Lulaworld Ignites!

LULA MUSIC AND ARTS CENTRE proudly presents LULAWORLD 2012  from May 9-19. Continuing the tradition of discovery, Lulaworld blazes a trail once again with featured performances and collaborations by some of world music’s cutting edge artists. International sensations La Marisoul (LA), Gabriele Mirabassi (Italy), Claudio Rabeca (Brazil), Pupy y Los Que Son Son (Cuba),Ralph Irizarry (New York City), and Ignacio Berroa & Alain Perez (Cuba), will combine forces with our local and national treasures Hilario Durán, Luisito Orbegoso, Daniela Nardi, Aline Morales, Robi Botos, Mario Allende, Boogat w/ Lady Son y Articulo Viete, The Gryphon Trio, Cafe Con Pan, Autorickshaw and more. Concerts will all take place at Lula Lounge, Toronto’s quintessential home to extraordinary music of all genres. Ticket prices range from $15 to $30. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit www.lula.ca

 

Lula Lounge, a hotbed of musical talent, is marking their 10^th anniversary this year and the annual LULAWORLD festival is the perfect way to celebrate. The festival is the main avenue for Lula to showcase the very best in both foreign and domestic world music artists. This May, Lulaworld 2012 will be featuring hot local musicians alongside those hailing from Brazil, Cuba, the U.S and Italy, inspiring an ongoing creative dialogue that enriches the diverse musical scene here at home and around the globe.

 

The anniversary celebrations will also include a compilation CD that will highlight the work of Canada’s vibrant salsa and Latin scene. ***With profits going to support the visionary local charity DANCING WITH PARKINSONS, the album aims to increase the international profile of top Canadian Latin musicians. Contributors to the album will include Mario Allende, Roberto Linares Brown, Caché, Son Aché, Hilario Durán and other artists to be confirmed.

 

May 16 Gryphon Trio + Hilario Durán Trio: The Spirit Of Lula: Time Flies

 

Wednesday, May 9– 7pm doors / 8pm show

Tickets:  $15 adv / $20 door

Combining  contemporary jazz and funk with the classical and popular music of India, Juno award-winningAutorickshaw honours Lula’s 10th anniversary by revisiting ground-breaking compositions originally presented at Lula. Autorickshaw is: Justin Abedin – guitars, Collin Barrett – bass, Dylan Bell – keys. Ed Hanley – tabla, Ben Riley – drum kit, Suba Sankaran – voice w/ special guests Gordon Sheard, Mark Duggan and George Koller. www.autorickshaw.ca

Friday, May 11– 7pm doors / 8pm show

Tickets:  $12 adv / $15 door

Los Angeles-based singer La Marisoul joins Toronto’s Café Con Pan for the launching of their ambitious recording “Nuevos Caminos a Santiago” (New Roads to Santiago). This concert will feature the powerful and contrasting voices of Kali, lead singer of Café Con Pan, and La Marisoul. It will surely be a moving musical dialogue as they share the same unbridled passion for son jarocho and are both highly respected musicians inside an outside of Mexico, reaffirming the more prominent role women have assumed in this genre during the past ten years. Since meeting for the first time in Los Angeles in 2009, they have admired each others’ work but this will be their first opportunity to perform together on stage. There will also be a surprise guest coming all the way from Veracruz to perform, along with Araz Salek (tar), Chris Banks (bass), Nick Storring (cello) and Jaron Freeman-Fox (violin).www.cafeconpan.ca / www.myspace.com/lamarisoul

 

Friday, May 11– 11pm

Tickets:  $12 adv / $15 door

Montreal based Boogat is a vocalist, writer and producer, creating work in both Spanish and French. His urban/ Latin sound first took shape in Quebec’s underground hip-hop scene when he served as the frontman and beatmaker of Andromaïck in the late ‘90s. The past five years have seen Boogat realizing his solo French project as well as a collaboration with the Movèzerbe collective. He has been involved in more than a hundred projects in Québec, USA, Brasil, Mexico, Australia and Argentina collaborating with artist such as Poirier, Thornato, Javier Estrada, Sampology, Face-T, Heavy Soundz, Sonora, Roberto Lopez Project, Alaclair Ensemble and almost every artist working in Québec’s hip-hop scene. Boogat is preparing a Spanish album dropping Sept 2012.

