Sunday Salsa | Spanish Harlem Orchestra March 15, 2009

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra channels the vintage salsa sounds of El Barrio in the 1960s and ’70s with full-bodied big band style, suave and soaring vocals, and crisp new arrangements of classic repertoire. Led by pianist/arranger Oscar Hernández, the group features three stellar vocalists backed by a hard-riffing five-piece horn section, thunderous percussion, and a sleek, driving rhythm section—musicians who have performed with the likes of Latin music masters Tito Puente, Willie Colón, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, and others. With intoxicating grooves and dazzling improvisational prowess, Hernández’s band performs an exhilarating program of rumbas, cha-cha-chás, mambos, son montunos, and other styles from the golden era of Latin dance music.