Tato Torres &
YERBABUENA
Boricua ("Puerto Rican") Roots Music
A new Boricua generation is embracing their traditional musical expressions. The work of Tato Torres & YERBABUENA is the product of everything that leads to a contemporary Puerto Rican musical experience.
YERBABUENA (one word) is a group of individuals who come together to play the music that they love under the musical direction of singer-composer-musician Tato Torres. It is composed of musicians, singers and dancers from the New York City area, who share an intense passion for the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
The last thing that will come to your mind while at a YERBABUENA event is that you're watching a show, it feels more like a cross between a jam in the park, a spiritual ceremony and a family reunion. They convey wholeness and harmony, and their music is moving beyond belief. The music they play is, by nature, participatory. Whether bomba, plena or música jíbara (Puerto Rican mountain music), it's all interactive. And being witness to their vibrant sounds and the deep joy that making music together gives them, just leaves the audience no choice but to join in the chorus or dance for the drums. After a YERBABUENA session, you'll be uplifted, tired and happy.
The concept of YERBABUENA developed during the summer of at the renowned Rincón Criollo Cultural Center (aka "La Casita de Chema") in the heart of the South Bronx, and has been growing since. It developed out of the need for cultural expression, redefinition and re-appropriation of the Puerto Rican musical heritage by a new generation of Boricuas. For a long time, Puerto Rican musical traditions have been constricted by commercial culture and generally limited to holidays and "folkloric" UENA is an important part of the struggle to develop and promote identity through living Puerto Rican musical traditions such as bomba, plena and música jíbara.
While well-recognized Boricuas like Willie Colón, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin are known worldwide for their "Latin" flavor, groups like Plena Libre, Los Pleneros de la , Viento de Agua, and now YERBABUENA, have been changing the way people listen to traditional Puerto Rican music in New York City and beyond.
YERBABUENA reclaims the Puerto Rican music often branded as "folkloric," refusing to accept its packaging as frozen-in-time museum pieces, only vaguely connected to contemporary culture. Instead, they make gorgeous music that incorporates past and present. YERBABUENA taps right into the core of who Boricuas are as a People.
Category:
Band - Dance
Additional Category:
Band
Genre:
African, Beach Music, Caribbean, Folk, Latin, World Music
