Mambo at the Market Tonight

While the continues into October at the Sonoma Plaza, tonight is the last night to swing to the sounds of jazz in the Amphitheater. The fourth free concert held this summer by the Sonoma Valley Jazz Society, the 24 year-old non-profit that brings live jazz music to our community throughout the year, will be blasting over the Plaza from the 19-piece Pacific Mambo Orchestra.

The Pacific Mambo Orchestra (PMO) will be playing from 6 - 8, and they'll be hard to miss: PMO’s instrumentation consists of 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxophones, piano, bass, timbales, congas, bongos and even a female lead singer, Alexis Guillen. Trumpeter Steffen Kuehn and Pianist Christian Tumalan, both experienced bandleaders in their own right, formed this Latin Salsa Big Band to bring back and build upon the great Latin Big Band sounds of the 1940’s through 1960’s.

The Orchestra plays the music of Latin giants such as Machito, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz and many others and include those rich traditions with their own contemporary and original arrangements. Pacific Mambo Orchestra is currently the only Latin Big Band on the West Coast that plays regularly – the Orchestra has a standing gig in San Francisco on Monday nights at Café Cocomo.

The Tuesday Market concerts, every second Tuesday from June through September, is only one part of the Sonoma Valley Jazz Society's programming. They also have a regular "Jazz in the Back Room" at the , an annual Jazz Appreciation Concert (free to members and supporters) in November at , and other special events. A for area music students is offered every summer, and the SVJS helps support jazz programs in secondary schools, as well.

This year's Jazz Appreciation Concert is scheduled for Nov. 10, with the Wayne Wallace Quintet and special guest percussionist John Santos.

A month later, on Dec. 1, a special concert is planned to launch the Society's 2013 "Jazz Candy" calendar, with jazz artists appearing in the nearly all-together, with instruments discretely placed. 2013 will mark the 25th anniversary of the jazz society.

The calendar will be available for sale at the concert, with funds going to help the non-profit society's mission "to enhance the appreciation of jazz as an American musical art form through live jazz performances and education in Sonoma Valley."

More information about their events, membership and more can be found on their website at sonomavalleyjazzsociety.org.