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Grupo Los Santos

Grupo los Santos has been together for over 20 years developing a strong following and individual sound, with a patented blend of Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Flamenco and NYC Jazz influences; creating unique, original rumba, samba, and funky acoustic/electric music. Drawing from the traditional/folkloric music of the Americas, played with an open and spontaneous jazz sensibility, the band cuts a very atypical profile in New York's Jazz and Latin Jazz scene. The band's love and individual deep study of these musical traditions has born great fruits, both compositionally and in performance and execution. The sound is coherent, focused and intelligent-the music is both classic and forward-looking at the same time-and the expression is original, soulful, high-energy and transcendent of idiom.

Grupo los Santos has worked extensively with Cuban composer/trombonist Juan Pablo Torres: They were featured in his concert of Cuban All-Stars at New York City's Town Hall in 1999, and appeared individually on his 2005 recording Together Again, featuring Chucho Valdez, Arturo Sandoval, Steve Turre, Giovanni Hidalgo and a host of other Latin Jazz luminaries. With Max Pollak, los Santos has collaborated with members of the famed los Munequitos de Matanzas, combining jazz tap and Cuban rumba. In November, 2001, Pollak and los Santos were able to bring their mezcla ("mixture") to its roots: playing a series of concerts in Havana, Cuba. The highlights included a show at the jazz club La Zorra y el Cuervo, and a collaboration with the 11 piece rumba group Clave y Guaguanca as part of Havana's Cuba Tambor festival.

On film, Grupo los Santos has been featured in Como Se Forma una Rumba/How to Create a Rumba by Ivan Acosta (which was shown in Lincoln Center as part of Latin Beat 2001!), and in Latido Latino, a documentary about Latin music in New York City, broadcast nationally in Spain.

In 2023, "Santos 4" was released, their fourth album, which includes covers of Miles Davis/Victor Feldman's "Seven Steps to Heavan" and "Message in a Bottle" as well as compositions from all band members.


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315
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


A spirited group of Latin jazz players called Grupos Los Santos offers its brand of music on Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea, which translates to What We Are What Will Be . The title of the group could also be loosely translated to mean that they are not playing a singular type of music but bring in many elements, tempo and cultural diversities.

When “Rumba in the Bronx" begins, it is with a percussive rumba ...

157
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes


Grupo Los Santos is a New York-based group that successfully looks at Latin and Brazilian jazz from an American point of view. The result is a mixed sonic bag that allows influences from funk and East Coast jazz into the music without compromising the general sound and feel. At their CD release concert at New York's The Jazz Standard in January, 2008, they opened with “Boogie Down Broder," a tune by saxophonist Paul Carlon dedicated to the ...

217
Live Review

Breaking In: Grupo Los Santos at Jazz Standard, NYC

Read "Breaking In: Grupo Los Santos at Jazz Standard, NYC" reviewed by David Miller


Grupo Los SantosJazz StandardNew York, New YorkJanuary 7, 2008

Jazz musicians are, in general these days, academics. Formal jazz education is more popular than ever. Some would argue that this training has “mainstreamed" the music as most jazzers are learning the same things in school. Perhaps such detractors need to focus more on the breadth and diversity that has been brought under the jazz umbrella in recent years. But that is an argument for another ...

221
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by David Miller


Grupo Los Santos is a unique band. Its music is Latin through and through, and yet the musicians come from varying backgrounds. Guitarist Pete Smith has played with Norah Jones, Donald Byrd and Andrew Hill; bassist Dave Ambrosio has recorded with Uzbek and Kyrgyz folk musicians; saxophonist Paul Carlon leads his own band, playing everything from straight-ahead jazz to funk; and drummer William “Beaver" Bausch rounds out the core quartet, and is probably the most experienced in Latin musics. What ...

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1

Recording

New CD By Grupo Los Santos "Clave Heart" Released On OA2 Records

New CD By Grupo Los Santos "Clave Heart" Released On OA2 Records

Source: Grupo Los Santos

With the open and spontaneous aesthetic of New York City's jazz scene combined with inspiration drawn from traditional folkloric music of the Americas, Grupo Los Santos continues to explore their unique collective sound on their third release, Clave Heart. Here, the quartet of saxophonist Paul Carlon, guitarist Peter Smith, bassist David Ambrosio, and drummer William “Beaver" Bausch, adds batá drums, Afro-Cuban chants, and guests, flute virtuoso Kaori Fujii and long-time collaborator, vocalist and body-percussionist Max Pollak, to create a wide ...

“Grupo los Santos’ album 'Santos 4' has so much feeling so much soul! It is a voyage, a transforming experience! A juice made with a lot of talent!” —Cyro Baptista (Bandleader, Percussionist with Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Yo Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis…)

“Bravo! Applause! Clap clap clap!! Hurrah!! Wonderful. It sounds so good... So mysterious and beautiful. Smoky and satisfying, like an adventure in your ears. The rhythm is so rewarding.” —Michelle Shocked, Two Time Grammy-Nominated Singer-Songwriter

About "Clave Heart" (Santos' 3rd album on OA2 records): "...bright and new modern music that knows a ton about the Afro Cuban tradition, and a ton about the modern jazz tradition..." —Peter Watrous, Descarga

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Grupo los Santos:...

Santos Music
2023

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Clave Heart

OA2 Records
2012

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Lo Que Somos Lo Que...

Deep Tone Records
2008

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Grupo los Santos:...

Santos Music
2000

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Future Homage

From: Clave Heart
By Grupo Los Santos

Entre Dongan Y Adren

From: Clave Heart
By Grupo Los Santos

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