It was the winter of 1995 and I gathered 6 musicians in my basement to talk about an idea I had. I already had a few arrangements and a name for a Latin Jazz project I wanted to get off the ground. The idea of the name came from an LP record I had called Carlos Embale A La Timbalaye. I listened to the tune and I liked how the word Timbalaye sounded. In it's first 6 letters it also spelled the name of the instrument I play. Perfect I thought. I also found out years later that it meant " Party World". Nothing wrong with that. At the meeting I told the musicians that I had no gigs and really wasn't looking for any. All I had to offer was lots of rehearsals and a vision of a group following in the steps of the Mongo Santamaria and the Willie Bobo rhythm section team with a bit more progressive arrangements. Well three guys quit that same night. Eventually I found guys who gave my vision a chance and the rest is history. I'm proud to say that the many musicians that passed thru the ranks of Timbalaye have long since moved on to bigger and better things and I only wish I could mention them all but the list is long. With the second version of Timbalaye we recorded 3 great CD's and traveled extensively thru Europe,Puerto Rico, Cuba and the US. Due to my touring and obligation with Ruben Blades and Seis Del Solar I saw myself obligated to make the decision to disband for a long period of time. I felt that was the respectful thing to do for my fellow bandmates in Timbalaye. In the last couple of years I started meeting some young excellent musicians who would say they were to young to have witnessed Timbalaye live and could only see us in videos. So I started asking them if they would be willing to put in some rehearsal time to play the Timbalaye book and they were all for it. These are the current crop of young lions that now make up Timbalaye. I just turned 61 and the last couple of years have battled cancer so to say that these guy's in their 20's, 30's and early 40's have been my best medicine to want to get back into the studio and get back on the world stage is an understatement. I had the honor and privilege to work with some of the best composer/arrangers in my last 3 CD's and some of them have returned to bless me with more great material. I struggled to come up with a name for this new CD and after much brainstorming I figured I started the group 20 years ago so for all you Timbalaye fans who waited patiently for another jam here's the Timbalaye 20th Anniversary CD. It's a complete labor of love by everybody involved so I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it.