Interviews

Israel Tanenbaum from The Latinbaum Jazz Ensemble in ISM

The Island of Enchantment never ceases to amaze us and we continue to marvel at the fact that this small territory has been able to give the world so much talent, especially in music. Today, it is up to talk about Puerto Rican producer, arranger, composer and pianist Israel Tanenbaum and the enormous contribution that this great artist has made to Latin music over the last few decades.

Israel Tanenbaum is also a bandleader who has produced more than 50 albums and participated in over a hundred recordings throughout his career, so his experience in this field is more than proven. We were fortunate to talk to him in just over half an hour and we will proceed to cover the most important issues in the following lines.

Producer Israel Tanenbaum — This is Puerto Rican producer, arranger, composer and pianist Israel Tanenbaum

Israel and his passion for the piano

Although Israel is widely known for his piano skills, this was not the first instrument he started playing, but the organ. As a child, he was given a toy organ and that was how he made up his mind and train his ear for music.

In addition to that, he told us an anecdote about how one day he went to a music store with his parents and they left him alone for a while, time that little Israel used to play a huge object that caught his attention: an organ much bigger than the one he used to play at home. It was by watching the organist that he decided to position himself in front of the instrument and started imitating what the musician was doing with his little hands.

He waited until the organist moved away from the instrument to sell it to a customer and Israel took the opportunity to get into the seat and start playing the instrument’s keys and foot pedal. After playing the five or six songs he knew, he noticed that he had a silent multitude watching what he was doing and once he finished playing, people started clapping their hands furiously at such a waste of talent in a child this small.

That was when his parents decided to buy him an organ and a piano. A few years later, namely when he was 12 years old, Israel was already playing on the streets in a more professional way.

Israel’s self-taught formation in music

Israel’s initial training as a musician was entirely self-taught for the first few years. In fact, he says that when he started studying the craft for real when he had already been earning a living as a musician for more than 10 years.

With regard to sound engineering, Israel says he had to become professional in this area ”in self-defense”, as he had problems with several sound engineers who did not have a good musical ear, so they ended up damaging some of his recordings unintentionally. This led him to learn to work on the engineering himself so that this kind of thing would not happen again.

On the other hand, the arrangements and production process had to do with some experiences he had had. One of them happened when, at the age of 16, a friend’s father, an important person in the industry, on one occasion, introduced him to Machito, who very kindly invited Israel to go on stage and sit next to him to learn from what he saw that night. This experience marked the pianist so much that he said to himself: ”this is what I definitely want to do for the rest of my life”.

Israel playing the piano — Israel Tanenbaum playing the piano during a performance

Colombia’s role in Israel’s career

Colombia has been key to Israel’s career for several reasons and one of them is that his most productive time of life was spent in the coffee-growing country. The artist had already traveled to that country to accompany artists such as Pete ”El Conde”, Marvin Santiago and Arabella, but the situation was different when he had to tour with the group Batacumbele. This tour was scheduled to last about 10 days, but it was prolonged for 10 years.

In those days, it turns out that he met by chance with Alexis Lozano, director of Orquesta Guayacán, who proposed him to stay in Colombia a longer time to produce the orchestra’s second album and he accepted. After this, he continued to receive proposals of this style and, almost without realizing it, he already had 10 years living in Colombia and more than 80 albums produced. In addition to Orquesta Guayacán, he worked with Grupo Niche, Cheo Acosta, Alfredito de La Fé and many more.

”My real professional growth took place in Colombia, but my love for production began in Puerto Rico from the hand of percussionist Roberto Roena, whose orchestra was led by me for about two years. When we were recrding the album ‘El Regreso’, I spent many hours with Roberto in the studio and, seeing how dedicated, detail-oriented and precise he was with every chord and note, I was inspired to do the same at some point. That’s how I accepted all the opportunities to produce that arose in Colombia some time later. I owe all of that to Roberto” Israel said about his time as a producer in the South American country.

In addition to his work side, Israel also says that Colombia means a lot to him on a personal level, since this country makes him feel at home and he has many friends there. Not to mention that his own wife is Colombian and one of his children was born there, so he is more than attached to that land for life.

Israel during an interview — Israel Tanenbaum during an interview on the radio

Life in Puerto Rico and Hawaii

In addition to Colombia, Israel also lived in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He assures that from each of the places he has been, he has extracted something from their folklore and roots to add to his musical work. He says it is the best way to understand that country and the taste of its people.

