Music Style Afro-Cuban, Funk and Hip-Hop

Artist History It is said that in ancient times there was a curandera who collected all the earth's herbs with the most healing properties and with her magic turned them into one good herb that she later planted to grow as wild weeds. If there was such an alchemist who could do that with music today, it'd be songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist bandleader Andres Levin. And his magic herb is Yerba Buena: a blend of African-rooted Latin music (Cuban rumba, Colombian cumbia, Pan-Caribbean solca, and Nuyorican boogaloo) with hip-hop, Motown soul, Nigerian Afrobeat and a dash of Middle Eastern themes played by an international crew of star musicians that represent the new sounds of the New York city streets. Administered aurally, this Yerba Buena's intensely percussive and infectious beats will lift you and make you dance. No self-respecting musical Botánica should go without a pouch of homegrown Yerba Buena stocked on its shelves. Putting his magic touch on a variety of music since he arrived in 1989 from his native Venezuela to become a "resident alien," Levin has written and/or produced for artists ranging from Chaka Khan and Tina Turner to David Byrne and Arto Lindsay. His most recent credits include D'Angelo, Macy Gray, Dead Prez, and Me'Shell Ndegeocello in his role as principal producer of the recent Red Hot + Riot Fela Kuti tribute (Top 10 in NY Times, Time, Rolling Stone & more). For the past few years, Levin has been in high demand throughout the fast-growing world of Latin alternative music, producing albums for Aterciopelados, Los Amigos Invisibles, El Gran Silencio, Ely Guerra, Carlinhos Brown, and Jorge Moreno, as well as producing key tracks with Caetano Veloso and Marisa Monte. For Yerba Buena, Levin was introduced to key players by Cuban music songwriter Ileana Padrón. Seizing a moment where the purveyors of the sounds from Lagos, Havana and New York City were at his arms' reach, he brought them to his funhouse, The Fun Machine Studios in Manhattan, to create a distinct and innovative urban Latino sound only hinted at before by like-minded groups such as El Gran Silencio, Ozomatli and Manu Chao's Radio Bemba Sound System. Like some of the great big bands of Cuba (think Benny Moré or Machito), Levin set up Yerba Buena as an on-going workshop open to collaborations in studio and on stage with guest stars. The result is a dazzling and ravaging live show and a studio recording that has a character all its own. Havana's diva-in-waiting Xiomara Laugart (Did someone say a new Celia Cruz?), percussions maestro/Yoruban chanter Pedrito Martinez and distinctive singer El Chino take turns leading their audiences into frenzied dancing. Singer CuCu Diamantes along with the brilliant St. Thomas-born jazz saxophonist Ron Blake and young trumpeter Rashawn Ross complete the core group, infusing their stylistic blasts to the volatile mix of true Nueva York. "I like to take the live vibe back to the studio, and continue adding to the foundations we've already laid down," says Dré, as his American friends call him. Levin co-wrote all the songs, applying his signature layered-style of production. "All my friends know I'm a technology beat geek," he says. "Producing on a computer, I put together alien rhythm sections of players that reside in different continents, or I get artists who wouldn't normally record together in one place. That's the Fun Machine way." For Yerba's debut album, President Alien (Fun Machine/Razor & Tie/BMG), Levin invited friends he's been collaborating with for years from various musical scenes: singer/bassist Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Brazilian singer/songwriter/percussionist Carlinhos Brown, downtown guitarist Marc Ribot, keyboardist Money Mark, jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Dead Prez rapper Sticman, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummers Horacio "El Negro" Hernández and Terreon "Tank" Gully, among many others. "A lot of the songs are pieced together like a puzzle with different artists that came through. It's not like a traditional song; they were written as blocks of melodies and grooves. Each section is interchangeable," says Dré, who is also debuting his label Fun Machine Records with the album. "But one thing's for sure I try to create an environment where everyone's personality comes out. Everyone's put into a stylistic vortex, going into one end and coming out the other with the Yerba sound." With so many possibilities, both music fans and critics quickly embraced the group after taking just one sonic dose at one of its contagious live shows. Added to the William Morris Agency's prestigious roster in early 2002, the group went on to play at multiple summer festivals such as Central Park Summerstage, The Hollywood Bowl, The Newport Jazz Festival and Montreal's Nuits D'Afrique. Even The Dave Matthews Band got hooked immediately, inviting them to open at several arena dates After attending one of their earliest showcases in New York, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times hailed Yerba Buena as "one of New York's best new dance bands, mixing up the Latin boogaloo of the 60's, Cuban religious music, some American soul and Fela-like Afrobeat. It's a history of the transmission of Yoruban culture in a nutshell, and it's a good party." President Alien plays with the lyrical quality of the official status of permanent residents in the United States, what's scrolled across every legal immigrant's Green Card, "Resident Alien." It also captures Levin's vision perfectly, having fun with the notion of a global tribe gathering in the music capital of the world. "It's really just all about one nation under a drum," he says.

