Orquesta
Nostalgia
This 16-piece Latin big band plays the mambos of Tito Puente, the sound that set the stage for salsa.
As a kid in New York, future bandleader Anselmo Vidal, Jr. loved hearing mambo at the Palladium Ballroom, where Puente was packing the dance floor.
Fast forward to 2003. Anselmo founded his own band with Florida friends sharing his passion for the music, and he made Orquesta Nostalgia the real thing - timbales, congas, and bongos, with a full complement of horns. New York arranger Carlos Castillo supplied transcriptions of the original recordings of Puente, Tito Rodriguez and other Latin jazz stars of the day. There are mambos, cha-chas, merengues and boleros (rhumbas), both instrumentals and vocals.
Ted
Knight is now with the band at the piano. The inspiration came when he played a Latino wedding at a waterfront estate in
Miami Beach. His band played first, then packed up as a Latin band
took over. He thought, why not one band that could do both? And it works
perfectly, the orquesta sounding just as good on tunes like
Funkytown as on mambos and cha-chas. The band is now also available
as a more affordable conjunto (combo) with just one trumpet.
Here are three samples of the band.
- El Negro Bembon (mambo)
- Donde Estabas Tu (cha-cha)
-
La Dueña de
Mi Corazon (bolero)