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Sample Track 1:
"Ponte Bomb Technotronic (Pump Up The Jams)" from Bomba Éstereo
Sample Track 2:
"Fuego" from Bomba Éstereo
Sample Track 3:
"Feelin'" from Bomba Éstereo
Sample Track 4:
"Radio Borderland" from Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich & Fussible
Sample Track 5:
"I Count the Ways" from Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich & Fussible
Sample Track 6:
"Mundo Bizarro" from Tango Conspiracy
Sample Track 7:
"Mundo Bizarro - Dub Version" from Tango Conspiracy
Sample Track 8:
"Bohemia" from Tango Conspiracy
Sample Track 9:
"Cangote" from CéU
Sample Track 10:
"Grains de Beaute" from CéU
Layer 2
Bio

More About the Artists of Heineken TransAtlantic Festival 2011

Anitibalas
Formed in 1998, the Brooklyn-based music collective, Antibalas, has shared its dynamic afrobeat and funk sound with thirty-five countries during  more than 1,000 performances.  From humble beginnings at Brooklyn block parties and community benefits, Antibalas has since been featured at prestigious festivals including Coachella, Glastonbury, Montreux, Newport Jazz, and at venues from Rikers Island to Carnegie Hall.  Drawing on musical lineages steeped in jazz, funk, Afro-Caribbean, and West African music, Antibalas is widely recognized for its mastery of and innovation in the afrobeat musical form created in the early 1970’s by Nigerian composer/activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.  In July 2010, Antibalas toured the US west coast, coinciding with the re-release of their Who Is This America on Ropeadope Records.

Recently, Antibalas kicked off 2009 at Carnegie Hall, as part of the Tibet House Benefit.  After performing original material, they backed Grammy-winning Beninoise singer Angelique Kidjo and Vampire Weekend.  Later that month, Antibalas met the Roots head-to-head in Boston for the Red Bull Soundclash.  In June 2009, the two bands joined forces with Public Enemy to recreate the classic Public Enemy album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back live at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia.  Furthermore, the Antibalas horn section joined the Roots twice that summer on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, alongside Public Enemy and Paul Simon.  In early 2010, the group made its first trip to Australia and New Zealand, performing at major rock, world music, and arts festivals as well as a cabaret show with DJ Gilles Peterson.

Members of Antibalas have been at the heart of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical FELA!  Born as a series of workshops with director/choreographer Bill T. Jones in late 2006, Antibalas musicians Aaron Johnson (musical director), Jordan McLean (assistant musical director), and Stuart Bogie helped create what associate producer Questlove called “The most uncut funk production ever!” After a triumphant off-Broadway run, the show opened on Broadway in November 2009 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, with executive producers Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith attracting a cavalcade of stars including Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Sting, Robert De Niro, and Toni Morrison.

Antibalas musicians can be seen and heard with major artists across genres.  Members of the group teamed up with the Dap-Kings to create the grooves for Amy Winehouse’s multi-platinum Back to Black and continue to work with producer Mark Ronson.  The horn section is featured prominently on albums by TV on the Radio; Medeski, Martin and Wood; and won a Grammy for their work on Angelique Kidjo’s Djin Djin.  The group has also performed live with a diverse group of artists including Burning Spear, Baaba Maal, Sinead O’Connor, Gomez, and cast members of FELA!


Bomba Estéreo
Bomba Estéreo formed in the rich underground electronic scene of Bogota, Colombia in 2005.  Guitarist Simon Mejia recruited fierce singer Liliana Saumet to join the group, and Bomba Estéreo expanded its “psychedelic cumbia” sound and captivating live show. The group plays an explosive dance-fusion of electronic dub and hip-hop, in a similar vein as M.I.A. and Santigold, mixed with classic Colombian rhythms like cumbia and champeta.  The group made their US debut at SXSW in 2009 and garnered huge attention at LAMC in New York last summer.


Céu
Ever since Brazilian phenomenon Céu captivated the world with her self-titled debut album in 2007, her follow up release has been widely anticipated.  After being chosen as the first international artist featured in Starbucks’ Hear Music™ Debut series, Céu earned both Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, countless press accolades, and chart topping numbers.  So how does one of the most successful Brazilian female artists of our time respond?  With her typical grace and artistry. 

First came Cangote in May of 2009, a teaser four-song EP that was a harbinger of wonderful things to come, as the full-length album Vagarosa demonstrates.  Vagarosa, which translates to “slow, easygoing, and leisurely,” perfectly reflects the vibe that runs throughout the album.  Everywhere on Vagarosa is evidence of Céu’s ever-deepening musical sophistication and intelligence. 

One of the most interesting things about Vagarosa is the extent to which organic acoustic sounds and cutting-edge electronic textures are woven together into a completely natural-sounding whole.  

The production of the album started in mid-2008 at Ambulante Studios in São Paulo, Brazil.  Céu teamed up with her old accomplice, producer Beto Villares to produce and record her new compositions. In the process, they also involved producer and engineer Gustavo Lenza (Céu’s touring engineer for the past 4 years, who recently produced Curumin’s last two records) and soundtrack producer Gui Amabis, who has collaborated with Céu on the Sonantes project.  Throughout the album Céu enjoyed the assistance of many top-notch musician friends: members of Los Sebozos Postizos make an appearance on “Rosa Menina Rosa”; Curumin plays drums on “Cordão da Insônia”; Luiz Melodia provides exquisite guest vocals on “Vira Lata.”  Pupillo and Dengue from Nação Zumbi contribute drums and bass on “Ponteiro,” and Siba (a founder of the regionally famous Pernambucan band Mestre Ambrósio) co-wrote “Nascente” with her. 

