This week I'll be featuring some of the artists on my 4-Hour Bucket List — essentially, those I'd happily drive up to four hours away to see perform (assuming no shows on the tour are closer to me). There are more names on the list than days in the week, so (spoiler alert) I'll drop my list on Friday and invite you to do the same.
Orquesta Akokán ("from the heart" in Yoruban) is made up of musicians from Cuba and New York. The band's arrangements are penned by a guy with a PhD from NYU who wrote his dissertation on Cuban piano improvisation in the 1930s–40s, and the band’s three founders recruited the rest of the lineup through the vocalist's connections with Irakere, the legendary Cuban band founded by Chucho Valdés.
Where's that TROMBONE tag?!?
Oversight corrected!
There we go!
Happy 125th birthday to Duke Ellington, 91st birthday to Willie Nelson, & 89th birthday to Otis Rush.