La Santa Cecilia and David Wax Museum
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La Santa Cecilia and David Wax Museum Fri, April 11 David Wax Museum David Wax Guitar, Guitar, Jarana Jarocha Royce Hall Suz Slezak Fiddle, Accordion, Keyboard, Quijada de Burro 8pm Greg Glassman Bass, Leona, Guitar Philip Mayer Drumkit, Cajon Jordan Wax Accordion, Keyboard, Guitar PERFORMANCE DURATION: Approximately two and a half INTERMISSION hours; One Intermission La Santa Cecilia La Marisoul Vocals Marco Sandoval Guitar Alex Bendana Bass Fandanguito! Featuring Cambalache and Jose “Pepe” Carlos Gonzalez Accordion Los Cenzontles Miguel Ramirez Percussion Royce Quad 6-8 pm Andres Torres Drums ABOUT THE ARTISTS La Santa Cecilia La Santa Cecilia exemplifies the modern-day creative hybrid. In an era and city in which Latin culture has given birth to many musical fusions, The Los Angeles based six-member band MEDIA SPONSORS: creatively combines up-tempo South American rhythms like Cumbia and Bossa Nova with the nostalgic Bolero and passionate Tango, blending in Afro-Cuban percussion, Rock with Jazzy tunes to bring about a mix that defies any particular label or musical genre. The band’s sound is accentuated by singer Marisoul’s haunting voice, which delivers its message of love, loss and heartbreak in a strong, sensual and powerful performance that leaves crowds mesmerized and women justified in La Santa’s colorful and fiesta-like live shows. La Santa Cecilia recently solidified its successes with its 2013 Grammy award for Best Latin GREEN ROOM SPONSOR: Rock, Urban or Alternative Album for Treinta Dias. Earlier this year, the group released its fourth studio album, Someday New. La Santa Cecilia, named after the Mexican patron saint of musicians, continues with a prolific year with a handful of selective performances that included opening for LA icon Ozomatli in Los Angeles & San Francisco, as well as individual performances that have met and surpassed expectations thus far in their career. Performances alongside Latin music luminaries such as Peruvian songstress Susana Baca and Mexican darling Ely Guerra, as well as Raphael Saadiq at the GRAMMY Benefit Party. Invitations included renowned festivals in 2010 like South By South MESSAGE FROM THE CENTER: West, The Hollywood Bowl Summer Sounds, Telemundo + mun2 ‘Descarga’ concert series, the Chicago World Music Festival, and Diego Rivera Anahuacali Festival in Mexico City in 2009 as well as Tonight is about joy. It is about buoyancy. It is about community. an appearance in the popular HBO hit series Entourage new season. Beyond a traditional music licensing deal, La Santa Cecilia was asked to And it is all by design, both ours as a presenting organization perform as well as contribute two songs to an episode, adding joy, color, and through the organic and inherently joyful makeup of the two and a Latin flavor to the quintessential show about the Hollywood scene. groups who will share their great spirit and talent with us tonight. The members of La Santa Cecilia met in various ways - some at school, We’re incredibly proud to welcome local Latin music heroes La some at a showcase, others at family parties - and some have been Santa Cecilia to the Royce Hall stage for the first time. They have friends for years. Influences range from John Coltrane and Miles Davis already made their mark on this city and continue to do so, but this to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin yet one thing was common to all: a love group is on a fast moving trajectory that will set the world moving of music. This affinity gave way to a group concept and in 2007 La Santa one dance step at a time. Get ready for expertly and passionately Cecilia – named after the Mexican patron saint of musicians – was born. rendered cumbias and corridos seamlessly performed alongside elegant mambos and good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll. Each member’s relationship to music is as diverse as the music itself. While some like Jose Carlos and Marisoul are entirely self-taught, La Santa Cecilia started their day here with a rousing performance others like Alex, Gloria, Hugo and Miguel are trained musicians. to an excited audience of middle and high–school age students Gloria won first place in a jazz competition while Miguel was part of from across Los Angeles—1,000 strong—as part of our Design for the first Afro-Latino student ensemble to travel to Cuba to study and Sharing education program. It is always an incredibly energizing perform. Alex is pursuing a Masters in Commercial Music. Hugo had experience to host young people from our community in this hall, a band with his brother and Jose Carlos was prompted by his father to and especially so when we can showcase a group of artists who grew learn an instrument for recreational purposes. Marisoul, a passionate up here and who are living out their artistic dreams. charismatic performer