A Musical Tsunami with Issac Delgado
Just got back from Hawaii where I was there to attend my goddaughter’s wedding – a beautiful ceremony that was delayed due to a tsunami warning. Thank god nothing happened! However, right before I left for Hawaii, I had the pleasure of emceeing the pair of Issac Delgado shows at the beautiful Bimbos 365 Club in SF for the opening night of the SF Jazz Spring Season. What a pair of exciting shows! Issac was totally into the shows-charismatic, engaging the audience and effortlessly singing with his trademark smooth voice. He fronted a powerful band consisting of an explosive five piece horn section, 2 keyboards (one played by his son), a dancing bass player and an explosive rhythm section. Issac is one of the original voices of timba going back to the late 80’s/early 90’s with NG La Banda (que manda!) . Issac got everyone on the dance floor with his blend of Cuban salsa and timba with material taken from his last 2 recordings “En Primera Plana” and “Asi Soy” He also threw in pregones from soneros such as Beny More and improvised parts of songs for the audience in between songs. Now that was a musical...
Read MoreCarnaval Time!
Of course, it’s Carnaval and Mardi Gras time. I remember when I was totally involved with organizing the acts as entertainment director for Carnaval SF back in 1983 and from 1986 to 1998. What a flood of great memories! I was also involved with Carnaval as radio sponsor through KPFA for a great many years during this past decade. I was fortunate enough to work with artists such as Willie Colon, Santana, the Mighty Sparrow, Luis Enrique, Eddie Palmieri, Arrow, Shaggy, Calypso Rose, Michael Franti, Merle Saunders, Flora Purim and Airto, Libre, Los Hombres Calientes and countless others. I have seen my share of sequined dancing beauties, drum troupes, great bands, massive crowds as well as backstage drama, disorganization and ego trips. Ah..the yin and the yang! But all the good people that I have worked with bring to me the rich memories that are the best. I’ve lost some good people along the way such as one of my favorite stage managers Ethan Fox and great artists such as Carlos Acietuno who passed away at too young an age. I’ll raise a glass and drink a Hurricane to your memory, my brothers. Representing KPFA as an active radio sponsor of live music, I have been fortunate to have emceed shows with Daniella Mercury, Milton Nacimento, Marisa Monte, Bebel Gilberto and the beat literally goes...
Read MoreRumbankete
The other great act that I caught was the Cuban timba big band Rumbankete from Los Angeles at Yoshis in Oakland this past Thursday night. This explosive band led by trombonist Denis Jiron were playing their timba drenched sounds to a packed dance floor. Made up of 2 violins, 3 trombones, bass, keyboards, drum set, timbales, congas and fronted by 3 charismatic vocalists, Rumbankete played a combination of original material and covers of tunes by Los Van Van and Elio Reve. Potent stuff! Denis told me that the band will be releasing a single in the next month and a new cd should be coming out later this year. Check them out the next time that they swing by the Bay Area…don’t sleep on this...
Read MoreOn the other end of the spectrum of music I like…
I have checked out two exciting new acts in two very distinctive scenes in the past week. British based pop soul vocalist VV Brown put on a spectacular show at Popscene at 330 Ritch last week. This tall, striking Jamaican/Puerto Rican beauty has a style all her own mixing pop, reggae, hip hop and Brazilian batucada rhythms into her catchy songs. VV came out in a Carnaval head dress, gold lame blouse and checkered pant suit-these English acts certainly have a wicked sense of style. She possess a powerful set of pipes. She tore through a cover of Drake’s “The Best I Ever Had” infusing this hit with dub and reggae. This Capitol recording artist is definitely someone to look out for…a star in the making. She’ll be at South By Southwest in Austin next...
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