Soñando:
American Dream Band
by
Peter Aaronby
Peter Aaron
Its
name is the Spanish word for “dreaming,” but when the
seven-to-eight-piece orchestra called Soñando is in the house
it’s no dream—it’s one big, caliente party. Blasting
horns stab the air in unison. Sparkling piano and lithe, sinewy
tres dart in and out of busy syncopation, while relentlessly driving
percussion pushes a floor packed with sweaty, ecstatic dancers to
the very edge of euphoria and over. It’s not at all surprising
that the group, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month,
is regularly cited as the Hudson Valley’s leading Latin band.
But despite the welcome accolades, that’s not quite how bandleader,
conguero, and vocalist Ruben Quintero sees it.
“We’re
an American band,” says Quintero, who co- founded the outfit
in 1997 with trumpeter Phil DiMier and timbalero Eric Wilson. “Yeah,
we play music that’s a blend of lots of different Latin styles—salsa,
merengue, plenas, son, Afro-Cuban jazz—but like America itself,
it’s a melting pot, really. A mix of lots and lots of different
influences that couldn’t really come together anywhere else.
And not all of the members are of Latin or Hispanic heritage, a
lot of the cats who have been in this band over the years have been
white or black dudes who didn’t necessarily grow up with this
music.”
In
addition to mainstays Quintero, DiMier, and Wilson, the cats in
Soñando’s current lineup are bassist Harry Justiniano,
former Celia Cruz side man Antonio Velez on traditional Cuban tres,
pianist Jeremy Baum (when he’s not on the road with blues
diva Shemekia Copeland), saxophonist Shane Kirsch (Perfect Thyroid,
George Clinton), and the tireless, multi-talented Dean Jones (Dog
on Fleas, Uncle Buckle) on trombone.“(Soñando) is a
dream band, especially for a horn player,” says Jones, who
joined the group in 2003...
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