The ever-proliferating crowd of Brazilian musicians lining up to record with Céu, combined with her deepening penetration of the world’s music markets, is more than enough to bear out the optimistic predictions of the music media.  But really, all the proof of her unique talent is right here: in the beautifully simple melodies, the sophisticated complexity of the arrangements, the wide-ranging musical references, and the general warmth and attractiveness of her songwriting.


Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible
Nortec Collective emerged from the burgeoning Tijuana electronic scene, performing a style of music that they invented called Nortec - a fusion of Norteño ("from the North") and Techno, documenting the collision between the style and culture of electronica music, characterized by hard dance beats, and samples from traditional forms of Mexican music.  With two full group albums (Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1 and Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3) under their belts, the Nortec sound has been embraced by an international audience and has become an entire movement encompassing music, film and graphic design.  The Nortec Collective is comprised of four artists:  Fussible (Pepe Mogt), Bostich (Ramón Amezcua), Clorofila (Jorge Verdín) and Hiperboreal (PG Beas).

Nortec Collective’s new Bostich + Fussible album ‘Bulevar 2000’ is now GRAMMY-nominated. While ‘Tijuana Sound Machine’ was a trip around the city, ‘Bulevar 2000’ follows the car leaving Tijuana on one of its most notorious streets. In fact, the car from ‘Tijuana Sound Machine’ passed by this place and several of its police check-point recordings were included on the previous album.

“Bulevar 2000 is one of the newest and most important avenues in the urban development of Tijuana,” says Ramon Amezcua (Bostich). “It provides the route out of the city. But it is also one of Tijuana’s most dangerous avenues, plagued with assaults and accidents due to a lack of vigilance. Hence it is a very symbolic name for everyone in Tijuana.”

Bostich + Fussible have also recently performed with symphonic orchestras across Mexico. In a landmark concert that celebrated the 10th anniversary of Nortec Collective, Bostich + Fussible rocked a full concert with the Baja California Orchestra for 25,000 ecstatic fans in the streets of Tijuana. While fusing Regional Mexican arrangements with a classic orchestra proved quite complicated at first, the eventual result and crowd response caused the group to enlist the orchestra’s conductor Alberto Nunez Palacio for the new album. Nunez-Palacio, an expatriate Argentine who has worked with the great tango-fusionist Astor Piazzolla, wrote string and horn arrangements on the new tracks “I Count The Ways” and “Bulevar 2000,” respectively.

Reed Johnson of the Los Angeles Times explained why the fusion works: “Too often, jam sessions between pop players and black-tied symphonists are pretentious vanity projects that use
high-culture appurtenances to mask a paucity of ideas and technique. But unlike many of their pop-techno peers, Mogt [Fussible] and the conservatory-trained Amezcua [Bostich] are longtime students of classical music.... They can rap for hours about the game-changing synthetic sonic architecture of Pink Floyd's ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ or about how techno is a rich source of the dissonant sounds and serial sequences of which contemporary classical composers are fond.”


Rumberos de la 8

Rumberos de la 8 are an all-star collective of percussionists and singers hailing from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and born on the streets of Miami.  Rumberos de la 8 perform each week with Spam Allstars at their residency at Hoy Como Ayer in Little Havana, FL.   Last year they recorded a CD for Spamusica Records at  City Of Progress Studio in N. Miami, FL, with DJ Le Spam.  The artwork for the album was created by Charlie Rosario who had distinctive covers Fania Records, Coco and other 60’s and 70’s Latin labels. The recording features Boris Monterecy, Sonyaisi Feldman, Tomas Diaz, Mercedes Abal, Lazaro Alfonso, Joxi Caballero, Diosvany Boulet, Yoel del Sol, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jose Elias, J.J. Freire, & Ray Romero Jr.

Spam Allstars
SFL based Spam Allstars blend improvisational electronic elements and turntables with latin, funk, hip hop and dub to create what they call an electronic descarga.  Formed by Andrew Yeomanson, a/k/a DJ Le Spam, who was raised in Toronto, Bogota and London, and has called Miami home since 1993.  He got his start by playing guitar in Haitian band Lavalas, and recording and touring with Miami based artist Nil Lara.   Along the way he added to his vinyl collection, and when off the road he would DJ locally. These DJ gigs evolved into collaborations with live musicians, performing on an internet radio show, recording in his home studio, and the first of many residencies combining his samplers & DJ skills with a live band.  

In 2002, Spam Allstars began a weekly residency at Hoy Como Ayer in Little Havana, which continues today. In 2003 they started monthly residencies in New York City, Gainesville, Tampa, Atlanta, and New Orleans, and playing nationally wherever people would host them.  Today Spam Allstars perform 200+ shows, and average 56,000 miles each year.   They still do the weekly in Little Havana, and have monthlies in Miami and Miami Beach.