flower arrangements ( Thanks To Ingrid and Antonin ) were noticed as Okokan’s co producers La Rumba Event ( Michelle Triebsch) and Billy Bryans productions . This is a review which will actually make the absent feel as though they were with us ! Please note that major participants Afrolatino dance company were on the stage to close the night with Pupy Insua and organized the Cuban dance festival week-end which featured 6 almost all sold out workshops . www.afrolatinodc.com

May 24, 2008 • Opera House • Toronto presented by Okokan productions with La Rumba Event and Billy Bryans productions.

El Buenagente by Joyce Corbett with photos by Roger Humbert

“Dicen que dicen”, “El vecino se mudo”, “El Buenagente”, the favourites just kept coming. Taking only a brief intermission, Cuban supergroup César “Pupy” Pedroso y los que son son played, sang and danced their way through close to three hours. Having left Los Van Van years ago, Pupy has long since established himself as an important composer/bandleader/musician in the world of timba. It is not only the quality of the musicians and the strength of the arrangements that set groups like this apart but the spirit of passion, sharing and generosity they exhibit in performances such as this one in Toronto. Many in the audience were ardent fans and knew the words to the songs. Further incited by the singers, the crowd joined in the celebratory spirit, singing and dancing. Although it would be a bizarre thing to see a band like this singing and playing near-motionless on stage — would it be possible? — the other extreme is not what Pupy wants in his show. With Pupy y los que son son, although the band certainly pulsed with the rhythms they were producing, the music did not take a back seat to gyrating hips and acrobatics. In fact, near the end of the show, it was members of the horn line who came out front and centre to take some well-deserved limelight.

The Opera House with its ornate trim and high ceiling has been renovated to the point where it hints at a glorious past. Large white flower arrangements and candles enhanced the atmosphere on this occasion. It turned out to be a perfect venue for Pupy y los que son son, able to evoke a feel of Havana. Prefacing the concert, there were three professional dance shows. This was a wonderfully integrated and complete evening of art and entertainment. The New York-based “dancer Pupy”, Felix ‘Pupy’ Insua, moved throughout the night ever so Afro-Cubanly. From the stage, playing conga, he conducted the audience in a rhythmic drumming-clapping sequence that had everyone warmed up and ready for the band. Later on, he could be seen out on the floor dancing with the rest of the crowd. Near the end of the show, Insua danced on stage with Maribel Vasquez from Energetic Soul during a dazzling flight of virtuosic piano from Pupy Pedroso. The dancing, the piano, a knocked-over microphone, the unstoppable motion, it was a highlight of the evening. César ‘Pupy’ Pedroso Felix ‘Pupy’ Insua & Maribel Vasquez

The Mambo Dream Team (Mississauga, Ontario) tended more to the Afro-Cuban-Vegas side of things with feathers and headgear but were certainly on the money in terms of execution and ability. The show put on by Duane Wrenn and Maribel Vasquez from Energetic Soul (Clawson, Michigan) was an excellent surprise, congruent with the music that we had come to hear. It opened with Duane Wrenn doing an orisha-type dance to the sound of the bata drums and chanting. With the arrival on stage of Maribel Vasquez, it moved into a playfully flirtatious guaguanco and exploded into very fast rumba/salsa/timba. Like Pedroso’s music, the show remained earthy and tied to tradition but drew on the roots to create something fresh, new and exciting. From the start of the show, dispatched by solo drum kit, the band rapidly reached full intensity. It was timba at its best, firm in its AfroCuban roots and rich with a variety of son, rumba, salsa and jazz. Complex rhythms, precision horns, sections of call and response, improvisation both vocal and instrumental, this band has it all. ‘Manny’ and ‘Pepito’ traded the role of lead vocalist, demonstrating a seemingly natural ease with melody, rhythm and lyric. Lilibert, the sole female in the band, filled out the backup vocals. Two trombones, two trumpets, electric piano, electric keyboard, drum kit, timbales, guiro/small percussion, bass and congas made up the instrumental component along with a guest flautist from Miami, Ernesto Fernandez. Pupy y los que son son produce music that has to be experienced, to be physically felt to fully appreciate. It is music that will transport you. The Canadian tour was timed to promote Pupy y los que son son’s new album, but unfortunately, the release has been delayed by a few months so there were no CDs being sold on the night of the show. For now, the CD and the upcoming DVD on “Pupy” César Pedroso’s career remain something to look forward to. The concert will remain in the spirits of the attendees as a night to remember.

Pupy y los que son son

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