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Yerba Buena at Miller for single performance

Oct. 14, 2004

KALAMAZOO--Afro-Cuban-funk collective Yerba Buena takes the stage at Miller Auditorium for a single concert Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance at Western Michigan University range from $10 to $25.

Yerba Buena's music is a blend of African-rooted Latin music with hip-hop, Motown soul, Nigerian Afrobeat, with a dash of Middle Eastern themes played by an international crew of star musicians representing the new sounds of New York City's streets. Both music fans and critics alike have quickly embraced the group after taking just one sonic dose of one of its contagious live shows.

Whether opening arena dates for the Dave Matthews band or playing multiple summer festival dates such as Central Park Summerstage, The Hollywood Bowl or The Newport Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena unleashed a new sound that the New York Times called "a musicologist's dream", The Los Angeles Times decreed "the vanguard of Latin music from New York."

The lineup includes vocalists Xiomara Laugart, Cucu Diamantes, and El Chino, percussionist Pedro Martinez, reed player Ron Blake, trumpeter Rashawn Ross, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, drummers Tank Gully and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez. Yerba Buena released their debut album, President Alien, in 2003.

Tickets are available by through the Miller Auditorium Ticket office at (269) 387-2300 or toll free (800) 228-9858, or on the Web at <www.millerauditorium.com>. Ticket are also available at the Epic Center Box Office in downtown Kalamazoo.

The Oct. 21 performance of Yerba Buena is sponsored by WKFR 103.3 FM.

Media contact: Tracey Lawie, 269 387-2309, tracey.lawie@wmich.edu

WMU News
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