Grupo Fantasma

Austin, Texas-based Grupo Fantasma will perform at Tulsa’s Guthrie Green Sunday afternoon, September 8 as part of Tulsa Roots Rocks the Green, a free concert series. Known for its energetic, genre-crossing sound that blends elements of funk, mambo, merengue, cumbia and reggae, this Grammy-award winning band headlines a line up that also includes Joe West & the Santa Fe Revue and The Plateros, a young blues-rock trio from New Mexico’s Navajo Nation. Music begins at 2:30 p.m., with Fantasma taking the stage at 5:30 p.m.

Fantasma’s 2008 album, Sonidos Gold, earned a Grammy nomination, and the band’s 2010 release, El Existential, won a Grammy award for “Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album”. The band has played many major festivals, and its music has been used in a number of films and TV shows, including Showtime’s “Weeds”, ABC’s “Ugly Betty”, NBC’s “Law & Order” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad”.

While band member Jose Galeano (vocals, timbales) is originally from Nicaragua, most of Fantasma’s musicians are from Texas. Although the majority of the band’s songs are in Spanish, not all of its members are bilingual. In a recent email interview, bassist Greg Gonzalez explained that using Spanish lyrics “just has to do with the nature of a lot of the rhythms and styles of music we choose to play. Plus, in Texas, there’s a lot of Latin culture, tacos, mariachis, Tex-Mex food, and food trucks. Texas music has always been heavily influenced by the nearness of Mexico, land gateway to Latin America.”

Fantasma’s music has broad appeal. Gonzalez credits the band’s “friendly, outgoing demeanor” and infectious sound for the diversity of its audience. It’s likely the group’s “melting pot” approach adds to the attraction. “We all grew up in a lot of places, and enjoying a wide variety of music has always been one of the hallmarks of the Grupo Fantasma sound, “Gonzalez commented. “Breaking down artificial borders and allowing styles to mix like nice people at an international party full of dancing people has always been our goal. We embrace our multiculturalism and encourage other people to open their minds to all different kinds of music.”

What does a band with such a sonically liberal philosophy listen to on the road? “Right now, it varies,” Gonzalez told me. “Everything from Freddie King to Mars Volta to Tame Impala to Outkast, Funkadelic, Antibalas, Chicha music, Quantic, Brownout…Our tastes are diverse.”

Fortunately for Grupo Fantasma fans, old and new alike, Gonzalez confirmed that there’s a new album on the way. “No release date yet, hopefully before the end of the year or early next spring,” he said. “The album is finished, and it sounds amazing. It was recorded at Jim Eno’s studio (Spoon) and produced by Steve Berlin (saxophonist, Grammy winner, fantasy sports league aficionado). Stay tuned for that and also our forthcoming DVD.” - No Depression

Hailing from Austin, Texas, the band sits at the vanguard of a vibrant movement of young Hispanic and Latin American musicians reclaiming and reinterpreting the music of their forerunners. For its part, Grupo Fantasma's sound is never so traditional as to exist in the realm of novelty acts, yet it's never so novel and forward-thinking as to betray the band's sincere affection for time-honored forms and styles. Cumbia and salsa rhythms are threaded throughout, but those threads are often unraveled and entangled with strands and strains of jazz, rock, funk and soul.

Existing since 2000, the expansive ensemble lodges 10 members yet, at alternating points, sounds greater and more intimate than a band of that size. The band's versatility and vitality has led to warm welcomes everywhere from Bonnaroo to the Kennedy Center and collaborations with pop geniuses (Prince), jazz greats (Maceo Parker), rappers (GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan) and indie rock taste-makers (Spoon) alike.

Grupo Fantasma's most recent effort, 2010's "El Existential," earned the group its first Grammy, taking home the hardware for Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album. The record is worthy of such high honors — lively and lush, it has the potential to make listeners dance, think and exult with abandon, sometimes within a single song.

Early highlight "La Conozco" is a joyous ruckus, its initial bars of bluesy guitar ceding ground to electrifying rhythmic accents and a sweetly bleating organ. The band's brass section does much of the heavy lifting, gilding the tune's call-and-response vocals; Gilbert Elorreaga (trumpet) and Mark "Speedy" Gonzales (trombone) trade virtuosic and vibrant licks while Josh Levy wields a mean baritone sax, playing rumbling, practically subterranean runs.

