ORQUESTA BEMBE - radio vinilemania web-radio Latin - Jazz

ORQUESTA BEMBE (SALSA BIG BAND)

This is orquesta Bembe, a formation of twenty musicians playing authentic salsa music. Orquesta Bembe started in 2001 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as a jam session for professional musicians from mixed culteres, with the purpose to play authentic salsa music on a high level. Travelling back and forth from Puerto Rico to New York in the booming years of salsa music gave the director and founder of Bembe, Fernando Luis Garcia, the experience to recreate today the 'on fire' sound of those years and pass his knowledge and flavour on to other musicians. Under his guidance the jam session grew out to be a professional big band with a repertoire including all styles like rumba, guaguancó, cha cha cha, bolero, bomba, merengue and latin jazz; songs from all the great 'masters' of salsa from the fifties up till now and original tunes by Fernando Luis Garcia. The band keeps innovating and adding new tunes to the repertoire, in an effort to do justice to the originals and their composers,by bringing out the 'authentic fire' of salsa music. Being a 20 piece orchestra makes orquesta Bembe unique in the salsa scene, its reminiscent sound and overwhelming rythms are garanteed to make any audience dance. The founder and director of the band, Fernando Luis Garcia, studied classical trumpet at Rutkers University New Jersey and did his bachelors degree at the conservatory of music in Puerto Rico where he became a member of the famous symphony orchestra of Pablo Casal. He played the first trumpet with Rafael Cortijos' popular salsa band and with the Apollo sound orchestra. In Philadelphia he did his masters degree in classical trumpet and played jazz trumpet with the Philly Joe Jones band. Since 1985 he has been living in the Netherlands , where he first studied Jazz music at the Sweelinck Conservatory and later Baroque music. During that time he worked as a singer for the famous Platters, touring Europe, and he did the Boney M show for one year. He plays the principal trumpet for the Amstelveen Symphony Orchestra since 1990 and is founder and soloist of the 'Barocco Vivace' baroque ensemble since 1997. For information look at the website: www.orquesta-bembe.com or contact FLG productions, Graafschapstraat 15 1h 1079PE Amsterdam tel.: +31 20 6447309 e-mail: korea_garcia@hotmail.com BIOGRAPHY FERNANDO LUIS GARCIA Fernando Luis Garcia was born the 10th of May, 1950, in Philadelphia, U.S.A, of Puerto Rican parents. He grew up in a 'black neighbourhood', where jazz music was the common sound in the streets. When he was five years old, he already knew he was going to be a trumpet player and started blowing the instrument in primary school. At the age of seven he formed his own trio, playing music in people’s basements with a guitar player and a singer. When he was ten years old, his family sent him and his sister to Puerto Rico, to stay at a farm, which wasn't at all what Fernando and his sister wished for; they went to the capital San Juan where Fernando got into dancing for the national television channel eleven, through dance competitions. At the age of twelve, his family took him out of it, as he was making too much money and living too much of an adult live for his age; they took him to New Jersey where he attended elementary school. He was the lead trumpet player in the school band and put a salsa band together by himself during that time. At the age of sixteen he started playing trumpet for 'The International House' which included 'The Stylistics and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. From 1970 till 1972 he studied classical trumpet at the Rutgers University with Eline Frazier. During that time he spend his free time jamming in the places in New York with local salsa bands and jam sessions where people like Joe Cuba and Willy Colon, who became famous salsa musicians, used to perform. Although this was something he liked to do, he considered his classical education more important and continued with his studies this time in Puerto Rico where he studied from 1975 till 1979 in the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico and graduated with a macumlaude bachelor’s degree. In the second year of the conservatory he started playing with Pablo Casal's symphony and the philharmonic, where he stayed for three years. Next to his studies he played trumpet in salzuelas and operetas, performed with local and international salsa bands like Puerto Rico All Stars, Oro Negro, Apollo Sound, Rafael Cortijo and Justo Betancourt and worked on his own as a soloist and bandleader. From 1980 till 1982 he did his masters degree at the Temple University in Philadelphia and played with the Philly Joe Jones band next to having his own Latin jazz bands. After this he went back to Puerto Rico to teach 'difficult children' English and maths through music, living for about three years on his father's farm. In march 1985 he came to Amsterdam with his Dominican girlfriend to look for new opportunities in his musical carrier and he found them: he started off playing jazz with Joke Bruis and Wim Koopman for Avro television. From 1987 till 1988 he studied jazz trumpet at the Sweelinck conservatory in Amsterdam with Charles Green. From 1995 till 1997 he toured Europe as a singer with the Platters and from 1997 till 1998 he did the Boney M show in 'Es Foguero', Mallorca. In 1994 he started studies of Baroque music on a postgraduate level in the same conservatory with Friedeman Immer. Up till the present he studies this music on historical instruments and he plays with the Amstelveen Symphony since 1990. Since 2000 he has been directing and performing with his own Baroque ensemble, ‘Barocco Vivace’. As a director and musician he has been active in different music styles, he played with the Boogy Woogy band from Jaap Dekker, he formed directed the Boogy Jazz band, the 'Los Professores' salsa band and in 2001 he started his salsa project 'Orquesta Bembe' which started as a workshop for professional musicians and is now a performing orchestra consisting of twenty musicians. In 2002 the first c.d.‘Te acuerdas?’ was recorded and in 2004 the second ‘The Bronx Affairs’ was completed. The third cd 'Carnavales' is a smooth mix of authentic New York salsa, Latin Jazz and Reggaeton.

VIDEOS

ORQUESTA BEMBE - REGGAEMONTON

FERNANDO LUIS GARCIA, RICHIE FLORES, ENDEL DUENO - PUERTO RICO 1977

ORQUESTA BEMBE - LIVE