Aché! Bobby Sanabria & Ascensión

The Village Trip welcomes back the inimitable Bobby Sanabria, Nuyorican drummer extraordinaire, who had thousands of people dancing to the beat of his Multiverse Big Band in Washington Square Park at the grand finale of our 2021 festival. At The Clemente, Bobby will be joined by Ascensión, a vibrant musical laboratory exploring the rich and diverse cultural and spiritual roots of Afro-Latin jazz. Expect an unforgettable high-energy evening of musical fireworks!

A musical activist whose debut recording was nominated for the first of many Grammys, Bobby Sanabria is a polymath whose musical lineage reaches from the South Bronx, where he grew up and still lives, to the Village, where Latin jazz has a long and rich history, notably with Art D’Lugoff’s Salsa Meets Jazz concerts at the Village Gate. Bobby has played with all the greats, among them Mario Bauzá, Dizzy Gillespie and Mongo Santamaría, before forming his own band, its name inspired by Octavía Paz’s novel Multiverse.

For almost 50 years, Bobby Sanabria and Ascensión have been a leading voice in Latin jazz, famed for their intoxicating mix of so-called free jazz, folklore, authentic dance styles and liturgical music, as well as traditional straight-ahead swing and much besides.

Explains Bobby: “Most of what is known by the general public and musicians today as Latin jazz comes from the canon of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian-based rhythms. I did not want to limit myself to just that. There is an incredible diversity of musical styles found throughout Latin America and this ensemble has been steadfast in exploring that diversity. We were the first group to utilize rhythms such as joropo from Venezuela, the bomba complex from Puerto Rico, cumbia from Colombia, tango from Argentina, the spiritual based liturgical music from Yoruba and Bantú Ki-Kongo, and Abacua traditions from West Africa in live performance and on recordings fused with jazz harmonic, improvisational, and arranging techniques.”

“Like his heroes Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente, Bobby Sanabria clearly views art and showmanship as two sides of the same coin” – Mike Joyce, Washington Post

$25, $35 including drink, meet-and-greet; $30 and $40 at the door