Its successor, "Sacatelo Bailando," drinks deep from wells of Latin jazz with its soulful keyboards and Technicolor horns. Elsewhere, the band gradually strays from an initial old-school feel, using a brave percussion break as a pivot point, then constructing a theatrical wall of sound on "Juan Tenorio." Later tracks such as "Telaraña" and "Cumbianchera" exist as examples of the band's ability to prioritize percussion and dig itself into a delightful groove.

Each member of the group carries their weight and then some. Guitarist Beto Martinez, for example, traffics in a variety of tones, using a psychedelic rock paintbrush ("Realizando"), evoking spaghetti western soundtracks ("Montañozo") and creating tender, progressive acoustic lines ("25"). The band's horn section is stellar, its interlocking percussion parts remarkably tight and its vocalists more than up to the task of fitting compelling melodies to these fascinating textures. There are so many moving parts to the band's sound, yet the sum never sounds overly chaotic or disjointed. Rather, a remarkably unified heartbeat pumps infectious rhythms and colorful melodies through the band's veins.

Grupo Fantasma is said to be in the studio working on new material under the watchful eye of Los Lobos multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin. It's hard to imagine the group conjuring more imaginative or flexible sonics, but if anyone can coax them out and help the band push its sound even further toward a thoughtful mix of innovation and tradition, it's the multitalented Berlin.
- Columbia Daily Tribune

Even among hit shows, not all TV placements of a band's music are created equal.

Austin, Texas Latin-funk ensemble Grupo Fantasma's songs have landed on "Breaking Bad," "Weeds," Law & Order" and "Ugly Betty." Greg Gonzalez is the group's bassist.

"Our cover of 'Saturday in the Park,' the Chicago song we did in Spanish, was in 'Breaking Bad' and I was thrilled because I was such a fan of the show, but (the song) wasn't in a very obvious place," Gonzalez, 36, says. "It's like in the background when they're at a Mexican restaurant.

"One of the better placements, as far as being part of the scene, was during the show 'Weeds' our song 'Person Far I Mesquites' plays when the main character, (played by actress) Mary-Louise Parker, is dancing in this ballroom scene and it features the song and really sets the mood and the vibe of the situation a lot better."

Grupo Fantasma last album, 2010's kinetic, vibrant 'El Existential,' netted the group a Grammy for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. On Aug. 30, the combo will play a 6 p.m. show on the dock at Lowe Mill (2211 Seminole Dr.). Tickets are $10 advance at brownpapertickets.com and $15 at the show.

9

The current Grupo Fantasma lineup features nine musicians: Gonzalez, John Speice (drums), Jose Galeano (vocals, timbales), Gilbert Elorreaga (trumpet), Beto Martinez (guitar), Kino Esparza (vocals), Greg Gonzalez (bass), Joshua Levy (saxophones), Matthew Holmes (congas) and Mark Gonzales (trombone).

Asked how being in a group that large makes things simpler and how it makes things complicated, Gonzalez says:

"Finishing off our (tour) rider is simpler. Drinking all the beverages and eating all the food. [Laughs.] Really though, it's nice to have a wide variety of people to deal with. It's not just you and two other people on a hundred-day tour. You can spread yourself around and hang out with a lot of different people. Musically, it's great because you can create such a big sound and there's all kind of opportunities to create multi-level compositions.

"Of course, it's also difficult to tour because the overhead is much higher: paying so many people, getting so many hotel rooms, so many different per diems, as well as just coordinating with such a huge group of people."

3121

A few years back, Grupo Fantasma backed funk-god Prince on several occasions, including at the Purple One's Las Vegas 3121 Club, as well as several award shows. (In addition, GF's JewMex Horns section, as they call themselves, appeared with Prince at Coachella and on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "I've got the stamp of approval from a legend, and we've shown as a band that we can hang in the same realms with him and not embarrass ourselves. Who cares what some local band says about us, Prince is cool with it. [Laughs.]"

1986

"One of the first albums, if not the first album I got, was the cassette of 'License to Ill,' which is the Beastie Boys first album," Gonzalez says of the 1986 release. "And of course, all the samples were classic form Curtis Mayfield to Led Zeppelin. To me, that was my first association with funk."

