MARACA AND THE NEW COLLECTIVE

YOSHI'S, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

AUGUST 27 AND 28, 2008

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY TOM EHRLICH © 2008

MARACA AND THE NEW COLLECTIVE IS

Orlando "Maraca" Valle - flute, percussion, vocals

Osmany Paredes - piano

Adonis Puente - vocals

Alberto Alberto - vocals

Joreg "Sawa" Pérez - bass

Humberto "El Nengue" Hernández - congas

Coky García - drums/timbales

Craig Handy - saxophones

Tito Carrillo - trumpet

Sean Billings - trumpet

AUGUST 27, 2008 SOUND CHECK

Maraca

Adonis Puente and Alberto Alberto

Maraca and Craig Handy reviewing the charts

Coky García

El Nengue

From left to right on trumpets Tito Carrillo and Sean Billings

This is a band of master musicians. All these cats have impressive resumes and incredible chops. It was two evenings of great music mixing swinging Cuban salsa with jazz like solos, including Craig Handy, well known and fantastic jazz sax player from NYC area, Tito Carrillo jazz trumpet professor at University of Illinois near Chicago, Sean Billings who used to play with Celia Cruz's West Coast Band as well as with Jazz on the Latin Side (great latin jazz big band from LA), Coky García who played with Opus 13 in the 1990's and plays with Issac Delgado and others, Osmany Paredes playing timbaos in his sleep and some amazing solos (he's truly one of the great piano players on the scene today) who plays with many jazz groups in the NYC area as well as his own group, Alberto (based in Toronto) and Adonis (based in LA) singing great vocals who both have their own groups, El Nengue playing some strong and creative congas, Sawa Pérez holding down the bottom - he also plays with Chuchito Valdés and Chalo y Su Ache and many others and of course the imcomparable Orlando Maraca Valle one of the great flute players, composers and arrangers in the world today. Maraca will be playing at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 19 and 20, 2008, with an all star jazz group doing some original music composed by Maraca.

High school student, Elena Pinderhughes sat in with Maraca exchanging flute riffs with the master. I can guarantee you will be hearing from this talented young lady in the future.

If this band comes near you do not miss the opportunity to see them.

8/27/2008 CONCERTS

Osmany Paredes piano and Sawa Pérez bass

Osmany, Sawa Nengue, Maraca, Adonis

Adonis and Alberto

Craig Handy

Craig, Tito and Sean Billings metales and Alberto vocals

Osmany and Maraca

Nengue and Coky

Osmany

Sawa bass

Tito taking a solo

Adonis and Alberto

Craig dancing

Nengue

Osmany

Sawa

Craig, Tito, Maraca

Yoshi (club owner) dancing salsa

Yoshi dancing

Alberto vocals

Dancer, Alberto and Adonis

Dancer and Alberto

Craig, Tito and Sean

Maraca

Maraca signaling change

Osmany piano, Sawa bass

Osmany, Sawa and Nengue

Coky García

8/28/2008 CONCERTS

Band

Maraca

Adonis and Alberto

Coky García

Craig Handy on soprano sax

Craig, Tito and Sean

Maraca

El Nengue

Osmany and Maraca

Rhythm section - Osmany, Sawa, Nengue, Coky

Sawa

Tito Carrillo

Adonis Puente

Alberto Alberto

Nengue and Coky

Craig, Tito and Maraca

Nengue solo

Nengue solo

Osmany piano, Sawa bass

Osmany, Sawa, Nengue

Crowd

Céline Chauveau (Maraca's manager and wife) on video camera
Timba.com's infamous Kevin Moore

Dancers

Maraca and Elena Pinderhughes (young Bay Area flute phenom).

Maraca and Elena

Osmany Paredes

Orlando "Maraca" Valle