One of my musical regrets was not going to see Tito Puente and his orchestra when he came to Kansas City in 2000. The undisputed King of the Timbales, who also penned “oye com ova”, was 77 when he passed away later that year. So when another Latin Jazz master was coming to town, we had to jump on it. Poncho Sanchez and his band made a stop at Johnson County Community College this week as part of their Jazz Winterlude series. Rather than timbales, Sanchez is Grammy winning conga player who was sideman to an assortment of jazz heavyweights until forming his own band in the mid 80’s. His eight piece orchestra continues to crank out albums and play around the world. His brand of Mambo, Salsa, and even Funk and Soul were dished out to a sedate crowd of music patrons at Yardley Hall. Pancho can flat out play, plus everyone in his band is a monster – the timbale player actually made the show for me as he took every chance to show his inner Tito. He actually sensed early on that the crowd was just a bit too composed, so he seemed to make it his mission to get people out of their seats. He succeeded. Most of the music they played was from the latest CD - Chano Y Dizzy, which is a tribute to the late conga master Chano Pozo who collaborated with Dizzie Gillespie in the 40’s to really kick start Latin Jazz in the United States. Haven’t heard them all, but there are quite a few Pancho Sanchez CDs out there. I don’t think you can go wrong with anything this man puts out. Back to musical regrets, why didn’t we go see James Brown when he played Kansas City’s Ameristar Casino in 2006? Remember what happened to him later that year?
Tom
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