”If you want to understand the people of a country, you have to go back to their folklore and assimilate it. I lived in Venezuela for about six months and, being there, I became familiar with the quitiplás (a typical percussion instrument of Venezuela), the sangueo, the llanera music and many other elements of the musical culture of that country” Israel said on this issue.

”I lived in Hawaii for almost three years, during which time I founded my first salsa orchestra. I served in the army with Quique Peña, a nephew of maestro Lito Peña, an eminence in Puerto Rico. The young man, whose classical training was extremely intense, taught me to transcribe what each instrument plays in detail. This was an invaluable lesson that served me well for what came later in my career. I also had the opportunity to study with maestro Eddie Palmieri, Papo Luca, José Milé, Jorge Milé, José Febles, among others. I transcribed music for all of them” Israel added on the issue.

Israel Tanenbaum & The Latinbaum Jazz Ensemble

”Impressions”, Latinbaum’s most recent album, was the result of an extensive musical stry that tells a wide experience with genres, styles and musicians of all kinds. Israel started this recording nine years ago, but he was always very busy with the rest of the recordings he was producing, so he always ended up abandoning this project.

Once he had the album ready, but one day Israel had a catastrophic loss of equipment and recordings that led him to practically start the album from scratch, from which he could only save a single song. In the end, he opted to tear up and throw away the arrangements he had in order to start all over again. It took about eight more months to have the album ready again, and today, the musician is grateful that things went down like this, since this material represents the artist he is today for being more current.

It is then when he sought out the artists and musicians who would accompany him in this new production, which would be his first solo album after having produced more than 100 other people’s albums.

From now on, he wants to release a Latin Jazz production with his own orchestra every year and all of them under his new label, Latinbaum Records.

Eric Maldonado from La Paris All-Stars’ work behind the scenes

Latin music, more specifically salsa, has had several initiatives over time that have managed to keep it alive and relevant in the popular taste and one of them is undoubtedly La Paris All-Stars Orchestra, which is a musical group based on old school salsa, but with current technological advances.

The orchestra was created by the producer and sound engineer of Puerto Rican descent Eric Maldonado, with whom we have been able to talk about the group and his own career, so our dear readers can not miss this reading, as it will be very interesting.

Eric from La Paris in his studio — Producer and sound engineer Eric Maldonado in his studio Paris Recording Studios

How Eric enters the world of music

Eric begins his story by saying that he was the youngest of the family and both his father and brothers were always playing instruments, so his first contact with music occurred when he was practically a baby. He says that there were always relatives at home every weekend who came together to play jibaro music, salsa, merengue, cha cha cha or whatever they could think of that day.

These family roots have encouraged to have a deeper interest in music, to the extent that he began to see it as a serious profession and not just a hobby.

Eric and sound engineering

By the time he turned 20 in the 1990s, Eric started playing bass in a band for a while, until he tried his hand as a soundman in the local band in New Jersey and realized that this was what he was truly passionate about. It did not take long for him to realize that being a musician was not his thing, but being behind the console and running the machinery behind the stage was. That is when he started purchasing the equipment he knew he would need and learning more about this part of sound engineering.

Eric defines himself as someone who does not really like to stand out too much or feel really observed by those attending a show, so he prefers to help all he can on the organizational part and at the level of engineering in the events that he is involved. He affirms that his thing is choosing the talent and creating all the music that the musicians or singers are going to use, while he stays behind the stage taking take that everything forges ahead.

He described feeling satisfied working in this way and has no problem with the artists taking most of the credit in front of the audience.

The Paris All-Stars Orchestra

It is important to note that, before founding the orchestra, Eric already had a recording studio called Paris Recording Studios. What inspired him to create a band was an event he did at a club in Florida shortly after moving to that city. The producer already knew some musicians thanks to his work and proposed them to form an orchestra that would take its name from the studio and be called La Paris All-Stars. ”That night, there were so many people who came to see us play that the place was packed and many of them were unable to get in. That’s when I knew this was going to be a success and the creation of the group was a good idea” said Eric about this first test concert.

Upon seeing how successful this first concert with the group was, Eric decided to record a complete album which he named ”Los Escogidos” since it would only include the best singers that he would choose for this record production.

He also wanted to clarify that he is the owner of both the studio and the orchestra and both go hand in hand in everything he does.

