A San Francisco-based band with a "Latin groove" sound will headline the Living Traditions Festival next weekend, May 18-20, at the Salt Lake City-County Building grounds, 400 South and State. In its 16th year, the free event celebrates Salt Lake City's folk and ethnic arts. More than 40 ethnic groups will showcase their music, crafts, foods and dance on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Los Mocosos, performing at 8 p.m. Friday, May 18, and conducting a workshop the next day at noon, infuses its Latin roots with ingredients like funk, soul, salsa, ska, hip-hop and swing. "We try to incorporate everything," said lead vocalist Manny Martinez.
This past year, the band has played more than 200 shows around the country, and it is currently promoting its second album, "Shades of Brown," which comes out next month.
Los Mocosos bills itself as a barrio rock band in the tradition of War and Santana and prides itself on its musical diversity, Martinez said. At 36, he's the youngest band member, so each has had plenty of experience to bring to the music.
"This group is evolving so rapidly that since its inception, we've only been in the studio twice," Martinez said. "It's been almost a year since we recorded ('Shades of Brown'). So we hope that soon we can lock down some time to get into the studio, because that's where the creative process comes together."
The band was also formed in a studio, when Happy Sanchez, the group's co-founder and producer, wrote a song and got some of his friends from his neighborhood to put it together. The members of Los Mocosos like to translate the band's name as "The Little Latin Rascals," according to a press release.
In addition to Martinez and Sanchez, band members are Al Marshall on drums, Victor Castro on trombone, Gordon "Shorty" Ramos on saxophone, Gabriel Sandino on guitar and lead vocalist Martinez.
Utah is the first stop on the band's current cross-country tour, and it's the first time the band has come here, Martinez said. "I have a friend who lives there, and we understand that people are really nice over there. We travel a lot, but this will be new for us, so we're excited."
Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m., the music takes on a Cajun flavor with the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band. The group will also offer a workshop that day at 2 p.m. on the evolution of Cajun music.
As a teenager, Marc Savoy began playing accordion in dance halls around Eunice, La. In 1965, he opened his own music store and began building the "Acadian" accordion. Since then he earned the National Heritage Fellowship, which honors traditional artists.
Michael Doucet, fiddling-frontman of Grammy-winning Cajun group Beausoleil, has found and revived many Cajun tunes dating from the late 1800s. Rounding out the band is guitarist Anne Allen Savoy, who researched and authored "Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People."
Performing together since 1977, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band has recorded five CDs.
Other performers during the weekend include LBA 2000, a group of women from Equatorial Guinea; a Brazilian martial-arts/dance group called Abada Capoeira; Venezuela Cantando, a musical group with instruments such as the folk harp; drumming and dancing from Kakwa Union, a group of refugees of the African Kakwa Tribe; Greek Orthodox Youth Association dancers and the Dionysius Dancers; the American-Bosnian and Herzegovinian Association's "Kolo" Dancers; Melodies of Ancient India by violinists Deepa and Divya Ramachandran; and Diana Lumemprow's Balinese dancing.
In addition to music, the festival's crafts demonstration area showcases more than two dozen artisans who explain the traditions and the techniques of their handicrafts. Some of these crafts will be on sale to the public. Nonprofit cultural groups will also sell traditional foods during the event.
On Friday, May 18, an educational program for elementary students will take place before the festival opens to the public. The program gives 3,000 children the opportunity to take part in hands-on activities like Hawaiian lei-making, Latin dancing and Native American drumming.
The Living Traditions Festival is free and open to the public Friday, May 18, from 5-10 p.m.; Saturday, May 19, from noon-10 p.m.; and Sunday, May 20, from noon-7 p.m.
For more information, call the Salt Lake City Arts Council at 801-596-5000.
E-MAIL: vphillips@desnews.com