Group Members Andres Levin - Guitar, Electronics, MD Xiomara Laugart - Vocals Pedrito Martinez – Percussion, Vocals CuCu Diamantes - Vocals El Chino – Rhymes, Vocals Ron Blake – Saxophone, Flute, Vocals Rashawn Ross – Trumpet, Rhymes, Vocals

Press Reviews New York hasn't developed anything noteworthy in the Latin-music galaxy since the days of the Fania All-Stars in the '70s, but here come Yerba Buena. With their debut, President Alien, the seven-person collective has produced an album of such aural ingenuity, such mishmashing of dance styles, and such just-plain-ol' funky fun it should permanently rouse the Big Manzana from its post-Sept. 11 doldrums. Combining Caribbean cadences with hip-hop reflections and African beats that would've made Fela Kuti proud, President Alien is a relentless recording that evolves frenetically as each song progresses. Sardonic flutes hump brave mambo horns that ride never-stopping percussions pounding to an orgasmic conclusion on virtually every track - and then it starts again. The results are dirty and sweaty, glamorous tropical traditions gritted for New York's urban wonderland. Instrumentally, Yerba Buena stray little from a strong Afro-Cuban foundation, although they remember to make stops in Puerto Rico (a joyous "Electric Boogaloo"), Colombia (the postmodern cumbia "Solito me Quedo"), and every bass plunk Chocolate City ever inspired. Fronting this swirl are powerhouse vocals shouted by all members: they alternate between blazing raps, Santanera wails and goofy asides ("All the world, stick your tongue out!" they cheerily urge on "Solito me Quedo"). But it's the husky musings of chanteuse Xiomara Laugart on the bitterly bombastic rumba "Wassamatter Baby?" that bring out the album's message of treating broken souls through a massive dose of sound. President Alien is the best relief package the city they love could have ever wished for. -- Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly (Orange County, CA) -- May 2003 Minty fresh: the new Latin fusion of Yerba Buena Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain. Andres Levin is Latin music's Professor Marvel, the studio wizard behind such diverse groups as Aterciopelados, El Gran Silencio, Arto Lindsay, Jorge Moreno and Ely Guerra. But his latest and perhaps greatest creation is the Latin music supergroup Yerba Buena. Mixing African-based Latin styles such as rumba, son, soca and cumbia along with American hip-hop and funk, Yerba Buena represents a distinctly urban sound--one that Newsday, among others, has hailed as "an entirely new form of Latin music." Though Levin is best known as an arranger, composer and producer, Yerba Buena gives him an opportunity to step out from behind the control board. "I had been thinking about creating a group for many years," said Levin, 33, a native of Venezuela who came to the United States in the mid-1980s. "I had produced lots of soul, hip-hop, Latin and Anglo artists. But I wanted to try a marriage of styles that hadn't been done before." The core of the group's sound, however, hails from Mother Africa. "I focused on the triangle from Havana, Nigeria and New York," Levin said of Yerba Buena (whose name means "good herb," "mint" or Spanish slang for marijuana). "Historically it's the most logical base. We're tracing back history and exploring where these [Latin] rhythms came from." Drawing on his extensive music industry contacts, he recruited lead vocalist Xiomara Laugart; percussionist Pedro Martinez; vocalists Eduardo "El Chino" Rodriguez and Cucu Diamantes (the stage name of Ileana Padron, Levin's wife); saxophonist Ron Blake, and trumpeter Rashwan Ross. Levin, the group's music director, guitarist and programmer, envisioned Yerba Buena as a free-form collective, with guest artists dropping in on studio sessions and live sets. So for "President Alien," the band's debut album released last month on Razor & Tie, Yerba Buena is joined by jazz trumpeter Roy