It’s odd to say that Pacific Mambo Orchestra started small — after all, they are 19 members strong. But the band shocked the Latin music world this year when, without a national record deal, it managed to upset Marc Anthony and two other Sony Music Latin acts and win the Grammy for the Best Tropical Latin Album.
Pacific Mambo Orchestra was started by two Bay Area musicians, pianist Christian Tumalan and trumpeter Steffen Kuehn, who saw a void on the Latin music scene — big bands of the past. “A lot of people were sort of craving this sound,” said Tumalan during a recent interview on KQED’s Forum. “They have been listening on the radio and in the club scene to a lot of different types of salsa. But this particular sound, people were craving the return of that.”
It was with the bands of Tito Puente and Machito in mind, that Kuehn and Tumalan put the call out to Bay Area musicians. According to the two, finding and organizing the talent wasn’t hard. But paying them was.
“The challenge was to keep the band playing regularly,” said Tumalan. “It’s a financial challenge to keep a band of this size happening, but we have the support of every single musician.” Tumalan recalled not being able to pay his sizeable band in its nascent days, but said that from the beginning, the band members “were there literally for the love of this art form, which is big band for the Latin [sound].”
That love is evident during the band’s performances — at a March 1 show at San Rafael’s Terrapin Crossroads, band members congratulated one another after solos; Tumulan teased audience members; and well into the second set, when audience energy started to drag, percussionists Javier Cabanillas, Braulio Barrera and Omar Ledezma Jr. stood up and started kicking Rockettes-style all the while maintaining their incredibly tight beat.
