Get your passports ready, thumpers!

[Press Release]

The year is off to a bang with the announcement of two of the music world’s most innovative and exciting Latin percussionists touring Europe together for the first time. Giovanni Hidalgo, widely regarded as the greatest living conga player, will be performing a series of workshops and concerts with master of Latin drumming Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez.

Called the “TRAVELING THROUGH TIME TOUR” after their critically acclaimed and ground-breaking DVD, they will be performing music from the DVD, which was described by Modern Drummer as “a percussion lover’s dream come true.”

Prepare to experience some of the most incredible playing of drums and congas in history. Better still, these masters will be explaining how each duet was conceived, how they approach their individual parts, and their approach to improvising within each piece during a series of workshops across the continent. This is a unique and rare opportunity to get up close and personal with these incredible players and to explore the bold textures and rhythmic complexities of Latin percussion.

The full lists of dates are as follows:

Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez & Giovanni Hidalgo: TRAVELING THROUGH TIME 2009
25 JANUARY – Vals-Tarragona/Spain – xQbeat Festival (concert)
28 JANUARY – Valencia/Spain – Auditorium (concert)
29 JANUARY – Milan/Italy (workshop)
31 JANUARY – Verona/Italy (workshop)
01 FEBRUARY – Brescia/Italy (workshop)
02 FEBRUARY – Barcelona/Spain (workshop)
03 FEBRUARY – Barcelona/Spain (workshop)
04 FEBRUARY – Huesca/Spain – Theatre (concert)
05 FEBRUARY – Zaragoza/Spain – Theatre (concert)
07 FEBRUARY – Barcelona/Spain – Auditoriun Percussion Festival (concert)
13 FEBRUARY – Cagliari/Italy (workshop)
14 FEBRUARY – Roma/Italy – Auditorium (concert + workshop)
16 FEBRUARY – Salerno/Italy – Il Moro Club (concert)
19 FEBRUARY – Lecce/Italy (workshop at Conservatory)
20 FEBRUARY – Larino/Italy (workshop)
21 FEBRUARY – Urbania/Italy (workshop+concert)
22 FEBRUARY – Udine/Italy (workshop)
23 FEBRUARY – Amsterdam/Holland – Bimhius (concert) + Conservatory (workshop)
25 FEBRUARY – Vienna/Austria – (workshop)
26 FEBRUARY – Gmunden/Austria (workshop)

For more information on tickets and venues, please see http://www.elnegro.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/horaciohernandez

The Traveling Through Time DVD is available from Alfred Publishing.