Hargove, vocalist-bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, guitarist Marc Ribot, flutist Dave Valentin, keyboardist Money Mark, rapper Stic, Brazilian percussionist-vocalist Carlinhos Brown and bassist Sebastian Steinberg (formerly of Soul Coughing). It's a veritable United Nations of all-star musicians. "That's the way I work, layering and putting rhythm sections of people who wouldn't usually work together," Levin said. "One of the drummers we originally met in Nigeria, and then he showed up on my doorstep in New York. So we put him to work." Over the last 18 months, the group honed its sound through club and concert dates while opening for such diverse artists as the Dave Matthews Band, Celia Cruz and Ray Charles. "The band developed a lot during the making of the record," Levin said. "Some joined halfway through the process. 'President Alien' represents a year and a half of people who flowed through my studio." About that title: it plays on the term "resident alien"--an IRS designation for individuals who are not U.S. citizens but have a green card (work permit). "We came up with a long list of a hundred-plus names for our first disc," Levin said. "I loved the triple play on words. It has many meanings at the same time; it's not directly political, but it can be perceived as such." Besides, he added with a laugh, "Most of the people in our group have their green cards." Many have compared the Yerba Buena sound with the heyday of the Fania All-Stars in the '70s, when Cuban, Puerto Rican and Nuyorican musicians developed a new fusion that would become known as salsa. "There are a lot of parallels," he said. "Yerba Buena is a very musician-driven project. Like in jazz, there are a lot of solos. That's something that doesn't happen much anymore." Despite Levin's varied production skills, he views Yerba Buena as a live animal, not a studio creation. "Live, it takes on a whole new shape," he said. "The whole band takes off, and it feels more like a rock band. It's controlled chaos, Latin style." Whatever you call Yerba Buena's sound, it does not adhere to the usual Latin music formulas. "Latin music is so stagnant these days," he said. "It's not the fault of the artists. Most of it is so radio-driven." Levin knows all about the influence of radio programmers. It's an artistic land mine that he's tried to sidestep in his production work over the last dozen years (his credits also include David Byrne, the B-52's, Chaka Khan, Tina Turner and Ndegeocello). If Yerba Buena, a creation of his New York-based production house Fun Machine, "works out in a commercial way, it could open doors" and help break down barriers in the hidebound Latin music world. "I hope artists will gravitate toward it." Though he's happy to share the spotlight for a while, Levin intends to keep up his studio work. "I'm not going to stop producing, ever." He's working on Latin superstar Paulina Rubio's next album and producing a live version of his all-star tribute disc to Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, "Red Hot + Riot," at the Hollywood Bowl on July 20. But for now, Yerba Buena remains his priority. "A lot of the alternative Latin movement has been geared to rock and electronica," he said. "I thinkeveryone's gotta come together. That's where Yerba Buena comes in." -- Chicago Sun-Times, Entertainment -- 5/21/03 Latin dance music is in trouble. Salsa is in a creative and commercial slump. Merengue now tends to be so bass and production heavy it sounds like house music in Spanish. Even timba, Cuba's fiery dance music, has become formulaic, while the combination of politics and a sound that won't fit commercial radio has kept it unheard in the United States. Enter Yerba Buena, a band that's re-inventing Latin dance music into something both fresh and funkily familiar. The debut CD, President Alien, mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms, Nigerian Afro-beat, hip-hop, funk, soca, and cumbia, channeling most of the good African-rooted dance music of the