The Ruben Blades concert at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Saturday, November 20th was sensational! The anticipation of the packed intergenerational crowd to his first visit In 18 years was at a high peak. Blades wowed the audience with a stunning performance backed by bassist Roberto Delgado’s dynamic Big Band. Ruben’s powerful voice was as crystal clear as when he started his career with Ray Barretto back in 1974. His set list was a retrospective into his vast and deep repertoire that included his big hits, crowd favorites, esoteric song choices and selections from his Latin Grammy award winning album, Salswing!
The musicianship that accompanied Blades was top notch as Roberto Delgado’s crack band were tight, explosive and swinging! The visuals projected on the huge screen above Ruben were imaginative displaying photo tributes to Hector Lavoe as well as to recently deceased Latin music giants and clever animation that was the backdrop for songs. This was a triumphant return to the SF Bay Area for Blades who last played a concert here in 2003 at Roccapulco. He performed for 2 hours and 40 minutes to the delight of the massive crowd. He ended the show with a rousing version of the all-time favorite “Pedro Navaja” complete with spectacular animated visuals. He left the stage with the inspired crowd screaming for more but the lights came on and the show was over. What a show!! You either were there or you missed it! (Photo: Ruben Blades @ Paramount Theatre, Oakland 11/20/2021. Photo by Luis Medina)
Speaking of big shows….Three time Grammy Award Winner Spanish Harlem Orchestra will play a special holiday dance/concert “Salsa Para El Bailador” on Saturday, December 11th, 8 pm at the Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza in Monterey. Yours truly, Luis Medina will be your Master Of Ceremonies and DJ for the evening playing 100% Bailable in between the sets. There are VIP seats and packages still available. There is also an auto caravan coming from San Francisco directly to the concert. For more information on the concert, caravan and tickets, please visit www.montunoproductions.com or call 510-586-3215.
I dropped by La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley to catch the livestream of their Couch Concert Series starring Santana percussionist Karl Perazo live from their stage on Friday, Nov. 19th. The web streamed concert was hosted by renowned Bay Area based flautist Miguelito Martinez (Candela) with an intro from La Peña’s Executive Director Natalia Neira Retamal. Perazo was in excellent form on congas, bongos and percussion leading a hot Latin Jazz descarga accompanied by Martinez, bassist Saul Sierra and pianist Julio De La Cruz. This session was part of an on-going series that is coordinated by La Peña’s new Productions Manager Corey Raynor. For more information, visit www.lapena.org.
A final note that I received a reissue of a recording that was made by the late, great “El Gigante De Las Blancas y las Negras”, piano icon Charlie Palmieri back in 1959. It was his first Latin Jazz recording as a leader “Easy Does it” originally issued on the Gone record label featuring Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco on congas and bongos, Joe Rodriguez on drums and bassist Al ‘Guito” Gonzalez. Palmieri takes us to his latin jazz versions of “You And The Night And The Music” and “I’ll Never Be The Same” to his tasty interpretation of the Noro Morales composition “Ponce“. This rarity has just been reissued by Blue Moon in England. The cd was sent to me in honor of what would have been Charlie’s 94th Birthday by his brother Eddie Palmieri and his manager and son Eddie Palmieri II. What a joy it is to listen to this classic!
That’s all for this time! Ciao 4 now!!!
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