whose influences range from Mexican pop icon Yuri and Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa to Janis Joplin and Annie In 2006, a young Harvard graduate’s fascination for the the myriad Lennox, was inspired by her mother’s voice and her father’s love of cultures and sounds of Mexico led David Wax to a compelling music. She learned her craft from the various musicians who performed course of study in the country, one that has resulted in a genre- at Olvera Street, a hub of Mexican culture and art located in downtown bending and evolutionary group of multi-instrumentalists that is Los Angeles. Her lyrics are the product of life, love and the drunken exhibiting an increasingly sophisticated intertwining of Mexican rants of her father and friends. and American folk music. David Wax Museum Tonight, David Wax Museum takes the Royce stage for the third When future music historians look back at the strong currents time. We can’t get enough of the pure artistry of these performers. circulating between the Americas in the 21st century, they will find Los It is layered with an intrinsic intelligence, curiosity and integrity Lobos, Calexico, and a charismatic Missourian singing tight harmony of purpose. Their harmonies, genuinely harmonious presence and with a Southern belle rattling the jawbone of a donkey. David Wax and warm rapport with an audience is a beautiful thing to witness. Suz Slezak front the David Wax Museum, and together with their band they fuse traditional Mexican folk with indie rock and American roots to We’re very glad you’re here to witness it with us. create a Mexo-Americana aesthetic. Combining Latin rhythms, infectious melodies, and call-and-response hollering, DWM was hailed by TIME And hopefully you were able to join us early for the communal for its “virtuosic musical skill and virtuous harmonies” and has built a “fandanguito” celebration just outside on the Royce Quad. This reputation among concertgoers all over the U.S, Canada, Europe and is a glorious time of year and a perfect opportunity to revel in the China for “kicking up a cloud of excitement with their high-energy border- sounds and community-building sensibility of son jarocho music crossing sensibility” (The New Yorker). With the release of Knock Knock and culture. We partnered with the Fowler Museum, UCLA Center Get Up (September 2012), David Wax Museum has reached a level of for Mexican Studies and many generous artists for a series of cross-cultural integration and musical fluency that allows them to speak son jarocho events this week, and wrapped things up with a rare electrifying and heartfelt poetry with a tongue that is wholly their own. outdoor celebration that strikes a perfect sense of welcome for the two extraordinary groups who will perform tonight. Knock Knock Get Up is a fiercely original, rhythmically undeniable love letter to the Museum’s growing global audience. It’s peppered with field Thank you for being a part of it. recordings and natural sounds from the city of Santiago, Tuxtla in the ¡Vamos a bailar! ¡Vamos a cantar! Mexican state of Veracruz. From deep in sun-drenched southern Mexico where most of the album’s songs were conceived, the earliest version of Knock Knock Get Up traveled all the way to the frozen winter landscape of the Great North Sound Society in southern Maine. The album is the band’s second made in collaboration with producer Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter), and was recorded in a month-long marathon at Kassirer’s rustic farmhouse studio in January 2012. The Wax Museum’s fourth LP is a mature and playful evolution of the band’s sound: classical Mexican strumming patterns are translated onto electric guitars sporting halos of fuzz; the leona, a deep-voiced traditional Mexican guitar plays licks like an old-time, stand-up bass; and the track Vivian was first written as a bluegrass hoedown before it grew a Caribbean inspired accordion hook and a Brazilian drum part in the studio. With an expanded musical palate of autoharps, organs and mariachi trumpet loops, Knock Knock Get Up is gritty, intoxicating and vibrantly lush. David Wax Museum’s eclectic sound has deep roots in Mexican and American soil. On several trips south of the border, including a yearlong FANDANGO: Singing the Landscape Harvard fellowship, David Wax has immersed himself in the country’s rich traditional music culture, son mexicano, learning from the form’s CAP UCLA was proud to partner with UCLA Center for Mexican living masters. Suz Slezak was homeschooled by her father on a small Studies and the Fowler Museum for a series of special campus farm in rural Virginia, and reared on music – old time, Irish, classical, events leading up to this joyful evening of Latin music including a and folk. The two met in 2007 and began blending their unique musical son jarocho zapateado (percussive dance) class, a panel discussion perspectives to form the band.