2

Grupo Fantasma is truly a bilingual band, says Gonzalez, a Laredo native. "Most of our music is in Spanish, but at the same time our onstage banter between songs tends to be in English. And I think that helps break it down to the point where people are like, 'Hey, I understand what's going on. I can relate to these people onstage and what they're trying to do. Even if I don't understand the lyrics, you can get the vibe and sense of what's going on lyrics, as well as the intensity of the music and the musicianship, as well as the danceable quality of the music.'"

3

There are three new Grupo Fantasma releases set to drop in either late-2013 or early-2014: acoustic live EP, new studio album recorded with producer/Los Lobos multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin (whose previous credits include Faith No More and Dave Alvin) and a concert DVD that Gonzalez says, "showcase not just our live show, but give people a glimpse at the inner-workings of our band, the struggles and the successes of a group like ours." - All Alabama

Atop the biggest stage on the biggest night of the biggest festival, the JewMex horns surveyed a sea of more than 50,000 in the desert night, stole a glance at one another, and uttered a single syllable: "Damn!"

"The minute we walked out of our trailer and into the field behind the stage, it sounded crazy big-stadium loud," marvels Gilbert Elorreaga, whose extra-large frame dwarfs his tiny trumpet. "We knew it was gonna be vicious."

"A phenomenal amount of people," adds Josh Levy, who plays baritone sax. "It looked like an ocean, a human ocean."

Elorreaga, Levy, Leo Gauna, and Gene Centeno – the brass behind Austin 10-piece Grupo Fantasma – huffed and puffed a medley of Carlos Santana, the California king of the festival circuit. From the primal roar of "Jungle Strut" to the bloodletting of "Soul Sacrifice," the mob's appetite was insatiable. Shimmering on the 2008 Coachella altar in front of them, attired in a sequined white tunic, axe in hand, stood Prince.

November 2006, Grupo Fantasma gets an early-morning wake-up call: "Can you be ready in three hours? Prince needs you in L.A. right away for the Golden Globes afterparty."

Cramped behind gear in a corner of the top-floor presidential suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel that same day, the band discovered they weren't opening for Prince. They were his band. There were only two problems with that.

"We'd never actually interacted with him, and we only knew, like, three of his songs," laughs Adrian Quesada, Grupo's guitarist, producer, and de facto leader. "Needless to say, we were really nervous."

"'Just play your music,'" Quesada recalls the Purple One assuring. "'Don't worry about me; I'll just play guitar.'"

Quesada cased the suite with Grupo guitar comrade Beto Martinez to calm their nerves. "People were just starting to come in," he says. "The first person we saw was Puff Daddy."

Somehow, the local boys convinced themselves they weren't out of their league but rather in their element. This was nothing more than a glorified house party with an exclusive guest list. Soon, those Hollywood A-listers would learn what many Austinites have tattooed on their ears: Grupo turns the party out with a grinning mix of salsa, funk, and psychedelic cumbia.

Talib Kweli and Will.i.am rapped over Grupo's funky break beats, Mary J. Blige sang a soulful set to the band's smoother grooves, and Marc Anthony played the role of velvet-voiced cantante Hector Lavoe on classic hard salsa "La Murga." All the while, His Purple Majesty added blistering guitar solos and Jennifer Lopez shook her posterior front and center. At the height of madness, Cuba Gooding Jr. climbed up a speaker cabinet, screaming his approval.

"If you go to downtown Laredo, everyone's speaking Spanish," relates Beto Martinez of his hometown. "It looks just like Mexico, and then the bridge is right there."

That span connects Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, which share a single culture if not a national allegiance. Nearly everyone has family in el otro lado. For Martinez, there was one important difference: Any underage kid knows bartenders in Nuevo Laredo will serve them.

"We were still in high school when we started to go across the river to party. You could drink, hang out, and get into all different kinds of stuff. We would go to these bars and there would be these cumbia bands playing – live, raunchy stuff with accordion, guiro, congas, and bass. Real dirty and raw."

Seven members of Grupo Fantasma grew up in Texas border towns – five in Laredo – and when the band formed locally in 2000, it was that seedy border-dive cumbia they aimed to replicate.

