In just two years star trumpeter and bandleader Jesús Alemañy has exploded onto the Latin music scene with his 15-piece Cuban orchestra, ¡CUBANISMO! The release of their self-titled first record on Hannibal Records in 1996 broke the Cuban music marketplace wide open. Their 1997 follow up, the powerful MALEMBE , combined with an historic US tour to solidify ¡ Cubanismo!'s position as Havana's hottest export. The release of REENCARNACIÓN (HNCD 1429) on September 15th and the forthcoming World Tour lands them in the center of the Latin dance band galaxy.

Under the leadership of Jesús Alemañy , ¡ Cubanismo ! has become a spectacular curiosity; neither a nostalgic group of veterans showing the world what was missed during the years when Cuban music was isolated and seldom heard outside the island, nor one of the modern Cuban bands who have fused outside influences like hip-hop and Nuyorican salsa into Cuba's new dance craze, timba . ! Cubanismo ! is something else - a virtuoso group of musicians loyal to traditional rhythms but devoid of nostalgia, forging a modern Cuban music which never leaves the clave or loses sight of the great Cuban dance rhythms which have influenced the world since the 1930s.

Along with the release of three stellar albums in as many years, ¡ Cubanismo ! has also become a touring force to be reckoned with. Beginning in 1997 with a US tour, the likes of which had not been seen since the Cuban embargo began 35 years ago, the band has since conquered Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Far East. Audiences in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Montreux , Istanbul, Rome, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Beirut, Athens, Brussels, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Taipei, Split (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia), to name a few have taken to the dance floor to feel the live roots of ¡ Cubanismo !

If it is true, as New York Latino asserts, that ¡ Cubanismo ! led the Cuban invasion in 1997, then 1998 will likely be remembered as the year that Jesús Alemañy and his band rose and shone like a new star in the sky for all the world to dance beneath.