Member Since: 6/11/2007
Band Website: benjaminlapidus.com
Band Members: Sonido Isleno: Paul Carlon, Frank Cotto, Greg Glassman, Mike Molina, Felix Sanabria, Hector Torres...Herencia Judia: Jorge Bringas, Ogduardo Roman Diaz, Antonio de Vivo, Samuel Levine, Onel Mulet, Oscar Onoz, Jeremy Brown, Andy Statman
Influences: Too many to mention…My father and grandmother, Mario Rivera, Chito Latamblé, Rácifo Duran, Guillermo "Bule" Mustelier, Marcelino Ruiz, Ramón Gómez Blanco, Pancho Amat, Pedro Vera, Nino Mendoza, Cotó, Mario Hernández, Chino Trias, Kiki Valera Miranda, Rigoberto HechevarrÃa, El Albino, Luis "Lija" Ortiz, Isaac Oviedo, Papi Oviedo, Andrés EchevarrÃa a.k.a. El Niño Rivera, Kotán, Yomo Toro, Edwin Colón, Prodigio Claudio, Johnny Griffin, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Tuck Andress, Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Eddie Diehl, any and all good music regardless of genre...
Sounds Like: “Lapidus uses such instruments as the six-string tres (from Cuba) and 10-string cuatro (from Puerto Rico) to perform his compositions that are rooted in the language and techniques of jazz. He insists that these seemingly different worlds should fit together,†Aaron Cohen, Downbeat; "Benjamin Lapidus has taken the Cuban tres guitar to a higher musical plateau,†Luis Tamargo, Latin Beat Magazine; “Lapidus has done for the Tres what Adolphus Sax did for the Saxophone and Josef Horak did for the Bass Clarinet, he has created a new solo instrument…He has already carved out for himself a place in the history of the music he loves and created a world of new possibilities for the instruments he loves – the Guitar and the Tres,†Turiya Mareya, JazzReview.com; “Sonido Isleño. Complete Insanity. Ben Lapidus appeared onstage with a red and white jersey of the home soccer team, el Atlético Junior and made everyone enjoy themselves, dance, sing, and rumba. It was a musical voyage through the entire Caribbean with plena, bomba, changüÃ, conga, to summarize: if you missed it, you couldn’t imagine what it would sound like,†Gilberto Gómez, La Lira (Barranquilla, Colombia);
“Lapidus combines Latin music with modern jazz so effectively that it's difficult to tell where one genre ends and the other begins,†Alexander Gelfand, The Forward; “Sonido Isleño tiene la llave del presente, pasado, y futuro,†Eric González, HerenciaLatina.com.
Record Label: Various
Type of Label: None