LATEST RELEASE BY THIS GREAT BAY AREA SALSA BAND

“El Sonero del Uruguay,” Edgardo Cambón.
(Jesús “Chucho” Valdes at the Havana Jazz Festival while performing with Irakere)

Liner Notes:

Celebrando 20 Años is a tribute. It is Candela’s tribute to the Afro-Latin music we love and respect. A tribute to the elders who have gone before and the younger generations who will push this music toward new horizons. A tribute to the musicians who, night after night, year after year, have given the music steamy, sweaty life.

Celebrando 20 Años contains not just songs, but themes that range from the political to the personal. They have a direction from beginning to end, with each musical idea reaching its full interpretation via inventive arrangers and expressive musicians. This recording is as close as it can be to the live sound of Candela, but we’re not afraid to add new elements: the melancholy bandoneón at the beginning of Ciudad de Tango, the flamenco-salsa of Corazón, or the Uruguayan candombe rhythms of Ayer Te