Norfolk VA • Thursday, 23 August 2012

The 12th Annual AT&T Norfolk VA Latino Music Festival

The 12th Annual AT&T Norfolk Latino Music Festival will heat up the Downtown Norfolk Waterfront this Saturday August 25, 5pm-10pm, in Town Point Park along the Elizabeth River. The party sizzles with hot Latin sounds and features the largest outdoor dance floor in Hampton Roads. The high-energy festival is produced by Norfolk Festevents Ltd. and is free and open to the public.! Get your Merengue on as 12th Annual AT&T Norfolk Latino Music Festival boasts regional and national acts including Susie Hansen Latin Band taking the stage as the sun sets along the Elizabeth River. Feast on a variety of authentic Latin favorites to include pitas, pescado, cubano sandwiches, yuca fries, fresh local seafood and much more. Wash it all down with frosty adult beverages and frozen non-alcoholic pina coladas. The 12th Annual AT&T Norfolk Latino Music Festival is also a great opportunity to introduce friends and family to traditional ! Latin rhythms, dance and food.! This year’s festival hosts national headliner Susie Hansen Latin Band. Popular in the LA Scene, violinist Susie Hansen and her band are celebrating their twentieth anniversary as well as the release of Susie’s third CD, Representante de la Salsa. Susie and her band play Afro-Cuban Salsa and Latin Jazz, and they have really cranked up the dance energy for their new recording. A favorite in Los Angeles for many years, the Susie Hansen Latin Band has performed to hundreds of thousands of people. They get the audience up and moving—as Susie says, “We aim for the feet!” ! Phil Elwood of the San Francisco Examiner described them this way: “It’s a sizzling, swinging Salsa Band. Hansen can solo as if her bow was afire. The whole room was jumpin’ for joy.” Her music combines hard-driving Salsa in Spanish and English, traditional Cuban Charanga and the influence of straight-ahead jazz. Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times says, “Hansen was a ball of energy, creating an atmosphere of high voltage excitement.” ! In 2004, Nelson Rodriguez of Latin Beat magazine selected Susie’s CD Solo Flight as one of its top 100 Independent Latin Jazz recordings. As Mark Holston wrote in JAZZIZ Magazine, “her violin speaks the language of

Latin Jazz with total fluency.”! Their music appeals to audiences of all ages and all ethnic backgrounds. Susie and her band play familiar and traditional Salsa in Spanish, many original Salsa and Latin Jazz compositions, Latinstyle interpretations of American jazz standards, typico Cuban Charanga music, and great Salsa and Cha Cha Cha in English. Their music also includes the popular Latin dance styles of Cumbia, Merengue and Bolero. The Salsa vocals are authentic and improvisational. The band is truly a crowd pleaser with its rhythmic energy and drive.! A long-time favorite in Los Angeles, Susie and her band play more than 150 live performances every year, including such events as the Playboy Jazz Festival, Fiesta Broadway, San Jose Jazz Festival and Newport Beach Jazz Festival. Susie has toured nationally with her band, and has personally appeared and/or recorded with Tito Puente, Orquesta Los Van Van, Giovani Hidalgo, Vikki Carr, Orquesta Aragon, Paquito d’Rivera, Francisco Aguabella, Macy Grey, Jose Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side All- Stars, Tierra, El Gran Combo, Rachel Z, Bobby Matos, Orquesta Broadway, and Sonora Poncena. The band has opened for Los Lobos, Diane Schuur, Andy Montanez, Tito Nieves, Nestor Torres and more. Her recorded music has charted well with radio and club DJs across the US and throughout the world.! A portion of the beverage sales benefits Kiwanis Club of Grafton. Kiwanis is an organization in service of children and people in need in our community, our country and around the world. The donation proceeds will help fund Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts camp grants.! ! What: 12th Annual AT&T Norfolk Latino Music Festival! When: This Saturday, August 25, 2012! Time:5pm – 10pm! Where: Town Point Park on the Downtown Norfolk,! Virginia Waterfront! Admission: Free & Open to the Public!