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Urban Caribbean
Yerba Buena
| USA
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 Miguel Bose, Aterciopelados, Los Amigos Invisibles, El Gran Silencio, Ely Guerra, Carlinhos Brown, and Paulina Rubio, 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 and NYC (think Fania All Stars or Benny Moré), 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.
Co-Founder and Vocalist Cucu Diamantes, along with percussions maestro/Yoruban chanter Pedrito Martinez and distinctive singer Xiomara Laugart take turns leading their audiences into frenzied dancing. Greek Bassist Andreou Panagiotis along with the brilliant cuban-born violinist Alfredo de la Fe and NYC drummer Skoota Warner 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 with Cucu Diamantes, 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. For their second recording, Island Life (Fun Machine/Razor & Tie/BMG) we also find historic collaborations with John Leguizamo, Peret, Orishas and Diego el Cigala, 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."
Island Life
The brainchild of acclaimed producer Andres Levin, New York’s Latin-funk collective Yerba Buena came together as an outgrowth of Levin’s extensive discography, including work as principal producer of the Red Hot Organization’s applauded Red Hot + Riot album (year-end TOP-10 in Rolling Stone, TIME & The New York Times). That intense critical praise was just as instant and far-reaching with Yerba Buena’s 2003 Grammy nominated debut album President Alien. The group’s super-infectious live-band party feel totally changed everyone’s idea of new Latin groove with a mind-bendingly original, Afro-Cuban/Afrobeat/hiphop attack.
Even with all the high praise for the first album’s innovative sound, Levin and group cofounder Ilena Padron (aka CuCu Diamnates) were not satisfied with playing it safe and serving up more of the same. With its 13 contagious new tracks, Yerba Buena’s new concept album Island Life is an ambitious urban-tropical synthesis that won’t let you stop dancing. “I always want the Yerba Buena sound to be evolving,” said Levin, a/k/a Dre taking a break from the mixing board at his “Fun Machine” studio. “Yerba Buena will always be about Afro-Cuban roots, but this record has more gypsy and cumbia influences – sounds I’ve heard around the world and that I’m now hearing across New York as well. I think the confluence of different immigrant music in New York is a great avenue for pop culture to explore.
Since Yerba Buena has always channeled the spirit of tropical island rhythms with the energy of New York, it’s fitting that the new album is titled Island Life. “I always thought it was funny when I would hear people in New York say that they need to ‘get away to an island’ – forgetting that they were already living on one,” explains Levin. “With Manhattan’s growing Spanglish soul, the island music is right here on our own streets – whether it’s meringue, reggaeton or even steel drums. Island Life is a state of mind, and a way to express my love affair with New York City.”
Just as Yerba Buena’s acclaimed live shows are known as a place where a wealth of eclectic special guests often join in, it seemed natural to continue that spirit on Island Life. “To me, Yerba Buena is like a caravan, and I conceived this record as a sort of stage revue or film soundtrack to the urban travels of that caravan- with many cameo appearances from special musicians we find along the way.” This staggeringly diverse lineup of guests include John Leguizamo, El Cigala, Les Nubians, Fulanito, Orishas, Joe Bataan, M1 of Dead Prez, Peret & Ile Aye, Gogol Bordello, Rosie DePalma & more. Whether musically, or vocally, each guest is a character actor bringing something fresh to the Yerba Buena production, like comedian John Leguizamo as the “Sugar Daddy” without a walletful of cash, vibing with Les Nubians and a sample of the late, great Celia Cruz. Between-tracks interludes feature guest narrators like actor Ajay Naidu, as Dr. Aneub Abrey (Yerba Buena spelled backwards), dispensing advice on how to cope with day-to-day island life in Manhattan. The presence of the awe-inspiring flamenco singer Diego El Cigala, the legendary gypsy rumba vocalist Peret, and Pedro Almodóvar fixture Rosi De Palma, gives some tracks a decidedly flamenco-fusion feel. But Levin also keeps the progressive urban flavor out front by showcasing rappers M1 of Dead Prez, Fulanito, and Orishas, as well as Spanish Harlem boogaloo pioneer Joe Bataan.
As impressive as the array of guests is on Island Life, they always seem to perfectly compliment the core members of Yerba Buena. Vocalists CuCu Diamantes, Xiomara Laugart and percussionist/vocalist Pedrito Martinez engage in solos and harmonies even more ecstatic than President Alien’s and a large part of the joy of this album is eveling in the uncommon texture of their singing. This is sublimely supported by the foundation laid down by bassist Andreu Panagiotis and drummers Terreon Gully/Skoota Warner, as well as the distinctive Yerba Buena horns courtesy of Ron Blake, Rashawn Ross and Brian Lynch. The lineup that made President Alien swing so hard will leave dancers in need of oxygen this time out.
As much as Yerba Buena makes your body pop and swing though, the group’s songs stand up on their own as elegant word games and melodic mini-masterpieces. “El Burrito,” which appears in two versions, the standard one and the Peret/Ilê Aye reprise, is a gypsy cumbia parable about the drama and karma of life. “Bilingual Girl” is a boogaloo which trades on the sexually suggestive double meaning of pursuing multilingual ladies…’cause two tongues are better than one”. “Candela” uses an Afro-Cuban bassline so funky it would have kept Sly Stone awake at night while Yerba Buena’s singers seamlessly flow with Orishas in paying tribute to the progressive Cuban fusion masters Los Van Van. “La Vida La Life” tells it to you straight: life is not black and white and don’t confuse love with hypocrisy. “Te Estoy Amando” is a rare cover of an ancient hit by the almost-forgotten flamenco-pop duo Las Grecas, while “Bellydancer” is a song that brings to life the spirit of a gypsy meringue celebration. Even our president, George W., makes an appearance talking about rumors he’s seen “on the Internets” on the satirical “Bla Bla Bla,” a song that also skewers record label execs and anyone else who just “talks too much shit”.
Even though Yerba Buena is going in so many exciting and progressive directions on Island Life, its basic mission remains the same. This is a band that holds on to whatever brings you closer to the heart, what lets your passion fly, whether you’re crazy in love, or just plain possessed on the dance floor. They are Latin-fusion ambassadors whose hipshaking desires want to play Afrobeat one moment, cumbia another, with hip-hop to follow, and throwing down a Yoruban chant or two. Finding that music throughout their island of Manhattan, Island Life gets into your blood and won’t let you go. Put simply, the album is about Levin and the members of Yerba Buena living and breathing the immigrant music scene of New York, and sharing as Dre puts it, “a multicultural soundtrack for Urbanistic Island Living.”
Yerba Buena have toured in Europe several times in 2004, 2006 and 2007, with great success. In 2007 Wrasse Records released Follow me in Europe a compilation of Island Life and President Alien.
