This page is currently dedicated to my creation, the former dance party orchestra once known as Bando Amigo Blanco. It is no longer, but until the next project....it will remain alive here.
We have gone through several metamorphoses (including the Wild Things Orchestra , the J Piddy All-Stars and the Killer-JuanaBees) and minor personnel alterations before stumbling upon this manifestation. We are currently 11 pieces (three percussionists, six horn players, piano, and bass). We perform a variety of originals, arrangements of Jazz/Latin standards and whatever else we feel like. Come hear more cowbell than ever, then feel your funky feets freak the three-step till they stink. We put on regular monthly dance parties at our home-base: the SPACE in Kittery, ME. We just recently participated in the Wire's RPM Challenge '06, hence the tracks you are hearing (www.rpmchallenge.com). Come get your dance on.
Here are a few words by Paul Verrette, freind, mentor, and Professor Emeritus at UNH, included in his program notes for the 11th annual Tommy Gallant Jazz Festival:
"When one probes just a bit below the surface one finds that a surprising number of elements nourished the formative years of jazz. For example, even the venerable New Orleans icon Jelly Roll Morton (1890 - 1941) had this to say of the earliest music: 'if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning (!)' Thus Portsmouth's own gifted composer/pianist/percussionist Jon Peiffer is extending a great tradition through organizing Amigo Blanco, which cooks in the contemporary salsa style!"
Photos, courtesy of John Henry, via Mikey Mikey Marchand:
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