past 50 years into one natural sound. Imagine Parliament-Funkadelic in contemporary Havana. They built their chops with two years of playing in New York, acquiring a reputation as the city's hottest live band. Yerba Buena is the creation of Andres Levin, a producer who has worked with funk (Chaka Khan), rock en español (El Gran Silencio) and art-rock (Arto Lindsay). Levin came up with the concept of Yerba Buena (literally "good herb" in Spanish, it can mean either mint or marijuana) after producing records in Cuba, Nigeria, and Brazil with his Cuban wife Ileanna Padron in 2000. He put together the group to combine all the musics he loved, convinced that the African rhythms at their roots could bring them together. "It's a necessary marriage of styles that hadn't been done," Levin said last month, as he headed into rehearsal. "The only way was to create this band as a vehicle and really express that marriage of rhythms." The group has a heavy Cuban influence; lead singer Xiomara Laugart, percussionist Pedro Martinez, singers and occasional songwriters Eduardo "El Chino" Rodriguez and Padron, who uses the stage name Cucu Diamantes, all hail from Cuba. Laugart's deep-throated,intense singing is pure Cuban -- several songs on President Alien use Yoruban chants and santeria drum rhythms. But there are also bass and drums straight out of 1970's funk, rap, boogaloo, cumbia, dancehall, even a bit of Middle Eastern. Among the guest artists are singer Meshell Ndegeocello, legendary Brazilian funk musician Carlinhos Brown, rapper Stic of dead prez, and such jazz luminaries as trumpeter Roy Hargove and flautist Dave Valentin. A phone interview with Levin turns into a kind of verbal jam session, with the phone being passed from one band member to another and the language switching from English to Spanish. "Yerba Buena is for all tastes, for whoever likes to dance or listen to good music," says Martinez. "Each of us has their culture that dominates, and we keep on learning the music of each one. It's real crazy, but with order." "The most important thing is to let things be as natural as possible, and just let them develop," says Ron Blake, a Bahamian native and jazz saxophonist who does the group's horn arrangements and injects soca and dancehall influences from the West Indies. "Music from West Africa and the Caribbean is so interconnected. It sounds complicated, but everything fits together naturally." Their agent is Michel Vega, who got his start managing the comeback of Mario Bauza, one of the key figures blending American jazz and Afro-Cuban music in the 1940s and '50s. Vega, who now works for William Morris Agency and took on the unsigned Yerba Buena after only half a dozen live dates, believes they're making breakthroughs similar to those Bauza made over 50 years ago. " "I had never heard such a terrific mix of authentic Afro-Cuban rhythms with electronica and hip-hop," he says. Yerba Buena's sound developed onstage, in sweaty, improvisational club gigs where the music changed constantly, and singers doubled as dancers. The group has earned enthusiastic reactions opening for artists as disparate as Ray Charles, the Dave Matthews Band, and Celia Cruz. But instead of trying to get signed by a major label, they opted for tiny independent Razor & Tie. Levin says the long, loose incubation period and the independent label were calculated to leave the band free to develop naturally. That's a revolutionary attitude in an era when major labels fine-tune everything from an artist's hairstyle to choice of songs for maximum commercial appeal. But Levin seems too fascinated by what he's doing to worry about what people will think. "There's the beat that your heart and body understand and the stuff that makes your mind explode," he says. "Ultimately it's about putting people on their feet and putting something new in their minds." -- Jordan Levin, Miami Herald -- 5/12/2003

Location New York, NY - USA

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