Eric from La Paris with Erben — Marc Anthony’s bassist Erben Pérez with Eric Maldonado

The Paris All-Stars Orchestra: old-school salsa with today’s tools

When we asked Eric if he agreed with those digital media that defined La Paris All-Stars Orchestra as an initiative linking old school with today’s tools, he answered absolutely.

Noticing that reggaeton and bachata no longer dominate the international market like they once did, Eric took advantage of the fact that there are many new artists wanting to experiment with salsa to make them his clients and work with them from any country such as Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, among others.

Although he added that he does not limit himself to any genre and works with a bit of everything, he assures that the music he loves the most is and always will be salsa. He regrets that broadcasters do not give a lot of exposure to salsa as before, but also highlights the support the exponents of the genre have received from media and digital stations that have been given a space to new salseros in different parts of the world.

Eric’s references for the Paris All-Stars Orchestra

When listening to any of the orchestra’s songs, there is no denying that its work is inspired by several of the biggest referents of salsa and one of them is Ismael Miranda, who was one of the members of the album ”Los Escogidos”, sharing the credits with Kevin Ceballos, Anthony Colón, Frankie Ruíz Jr., among others.

Eric called the previous artists, who already had an important name in the industry, in order to attract new singers to join his projects and, in this way, make them known to the public. The producer assures that he likes to help new talents and considers them a fundamental part in the promotion and the new rise of salsa today.

”I am very happy several of these new singers who worked with me have already been blazing their own trail and some of them are even doing big concerts, which makes me very pleased”, he said.

Eric from La Paris with Jesus — Eric Maldonado with New York salsa singer Jesus Pagan, with whom has worked recently

Latest works of La Paris All-Stars Orchestra

The first single from La Paris All-Stars in the year 2024 was ”Son Mentiras”, which, according to Eric, was to be part of ”Los Escogidos” at the beginning, but after recording so many good songs and finding so many talented vocalists, he decided to rethink his initial plan and only released it as a single. The final version of ”Los Elegidos” is scheduled to be released in June this year on all digital platforms after finishing a track still missing from the record production.

We also could not put aside the group’s new release ”Yo soy La Rumba”, which is part of ”Los Escogidos Volumen 4” and features one of the more promising salsa singer currently, Kevin Gabriel, a young talent who was born in Puerto Rico and has managed to participate in several renowned ensembles and orchestras thanks to his great voice.

One day, Eric heard Kevin Gabriel singing by sheer chance and became fascinated with the young man, but he knew that the label with which he had signed was not exploiting his full potential, so he proposed him to join his project and he accepted. Together with him, Eric released ”Yo Soy La Rumba” and soon there will be an entire solo album of the young singer. This boy is a clear example of what Eric seeks to promote with his work and has no doubt that there will be many more like him, whom the sound engineer will be more than happy to support.

Nicaraguan singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton in an exclusive interview

Yelba Heaton is a Nicaraguan-born bandleader, singer and guitarist whose strong musical heritage coming from her family has made her have close contact with music since before she could say her first words.

The artist based in The Woodlands, Texas has been kind enough to answer a few questions for us in order to know more about her musical beginnings, the creation of her band, her projects outside of music, among other topics.

Yelba posing for pics — Singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton posing for pictures with her instrument

Yelba’s musical family

For many generations, Yelba’s family had become very popular among her acquaintances for knowing how to carry a tune properly and having some guitarists and pianists in this melodic family tree.

In her case, as she grew older, she and her siblings saw their father constantly serenading their mother and playing romantic boleros on his guitar, so this instrument was a day to day affair for the children. This is how the couple’s children began to experiment with music both together and separately, which little by little sparked Yelba’s interest in this branch of the arts.

This interest reached such a point that both she and her sister Thelma began to compete in every talent show that was held at the school they attended, Yelba played the bandurria and Thelma played the guitar. Both of them were very good with each other on stage and their voices joined together in a very harmonious and pleasant way for the audience that heard them.

When she turned nine, she participated in the tv show ”Junior Patherns”, which was very popular in her country at that time. Already at that time, she showed her great skill as an performer and the way she would follow later on.

As she got older, she began to sing in the church she was attending at the time, but could not start her career formally until she became an adult after her divorce in the United States. This was a very stormy phase of life for Yelba, as she had recently separated from her husband and father of her five young children, leading her to suffer from depression and believe that her life was over. However, it was just beginning.

