Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars: The Soul Of Cuba

Justin Steyer
/
KPLU
Juan de Marcos (center) and the Afro-Cuban All Stars performing live on KPLU from the KCTS 9 studios on Feburay 5, 2013. See more photos

On a recent visit to Seattle, Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars stopped by for a three-song studio session with KPLU in the KCTS 9 studios.  How good was it? 

Well, as host, Abe Beeson says, “If this music doesn’t move you, you’ve got no place to go.”

Watch the full interview and performance:

http://youtu.be/ayKsqYLvE0g
Song list:

  1. Dundumbanza (Arsenio Rodriguez)
  2. El Son de Baloy (Felix Baloy)
  3. El Cuarto de Tula (Sergio Siaba)

Many music lovers know Juan de Marcos as the man who teamed up with guitarist, Ry Cooder, to create The Buena Vista Social Club

But de Marcos was busy celebrating the history of Cuban music long before Cooder arrived upon the scene. 

In fact, concurrent with Buena Vista project, de Marcos was working on recording an album with his own band, The Afro-Cuban All Stars

The orchestra now contains expatriate Cuban musicians from around the world, young and old alike. 

The studio session was held in the KCTS 9 Seattle studios. Following the live KPLU broadcast, the band and Abe stuck around to film a segment that aired on the first episode of KCTS 9's new show PIE.

You can also find our Studio Sessions available as a video podcast in iTunes!

http://youtu.be/fuz9N_iHPUM

Justin joined KNKX in 2009 as the station's first Multimedia Manager. In this role, Justin helped to produce multimedia content, and implement systems and procedures in efforts to transform KNKX from a traditional broadcast station into a multi-platform media organization.
Abe grew up in Western Washington, a 3rd generation Seattle/Tacoma kid. It was as a student at Pacific Lutheran University that Abe landed his first job at KNKX, editing and producing audio for news stories. It was a Christmas Day shift no one else wanted that gave Abe his first on-air experience which led to overnights, then Saturday afternoons, and started hosting Evening Jazz in 1998.