ORKESTA MENDOZA -Tour April 2017

“A musically defiant riposte to the virulent separatism of Donald Trump.” The Independent

“A sunny-side-up mix of cumbia, mambo, indie and electronica.” fRoots

21 April          LONDON – Rich Mix, 8pm, adv £15-£13, door £18-£16

22 April           LEEDS – Belgrave Music Hall, 8pm, £13.75

23 April           MANCHESTER – Band On The Wall, 7.30pm, £16.50

24 April           GATESHEAD Sage Gateshead, 8pm, £14.70

25 April          BRIGHTON Komedia, 7.30pm, £13.20

26 April          CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange, 7.30pm, £15, under 26 £12.50

Orkesta Mendoza’s mix of cumbia, mambo, indie and psychedelia – all in well-cut suits – comes to the UK. Their brash, widescreen style and witty reference to ‘60s instrumental pop is both effortlessly classy and enormous fun.

Orkesta Mendoza is led by Mexican American kingpin Sergio Mendoza who is also a member and co-producer of Tucson music legends Calexico and arranger and founder member of Mexrrissey. Born in Nogales, Arizona and raised in Nogales, Sonora, Mendoza now lives back in Arizona. But the music he and his band make isn’t Mexican or American. Blending cumbia and mambo with psychedelic rock, polka, country and electronica, Orkesta Mendoza imagines what Nogales would sound like if the border didn’t exist. Focused, fierce and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians dressed in their uniform of black suits and sunglasses, the band look like nothing so much as the Blues Brothers playing at a Day of the Dead party. They appear here as part of a national tour in support of their recent critically acclaimed release ¡Vamos a Guarachar!

Further information:

There is a fault line that runs through the city of Nogales: the Mexican-American border. Sergio Mendoza has often crossed it. He was born in Nogales, Arizona, raised in Nogales, Sonora, and now lives back in Tucson, Arizona. But the music he and his band make isn’t Mexican or American, it’s something else entirely – a sound that marries the regional styles blaring from speakers on one side of the border to those from the other; and a sensibility that thumbs its nose at los políticos. Border, what border?

Blending cumbia and mambo with psychedelic rock, polka, country and electronica, Orkesta Mendoza imagines what Nogales would sound like if the border didn’t exist. On their new album, ¡Vamos a Guarachar! (“Let’s Dance!”), spirits run high. Effervescent horns in “Cumbia Volcadora” make for a bold, brassy stomp. Bristling with guitar riffs, “Caramelos” swaggers and struts. And dressed in their uniform of black suits and sunglasses, the band look like nothing so much as the Blues Brothers playing at a Day of the Dead party.

Sergio Mendoza grew up listening to the Mexican regional styles jostling for headspace in a young, music-mad mind – cumbia mainly, but mambo, rancheras and mariachi too. The border is always a fierce arena of exchange, both commercial and cultural, and so there was American music too. At one point ‘rock and roll, the classics’, as Mendoza himself deadpans, seemed to win out and he stopped playing those ‘Latin styles’ for a good decade and a half.

The return to those sounds was a strong one in the band’s 2012 release ‘Mambo Mexicano’, co-produced by Mendoza and Joey Burns of Calexico – a band for which Mendoza has become an increasingly integral touring and recording member. While that record had a studied air, tentative in parts (as befits the renewal of an old love affair), ‘¡Vamos A Guarachar!’ is another beast entirely: by turns raucous, tender and plain serious fun, it also bears a robust electronic edge, a keen pop sensibility and all the hallmarks of Mendoza’s love of 60s rock. Focused, fierce and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians, it is a record that fully matches the band’s explosive live performances.

Quotes

“Sergio Mendoza is one of the great innovators of the Arizona music scene. A brash, widescreen style that would have impressed Phil Spector … Classy and enormous fun.” **** The Guardian

“A sunny-side-up mix of cumbia, mambo, indie and electronica.” fRoots

“Simmering slabs of cumbia and mambo, tempered with a folkloric, tex-mex psychedelic edge.” Rhythm Passport

“¡Vamos A Guarachar! refracts the mambos, cumbias and merengues of Sergio Mendoza’s youth through modernist influences … Great fun throughout … a musically defiant riposte to the virulent separatism of Donald Trump.” The Independent

The elegant Calexico-like Shadows of the Mind completes a joyous travelogue.” **** The Observer

Supported by Arts Council England