- country:USA
- style(s):World
- label:Cosmica Records, Lepop
- type:Band
- artist posted by:Mat Hall Agency
Line up
- Jack Sterbis (timbales)
- Joe Novelli (lap steel)
- Lawrence Lopez (drums)
- Marco Rosano (saxaphone, clarinet)
- Salvador Duran (vocals, box)
- Sean Rogers (double bass)
- Sergio Mendoza (vocals, keyboard, guitar)
Links
Sergio Mendoza's simmering meltdown of Mexican mambo, psychedelic cumbia, ranchero, merengue, rumba, jazz and indie-rock springs out of the thriving, border-crossing music scene of Tucson, Arizona. The multi-instrumentalist was born in Sonora, Mexico and landed in Tucson in his teens. He formed Orkesta Mendoza in 2009 out of a one-off tribute project to the Cuban mambo king Perez Prado, which proved too much fun to stop. It's become a fast-paced “indie-mambo” big-band, sometimes extended to 19 pieces, centred around Mendoza's guitar, keyboards and energetic animation and the elegant figure and powerful baritone voice of singer Salvador Duran, dancing out rhythms atop his wooden stomp-box as the spirits of Perez Prado and Agustín Lara float in on clouds of lap-steel guitar, blown by clattering timbales, bursts of Mariachi horns and a rumbling rhythm section.