“La Orkesta does for mambo what the Dap-Kings did for soul, respect and building upon the spirit of a tradition, while incorporating a contemporary sound and audience.” (Music director of radio station KXCI, Tucson). Founded in 2009 in Tucson by multi-instrumentalist Sergio Mendoza, a longtime collaborator and sideman with Calexico and Devotchka, Orkesta Mendoza performs an arresting take on traditional mambo—Mendoza calls it “indie mambo”—that mixes in cumbia, merengue, and ranchera, with jazz and indie-rock, all shot through a prism of psychedelia. The band's otherworldly sound has been enthusiastically praised by The New York Times and NPR. The group’s debut studio album, Mambo Mexicano, was released in 2012 on Cosmica Records.
With a Cuban-American lead singer, garage band ferocity, an intense live show, and a deep love of 70s AM pop radio hits, bolero romance, and pure country they were raised on, The Mavericks became unlikely stars. Their raucous sound broke new ground for the Country format with hits like “Here Comes The Rain,” “Crying Shame,” and “Dance The Night Away.” In 2013, after multiple gold and platinum albums, world tours, breakups and re-formations, the band reunited and released the critically-acclaimed album In Time, (The Valory Music Co) that critics at The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and New York magazine, among others, named to their “Best Of” lists. Billboard.com called the band’s just-released CD, Mono, “The splashy, seasoned spirit of new-millennium Mavericks. Deceptively simple songs of lust and chivalry get a vigorously swinging, guitar-heavy but horn-heated attack. They veer from big-band salsa to frisky, danceable Latin rock, swaggering, shuffling R&B and more mellow pop flavors.”
New York City, NY; NYC