HABANA NIGHTS feat. GERARDO CONTINO Y LOS HABANEROS

Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/17/2016
11:59 PM

Doors at 11:30pm

Price
$0.00

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Gerardo Contino y Los Habaneros

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“A joyful, gyratory salsa celebration” – Time Out New York

“The individual playing on the album is superb and the rhythm section displays a level of comfort with all the styles contained within the album with fluidic ease. From the Timba perspective, “Somos latinos” is a treasure trove of state of the art bass, piano and percussion work laid down by some the very best instrumentalists in the genre.” -Ian Stewart, Timba.com

“Somos Latinos is a very refreshing sound,” Vicki Sola, “Que Viva La Musica” Radio Host, 89.1FM.

“Somos Latinos has great arrangements, vocals, musicianship, quality and versatility, or what [Gerardo Contino y] Los Habaneros call ‘Sentimiento con Sabrosura.'” – George Velez, Jr. (Grupo Arcano).

“Gerardo’s music is refreshingly authentic and original…The music in this CD [Somos Latinos] is superb, anchored in the strong rhythm (piano, bass) and percussion (conga, bongo, timbal) sections. This CD showcases Gerardo Contino’s talent as a singer and as a producer…” — Hector Aviles, Latino Music Cafe.

Gritty, witty and streetwise, the Havana-born Gerardo Contino, “El Abogado de la Salsa,” is a Cuban singer and songwriter. This former lead singer of the Cuban mega-group NG La Banda is a party onstage: he loves to improvise, to pull the audience into call & response, and to provoke fans into hip-shaking abandon.

Since moving to New York City, Gerardo started his own band, “Gerardo Contino y Los Habaneros,” with Axel Tosca Laugart, Luisito Quintero, and John Benitez. They released their debut album, Somos Latinos, in 2013 to very high critical acclaim. He has toured all over the world and in his new hometown, NYC, he has performed in Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sounds of Brazil (SOBs), BB King Blues Club, Le Poisson Rouge, the Bronx Museum, Live at the Gantries, Roulette, Gonzalez y Gonzalez, Taj, and many others.

With his own project, as well as with NG La Banda, and his other bands, Son Yoruba, and Charanga Forever, Gerardo has toured in Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, and Canada. He has played in international festivals of salsa and jazz such as: Toulouse Festival, France; Latin American Festival of Milan, Italy; Festival Fiesta, Rome, Italy; Festival of Múnich, Switzerland, Copenhagen Festival, Denmark; Salsa Festival of Verona, Italy; and, Afro-American Roots of Maracay, Venezuela.

Gerardo has also shared the stage with such artists as Oscar de Leon, Roberto Roena, El Gran Combo, La India, Los Van Van, Xiomara Laugart, Carlos Varela, Alexander Abreu, Frank Fernandez, Osdalgia, Giovanni Hidalgo, Kelvis Ochoa, David Torrens, and Jose Armando Gola.

Gerardo is a recipient of the 2014 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant for Manhattan Community Arts Fund. Gerardo is endorsed by Gorilla Ears, is an active member of Musicians on Call, and was an invited speaker and performer for TEDMED 2014 in the Kennedy Center for the Arts, Washington, DC.

Gerardo received his education in Law at the University of Havana and his Master’s in Law (LLM) at Cardozo School of Law in the prestigious Intellectual Property Program.

El Montuno y La Cimarrona

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Jose Luis Chapman A.K.A. “El Montuno” of Dominican origin born in Pennsylvania and raised in the Dominican Republic. From a very young age showed artistic concern since he comes from an artistic family. Both his grandfather and his father sang and played the bass, This last came to belong to the most important musical groups of the Dominican Republic in his days such as Johnny Ventura, Félix Del Rosario, Primitivo Santos, Grupo Maniel among others. Montuno grew up exposed to many musical genres, Admiring and being influenced by artists such as Michael Jackson, Oscar D’León, Johnny Ventura, Ismael Rivera, El Conde, Dimension Latina, Johnny Pacheco. But it was in 2003 when he makes his dream come true when he got to see his great idol, Oscar D’León at the Copacabana in New York City and in an act of daring, His friends, Lift him up to the stage, To his great surprise, D’León was receptive and gave him the opportunity to sing. It is there where he has his first experience as a singer before a large audience. From that night,Montuno became a face that always appeared in the presentations of D’leon and would serve as his “bandboy” whenever he passed through New York. “This is a gesture that I will always be grateful to my great idol”, He says with typical eyes of children coming to a toy store for the first time. It will take a few years of restlessness and persistence but his desire to be part of the artistic firmament was emerging and carried him to meet another of his inspirations, Porfi Baloa, who was performing in the city of Miami. The chemistry between Maestro Baloa and Montuno was immediate, both musically and personally. This connection makes Baloa take him to Venezuela aware of his talent and produced him an album under his label Porfi Music. In this musical production Baloa has created a new sound matching the personality and vocal capabilities of his new salsa crop. Both maestro Baloa and Montuno hope that this project is of your taste and that you enjoy it as much as they enjoyed it while they cooked this succulent musical dish. Be the jury, but above all…enjoy the proposal from head to toes.