When Orquesta Akokán burst onto the global music scene in 2018, their no-holds-barred 21st-century take on the venerable Cuban mambo lit up stages around the world with a fierce and unremitting joy. Chulo Records producer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Plasse, and arranger Michael Eckroth joined forces with a carefully curated selection of Havana’s most extraordinary musicians as Orquesta Akokán, polishing Cuban mambo’s golden sound to a luminous, contemporary sheen. Along the way, Orquesta Akokán imbued these legendary Cuban grooves with a renewed vitality and powerful sense of akokán the Yoruba word used by Cubans to mean “from the heart” or “soul.”

Following their debut recording on Daptone Records – the first-ever Spanish-language album released by the renowned label that shared Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley’s immortal voices with us – Orquesta Akokán kicked off their U.S. debut in the summer of 2018, enthralling audiences with a series of performances culminating in a sold-out show at Lincoln Center. This was followed by international touring throughout 2019 and early 2020, nominations for a Grammy, Billboard Latin Music Award, Telemundo Latin American Music Award, and critical acclaim from press and media around the globe.

Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen – Jon Cleary was born in London in 1962… not the first line you expect in a bio about a New Orleans piano great, is it?  Not only that, but he’s a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer, as well. Guitar was his first love, starting in England at age 5, moving on to performing at 11, and graduating to work as a musician at 14. At age 16 he formed ‘Delta Wing’ with renowned blues slide guitarist Roger Hubbard (of whom Muddy Waters said in 1972:  ‘Roger Hubbard is as good as any blues guitarist in the UK or the United States’.)  This would be the first of his many brushes with greatness.

TICKETS – doors at 6 p.m.