Tucson Music Hall will sound like a hot Cuban jazz club this weekend as the Afro-Cuban jazz band Mambo Kings join the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for a pops concert.
Mambo Kings fuse contemporary and Afro-Cuban jazz, highlighting Latin composers including Tito Puente and Astor Piazzolla.
And just when you’re feeling your inner island soul, the quintet dusts off its jazz rendition of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” or slips into contemporary pop jazz with Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” In their hands, though, “mambo” replaces “rondo” for a spicy twist.
Mambo Kings — not to be confused with the 1992 biopic of the same name about the Castillo brothers — has become one of North America’s most successful Latin jazz ensembles. They’ve been playing with orchestras since they debuted with the Rochester Philharmonic in 1997. This is the first time we’ll see them join the TSO.
TSO go-to guest pops conductor Albert-George Schram returns to the podium. His resume includes working with a number of big-name pops artists, including James Taylor, Art Garfunkel, Boyz II Men, Kenny G, Olivia Newton-John, Chicago, Aretha Franklin and Chris Botti, who is scheduled to play Fox Tucson Theatre on April 1.
