Orchestra Mambo International
Formed in 2022, Orchestra Mambo International have gigged regularly across the UK performing music from the Fania Records catalogue as well as their much-loved "Mambo King: A Musical Tribute To Tito Puente" set. They have appeared live at such prestigious venues as the Blues Kitchen (Manchester), The Forge Camden (London), The Piece Hall (Halifax), Band On The Wall (Manchester), and Leeds venues Howard Assembly Room and Brudenell Social Club.
"Mambo Te Llama" is an uptempo Latin dance track inspired by legendary New York Puerto Rican band leader/percussionist Tito Puente. The mambo genre evolved in 1930s Cuba and spread to Mexico and New York in the 1940s via expat Cuban musicians such as Perez Prado and Mario Bauza. By the mid-1950s, the mambo music and dance craze had swept the world. The epicentre was New York and its king was Tito Puente. Orchestra Mambo International keeps the flame alive for mambo with this fiery new single, a combination of punchy brass and Afro-Cuban rhythms featuring great piano, trombone and conga solos.
"Del Callejón" is another mambo, this time a slower one and featuring vibes alongside solos on timbales, trombone and trumpet. In the 1950s, Tito Puente and West Coast USA Latin jazz musician Cal Tjader popularised the vibes in Latin music, which it often features in mambo music but also cha cha cha, Latin bugalu, Latin jazz and salsa music. This Orchestra Mambo International original tune pays homage to the classic mambo vibes style and is another composition written by band leader/trombonist Jonny Enright, with words by lead singer Carlos "Pachanga" Peña.