Poncho Sanchez: Cubano Be! Cubano Bop!

Cubano Be! Cubano Bop! PIC CREDIT Devin DeHaven

TOWN HALL GIGS

MUSIC: USA

“As Elvis is to rock and James Brown is to soul, Poncho Sanchez is to salsa.”

Los Angeles Times

Grammy Award-winning conga player and bandleader Poncho Sanchez commemorates one of jazz music’s most famous and influential collaborations for the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival as part of the Festival’s new programme of international music – the Town Hall Gigs.

In 1947 bebop jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and the great Cuban drummer Chano Pozo came together to create the revolutionary recording Cubano Be, Cubano Bop. This landmark album propelled Afro-Cuban sounds into the arena of serious music and ensured the immortality of its creators.

More than 60 years later, Poncho Sanchez – one of the top Latin jazz artists of our age – channels the rhythms and beats of the era in a tribute concert with all the energy and vibrancy of the original. Join Sanchez and his band as they re-ignite the classics and present their own infectious Latin-jazz compositions.

Sanchez’s latest album, released in 2011, is Chano y Dizzy!, a tribute to two of his greatest influences, Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie.

The 2012 Town Hall Gigs include music from Tinariwen (Mali), Barefoot Divas (New Zealand, Australia and international) with Walk A Mile In My Shoes, Bon Iver (USA), Sharon Shannon Big Band (Ireland) and Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band (USA) with Cubano Be! Cubano Bop!

Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band, Cubano Be! Cubano Bop!, are at the Wellington Town Hall on 7 March for the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival, Wellington, 24 February – 18 March. Tickets $38 – $68 available from Ticketek.

ENDS

Sponsored by the Todd Corporation Ltd

With support from the Embassy of the United States of America

© Scoop Media