At the same church, she met another guitarist, who when saw the bad stuff that she had gone through, decided to invite her to participate in an open mic night at a nightclub, which Yelba did not even know what it was at the time. Although she confesses to being extremely intimidated by the great artists with whom she shared that night, it was an experience that she is grateful to have had, as it gave her the opportunity to put aside her sadness for one night and experiment with music like she had never done before.

After sitting down with her guitar and performing ”Besame mucho” to the audience that night, having heard those present applause and ask for more songs made her be truly happy and blissful. Immediately, she knew she wanted to experience that feeling again and again.

After her divorce, music brought Yelba back to life

Formal beginning of Yelba in music

That same night that Yelba performed at that venue, Jeremy Garcia, a flamenco guitarist accompanied her with his instrument and resulted in a beautiful combination of melodies that left all those present delighted, including the owner of the place, who proposed to both of them to make a paying gig for next Saturday, to which they replied ”of course”. That was how Yelba, Jeremy and bongo player Benny Rod (Yelba’s friend from church who joined later) started their paid musical careers as a trio.

Over time, the three artists caught the attention of critically acclaimed guitarist Mark Towns, who invited Yelba to sing with him at an event in Clear Lake and also gave him some copies of their CDs. Towns was a key piece in the formal creation of the band and the trust that she was gaining to sing in public.

Over the next few years, she was performing at larger and larger events and learning all she could about clave, song forms of various genres, stage presence and other important aspects of her nascent career.

Creation of Yelba Variety’s Band and Latin Fire

Although Yelba, Jeremy and Benny were already a trio, they still could not find a name that perfectly defined what they stood for, but that changed when one day they performed songs Yelba had learned to sing on her father’s knee when she was little. That night, everything went great and they received very positive feedback from the audience and the media who covered the concert.

As a result of this performance, a reporter from the Houston Chronicle wrote an article about the band in which he was very complimentary about their show and described what he saw that day as ”Latin fire”. The first line of the article said that: ”Latino fire is what I heard last night…”. Yelba liked this opinion so much that she decided to baptize her band as ”Latin Fire”.

Such was the impact this report had on her career that the Nicaraguan still keeps a copy of it and can be found on her website to this day. This was undoubtedly a very important event for her and her band mates.

Yelba and her husband — Yelba next to her husband and part of her band Roy Heaton

Yelba as a wedding planner and motivational speaker

Just like Yelba performs very well in music, she has also found time to work as a wedding planner, a hobby for which she found out she is talented. The artist has assisted numerous marriages with minimum budget, but with her help, she was able to achieve great things with very little money. This is how she has made engaged couples ask for her help and she is always happy to collaborate with them.

Another area in which she works on very well is motivational speaking. She found out she had a talent for this while doing her master’s degree in finance and learned to move in the corporate world, which gave her the necessary experience to address an audience properly. In addition, her career as an artist requires her to sing, play and dance in front of crowds, which also gives her the confidence she needs to speak to all kinds of audiences at a given time.

Without a doubt, Yelba Heaton is a multifaceted Latina who leaves our culture on high and we are proud to have had her in this edition of International Salsa Magazine.

Founder of Yambu Productions and host of ”Alma Del Barrio” Guido Herrera-Yance

Singers, dancers, musicians and artists in general are usually the first thing the public sees during any type of event, but very little is spoken about the companies, producers and promoters that are in charge of managing all the logistics behind these shows, so we wanted to talk to Guido Herrera-Yence, founder of Yambu Productions, which is an important music production company based in Los Angeles, so he could tell us a little about all these subjects.

Guido working at KXLU 88.9 FM — ”Alma Del Barrio” host Guido Herrera-Yance working at KXLU 88.9 FM

How Guido Herrera-Yance started in the world of music as a radio host

Many years before Guido even thought about the idea of forming a company, he began to establish himself as a radio host on the popular public radio station KXLU 88.9 FM, specifically on the show ”Alma Del Barrio”, which is about to turn 51 years on the air in October. In Guido’s case, he has been hosting the show for more than 30 years, bringing the best Latin music and artistic news to all his listeners.

The also producer confesses that he did not really like locution and that he was simply in the right place at the right time, resulting in the career he has built in this type of media. What it does say is that he was a frequent listener of several radio shows and a voracious music collector, which led him to meet certain personalities who saw potential in him to belong to ”Alma Del Barrio”. When a show was opened, he was the leading candidate for the job and accepted immediately.

