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Mambo Kings/Richard DeLaney

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Rochester's own MAMBO KINGS, together since 1995, are enjoying great success as Upstate New York's foremost Latin jazz ensemble, and have rapidly earned a national reputation for their explosive blend of Afro Cuban rhythms and jazz improvisation.Since their orchestral debut in 1997 with the Rochester Philharmonic and Conductor Jeff Tyzik, Mambo Kings have appeared at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and in Pops concerts with orchestras in Baltimore, Vancouver, Detroit, Dallas, Naples (FL) and Portland (OR), among many others, performing original compositions and arrangements by pianist Richard DeLaney. As a quintet, Mambo Kings have appeared as featured soloists at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Fest, the Music In The Mountains Festival in Durango, (CO), the Lewiston (NY) Jazz Fest and most recently, the 2017 Big Sky Arts Fest in Bozeman, MT. The 2017 season included return performances with the Vancouver (BC) and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. The 2018 season featured shows with the Spokane and Louisville Symphonies, the Rochester Philharmonic and the New Jersey Symphony. The 2019 season featured performances with the Alabama Symphony, a sold-out concert with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago and a show with the Des Moines Symphony. Mambo Kings released their third self-produced recording, Nostalgia, in July of 2008. Nostalgia, along with their previous releases—Live! (2005) and Marinera (2003) —continues to receive radio airplay throughout North America and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit the band's website at www.mambokingdom.com

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About Mambo Kings Live! " You've got to hand it to these musicians for not cluttering up their new album with what might be mediocre originals in choosing the music for this performance. The compositions, whether originating from Latin, rock, or jazz sources, do the job and keep the concert tuneful and lively. Clare Fischer's Una Mañana (also known as Morning) is as good a place to begin as any, while the Tizol/Ellington classic Caravan becomes a pulsing exercise in Latin percussion per Colón and Antonetti. More traditional Latin compositions like El Cumbanchero and Tres Lindas Cubanas, featuring a fine salsa flute solo from Viavattine, are provided, as is the Lennon-McCartney piece “Day Tripper.” They all supply the means to generate the excitement that dancers (Latin or otherwise) require. " Michael P. Gladstone, all.about.jazz About Marinera

". . . this Latin jazz combo really nails the genre. The eight tunes are a good mix of standards, compositions of Mongo Santamaria, Michel Camilo, Luis Bonfa and three originals by DeLaney. Saxophonist Viavattine deserves applause for knowing how to play a muscular tenor sax . . . his work on Softly, Five Kings and Afro Blue displays sure-footed work that harkens back to pre-Sheets Of Sound Coltrane. DeLaney shows a consistent knowledge of pianistics in salsa/Latin jazz and his arrangements convey the right touch. Percussionists Colon and Antonetti provide the fire engine that drives the band." Michael P. Gladstone, all.about.jazz

About Nostalgia:

"One of Rochester's fine bands performs a range of originals, a few standards (including Summertime and My Favorite Things, which have become jazz evergreens); and a trio of tunes from famed jazz repertoires, Chick Corea's Armando's Rumba, Miles Davis' Seven Steps To Heaven and Cedar Walton's N.P.S. The "mambo" aspects of the band come from a first-rate rhythm section — "Tio" Antonetti and Freddy Colon on various drums, congas, timbales and bongos, and Hector Diaz on bass. . . The musicality of this band is always first-rate, but members are at their best when the music soars over sheer rhythmic joy,as in Tio's Tune and Sunny." Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat And Chronicle

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