{"id":183666,"date":"2026-04-02T18:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183666\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:53:07","slug":"bobby-sanabria-multiverse-big-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183666\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BOBBY SANABRIA
MULTIVERSE BIG BAND<\/p>\n

\u201cARSENIO AND BEYOND
Live at the BRONX MUSIC HALL\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming April 10th<\/p>\n

BOBBY SANABRIA\u2019S musical lineage reaches back to every major figure in the history of Latin Jazz. As a master drummer\/percussionist, he has performed and recorded with luminaries like Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Chico O\u2019Farrill, Candido, Marco Rizo, Francisco Aguabella, Patato, Paquito D\u2019Rivera and more including the genres founder, the legendary Mario Bauz\u00e1 where he was the drummer for Maestro Bauza\u2019s critically acclaimed orchestra. His visionary concept of his own \u201cMultiverse Big Band,\u201d inspired by the writings of Mexican Octavio Paz and futurist Don Ellis, has brought forth an orchestra that can switch from a concert jazz band to an electrifying dance band at a moment\u2019s notice and has achieved critical acclaim for its electrifying performances. It has yielded Grammy nominations for all the Multiverse Big Band\u2019s recordings: Afro-Cuban Dream: Live & In Clave!!!, Big Band Urban Folktales, Multiverse, West Side Story Reimagined (Live), and Vox Humana (Live).<\/p>\n

LISTEN to Samples of the New Project HERE<\/a>!<\/p>\n

ARSENIO AND BEYOND pays tribute to a musician who holds the same position in Cuban based dance music (what is today called salsa), that Louis Armstrong holds in jazz \u2013 both were transformative. ARSENIO RODRIGUEZ \u2013 El Ciego Maravilloso\/The Blind Marvel \u2013 (born, Matanzas, Cuba in 1911\u2013 died, Los Angeles, CA 1970) was a virtuoso of the mandolin-like sounding Cuban tres (a guitar with 3 sets of double stings) whose innovations completely changed the course of musical history. He was the first to add the conga drum to band performance in Cuba, thus acknowledging the music\u2019s West, Central African rhythmic roots creating what became known as son montuno. Rodriguez was the first to add a pianist (Lili Martinez) to a band that played son, the musical root of today\u2019s salsa. Arsenio then would add multiple trumpets playing horns lines that intersected in layers at the music\u2019s central rhythmic keystone, the clave. Thus, creating the mambo horn concept. And he would explore adding exciting stop time rhythmic breaks (cierres) to challenge the dancers and musicians, a device that has become part and parcel in modern day Afro-Cuban\/Latin jazz and salsa arranging. As Maestro Mario Bauz\u00e1 once stated, \u201cWithout Arsenio, there is no salsa!\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenio\u2019s music is finally framed by contemporary forward-thinking big band Latin jazz-oriented arrangements.<\/p>\n

Classic Arsenio compositions, TUMBA Y BONG\u00d3, LA CARTERA, LA VIDA ES UN SUE\u00d1O, NO QUIERO, YO NACI EN AFRICA, EL ELEMENTO DEL BRONX are given the 21st century Multiverse Big Band treatment with forward thinking multi-movement arrangements featuring the vocal talents of Cuba\u2019s Gerardo Contino and the Bronx\u2019s own multi-lingual powerhouse Jennifer Jade Ledesna, as well as the virtuosity of the players in a band. Beyond this the influence of Arsenio in the modern day is exemplified by a new work LA FRUTA, by Takao Heisho and the inclusion of music by three of Arsenio\u2019s followers, Juanchin Ramirez\u2019s ANABACOA, Alejandro Rodriguez\u2019s MULATO RUMBERO and the ubiquitous Tito Puente\u2019s tribute to Arsenio, MAMBO DIABLO.<\/p>\n

Supervision of all arrangements, rhythm section and all vocal arrangements by Bobby Sanabria
Recorded live at the BRONX MUSIC HALL, 438 E. 163rd St, Bronx, NY
Saturday March 15, 2025<\/p>\n

Head Recording Engineer: Michael Pirate<\/p>\n

Assistant Recording Engineers: Alexey Menkov, Matt Barba, Jimmy Kavetas<\/p>\n

MUSICIANS: RHYTHM: Bobby Sanabria \u2013 musical director, drums, whistle, wind chimes, background vocals,Oreste Abrantes \u2013 congas, lead and background vocals, Matthew Gonzalez \u2013 bong\u00f3\/cencerro, background vocals,Takao Heisho \u2013 guiro macho, maracas, claves, gongui, vibra-slap, Darwin Noguera \u2013 piano, Leo Traversa \u2013 electric bass SAXOPHONES: David Dejesus \u2013 lead alto, soprano, flute, Andrew Gould \u2013 alto, Peter Brainin \u2013 tenor, Jeff Lederer \u2013 tenor, Danny Rivera \u2013 bari TRUMPETS: Nate Eklund \u2013 lead, Matt Hilgenberg, Kali Rodriguez Pe\u00f1a, Andrew Neesley, Max Darch\u00e9 (guest soloist) TROMBONES: Dave Miller \u2013 lead, Noah Bless, Armando Vergara, Chris Washburne ELECTRIC CUBAN TRES\/ELECTRIC GUITAR: Benjamin Lapidus FLUTE, BACKGROUND VOCALS: Gabriel Garo VIOLIN: Ben Sutin LEAD VOCALS: Gerardo Contino, Jennifer Jade Ledesna, Oreste Abrantes<\/p>\n

Artist: BOBBY SANABRIA MULTIVERSE BIG BAND
Title: ARSENIO AND BEYOND Live at the BRONX MUSIC HALL
Artist Website: www.bobbysanabria.com
www.bobbysanabria.com\/music\/arsenio-and-beyond-live-at-the-bronx-music-hall\/<\/p>\n

Jazz Promo Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOBBY SANABRIAMULTIVERSE BIG BAND \u201cARSENIO AND BEYONDLive at the BRONX MUSIC HALL\u201d Coming April 10th BOBBY SANABRIA\u2019S musical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-183666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}