JOHN SANTOS SEXTET AND PEDRITO MARTÍNEZ GROUP
YERBA BUENA GARDENS, SAN FRANCISCO
SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Linda Lucero is the director of the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which presents free music concerts all summer in a beautiful park like outside setting in downtown San Francisco.Together with the assistance of her husband Ray Moisa, Linda always presents a number of Afro-Caribbean music events as part of the festival.

This year the final festival event opened with the John Santos Sextet, a world class Afro-Caribbean jazz group lead by the world renouned band leader, percussionist, composer, teacher, and cultural activist John Santos.   Following Santos' group was the Pedrito Martínez's Group, lead by Pedrito, one of the great folkoric percussionists, dancers and singers in the world.  Originally from Havana, Cuba, Pedrito now lives in the New York City area.  He has literally been on hundreds of recordings including folkloric, dance music and jazz and has a number of his own beautiful recordings.  I was not quite sure what kind of music Pedrito would play, but it turned out that he played a full set of fantastic TIMBA with his stellar band.   Look for a recording of Pedrito's timba some time soon. 

What follows are some of the photos I took at this incredible event.  Thanks Linda and Ray for another great year of world class music.

JOHNS SANTOS SEXTET

JOHN SANTOS - PERCUSSION, LEADER

MARCO DÍAZ - PIANO, TRUMPET

SAUL SIERRA - BASS

DAVID FLORES - DRUM SET

MELECIO MAGDALUYO - SAXES AND FLUTE

JOHN CALLOWAY - FLUTE, PIANO

John Santos

Marco Díaz piano and Saul Sierra bass

Melecio Magdaluyo

Dave Flores

John Santos

Saul Sierra

John Calloway

John Calloway flute, Melecio Magdaluyo sax

Román Díaz

Saul Sierra, Melecio Magdaluyo, Dave Flores, Pedrito Martínez

Pedrito Martínez

PEDRITO MARTÍNEZ GROUP

PEDRITO MARTÍNEZ - PERCUSSION, VOCALS, LEADER

ROMÁN DÍAZ - PERCUSSION, VOCALS

ALVARO BENAVIDES - BASS, VOCALS

ARIACNE TRUJILLO - PIANO, VOCALS

LUÍS SÁNCHEZ-FAIFE - SAX

MICHAEL RODRÍGUEZ - TRUMPET

Ariacne Trujillo

Pedrito MartÍnez

Pedrito and Román

Mikael

Luís Sánchez-Faife sax and Michael Rodríguez trumpet

Román Díaz

Pedrito conga and Román bata

John Calloway flute and Pedrito conga

Ariacne Trujillo

Pedrito conga and Román Chékere

Alisa Froman and Denmis "Denny" Bain Savigne

Román

Pedrito

Mike Rodríguez

Ariacne Trujillo

Pedrito

Jhair Sala

Pedrito and Ariacne

Luís Sánchez-Faife sax and Mike Rodríguez trumpet

Elio Villafranca Cuban jazz pianist sitting in

John Sanots sitting in with Pedrito

pedrito conga, Román bata and Alvaro Benavides bass

Ariacne Trujillo

"Denny" Bain Savigne jumping off a speaker

John Sanots with Pedrito in background

Alvaro Benavides bass, Pedrito conga

Elio Villafranca sitting in on piano

Alisa Froman and Denmis "Denny" Bain Savigne