SHO – One of two great one of a kind bands – caught live!
I may have missed the phenomenal Oscar D’Leon at Carnaval SF this year but I caught two of the best live bands in the planet. One of them is the Spanish Harlem Orchestra led by pianist/musical director Oscar Hernandez. SHO wowed the Carnaval weekend audience at Yoshi’s! What a great live Salsa orchestra-SHO played phenomenally and with passion. The front line of great vocalists, Marco Bermudez and Carlos Cascante were joined by new member Jeremy Bosch on vocals and flute replacing Ray De La Paz. The coros were on the money and the band sounded incredibly tight. The repertoire of predominately original material and the Tito Rodriguez cover “This Is Mambo” was top notch for both the listener and the dancer. SHO were missing 3 members of the band! However, timbalero Joey De Leon, trumpeter Mike Olmos and trombonist Jaime Dubberly played in top form that you marveled that they were subs for great musicians. They joined incredible players such as trombonist Doug Beavers, saxophonist/flautist Mitch Frohman, conguero George Delgado, bassist Jerry Madera and percussionist Jorge Gonzalez. Spanish Harlem Orchestra reminded me of their commitment to Salsa Dura and the greatness of that musical art form that is still thankfully alive and...
Read MoreCompania All Stars in San Francisco!
The Compania All Stars, acclaimed dance troupe from Santiago De Cuba has been performing and visiting around the SF Bay Area. They have just performed at the Brava Theater in SF’s Mission District the weekend of May 21st and 22nd. The troupe is scheduled to make a couple of performances that are free to the public at SF Carnaval on 17th & Harrison on Sunday, May 29th at 2 pm and at the De Young Museum Friday Nights on Friday, June 3rd starting at 5 pm. I have the honor of emceeing this free event which features their performance as well as dance lessons taught by Ryan Mead and Sidney Waverling and their Rueda De Ritmo dance company at 5 pm and 6 pm. The Compania All Stars will start their performance at 7...
Read MoreIndia comes alive in SF!
The “Princess of Salsa”, India visited the SF Bay Area to a packed enthusiastic crowd of her fans at Roccapulco last weekend. India still possesses a tremendous singing voice and still displays a lot of heart, warmth and soul into her performances. I haven’t seen her in a long time but was impressed with her joy, her ability to connect with her audience (she wasn’t afraid to talk to us) and her professionalism. Backed by her musical director, the incomparable pianist and one of the former architects of the late RMM Sound, Isidro Infante and a hand picked group of crack local musicians, India tore it up with her repertoire of chart hits, beloved songs and a great tribute medley to her idol Celia Cruz. India is still an important artist who is able to connect in the commercial market but astute enough to deliver the real goods in...
Read MoreSF Is Still The Place To Be: YGB Fest w/Pedrito Martinez & Issac Delgado
The last few weeks have been a blur with great musicians making the San Francisco Bay Area the place to be for live music happenings! Two Cuban dynamos: the amazing Pedrito Martinez Group with special guest, iconic star vocalist Issac Delgado opened up the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival with a timba infused bang on Sunday, May 1st! The Pedrito Martinez Group has been turning heads with their huge timba/jazz sound performed entirely by four musicians led by the phenomenal vocalist/percussionist Pedrito Martinez. A lot of folks were anticipating an Issac Delgado concert but he was featured as the special icing on the cake on a couple of explosive descargas(or jam sessions) along with his son, Issac Jr. The crowd was still fired up from the dynamic musicianship and fiery call and response provided by Pedrito Martinez who was in fine voice along with his powerhouse group. Pedrito is also a phenomenal talent on congas and the sacred bata drums! I had the pleasure of interviewing both Issac and Pedrito on my radio program Con Sabor the night before the concert. During our on-air conversation, Issac let me know that he would be coming back with his orchestra in July! Both artists are dropping new albums in the new few weeks. Pedrito’s “Havana Dreams” will be coming out on Motema and Issac’s “Made In Havana” will be coming out of Sony...
Read MoreLive Appearances
Follow Luis on
Follow Luis on