Guido did not have any kind of experience in radio, but his employers trained him and taught him everything he needed to know to carry out his tasks properly. 30 years later, Guido is still one of the main hosts of the show and a reference in terms of Latin music radio.

From radio to event production

In 1995, one year after having joined ”Alma Del Barrio”, a friend told him that Chucho Valdés was going to the United States after many years and proposed him to make a show together with the artist as the main attraction. When Guido accepted, they began to look for artists to accompany the Cuban that night and some of them were Alex Acuña, Justo Almario, Luis Conte, among others.

The results were so good that Guido was left with the desire to keep experimenting with this field of the industry, so he continued to produce events of all kinds on a small and large scale since that year.

As the years went on, he realized that he would need a bigger and more elaborate structure if he wanted to continue to work on this, so the idea of founding a music production company began to take shape in his mind.

Guido and Chucho Valdés — Guido Herrera-Yance next to Cuban bandleader and pianist Chucho Valdés

How Guido created Yambu Productions

On the creation of Yambu Productions, something that Guido highlighted is that, in the United States, ”everything must be done very formally”. In light of the obligation to declare the income from his musical activities, Guido saw the need to create a company that would facilitate the procedures related to taxes and issues of this sort in order to cover his back.

Regarding the name ”yambu”, the businessman was inspired by a song by the Cuban popular music singer Carlos Embale, who was one of his favorite artists, so he wanted to honor him in that way. Taking this detail into account, it is not surprising that Cuban music and its exponents play a fundamental role in the events and groups that Yambu Productions seeks to promote, but it is not limited to nationalities or genres.

The company has set up events for Los Papines, El Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, Chucho Valdés, Los Van Van, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Tito Nieves, José Alberto ”El Canario” and the list goes on. Guido is very proud that Yambu Productions was the one that produced the only concert given by Los Van Van Van and El Gran Combo in the United States, which was in the year 2029. He says he is a fan of both groups, so this was a dream come true for him.

Upcoming Yambu Productions Events

This year, Yambu Productions was about to hold the Cuban American Music Festival on 2 June this year, but it has been suspended due to multiple factors, but the main one is that Guido feels that many things have changed in the entertainment industry after the pandemic such as demographics and the public tastes. This has caused the producer to rethink many things, as he is not quite clear what will be the path to follow by the company, so he prefers to wait.

In addition to the above, Guido is focused on his own restaurant that opened just six months ago and needs to dedicate all his time and effort to this new project, so it is very possible that the previously festival will be back better than ever for the year 2025, when he will be clearer about what he wants to do with this event.

However, he said he does not want to be away from live music, to which he attaches a great deal of importance in his work, so with the support of one of the most important jazz clubs in California, Catalina Jazz Club, he rolled up his sleeves and organized the Salsa Meets Jazz Concert Series for 26 April this year (at the time of publishing this article, the concert must have taken place). In this way, Guido wants to recreate that golden era of Latin jazz and salsa in New York, but in his own way.

The Salsa Meets Jazz Concert Series is expected to pay tribute to a different artist who has contributed to these genres each edition and this year it was the torn for Tito Puente. In addition, Catalina Jazz Club proposed Guido to hold events of this type several times a year, so tribute concerts to Ray Barreto and Andy Gonzalez are also scheduled before 2024 is up. He maintained a close friendship with both musicians, especially with Gonzalez.

Guido and Alfredo de La Fe — Cuban violinist Alfredo de La Fé next to Guido Harrera-Yance in front of Sabor! Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken, a venue in which Alfredo would perform some hours later

How are the logistics behind a Yambu Productions event?

When Guido plans to hold an event, the first thing he should do is to find a venue that complies with the requirements for the type of show he plans, analyze the costs involved, find the best talent for the show, hire sound engineers, recruit the people who will be in charge of the logistics part, among other things. It is an arduous work of at least six months before the event takes place.

An example of the above is the Cuban American Music Festival, which has always been held in May, so he should start organizing and planning for it since November or December of the previous year. This in order to have every detail ready on the day of the festival and to avoid any unforeseen problems that could put those involved down.

On this subject, Guido said he feels lucky to be able to have so many friends in the world of music, to stay on ”Alma Del Barrio” for so many years and to know people like Nelson González, Johnny ”Dandy” Rodríguez, Genaro Rivera and many others who are always ready to come to Yambu Productions events without even asking about payment, since they know that Guido and his company are very responsible about these issues.