Born from the merger of two Austin acts, Grupo came rough and ready: The Blue Noise Band included Quesada, former Grupo saxophonist and current manager David Lobel, drummer Jeremy Bruch of What Made Milwaukee Famous, and bassist Tom Benton. The Blimp, meanwhile, featured Laredo natives and current Grupo members Martinez, bassist Greg Gonzalez, drummer Johnny Lopez, and former Grupo singer Brian Ramos. The Blimp sailed from Laredo and crashed into Quesada in Austin. The newly formed Grupo earned a reputation for funk-infused cumbia marathons but still lacked the chops for other Afro-Latin music.

"It wasn't until Jose Galeano came into the band that we learned to play salsa," Martinez confesses. "He came in and said: 'What are you guys doing? You can play cumbia, but your salsa is weak.' So he schooled us on some stuff, and we learned how to play salsa and not just our own ridiculous version of salsa."

Singer and timbalero Galeano, 44, grew up in Managua, Nicaragua, and moved to Austin for school in 1988. He gigged with several Austin bands before boarding Grupo in 2001, following the release of the band's eponymous debut. Of the band, Galeano's roots are most intertwined with the clave, the basic rhythmic pattern behind nearly all Afro-Latin music. His uncle, Jose "Chepito" Areas, tapped timbales in the origina - Austin Chronicle

By Andrew Gilbert

Prince wants to party with them. Salsa legend Larry Harlow is itching to school them. And groove maestro Maceo Parker can't wait to blow with them again. Since roaring out of Austin, Texas, several years ago, the horn-laden combo Grupo Fantasma has become the nation's most visible purveyor of Latin funk, and everybody seems to want a piece of the action.

The 10-piece band, which performs at the Museum of Fine Arts tomorrow, is building on its triumphant 2007 run, which included a command London performance with Prince last August. Fantasma had already played a two-month run at Prince's Vegas club and entertained at his celebrity-filled, post-Golden Globe Awards party.

"He's helped us out a lot," says drummer Johnny Lopez, who like almost half the Fantasma crew hails from the border town of Laredo, Texas. "In London, we opened up for him and then the horns sat in with his band for a couple of tunes. The after-party was off the hook. He was playing guitar with us and Maceo was there, too, and it was more about the jams and improvising. At the end of the night, Prince said, 'When you come back to London, everybody will know who you are.' "

With the release of the band's fourth album, "Sonidos Gold" (Aire Sol/High Wire), Fantasma is finding new audiences ripe for conversion. They were a hit at Bonnaroo and follow tomorrow's gig with high-profile appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Rather than laying down an old-school salsa sound, Fantasma is honing a decidedly 21st-century version of Latin groove. They lace clave, the fundamental pulse of Afro-Cuban music, with cumbia, reggae, Afrobeat, and psychedelic rock. The stripped-down horn arrangements leave room for the nimble guitar work of Beto Martinez and Adrian Quesada.

The ensemble formed in 2000 when Austin's teeming music scene brought together an avant-funk trio with a cumbia horn section. The band added a galvanizing dose of salsa with the addition of Nicaraguan-born vocalist and timbalero José Galeano. As the new ensemble's senior member, he brought decades of experience to the bandstand and a link to a Latin-rock icon through his uncle, José "Chepito" Areas, an essential early member of Santana.

With "Sonidos Gold," the band has forged ties with two towering innovators from its other foundational styles. Saxophonist Maceo Parker, a funk hero for his work with James Brown and George Clinton, contributes a torrid alto solo on the hard-rockin' "Gimme Some," while pianist-composer Larry Harlow, a Fania Records salsa pioneer, lays down some insistent montunos on two tracks.

The connection with Harlow - a founding member of the salsa supergroup Fania All-Stars, who helped shape Latin music in the 1960s and '70s through his work as a bandleader, producer, and arranger - feels particularly appropriate. After all, Harlow was born in Brooklyn as Ira Kahn and affectionately dubbed "El Judeo Maravilloso" (the marvelous Jew) by his Latin American compatriots. The Fantasma brass players moonlight as the JewMex Horns (they backed Prince at Coachella last month after a stint on the road last fall with indie-rock favorites Spoon).

