Desde la bahia—San Francisco

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Jesse Varela

¡CANDELA! Singer/conguero Edgardo Cambón delighted dancers this past summer at The Ramp's outdoor cabaret in San Francisco. He and his band Candela, featuring Julito Areas (timbal), Jeff Cressman (trombone) and Eric Rangel (percusión/vocals) charged up the crowd on the Saturday of the week that Compay Segundo and Celia Cruz passed away. People reminisced and danced with plenty of AZÚCAR!

Cambón is a superb sonero. A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, he arrived in the Bay Area in 1986 with strong musicianship and sabor. He recorded with Chucho Valdés, Sanrana, Sovoso, Claudia Gómez and Keith Terry & Cross Pulse. In 1987 he formed Candela, whose performance credits include the Benny Moré Festival in Havana, Cuba and all the major Bay Area festivals. Their recordings include the 1990 album Ilusiones (on Orfeo, the Uruguayan label) and the 1999 masterpiece, Madre Rumba, Padre Son, where Cambón interprets a beautiful salsa rendering of John Lennon's Imagine.

From the first beats, the dance floor was packed. The trademark roaring trombones beckoned the dancers in a tight space that at times served as a ring for ballroom experts and novices to collide, all in good fun. As a sonero, Cambón has matured to a point where he creates vocal inspirations that resemble conversations with his audience. He sings to them and throws them a chorus to join in. Given the passing of Celia Cruz he did a nice one: "¡Hay que ponerle azúcar!" Sung over and over, the chorus rang along the cove located a short distance from Pac Bell Park, home to the San Francisco Giants.

Candela has fun when they play. Although it bears the stylistic stamp of Willie Colón and his boogaloo trombones, the group has its own distinct identity. This might have been the condensed version, as I did not sec vocalist Sandy Cressman, a Bay Area diva in her own right, who has sung with the band for years.

Part of their originality is the role that the percussionists play. The amazing counterpoints, breaks and solos executed by Cambón (congas), Eric Rangel (bongó), and Juliro Arcas (timbal) clearly show the top notch skills and intuition these musicians possess. Rangel is also a leader with his own Orquesta América. Julito is the nephew of Chepito Areas (of the original Santana band) and a talent to be reckoned with.

They did a descarga based on the vocal chorus to La India's Mi Primera Rumba that Cambon kicked off. With handclaps, a chorus and a little rumba, his vast knowledge of Afro-Cuban folkloric drumming established a nice vibe before the full band jumped in. Inspiraciones and solos built up the excitement on the uptempo descarga and put the place in an orbital spin. Young Julio Areas brought the crowd to its feet as he exploded with a blistering timbal solo. ¡Pa'Lante!

MARIACHI POWER: The 12th annual San José International Mariachi Festival in July at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San José was more than a hoot-and-holler Mexican parry. It was a week-long summit that elevated this traditional music to a new level of appreciation. In the past, the festival has helped to elevate the cultural stature of mariachi music by putting roving street troubadours in concert halls, showcasing the intricate artistic beauty and neo-classicism of this musical mestizaje.

What makes up mariachi music is a complex web of European and Amerindian influences. Originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco in the 1800s, the initial mariachis were raw rural bands that played the son jail-science with fiddles and guitars. Most were indigenous people taught by missionaries, soldiers and military bandsmen. In the 1920s, the modern day mariachi took shape, not only in instrumentation but in the style of dress that to this day still includes the 19th century charro suit. The string ensembles consisted of guitars, violins, vihuela and bass guitarrón. Later in the 1950s, thanks to Silvestre Vargas and his Mariachi Vargas De Tecotitlan, a trumpet was added.

Some 300 students from throughout the U.S. Southwest attended master classes with the featured professional performers days before the festival. On board were the Los Angeles based Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández. At 43, Hernández is considered a top car of the mariachi genre that has composed and recorded music for Hollywood films and coached singer Linda Ronstadt. He (along with the legendary Nati Cano and his Mariachi Los Camperos) has been instrumental in establishing a mariachi curriculum in L.A. public schools.

The opening Friday night concert, "Noche De Garbaldi," at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, featured the best of the student ensembles along with Maliachi Reina de Los Angeles and Mariachi Santa Cecilia from San José. From East L.A., Mariachi Reyna is considered the premier all-female professional mariachi group. Formed 10 years ago, they are trailblazers in a mariachi world dominated by men. Add to that the pioneering work of Barbara Pérez-Diaz from Campbell, California, a violinist who fell in love with mariachi music in the fourth grade and has led her own Mariachi Santa Cecilia since 1995.