Los Maestros, the Big Band sound with the Latin beat, rocked the stage and thrilled the crowd at the recent Simone L. Palmer Concert Series at CMCArts in Frederiksted. The applause registered off the Richter Scale as this newly formed band brought its Latin-Fusion music sound to a wild night under the courtyard stars, with music lovers loving the contagious beat of a band on the verge of a breakthrough, made up entirely of extremely talented Virgin Islands musicians.
Howard Peters is the Band Leader and mastermind behind this extraordinary gathering of local musicians, educators and vocalists many of whom hail from the school system of the Virgin Islands; and when they get together to start cookin’ they start cookin’ like there’s no tomorrow.
Jairay Petty from Antilles School in St. Thomas plays a wild piano; Omari Auguste from Eulalie Rivera K-8 plays a trumpet extraordinaire; Shomauri Gumbs from Claude O. Markoe Elementary completely clears the decks with his trombone; She’Coy Jones from Lew Muckle blows the sweetest tenor sax; Mario Thomas, a retired music educator who was sitting in with the group was on the bass guitar; Ray Isles, a well-known STX seasoned musician, beat- the-beat on the congas; Shane Watson-Durand, aka Damn Shane, is a Producer and musician, fab on the aux percussion and sousaphone; Tristan Dyett, an upcoming percussionist also on the aux percussion; and finally Sacha Alexander-Clarke from St. Croix Central High School, is the lead vocalist.
That’s the official run-down. But the fact of the matter is that this group takes over a stage with the professional prowess of some of the great Big Bands of days gone by. And Sacha Alexander-Clarke has a voice that rivals the best in Latin music from any era. She also has the stage persona and the poise of some of the greats. She immediately reminds you of the legendary Celia Cruz when she belts out La vida es un Carnival. When she takes over the stage, all eyes and ears are trained on her love for the music, her burst of energy and her enormous talent. She is nothing short of electric!
In fact, a fire truck settled up behind the CMCArts courtyard, flashing it’s red lights for some minor situation that had occurred on the street:
“I didn’t know we were that hot!” Sacha declared to the crowd as they broke out in laughter..
Indeed, the crowd certainly knew they were that hot. Los Maestros lit up the audience with numbers like Blue Bossa, Vivir mi vida, Girl from Ipanema and the classic Sway.
“My whole idea was to bring out the Latin in our community,” Howard Peters told Yellow Cedar Media. “We’ve all studied music for years. I wanted us to start entertaining. There are no live Latin bands on this melting pot of St. Croix that embrace the Latin side.”
Howard Peters is a man with many talents. He had a vision to bring great music to the island of St. Croix. He made sure that vision came to light. He banded together with his fellow musicians and they have it in their sights to go for the gold.
“Don’t be surprised if you see us at the Grammys next year,” Sacha said.
When you have the talent and smarts of a group like Los Maestros, that gold-plated gramophone Grammy Awards Statuette is only an album or two away.
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