Harlow joins the band in the fall for a week-long residency at the University of Texas at Austin, and he's looking to deepen the band's clave consciousness.

"They're learning," Harlow says. "They're coming from another musical world in south Texas, and they're opening up other venues to Latin music, going into these towns across the Southwest that aren't known for salsa."

While they revere and honor their elders, the musicians in Fantasma don't make any apologies for putting their own twist on the tradition. While they're still absorbing the deeper intricacies of Afro-Cuban music, they know they wouldn't be jamming with Prince if they weren't infusing the music with their own particular border perspective.

"When you approach Latin music in the real traditional way, it can go over people's heads," Lopez says. "But adding that funk element, with the two guitars taking the place of the piano montunos, people can relate to it more. It speaks to everybody. You don't have to be any nationality. When people ask me what we play, I say, 'It's like Led Zeppelin but with horns.' You can't go wrong." - Boston Globe

THE 10 MEMBERS of Grupo Fantasma represent a new generation in Latin music, but the musicians don't flaunt their youthfulness. This Austin combo's fourth album, "Sonidos Gold," takes a classical approach to such irresistibly polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean forms as salsa, cumbia and merengue. Although funk, rock and dub all temper the sound, Fantasma isn't as obsessively up-to-date as such nuevo-Latin fellow travelers as Ozomatli. The group's idea of a modern move is "Gimme Some," which sounds like late-'60s Santana.

In fact, Fantasma singer-percussionist José Galeaño's uncle played in the original Santana, and that's not the ensemble's only link to its precursors.

"Sonidos Gold" features guest appearances by such veterans as keyboardist Larry Harlow, whose Fania All-Stars are a major Fantasma influence, and saxophonist Maceo Parker. When the group plays such rollicking tunes as "El Sabio Soy Yo" or "Cumbia de los Pajaritos," it doesn't matter which is traditional and which is an original. On the dance floor, both sound equally fresh.
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-- Mark Jenkins - Washington Post

Austin, Texas is better known as a home for country music than for salsa and Latin funk, but Grupo Fantasma are changing that - with help from Prince, whose praise and collaborations with the band guaranteed that they would get noticed far beyond the Latin circuit. This album shows what the fuss is about. It starts as an energetic, good-time salsa workout, with the three-piece brass section to the fore on a cheerful but fairly standard dance track. But then the surprises start. On Bacaleo Con Pan, the Latin percussion is mixed with funk-influenced guitar work, while on Gimme Some the guitar gives way to a rousing sax solo from Maceo Parker, the great funk player best known for his work with James Brown. It's a fresh, energetic set - and makes one suspect they sound even better live.

-Robin Denselow - The Guardian (UK)

By Andrew Gilbert

Prince wants to party with them. Salsa legend Larry Harlow is itching to school them. And groove maestro Maceo Parker can't wait to blow with them again. Since roaring out of Austin, Texas, several years ago, the horn-laden combo Grupo Fantasma has become the nation's most visible purveyor of Latin funk, and everybody seems to want a piece of the action.

The 10-piece band, which performs at the Museum of Fine Arts tomorrow, is building on its triumphant 2007 run, which included a command London performance with Prince last August. Fantasma had already played a two-month run at Prince's Vegas club and entertained at his celebrity-filled, post-Golden Globe Awards party.

"He's helped us out a lot," says drummer Johnny Lopez, who like almost half the Fantasma crew hails from the border town of Laredo, Texas. "In London, we opened up for him and then the horns sat in with his band for a couple of tunes. The after-party was off the hook. He was playing guitar with us and Maceo was there, too, and it was more about the jams and improvising. At the end of the night, Prince said, 'When you come back to London, everybody will know who you are.' "

With the release of the band's fourth album, "Sonidos Gold" (Aire Sol/High Wire), Fantasma is finding new audiences ripe for conversion. They were a hit at Bonnaroo and follow tomorrow's gig with high-profile appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Rather than laying down an old-school salsa sound, Fantasma is honing a decidedly 21st-century version of Latin groove. They lace clave, the fundamental pulse of Afro-Cuban music, with cumbia, reggae, Afrobeat, and psychedelic rock. The stripped-down horn arrangements leave room for the nimble guitar work of Beto Martinez and Adrian Quesada.

