Back By Popular Demand!
Bobi Céspedes
Saturday July 18, 2009
$18 adv. $20 dr. - 8pm
For advance tickets click here.
Join us and Bobi Céspedes for an evening of Afro-Cuban music, danzones, rumbas, boleros, and sones with Marco Diaz on piano; Saul Sierra on bass; Sandy Perez on congas & bata; Jose Roberto on guitar; Julio Perez on bongo & timbales; and Bobi Céspedes on vocals. First set is concert style seating followed by an open dance floor for the second set.
Afro-Cuban Songstress
Gladys "Bobi" Cespedes is an acclaimed folkloric singer, dancer and percussionist; she is a recording artist, theatrical director, storyteller, accomplished historian, lecturer, and cultural arts teacher. She sings in three languages: English, Spanish, and Lucumi, the mother tongue of the descendants of the Yorubas of West Africa in Cuba. She makes and plays a variety of authentic folkloric percussion instruments, including the Chekere, a beautiful beaded calabash gourd. As a storyteller, she weaves the tales of the Orisas - deities of the Yoruba pantheon - in fluid word and gesture and illustrates the poetic, reverent vision of God and nature that is her ancestral heritage. As a dancer, she gives color, form and exuberant life to the intricate, polyrhythmic music of the Caribbean. As a priestess and IyanIfa in the Yoruba-Lucumi spiritual tradition, she carries unbroken the cord of spiritual tradition and inspiration which joins the past with the present. For over thirty years, Bobi has been directly involved in the preservation and teaching of Afro-Cuban culture and traditions.
Bobi is a treasure and her new CD Patakin a delight! A native of Cuba, she brings to her art a lifetime of profound immersion in Afro-Cuban traditions such as the son, rumba, bolero and Yoruba-based culture. She is unique voice that has earned the respect of her peers and the hearts of her loyal fans in the San Francsico Bay Area, where she has made her home for the last 30 years.
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