Los Van Van
Bay Area music lovers have the great fortune to have Cuba's brilliant Los Van Van in town for four shows, from December 9th to 12th at Yoshi's San Francisco. The group, which is among the world's most creative and virtuosic, has performed few times in the U.S. since the late '90s. Not a show to be missed.
Lest you think I am engaging in hyperbole about Los Van Van's status globally, bear in mind that in the '80s, when Cuba was very much still locked down for the outside world, the best jazz musicians in New York who were hip to what Los Van Van were doing would anxiously await any new cassette smuggled out of the island so they could listen, enjoy and analyze. Los Van Van's bandleader and creative engine is bassist Juan Formell, who in the late 1960's took the whole structure of Afro-Cuban music and melded it to the new rhythms and constructs he was hearing from the Beatles and North American Funk and Soul. The result has been a 40 year explosion of joyous, brilliant and always danceable Cuban music. Come see Juan Formell and Los Van Van at Yoshi's SF (great small venue!) and see what the hype is all about.
Details:
Los Van Van at Yoshi's SF, Dec 9th-12th
1330 Fillmore St.
San Francisco CA 94115
(415) 655-5600
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