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When:
July 5, 2019
6 – 9:30
Where:
Spirit of Music Garden
Grant Park
601 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago
Salsa! SummerDance on the Friday of the long July 4th holiday weekend brings Mixed Motion Art Dance Academy giving dance lessons accompanied by the music of Afinca'o. Here, Picture this Post (PTP) catches up with Afinca'o ‘s Joe Mende (JM).
(PTP) Please tell Picture this Post readers about your music and your collaboration with Mixed Motion Art Dance Academy?
(JM) We focus on displaying a variety of original music as well as covers that people will recognize. Our goal when creating original music is to make it memorable and danceable. We have not worked with Mixed Motion Art Dance Academy before but are well aware of their talent. Seeing as though this is our first time working together, we have a treat in store for you all, so make sure you’re there! Our set is usually put together to kick it off with something energetic, fill in with some romantic stuff, and then finish off with a bang!
When did your group start playing together? How did you come together? How much do you rehearse together? Do you all have other “day jobs”?
Afinca’o was formed in 2007 with the intention of creating original music to record and hopefully have that music be played all over the world.
The makeup of the band was achieved by assembling Chicago’s young but accomplished talent into one band. Part of the energy/chemistry we have also comes from the fact that we’re all close friends…or I should say, brothers. We have our moments where we get on each other’s nerves here and there, but once we hit the stage, we know what to do and how to bring it!
We rehearse occasionally if there is new music or we want to add something to what we’re already doing.
Some of us have day jobs ranging from teachers, electricians, and toto dealers, but some are full-time musicians. We don’t have people in the band that simply pick up their instrument to make noise when someone calls, it’s a group of accomplished musicians who are dedicated to being the best they can be and constantly work on honing their craft!
How many musicians are in your group? Types of instruments? Vocals?
There are 10 musicians in the group--
Lead vocalist: Renier Rosario
Bandleader/trombonist- Joe Mende
Trumpets: Victor Garcia & Carlos Aquino
Bari Sax: Roy McGrath
Timbales: Brian Rivera
Congas: Danny Feliciano
Bongos: Richie “Chíri Gonbó” Santiago
Piano: Mike Rosario
Bass: Oscar Lopez
Have you performed at Summer Dance before? How do you adapt your set to a dance lesson/outdoor venue type situation?
Yes, we’ve been fortunate enough to have performed at Summer Dance several times. We adapt our set by having a variety of songs that people can dance to, with a variety of tempos. Some people love dancing smooth and sexy, while other like dancing fast and wild…we try to keep everyone in mind!
Do you mainly perform in Chicago? Do you have any gigs in the next few months?
Our hometown is where we do a majority of our work but we are always working outside of the city as well. We’ve traveled all over the Midwest and Canada. In fact, we just finished closing the show at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival 2 weeks ago. Our upcoming performances include
Masada- 7/6
Taste of Chicago- 7/12
Veggie Fest- 8/11
What’s most fun about a performance like this?
Being downtown with a huge crowd, full of energy, and seeing people sing/dance to our music makes everything we do worthwhile. Something about seeing people move to what we’ve created is a special feeling that can’t be reproduced in any way. We feed off that energy and it makes us want to play that much better!
Please check out our website at to keep up to For more information visit the Afinca’o website
Tickets:
Free! No tickets required!
Photos courtesy of Afinca'o