The ensemble formed in 2000 when Austin's teeming music scene brought together an avant-funk trio with a cumbia horn section. The band added a galvanizing dose of salsa with the addition of Nicaraguan-born vocalist and timbalero José Galeano. As the new ensemble's senior member, he brought decades of experience to the bandstand and a link to a Latin-rock icon through his uncle, José "Chepito" Areas, an essential early member of Santana.

With "Sonidos Gold," the band has forged ties with two towering innovators from its other foundational styles. Saxophonist Maceo Parker, a funk hero for his work with James Brown and George Clinton, contributes a torrid alto solo on the hard-rockin' "Gimme Some," while pianist-composer Larry Harlow, a Fania Records salsa pioneer, lays down some insistent montunos on two tracks.

The connection with Harlow - a founding member of the salsa supergroup Fania All-Stars, who helped shape Latin music in the 1960s and '70s through his work as a bandleader, producer, and arranger - feels particularly appropriate. After all, Harlow was born in Brooklyn as Ira Kahn and affectionately dubbed "El Judeo Maravilloso" (the marvelous Jew) by his Latin American compatriots. The Fantasma brass players moonlight as the JewMex Horns (they backed Prince at Coachella last month after a stint on the road last fall with indie-rock favorites Spoon).

Harlow joins the band in the fall for a week-long residency at the University of Texas at Austin, and he's looking to deepen the band's clave consciousness.

"They're learning," Harlow says. "They're coming from another musical world in south Texas, and they're opening up other venues to Latin music, going into these towns across the Southwest that aren't known for salsa."

While they revere and honor their elders, the musicians in Fantasma don't make any apologies for putting their own twist on the tradition. While they're still absorbing the deeper intricacies of Afro-Cuban music, they know they wouldn't be jamming with Prince if they weren't infusing the music with their own particular border perspective.

"When you approach Latin music in the real traditional way, it can go over people's heads," Lopez says. "But adding that funk element, with the two guitars taking the place of the piano montunos, people can relate to it more. It speaks to everybody. You don't have to be any nationality. When people ask me what we play, I say, 'It's like Led Zeppelin but with horns.' You can't go wrong." - Boston Globe

By Todd Lavoie

Freshly sparkled with Prince's glittering purple seal of approval, Austin's tireless Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma pushes onward with their crowd-amassing trajectory on Sonidos Gold, a floor-burning 12-track collection of hip-shakers and provocative grooves.

Having recently enjoyed a much-deserved surge of international exposure - thanks largely to Prince's ringing endorsement and the high-profile supporting-band gigs that followed - the 10-member soul machine arrives more confident than ever on this, their fourth album. The disc might also be the most faithful in capturing the joyous, body-liberating ebullience of the band's live performances. (And while we're on the subject of their shows: You must see them, case closed. I caught Grupo with a former Austinite friend at Slim's here back in February, and they were complete and utter sweat-soaking bliss.)

Sonidos Gold exudes plenty of room-filling warmth, and guitarist Adrian Quesada's production plunks the listener directly on the dancefloor, right in the sweet spot between the hot-pepper horn section and the mighty rumble of congas and timbales. While I'm sure these folks picked up some tricks from Prince on the road, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the Purple One himself might be taking a few notes as well…

Drawing upon timeless Latin song forms such as cumbia, salsa, and meringue, but frequently expanding the roots to include elements of funk, dub, and psychedelia, Grupo Fantasma aren't strict traditionalists per se. Even a casual listener could easily pick up the occasional similarities to War or old-school Santana, for example - and as classic as both artists might sound today, it's worth remembering that they were quite revolutionary at the time for their genre-splicing. Still, unlike contemporaries such as Ozomatli, the band does not seem overly beholden to the idea of sounding uber-modern or "of the now" - there are no rappers or turntablists or post-hip hop songwriting structures on Sonidos Gold, in other words.

