5/18/2018 by Billboard Staff Listen to fresh tracks from Maluma, Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Beatriz Luengo, Havana Cultura and more Looking for new Latin music? You are at the right place! Starting this week, Billboard is introducing Viva Friday, a compilation of new songs, albums and videos recommended by our editors. This[…]

Tiny Desk Yissy García & Bandancha June 15, 20185:00 AM ET Felix Contreras There is a sonic revolution happening in Cuba these days. A new generation of musicians are taking the training they received in Cuba’s fabled classical music academies to new heights by incorporating not just jazz, but hip-hop,[…]

April 20, 201812:21 PM ET By: Gabriela Sierra Alonso Since diplomatic relations broke off between the United States and Cuba in 1961, musical exchange between both countries has been largely left, outside of tours, to the underground. Yissy García remembers her father, Bernardo García — a co-founder of Irakere, one[…]

By John Murph   May 29, 2018   7:29 PM Fábrica De Arte Cubano, a former cooking-oil plant turned multimedia-arts venue, is one of the most fabulous places in Havana, Cuba. Located in the city’s Vedado neighborhood, the place pulsates with contemporary art, high fashion, dancing, film instillations, DJ culture and[…]

Yissy Garcia and her band Bandancha, hailing from the famously colorful and musical Havana, Yissy & Bandancha recently played at the legendary SOB’s (Sounds of Brazil) in New York, joining the ranks of some of their very own iconic predecessors, like Celia Cruz. Born into a musical family headed by[…]

Dave Matthews and Yissy Garcia, a woman drummer with a mohawk, played for Evercore Chief Executive Officer Ralph Schlosstein and Citigroup’s head of corporate and investment banking, Raymond McGuire at Lincoln Center…

“All the rhythms that we make aren’t pure,” she explains. “They’re more like developed rhythms, more fusion. For example, we love to use a street conga and mix it with a little drum and bass, funk; mix it up with the rumba. The tradition of Cuba is very strong to[…]

SXSW presented five Cuban bands direct from Havana on Friday night and the result was nothing short of amazing. To cut costs, four different bands used more or less the same rhythm section of bass, drums and keyboards. Afro-Cuban vocalist Daymé Arocena invoked the spirits of the orishas with her[…]

By Nancy Flores Yissy: Yissy García first got on my radar at the Sounds from Cuba showcase Friday night where her hip Afro-Latin jazz fusion band Yissy & Bandancha performed. She not only has mad percussive skills, but also leads the group. She’s the daughter of musical hero Bernardo García, who[…]

by Fernando González The daughter of Bernardo García, an influential drummer in Cuban music, charter member of the fabled Afro-Cuban jazz rock group Irakere and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval’s band, Yissy García was supposed to be a dancer, a ballerina. Her brother was the designated heir in the family. “They would[…]