How talent is selected for events

”Everything falls on me. I believe that I have the capacity, knowledge and experience to know what the public wants. It is for the very reason that we will not be making the Cuban American Music Festival this year, since the pandemic changed everything in the industry and I have to accept that what sold yesterday is not the same as what sells today” said Guido when asked how he chooses the talent he wants for his shows. He also added that ”I’m still debating with myself on which way to go with the company after quarantine”.

What Guido will never do is let go of live music because, in his words, ”it feeds his spirit”. As long as he is dedicated to music production and Yambu Productions is still operating, live events will always have a highly important place in the activities carried out by the company.

Guido and Poncho Sánchez — Guido Herrera-Yance next to conguero, Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer Poncho Sánchez

Grupo Batachá, Houston’s Premier Latin band

Latin talent has been spreading across the United States over the years and every day more salsa bands and orchestras are becoming better known in states where we never would have imagined before. Such is the case of Grupo Batachá, known as ”Houston’s Premier Latin Band”, which is established in the state of Texas and whose director, Oscar Larrañaga, was kind enough to give us some minutes of his time to answer some questions regarding his career and the group lead by him.

Oscar, Founder of Batachá — Oscar Larrañaga, founder of Grupo Batachá, playing the güiro in a concert

Oscar’s beginnings in the music world

Oscar has told us that as a child he always knew he was meant to devote himself to music. Even since he was in preschool, he showed signs of how would be his future in music by showing interest in certain instruments and styles.

The musical figure who has inspired him most in his family was his great-grandfather, who was part of a philharmonic. Oscar heard many stories about the musician, the way he played and how good he was at what he did, which led his great-grandson to want to be like him someday.

It should be noted that, at all stages of his formation, he never obtained any academic training related to music. Everything he knows about the job he has learned on his own through constant practice and attention to everything he wanted to emulate.

However, it was in 1990 that his career officially began many years later in the United States. It was there when he finally decided to create a project with a few musicians he began to perform at Latino family events such as weddings, quinceañeras, birthdays, among other events. This gave him the necessary experience to know how an orchestra works on stage and, of course, fitted for what was to come next in his career.

Oscar in a performance with Batachá — Oscar Larrañaga showing the stage where Grupo Batachá would perform that day

How Grupo Batachá began

Oscar revealed to us that Grupo Batachá was founded in 1997 in Houston, Texas, and made up of the artist and four other members who joined him at that time. They all decided together that Oscar was the best choice to lead the band and chose him as their director, a position he still holds today. Many members have come and gone, but he has always managed to ”keep the ship afloat” at all times despite the changes.

He explained to us that the name ”batachá” is a term that comes from Cuba and its literal meaning is ”fun times”. In addition, when he was in his early twenties, Oscar met the members of a group with the same name in Guatemala and liked it very much from the first time he heard it. For him, ”batachà” is synonymous with fun and having a good time, things he sees represented in his work with the band. That is why his album is called ”Batachando” and would be something like ”disfrutando” in Spanish.

Languages played by Grupo Batachá

While it is true that Grupo Batachá makes music in several languages such as Spanish, English and Portuguese, Oscar wanted to make it very clear that everything he and his bandmates do is aimed at salsa influenced by the typical Cuban flavor that comes from drums and Yoruba culture, elements that are primarily handled in Spanish. This is why the main language of the group is and will continue to be Spanish.

In terms of clave, it is much easier for the group to get into the correct rhythm in Spanish for what we have explained above. For the same reason, English, Portuguese and any other language are not a priority for Batachá at this time.

Batachá is influenced by the Cuban Flavor — Grupo Batachá’s music is influenced by the typical Cuban flavor that comes from drums and Yoruba culture

How Grupo Batachá manages its performances

During the band’s 15-year trajectory, Grupo Batachá has performed at more than a hundred weddings, quinceañeras, birthday parties, anniversaries, corporate events, among others. In each and every one of these performances, Oscar and his bandmates have always stood out for their professionalism and great musical quality, so they have no problem to obtain contracts and clients of this kind very often.

As for the method the band uses to select their clients, there is not much to explain. Oscar simply gives priority to the client who agrees on a date first and then tries to reach an agreement with the one who makes his request later, although he emphasized that this does not happen very often.

About this, he said he feels very lucky to bring joy to different types of public with what he likes more than anything in the world, which is music. It makes him really happy to be able to live from what he loves and, by extension, to transmit that same happiness to those who have the opportunity to attend one of his shows.