(book only – audio files are a separate downloadable purchase – the book also contains a link to a smaller free download of audio files)THIS BOOK: Beyond Salsa Bass, Vol. 2 covers the same period as Beyond Salsa Piano, Vol. 2 – Cuba from 1940-1959, aka, the “golden age of Cuban music”. After a theoretical chapter covering clave alignment and rhythmic breaks, or cierres, the second chapter, over 100 pages, is devoted to the bass tumbaos and cierres of Arsenio Rodriguez. Chapter 3 is on the great bassist Cachao Lopez and the final chapter covers the multitude of great Cuban artists of the 1950s: Beny More, Celia Cruz, Orquesta Aragon, Jose Fajardo, et al.THE BEYOND SALSA SERIES: The Beyond Salsa Bass series is designed to be used either as a stand-alone bass course, or as a companion series to Beyond Salsa Piano, enabling you to practice each exercise along with a friend or band member who plays piano. There’s a corresponding bass tumbao for every piano tumbao covered in our sister series.That said, each bass series book is much longer than its piano counterpart, and quite a bit more ambitious, especially the first four volumes. There are many additional tumbaos and several chapters of conceptual exercises that go beyond the piano books. Music history and music theory are also given significantly more space and attention in the bass series. Volumes 1 and 2 match up almost perfectly, except that the bass series adds an extensive additional section on Arsenio Rodriguez and son montuno in Volume 2 (this one). Volumes 3 and 4 of the piano series are combined in Volume 3 of the bass series, which also has a section on salsa and pre-salsa music of Puerto Rico and New York. Salsa was not covered in the piano series, as salsa piano has already been thoroughly covered by Rebeca Mauleon in her Salsa Guidebook and 101 Montunos. The bass series covers timba in two volumes instead of one because the bass plays such a pivotal role in the rhythm section gears. Individual Artists: From Volume 6 onward, each volume of each series is devoted to the style of one musician. These volumes have their own philosophy and game plan: *Find the very best musicians. As of this writing, the bass series includes Alain Perez and the piano series includes Melon Lewis, Pupy Pedroso and Tirso Duarte.*Avoid asking the musicians to self-analyze or participate in the pedagogic process any more than necessary.*On a case-by-case basis, find the most natural way to capture each musician doing what he or she does on recordings and at concerts.*Convert these captured performances – whether MIDI, audio, or video – into bite-size exercises that can be easily studied, understood and assimilated by a non-Cuban musician.*Never ask the reader to learn an exercise without demonstrating exactly how it relates to a given genre, band, song or the style of a specific musician.Volumes 6-9 of each series are directly linked because their subjects – Melon Lewis (piano) and Alain Perez (bass) – played side-by-side in the legendary 1996-1998 Issac Delgado Group. Each is arguably the greatest player of the timba era on his respective instrument. The songs covered are identical (until Volume 9) and the video products include the two musicians playing along with each other. Melon’s tumbaos are also present in one channel of the audio tracks for the Alain Perez books.