News & Updates — cuuuuummmbiaaa!!!

To celebrate their one-year anniversary Toronto's La Rumba Buena are flying up a very special guest from the US, Peace & Rhythm's own DJ Bongohead. DJ Bongohead has been playing Latin music for more than two decades in venues large and small all across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Spain. He has played at private parties for Fania Records, the Lincoln Center’s David Rubinstein Atrium, and Fez in NYC. He has guest DJed with DJ Turmix's Boogaloo Party at Nublu in Manhattan and has opened for old-school salsa greats like Tipica ’73, Orquesta Típica Novel, The Mambo Legends Orchestra, and...

From a family of musicians, Luis Morais was born on the island of São Vicente, Cabo Verde but grew up in Dakar, Senegal, where he was trained in music theory and composition. He started playing in Dakar nightclubs in the '50s as a tenor & alto saxophonist, flautist and clarinet player, playing in a variety of musical styles including mambo, merengue, son, boleros and cha cha, as well as Cape Verdean folk music (such as coladera & mornas.). As such, he is considered a leader of the Cape Verdean folk music scene in Senegal. After relocating to The Netherlands in...

(Photo, Paul Teeling) Well here's a wonderful treat! Peace & Rhythm and Klezperanto team up to bring you the official world premiere of the brand new Klezperanto video for "Arroz Con Coco", a tribute to the great Lucho Bermúdez of Colombia. Clarinetist Ilene Stahl is a veteran of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (often with violinist Itzhak Perlman) and she formed the Boston-based six-piece ensemble Klezperanto in 1999 to stretch into other styles of dance music. "We formed Klezperanto to play everything BUT traditional klezmer music!” she says. Indeed, the mix includes Balkan & Mediterranean styles, Eastern European, cumbia, danzas, ballads,...

Review by DJ Bongohead There’s a lot of pretenders out there when it comes to contemporary instrumental Afro-funk and Afro-Latin inspired music, but when a band knows their stuff, well, as Fela Kuti used to say, “Who no know go know,” and one thing I know: Jungle Fire is 100% legit, pura candela, mofongo funk. If the percussion section can’t turn on a dime or do tight breaks, if the brass is limp or out of tune, if the bass has no tumbao, if the players don’t know their roots or let the orishas take them, well then don’t bother...

The excellent Dreams: Border Blaster feature at KCET features cool videos every week. This episode features the C.A.M.P.O.S. tune, "Dream of the Bell Flower", yet another great tune from the Peace & Rhythm-released 2xLP Miracle & Criminals. Check out the show. (And order the album here.) "New York psychedelic band C.A.M.P.O.S. gets groovy with some found footage" Border Blaster airs locally in Los Angeles and nationally in the US via Dish and DirectTV on partner channel LinkTV. It is in partnership with Dublab. https://www.kcet.org/ http://dublab.com/