TIEMPO LIBREwww.tiempolibremusic.comThe Miami-based Cuban music group, Tiempo Libre, is one of the hottest Latin bands today. At home in concert halls, jazz clubs and dance venues around the globe, Tiempo Libre has earned international acclaim for its joyful performances of timba – a dance-inducing mix of high-voltage Latin jazz and the seductive rhythms of son.

Classically trained in Cuba’s premiere conservatories, the group is equally fluent in classical performance and continues to collaborate on impressive projects with other classical artists.Since forming in 2001, Tiempo Libre has been on a mission to share the musical heritage of its native Cuba, reinvigorating traditional Cuban music with a youthful, modern sound and forging a new style born from the meeting of their Cuban roots and their new American experience.

Tiempo Libre has released three timba CDs – Timbiando, the Grammy-nominated Arroz Con Mango and the Grammy-nominated Lo Que Esperaba. The group recently collaborated with legendary flutist Sir James Galway on the album O’Reilly Street, which includes an Afro-Cuban treatment of music from the jazz suites of Claude Bolling, as well as original compositions by Tiempo Libre’s musical director and pianist Jorge Gomez.

Recently signed to SONY, the group will release a new album – a fusion of Bach with Afro-Cuban rhythms - and featuring guest tracks by Paquito d’Rivera – in Spring 2009.In 2007, Gomez collaborated with composer Ricardo Lorenz on Rumba Sinfónica, a piece fusing the urban rhythms of past and present Cuban music with the sophisticated sounds of the classical orchestra, which Tiempo Libre continues to perform with leading symphonies.

Tiempo Libre also starred in Miami Libre, a musical based on the band’s collective immigrant experience which ran at The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami in the summer of 2008.Tiempo Libre’s members offer classes on rumba, Latin jazz and traditional Cuban music, to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.