Los Van Van – A Giant of a live band with an enduring legacy!
The other great one-of-a-kind band that I caught live was the legendary Los Van Van who made their annual SF visit to the Herbst Theatre (which isn’t the ideal place to catch this fabulous dance band – what we have to put up with to see our favorites!) Once I got to the Herbst, I forgot about my seat and stood with the dancing masses near the front of the stage. What an incredible show! The front line of vocalists/show people: Mandy Cantero, Roberto “Roberton” Hernandez, Yenny Valdes and Lele Rosales just had the crowd in the palm of their hand with great singing, charisma, knockout dance moves and irresistible call and response. Leader/drummer/timbalero Samuel Formell was all smiles as he was having a great time leading this dynamic intergenerational band with a sound that’s a force of nature made up of 3 trombones, 2 violins, 2 keyboards, bass, conguero, guiro and background vocalist. Performing new material and crowd favorites, Los Van Van conquered the Herbst crowd. By the time that they performed “Te Pone La Cabeza Mala” as their final song of the set, the crowd was standing up, dancing and ready to party the whole night! Unfortunately, this is the United States and prestigious gigs end early. The fortunate thing for all of us is that we can look forward to Los Van Van to visit us again in the...
Read MoreSHO – 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...
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