 

LADY SON Y ARTICULO VIENTE

Canadian born and raised, with a rich Jewish/Italian and Nigerian cultural heritage, Yeti Ajasin, aka Lady Son, is the lead vocalist/director of Latin fusion band Artículo Veinte. Considered one of the top voices on today’s Canadian salsa scene, Yeti has been making waves with her powerful vocals and her band’s NuYorican-style arrangements as well as their original compositions influenced by Cuban Guajiro and Son Montuno.

www.boogat.com / www.myspace.com/ladyson

Saturday, May 12 – 7pm doors / 10pm show

Tickets:  $12 adv / $15 door

Ralph Irizarry is well known as one of the world’s most "swinging" timbaleros, whose distinctive playing style has made an indelible mark on those artists with whom he has performed. Born in Spanish Harlem of Puerto Rican parents, Irizarry had the chance to play with such well known groups as La Terriffica, El Gran Combo & Sonora Ponceña. In New York, Ralph caught the attention of the legendary Ray Barretto, with whom he made five recordings. He has recorded and performed with David Byrne, Paul Simon, Harry Belafonte, Juan Luis Guerra, Cachao, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Ruben Blades and Seis Del Solar with whom he also toured internationally for 13 years. Ralph appeared in numerous documentaries and films including “Mambo Kings” and is the founder and leader of the sizzling New York based Latin-jazz group Timbalaye.

 

Ralph is lovingly referred to as the “Godfather of Lula” as he played at the club’s opening concert in 2002 and returned to Toronto to help celebrate anniversaries in 2003- 2005. Lula is honoured to have Mr. Irizarry back to help celebrate its 10th birthday!

 

LUIS ORBEGOSO


One of the most in-demand percussionists in Toronto, “Luisito” was born in Lima, Perú and moved to Canada in 1972. A Humber College music grad, Orbegoso jump-started his career as a professional bongo player with Memo Acevedo’s ground-breaking salsa band “Banda Brava” in 1993. This unforgettable performer has appeared and/or recorded with Stevie Wonder, Oscar de León, Chucho Valdéz, Ralph Irrizarry, The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Nelly Furtado, Alex Cuba, Luis, Hilario Durán, Jane Bunnett and more. Luisito currently leads the popular New York style salsa group Moda Eterna.

www.zildjian.com/Artists/I/Ralph-Irizarry  / www.luisorbegoso.com

 

Tuesday, May 15 – 7pm doors / 8:30pm show

Tickets:  $15 adv / $20 door

Award-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Daniela Nardi releases her new CD Espresso Manifesto – The Songs of Paolo Conte. Engineered by legendary engineer/producer Pasquale Minieri, this debut by Nardi’s new project Espresso Manifesto, sees Nardi’s signature style interpreting the songs of the legendary Italian singer/songwriter Paolo Conte, whose stature is comparable to Jacques Brel or Tom Waits.

 

Daniela and her husband, celebrated jazz pianist Ron Davis, spent the fall of 2011 in Italy, recording with many of that country’s A-list jazz musicians, including Fabrizio Bosso, Fausto Mesolella Gabriele Mirabassi and Dario Rosciglione.

 

GABRIELE MIRABASSI

Born in Perugia, Italian clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi is well versed in both modern classical music and jazz improvisation, having studied at Italy’s prestigious Morlacchi Conservatory. In his early career he performed modern compositions under the direction of figures like John Cage and Gunther Schuller and in 1992 cut the jazz-oriented recording Coloriage with accordionist Richard Galliano, which helped him make a name on the European jazz scene. Now focusing solely on jazz; Mirabassi has performed with pianist Stefano Battaglia, his brother Giovanni Mirabassi, Sergio Assad, Holly Cole and the Namaste Clarinet Quartet.

www.danielanardi.com  / www.myspace.com/gabrielemirabassi

 

Wednesday, May 16 – 7pm doors / 8:30pm show

Tickets:  $25 adv / $30 door

The Gryphon Trio and the Hilario Durán Trio, both award-winning Canadian classical and jazz ensembles, join forces to present an evening of greatest hits featuring Cuban, Brazilian, Sicilian and Argentine charts that have been performed at Toronto’s celebrated Lula Lounge over the course of the venue’s first ten years.

 

Touring internationally since 1993, the Juno award-winning GRYPHON TRIO is one of North America’s premier chamber ensembles. Recognized for its interpretations of both standard and contemporary classical repertoire as well its explorations of world music, the Toronto-based trio tours regularly throughout Canada and the United States and has also performed in Finland, Germany, France, Belgium, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Greece and Egypt.

 

HILARIO DURÁN is one of the world’s most innovative pianist/composers/arrangers of Afro- Cuban music and Latin Jazz. The outstanding musical interplay of his stellar Trio, which features Roberto Occhipinti on bass and Mark Kelso on drums, has earned the group multiple Juno nominations. Durán’s Latin-jazz big band album, “From The Heart”, featuring Paquito D’Rivera, was nominated for a Grammy in 2007, and won a Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year Juno Award.

 

Thursday, May 17 – 7pm doors / 8pm show

Tickets:  $15 adv / $20 door

This super charged night of Latin-jazz features three international guests originally from Cuba, now working in Spain and New York. Some of the most respected Cuban jazz players in the world join forces with Toronto’s top players.

