***Ticket sales for this workshop will close on Wednesday 4th February. This allows attendees time to listen to and get familiar with the music in advance***

Still buzzing from our November gig at Edinburgh Wee Red Bar (here's a film clip) we're delighted to get going with another Workshop Weekender!

Oi Musica & La Timbala’s Cuban Big Band is an exciting and rewarding experience for singers and brass / woodwind players at all stages of learning. Seasoned players, professional musicians and those just starting out are all equally challenged, with something for everyone to get their teeth into.

There’s nothing else like it in Scotland!

Over the past 2 years, we have been building a community of players & singers, focused on a growing a repertoire of songs. If you are keen to learn more about Cuban rhythms, study some of the great repertoire and play to clave with an experienced percussion section… these workshops are for you!

Returning players: after a full weekend of Mozambique in November, we will be looking at other styles, revisiting some of our Beny Moré repertoire and looking at new pieces.

Not attended before? You are welcome to join. Please be aware that some advance learning will enhance your experience of these workshops. We provide recordings, lyric sheets and notation ahead of the weekend.

Saturday's workshop runs 10am - 5pm at Edinburgh College (24 Milton Rd East, EH15 2PQ). Sunday's workshop runs 11am - 5pm at the Beach Lane Social Club in Portobello (7-9 Figgate St, EH15 1HL), with time to socialise until 7pm.

Unlike recent workshop weekends, we will not be adding a performance on the Sunday evening. This gives us a chance to run more of a workshop / less of a rehearsal. Sunday Social: we have set aside time to socialise as a band from 5-7pm. The bar will be open, players can bring a dish and we'll provide some snacks as well. More info to follow (no pressure to stick around for this).

About the project

Our aim with these Cuban Big band workshops is to explore this vibrant dance music by working in a large ensemble with other musicians, under the direction of an experienced Cuban big band leader and with support from Oi Musica musicians. Based in Manchester, Christian Weaver is an ethnomusicologist and Cuban music specialist who has has researched and played music in Cuba and the UK since 1995.

Alongside the buzz of playing this hugely influential music, with its infectious rhythms and interlocking melody lines, the workshops will illuminate some of the concepts that shape and create it. We will make time to discuss the history and form of different genres (what is the difference between mambo and chachacha, or son and rumba?); the elusive and important rhythmic characteristics of the Clave; the function of each instrument in the ensemble; the relation of the melodies to the rhythms of the percussion; the importance of the song; and ‘timba’, that illusive element of swing, or attitude, that makes Cuban big band music so unique, joyous, and danceable.

A note for singers - we welcome anyone who is comfortable learning songs by ear. We send out recordings and lyric sheets in advance and ask that you become familiar with the songs ahead of the workshops. Working as singers do in Cuba, we don’t use choir-style vocal scores. Instead, we use lyric sheets and orient the song to the percussion, which drives everything in the ensemble. Learning by ear is the most authentic and effective way of experiencing and singing Cuban songs. We’ll support you to do this during the workshops.

Videos of singers in Havana to support the learning of songs.

The music covered so far:

Corta y Clava by Pello El Afrokan

Pongan Atención by Benny Moré

Donde Estabas Tu by Benny Moré

A La Kimbambula

Se Que Me Llama by Pello El Afrokan

YouTube playlist here

What is a Cuban Big Band?

The tradition of the Cuban big bands really took off during the mambo era of the 1940s and 50s, when national Cuban stars such as Beny Moré (the original King of mambo) and Perez Prado (who many claim was the inventor of mambo) came to prominence. Large 'orquestas' of brass or strings, or both, had been a feature of Cuban music since the late 19th century, or earlier. However, the term Cuban Big Band usually refers to the type of bands that were prominent from the 1940s onward. This movement was greatly influenced by the jazz orchestras and big bands of the USA. Earlier, in New York, Cuban arranger Mario Bauza was busy introducing leading jazz players to the rhythms of Cuban popular music and creating new styles within Machito’s big band (founded in 1940). Jazz performers, such as Dizzy Gillespie, were hugely motivated by travelling to Cuba (famously describing Cuban rumba as the most advanced improvised music in the world). Gillespie in turn shared this enthusiasm with other US players such as Cannonball Adderley. In Cuba, musicians took the format of the big band, adapted it to their rhythmic sensibilities and developed new musical forms through it. One thing that identifies the Cuban big band style is the continued central role of the song (singer), and its ‘danceablitiy’.

In many respects, learning about Cuban big band music is a case of learning how to recognise, and play within the rhythmic parameters that define each style, and each section of each style, all of which (with the exception of the earlier Danzòn) are based on, and controlled by, the Cuban clave.

Contact the host of CUBAN BIG BAND WEEKENDER - FEBRUARY 2026