Tone Ravnå Bjørnstad: vocals
Mauricio Montanares: drums/percussion & vocal
Morten Kildemo: piano
Idd Aziz: percussion/vocal
Mario Polanco: bass/vocal
Peder Drege: trombone/vocal
Knut Straith: trumpet/vocal
Øivind Dybvig Johnsen: sax/vocal
Influences
Ray Baretto, Celia Cruz, La Lupe, Irakere, Charanga Habanera, Juan Luis Guerra, Buena Vista Social Club, Oscar de Leon, Los Van Van, Haila, Marc Anthony etc etc etc.......
Sounds Like
Mayagueson@Olavsfestdagene festival 08, town square Trondheim
MAYAGUESONS ROOTS AND HISTORY:
Mayagueson was actually started by our band leader/pianist Morten Kildemo, and Franck Molina, in Geneva in 2002, when Morten was living and working there. Franck came up with the name Mayagueson derived from the 'Son' de Mayaguez, the city where he grew up and studied in Puerto Rico, so rich in music and dance (and Tuna fish). The band started playing in a small bar in Carouge (l'Insomnia) where the owner acquired a massive fine for the loadness disturbing the normally so quiet posh area of Geneva. Then we played at Fete de la Musique in Geneva 2002, and at the Melting Pop bar in 2002, with 15 musicians! You should have seen the face of the owner of the bar when the 15 musicians entered the tiny stage (overcrowding small stages with too many eager musicians is a tradition we have keept to this day...). No free drinks for the musicians that night!
Then Mayagueson got a new Timbalero, Carlos Kort, who has played with many of the great salsa-stars (Irakere, Willy Colon, Arturo Sandoval, Ray Barretto, Grupo Café). Carlos also brought a new Congera (Andre, a student of him), and we brought in a great singer, Lazarus, a Cuban living in Madrid, but often hired for gigs in Switzerland. At this point, we were all starting to get seriously hooked on salsa, cause it all started to sound really, really thight. There was no way back. Unfortunately, we only played one gig outdoors in Martigny (Switzerland, aug 03) with the latter band. Franck went off to work in Nice(France), and Morten found a job in Trondheim, Norway.
THE CURRENT MAYAGUESON:
Once in Trondheim, Morten relaunched the band Mayagueson, with its current (however with frequent changes) crew and repertoire (which made Franck really happy!). The touch of Tuna has, however, now been replaced by the arctic cod. Trondheims Mayagueson consist of a mix of professional full-time musicians from the famous jazz circuits of Trondheim and very talented hobby- musicians. Our percussion-section includes a Chilean and a Kenyan, our bass-player is Mexican, and apart from these three, the other memebers of the band are norwegians with a great passion for latin music and culture. Our singer, Tone, has a background as a salsadancer, and she has done several professional shows within this area with her cuban ex-boyfriend, both in Norway and in France. From her "cuban connections" and time spent in Cuba, she also has a strong personal familiarity with the music, the culture, and the language it is performed in.
With Mayagueson alla 2008 on stage, you are guaranteed a latin fireworks of dimensions, and we promise you a crowd with itching hips and tapping,- sooooon dancing feet, sure to be carried away by the heat of the moment. It has even proved to be working on the slow locals, the "Trønders", who are usually quite difficult to get out of their comfortable seats, at least before having, say 10 strong (also local) drinks. Living in Trondheim, lets just say we get good practice... We have so much fun playing, we are convinced it will be contagious, and that you will feel it too..... Imagine having a drink of rum, chilling on a hot evening, being seduced by the warm smell of the sea at a white beach, listening to intriguingly funky rythms and pure energy. Let yourself be carried away by sensual hip-movements through the night. Let us take you to the heat of the Caribbean!
The salsa-club in Tromsø visited Latinfestivalen in Trondheim in 2006, where bands like Mambo Companeros(no) and Cubanisimo (Cuba) also performed, alongside Mayagueson. They wrote the following critique about the event, and Mayaguesons performance:
"All bands delivered great - the music from all bands were dynamite! However, the clear personal favourite of the entire festival was a band that we have never heard about before: Mayagueson from Trondheim. They had all the perfect ingredients for creating the best of salsa, a fantastic percussion section (drums etc), a beautiful vocal, energy, and contact with the audience. Not only that, these 10 musicians had an amazing selection of songs inspired from Puerto Rican/New York salsa and latin jazz. The crowd was on fire after the first song."
Heisann! Gleder meg til konserten på Transform. Om dere skulle trenge noe promomateriale til konserten så er det bare å sende meg ett lite hint så kan jeg fikse plakater og flyers !:)
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