Our Cuban Big Band is BACK! And we're delighted to host another Workshop Weekender - open to new players & singers as well as regulars.

This is an exciting and rewarding experience for singers and brass / reeds 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.

Over the past 3 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.

There’s nothing else like it in Scotland!

Returning players: we will learn new pieces over the weekend and will send out learning resources in advance.

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

Here's a clip of a performance from last November to give you an idea: https://youtu.be/5GLR7e8aoa8

Saturday's workshop will run from 10am - 5pm at Edinburgh College (24 Milton Rd East, EH15 2PQ).

Sunday's workshop will run from 11.30am - 5pm at the Wee Red Bar (74 Lauriston Place, EH3 9DF).

We'll then open the doors to the public, playing an optional low-pressure sharing gig in the same venue.

About the project

Our Cuban Big band workshops series aims 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.

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

Babarabatiri by Benny Moré

Donde está Teresá by Pello El Afrokan

Mozambique no.1 by Pello El Afrokan

Mozambiqué en Carnaval by Pello El Afrokan / Ricardo Diaz

Nace en Cuba el Mozambiqué by Pello El Afrokan / Pedro Izquierdo

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 - NOVEMBER 2026