timberamayor
Son Montuno
César "Pupy" Pedroso is one of the most important pianists in modern Cuban music in terms of developing the role of the piano in contemporary dance music. His style is very distictive as is his use of contrary motion. This is a a wonderful instructional series if you are a pianist. It also has a lot of Pupy and Los Van Van history with bthe songs covered in chronological order so you can follow the development of the music over the years.
Pupy is also a prolific composer/arranger and wrote many of Los Van Van's hits before finally leaving in 2001 to start Pupy y Los Que Son Son where he continued his collaboration with percussionist Changuito and developed his merensongo.
Kevin Moore and Pupy have put together a series of 4 instructional books in Pupy's piano style: they first three cover his time with Los Van Van (1969-2001) and the last book covers his own group to date.
I'm not a pianist but Kevin's descriptions are very educational and music geek that I am I find there is a lot to learn from the books even if I will never play the piano parts. But not may people are as geeky as I am
Here is a nice example of one of Pupy's distinctive contrary motion tumbaos from the 1995 live album Lo último en vivo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iv4RTpUQzQ
And an even more hardcore tumbao from the 1992 CD Disco Azúcar ...one of the songs composed and arranged by Pupy himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS1FmkQ4HbE
The book can be bought in hardcopy or digital (not for mac) and there are also MP3s (with midi versions of the bass and piano with the clave) and video which can also be purchased optionally depending on your preferred method of learning. The book includes transcription of both the piano and bass and shows you variations on the tumbaos so you can also develop your skills in improvising around a theme. Here is some basic info about the books.
http://www.timba.com/blog_posts/beyond-salsa-piano-volume-10
And here you can download a sample to see what you think of it. This first book covers the period from 1979-1983.
http://www.timba.com/blog_files/0000/0437/BeyondSalsaPianoV10_KevinMoore_Sample.pdf
Pupy is also a prolific composer/arranger and wrote many of Los Van Van's hits before finally leaving in 2001 to start Pupy y Los Que Son Son where he continued his collaboration with percussionist Changuito and developed his merensongo.
Kevin Moore and Pupy have put together a series of 4 instructional books in Pupy's piano style: they first three cover his time with Los Van Van (1969-2001) and the last book covers his own group to date.
I'm not a pianist but Kevin's descriptions are very educational and music geek that I am I find there is a lot to learn from the books even if I will never play the piano parts. But not may people are as geeky as I am
Here is a nice example of one of Pupy's distinctive contrary motion tumbaos from the 1995 live album Lo último en vivo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iv4RTpUQzQ
And an even more hardcore tumbao from the 1992 CD Disco Azúcar ...one of the songs composed and arranged by Pupy himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS1FmkQ4HbE
The book can be bought in hardcopy or digital (not for mac) and there are also MP3s (with midi versions of the bass and piano with the clave) and video which can also be purchased optionally depending on your preferred method of learning. The book includes transcription of both the piano and bass and shows you variations on the tumbaos so you can also develop your skills in improvising around a theme. Here is some basic info about the books.
http://www.timba.com/blog_posts/beyond-salsa-piano-volume-10
And here you can download a sample to see what you think of it. This first book covers the period from 1979-1983.
http://www.timba.com/blog_files/0000/0437/BeyondSalsaPianoV10_KevinMoore_Sample.pdf
