Get your groove on with the Afro-Cuban rhythms of Babalu.
Presented by the Jazz Club, the concert takes place at 7 p.m. at the SAGA Public Art Gallery, Thursday, June 27.
Listen to the distinctive notes of merengue, salsa, bossa nova, samba, mambo, rhumba, sometimes mixed in with straight-ahead, hard-driving swing.
Many of the selections are by well-known Latin American writers such as Sergio Mendez, Tito Puente and Chucho Valdes.
Babalu also arranges and plays jazz standards in the Afro-Cuban style.
“The band does not really have a leader, we work things out together in rehearsal,” says flute and soprano sax player Sandy Cameron. “The amazingly complicated rhythmic styles of the music are accomplished by all five players, with inspiration and help coming from the bass player, Arianne Charon, who is Cuban.”
Cameron has been the driving force behind the Salmon Arm Jazz Club for the past couple of years, helping to organize two concerts each month.
From Hamilton, Ont, Dick studied with Bob Shiels, Lorne Lofsky, and Pat Collins. His musical interests include modern jazz, improvisation and composition. Dick is a member of the popular Salmon Armenians and is currently composing for his own band, Thick as Thieves.
Born and raised in Cuba, Charon came to Canada in 2004 and soon became involved in the Toronto Latin music scene. She has an impressive list of past projects and bands, including D’talle, a well-known Cuban all-female band.
She has performed in festivals across Canada and teaches dance, specializing in the Cuban tradition of salsa.
Adding percussion to Babalu is Jeremy Tymkiw, who has studied Cuban rhythm styles for several years.
Although Afro-Cuban/Brazilian music is his favourite, Tymkiw adds the flavour of the drums to other groups, such as Bender, Blue Scarlett, The Hoodoos, the Jordan Dick Trio and Tamba.
Keyboardist Jim Johnston is a retired music teacher, who arranges some of Babalu’s material.
He is currently with Vernon’s Mark Rose Big Band, Serious Dogs, a Kamloops bar band and The Cliff Jumpers. He is accompanist for several North Okanagan area vocal groups – Shuswap Men’s Choir, Northern Lights Chamber Choir and Ancora. Johnston is co-director of the Salmon Arm Community Concert Band and has several private piano and music theory students.
