I was curious about Kebekwa, the Montreal-based percussion ensemble mentioned in Don Alias's NYT obit, so I emailed my friend Chris Smith, a Montreal-based trombonist and arranger. Here's what he had to say:
The band is [now] called Québa (kay-bah) and is still going, under the direction of one of the original members, one of Don's protégés, a guy called Chipito (Alain Labrosse, but even his wife calls him Chipito). [...] The guys Don tutored are all still the best Afro-Cuban percussionists in Montreal, including the Labrosse brothers, Normand Bock, Michel Dupire, and some others. They played a lot at the now-defunct L'Air du Temps, where I heard them a couple of times. I last heard them (obviously without Don!) a couple of years ago as the closing show at the JazzFest des Jeunes du Quebec (MusicFest Canada provincial level) where I adjudicate each year.
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