Tato Torres &
YERBABUENA
Boricua ("Puerto Rican") Roots Music
A new Boricua generation is embracing their traditional musical expressions.
The work of Tato Torres & YERBABUENA is the product of everything that
leads to a contemporary Puerto Rican musical experience.
Tato Torres
YERBABUENA (one word) is a group of individuals who come together to
play the music that they love under the musical direction of
singer-composer-musician Tato Torres. It is composed of musicians,
singers and dancers from the New York City area, who share an intense passion
for the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
The last thing that will come to your mind while at a YERBABUENA event
is that you're watching a show, it feels more like a cross between a jam in
the park, a spiritual ceremony and a family reunion. They convey wholeness and
harmony, and their music is moving beyond belief. The music they play is, by
nature, participatory. Whether bomba, plena or música jíbara,
it's all interactive. And being witness to their vibrant sounds and the deep
joy that making music together gives them, just leaves the audience no choice
but to join in the chorus or dance for the drums. After a YERBABUENA
session, you'll be uplifted, tired and happy.
The concept of YERBABUENA developed during the summer of 1999 at the
renowned Rincón Criollo Cultural Center (aka "La Casita de Chema") in
the heart of the South Bronx, and has been growing since. It developed out of
the need for cultural expression, redefinition and re-appropriation of the
Puerto Rican musical heritage by a new generation of Boricuas. For a long
time, Puerto Rican musical traditions have been constricted by commercial
culture and generally limited to holidays and "folkloric" presentations.YERBABUENA
is an important part of the struggle to develop and promote identity through
living Puerto Rican musical traditions such as bomba, plena and
música jíbara.
While well-recognized Boricuas like Willie Colón, Marc Anthony and Ricky
Martin are known worldwide for their "Latin" flavor, groups like Plena Libre,
Los Pleneros de la 21, Viento de Agua, and now YERBABUENA, have been
changing the way people listen to traditional Puerto Rican music in New York
City and beyond.
YERBABUENA reclaims the Puerto Rican music often branded as
"folkloric," refusing to accept its packaging as frozen-in-time museum pieces,
only vaguely connected to contemporary culture. Instead, they make gorgeous
music that incorporates past and present. YERBABUENA taps right into
the core of who Boricuas are as a People.
YERBABUENA
pronunced: YER-buh BWAY-nuh
yerbabuena, hierbabuena, n., f. : wild spearmint, mint
yerba, hierba, n., f. : herb : grass : weed
buena, n., f., adj. : good
Note: the Spanish name "yerba-buena" ("good herb") is used to
describe several varieties of mint, including Satureja douglasii, Satureja
chamissonis, and Mentha spicata (spearmint)