 

8:00 pm – IGNACIO BERROA AND HILARIO DURÁN

Ignacio Berroa …”The only Latin drummer in the world, in the history of American music that intimately knows both worlds; his native Afro-Cuban music as well as jazz…”  ~ Dizzy Gillespie

 

A graduate of Havana’s National Conservatory of Music, Grammy winner Ignacio Berroa was Cuba’s most famous drummer before moving to New York in 1980 where he became a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s quartet and later Dizzy’s quintet and 70th Anniversary Big Band as well as the United Nation Orchestra. McCoy Tyner, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Tito Puente, Eliane Elias, Gilberto Giland and Joe Lovano are among the jazz masters he’s worked with.

 

HILARIO DURÁN

Multiple Juno and National Jazz Award winner Hilario Durán is ranked among the greatest contemporary Cuban pianists and composers. With celebrated bassist Roberto Occhipinti and saxophonist Luis Denis, Durán will present a concert of Berroa’s original compositions.

 

10:00 pm – ALAIN PÉREZ + ROBI BOTOS + MARIO ALLENDE TRIO

 

ALAIN PÉREZ (CUBA/MADRID)

Best known for his work with flamenco guitar icon Paco de Lucia and Latin-jazz giant Jerry Gonzalez, Cuban-born bassist and multi-instrumentalist Alain Pérez is making waves in both the flamenco and jazz worlds. Now based in Madrid, Pérez was called to work with Cuban super group Irakere, led by the great Chucho Valdez when he was just seventeen. Originally trained in classical guitar, Perez was encouraged to begin playing bass by the celebrated Cuban singer Isaac Delgado. Whether playing bass, keyboard, percussion, singing, or contributing compositions and arrangements, Pérez’s combination of natural abilities and finely honed skills have set the stage for a new revolution in contemporary Cuban music.

 

ROBI BOTOS (HUNGARY/CANADA)

Hungarian-born pianist and composer Botos was raised in a musical family and is largely self taught. He is deemed by many to be a worthy successor to the great Oscar Peterson. His dynamic performances have earned him international recognition – winning competitions in Montreux, Paris and Jacksonville, Florida’s Great American piano competition in 2008. At the National Jazz Awards in 2007 he was chosen Keyboardist of the Year and was nominated for a Juno award for One Take in 2006. A member of Archie Alleyne’s bebop ensemble “Kollage” as well as Rich Brown’s "rinsethealgorithm," Botos also performs frequently with his brother, drummer Frank Botos in a trio setting.

 

MARIO ALLENDE (CHILE/CANADA)

Born in Chile and raised in Canada, Mario was best known as the driving force behind the Alberta based Latin-jazz group, Bomba! Today, however, he mixes the drum kit, timbales, congas and myriad percussion instruments as a freelance musician in Toronto’s vibrant musical scene.

www.ignacioberroa.com  / www.hilarioduran.com / www.alainperez.net / www.robibotos.com

 

Friday, May 18 – 7pm doors / 10:30pm show

Tickets:  $12 adv / $15 door

CLAUDIO REBECA

Composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Claudio plays rabeca (fiddle), viola, ten-string guitar, guitar and popular percussion. Influenced deeply by the Pernambuco musical traditions of his native Rio Grande do Norte, Claudio performs rabeca with many Brazilian groups including Maracatu Nation, Estrela Brilhante do Recife and the Olinda Quartet. In 2010, he launched his first solo CD, Light of Baião, recorded in Studio Carranca and has also produced the double CD "Rabequeiros of Pernambuco," which is comprised of twenty four rabequeiros (rabeca artists) performing their own compositions. Although he keeps one foot in Brazilian tradition, Claudio’s work is decidedly contemporary incorporating experimental pedals and effects.

 

ALINE MORALES

Since her arrival in Canada in 2003, Brazilian-born artist Aline Morales has been well known locally as a dynamic singer, percussionist and bandleader. However, it was release of her debut solo album in 2011, the stunning Flores, Tambores e Amores, that brought national attention and earned her a Juno nomination for World Music Album of the Year. Written in collaboration with Toronto-based producer David Arcus, Flores, Tambores e Amores introduced audiences to an entirely new sound – a bold re-interpretation of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira). The independent album garnered rave reviews, went straight to number one on Canada’s World/Folk charts, and is receiving frequent play on CBC Radio and JAZZ.FM.

www.myspace.com/463396409  / www.alinemorales.com  

 

Saturday, May 19– 8:30pm doors / 10:00pm show

Tickets:  $40 adv / $50 door

One of the most influential and adored figures in Cuban timba music, César "Pupy" Pedroso (aka, "Pupi Pedroso") has also left his mark on Cuban pop. As one Cuba’s most prolific composers (with more than 150 songs to his credit), Pupy has played a seminal role in revolutionizing the art of salsa piano playing.

 

Early in career, Pupy played Orquesta Revé and worked with Juan Formel. He was a founding member of the Grammy-winning Cuban super group Los Van Van, but in 2001 he branched off to form his own group, "Pupy y Los Que Son Son.” Now more than a decade old, this group is renowned for its inventive arrangements and highly charged rhythms. Pupy’s orchestra boasts 18 musicians on stage with special guests Mayito Rivera and Tany Pantoja.