2nd Annual Bay Area Latin Jazz Festival was a Blast!!!

The 2nd Annual Bay Area Latin Jazz Festival held at Rowell Ranch in Castro Valley was a swinging musical affair full of great highlights. The bill for the afternoon was full of top-notch entertainment from beginning to end. Ricky Aguilar’s Grupo Afro-Nativo included all-star talent such as Anthony Blea, Felix Samuel, Obrayan Calderon, Julio De La Cruz and Carlos Caro joining conguero Aguilar for an explosive descarga set. Conguero Rene Escovedo’s Latin Jazz Ensemble followed with a crowd pleasing set of tasty Latin Jazz enhanced by percussionist David Martinez vocals. Escovedo announced that this was the first time that he has played with this group of musicians. However, they played a hot, tight set as if they were playing together for years.

Monterey based John Nava and his Latin Jazz Collective came on next with an impressive set of Salsa and Latin Jazz favorites. The Latin Rhythm Boys led by Earl and Henry Miranda followed with a trombone heavy powerhouse salsa set which had the dance floor packed. Trombonist Ric “Mightybone” Feliciano and guest sonero Carlos Rosario shared vocal duties while fronting this ferocious 13 piece band playing selections from their latest recording “Celebrando” and old school Salsa favorites.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader/pianist Oscar Hernandez (pictured upper left) and Alma Libre played a sublime set of Latin Jazz full of wonderful textures and colors. Hernandez was playing in fine form with a great L.A. based band that featured the mighty Justo Almario on sax. SF Bay Area based heavyweight Dr. John Calloway from the John Santos Sextet joined in on a flute Mano-a-mano with Almario near the end of the set.

The headliner, Bobi Cespedes closed out this star studded afternoon with a gorgeous set of original Cuban son that featured her glorious voice. Cespedes was accompanied by a wonderful band that featured her musical director/pianist Marco Diaz, tresero Camilo Landau, bongosero Julio Perez, conguero Javier Navarette, bassist Ernesto Kindelan, trumpeter Roberto Morris Amaya and the fine coros of guitarist Jose Roberto Hernandez, and Lichi Fuentes. The crowd was mesmerized by Bobi’s velvety voice, her charisma and the irresistible urge to dance to her music

I had the honor to MC the festival and DJ in-between the sets. It was a blast!! Big kudos to promoter Luis Mendoza and his Montuno Productions for putting together a beautiful festival of live music.

I took a short trip to the San Jose Jazz Summerfest on Sunday, August 15th. I was lucky to catch 3 great acts in the short time that I was there: the extraordinary Brazilian vocalist Claudia Villela who possesses a 5 octave range with guitarist extraordinare Romero Lubambo, the smokin’ Salsa and Latin Jazz of the Cabanijazz Project led by PMO conguero Javier Cabanillas and featuring guest vocalist Edgardo Cambon, the sultry Jazz and RnB stylings of vocalist/keyboardist Kandace Springs and her all female trio. The music was top-notch but the Sunday edition of the annual 3-day festival had one-third the capacity of previous years due to the lingering effects of the COVID and the rise of the Delta Variant. People wore their masks and at times, maintained a social distance from each other but there were others in the crowd that didn’t wear their masks and thought the crisis was over.

Wherever you go and whatever you do, please stay safe and take care of each other. Enough said for now. Hasta la Proxima!!!