Ladies and gentlemen this week's Artist Of The Week is Suenalo. According to their website, the definition of the word "Suenalo" is to sound, slap or play upon a musical instrument, object or person.The Suenalo-holic faithful that attends one of their concerts makes their appreciation known to them because they come away feeling incredibly euphoric. Whenever you see your favorite artist performing you know what kind of experience you're going to see and expect.
The Miami-based "AfroLatinBabyMakinDescargaFunkFamily" group has been around since 2003. Over the last 13 years, they have been a major fixture in the Miami Music Scene by winning numerous accolades such as Best Latin Rock Band in 2005 and Best Latin Band in 2011 from the Miami New Times. The musical evolution of this group is comparable to a hearty stew with chunks of reggae, funk, salsa and rock. Their music evokes a party atmosphere that you can feel internally, emotionally and physically. Because you WILL dance to them and continue to crave for more. You can even follow along with their fun dance choreography.
Musically, their song catalog is impressive due to the constant shift in musical styles. They'll crush a song like "Keep It Groovin'", then get everyone dancing to "Come Home", followed by the classic "Manguera" which really gets the crowd going. I've admired the original musical arrangements and compositions by Suenalo for various reasons. First is their flexibility of musical styles going from Reggae to Funk to Latin effortlessly. Second is their horn section which generally consist of Juan Turros, saxophonist, and Chad Berstein, trombonist. My affinity for the horns isn't because I played sax myself in my former life with the 300th Army Band. I have tons of respect for Suenalo's horn section due to the high quality musicianship as is the rest of the band.
In the year that I've been working with them, they have been an actual joy to work with. Everyone in the group is generally a nice person. They always have a smile on their face, they're very approachable and very easy to talk to before and after the show. Photographically, all of the images I've taken of Suenalo have been while in performance. Suenalo is constantly in demand performing for private functions to festivals around the state of Florida and at local venues like Ball & Chain in Little Havana.
Last month the band announced that Amin DeJesus, their frontman, will be leaving the group as he and his family are moving to Los Angeles, my hometown, in June. So where does Suenalo go from there and move forward? I have faith in them that they already have a plan in action, progressing forward without Mr. DeJesus. The bottom line is, he is irreplaceable.
Suenalo has recorded four albums, the last one in 2014 called "Keep It Groovin'". I'm looking forward to continue photographing this band many more times to come. I'm excited about the band's future and want to see them grow bigger and bigger so that more people around the country get to experience this very special band of musicians. I'm excited to capture more images of this band performing around the world in concert and on location. You can view Suenalo's photo sets and connect with them via social media by going to their gallery page.
Next week's Artist Of The Week is crazy. Enjoy!