The fact is, most of the disc sounds like a long-lost artifact from the '60s or '70s - a quality certain to delight any true-blue lover of soul and funk, as those two decades form the pinnacle for such sounds. One frequent point of comparison Grupo is likely to garner, particularly thanks to the new record: the unbelievably funky Latin jazz/boogaloo juggernaut the Fania All-Stars, an ever-rotating crew of largely New York-based groove superstars from the flawless Fania label, including Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, and pianist-arranger Larry Harlow. The resemblance is helped by the addition of Harlow as an auxiliary member on Sonidos Gold: his piano and keyboard work here keeps the album rooted in the golden age of Latin funk. If you've ever fallen prey to the fast and furious grind of the Fania sound, this one should hit you just as hard.

As one should probably expect, almost all of Sonidos Gold is sung in Spanish - and while knowledge of the language obviously doesn't hurt, it also need not be a prerequisite, considering the wonder of the grooves contained within. If dance music truly does transcend all language barriers - and I honestly believe it does - then the inability to follow along to the words shouldn't really preclude anyone from succumbing to Grupo Fantasma's seductive rhythms. Sure, maybe those without any fluency in Spanish might not be able to shout along to the chanted vocals of roof-raisers such as "Levantate" with the same levels of bravado, but there are plenty of other ways to feel equally connected to the music - the group's intricate polyrhythms practically scream for crowd participation, thanks to the layers of congas and timbales pounding away here. And while knowing that the ensemble is actually singing, "The eyes are going to see / the body is pleasure" doesn't hurt, there's something implicit in the song's sultry horn-filled pulse that conveys the same message without speaking a single word.

"Levantate" also offers a few flashes of carefully measured dub echo heaped upon the guitar, in order to ratchet up the drama before exploding into electrifying unison-vocal and horn duels over timbalero Jose Galeano's blazing rhythms. The technique is deployed to tremendous effect on "Bacalao Con Pan," a stretched-out eight-minute rave-up that imagines a collaboration between early Funkadelic and the Fania roster, thanks to inspired use of echo as well as some wonderfully head-floating keyboard work from Harlow.

There's a similar space-jazz key-twinkling on Arroz Con Frijoles", and it pairs tremendously with the thick blankets of reverb applied to the easily learned chorus of "Aah, aah, ahh, arroz con frijoles." About three-quarters of the way into the song, the rhythm suddenly shifts - double-time, triple-time! Screaming horns, battling congas and timbales - total dancefloor emancipation, to be sure.

Those seeking to relive the fiery majesty of early Santana - San Francisco Bay Guardian

Amper enkele maanden na de release van hun op deze site zeer gesmaakte live-album, valt het nieuwe studioalbum van Grupo Fantasma alweer in onze bus. Benieuwd natuurlijk of ze de energieke vibe van hun live-optredens ook in hun studiowerk kunnen laten doorklinken? En reken maar van si señor! Sonidos Gold, iets wat vrij vertaald ongeveer als Gouden Klanken moet klinken doet niet minder dan wat de titel belooft. Dit is latin-muziek zoals ondergetekende die het liefst hoort: opzwepend, veel percussie, net genoeg blazers en zonder meligheid. Grupo Fantasma dwingt eens te meer respect af en dat niet alleen op deze site, want ze wisten voor dit album ook klassemuzikanten als saxofonist Maceo Parker, Fania All-Stars pianist Larry Harlow en Funkadelic/Parliament trombonist Greg Boyer te strikken voor een guest appearance! Deze zomer één van onze absolute aanraders en live te bewonderen op Polé Polé (Gent, 28/07) en het Dranouter Folkfestival (Dranouter, 03/08). - Tropicalidad (Belgium)

By Todd Lavoie

Freshly sparkled with Prince's glittering purple seal of approval, Austin's tireless Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma pushes onward with their crowd-amassing trajectory on Sonidos Gold, a floor-burning 12-track collection of hip-shakers and provocative grooves.

Having recently enjoyed a much-deserved surge of international exposure - thanks largely to Prince's ringing endorsement and the high-profile supporting-band gigs that followed - the 10-member soul machine arrives more confident than ever on this, their fourth album. The disc might also be the most faithful in capturing the joyous, body-liberating ebullience of the band's live performances. (And while we're on the subject of their shows: You must see them, case closed. I caught Grupo with a former Austinite friend at Slim's here back in February, and they were complete and utter sweat-soaking bliss.)

Sonidos Gold exudes plenty of room-filling warmth, and guitarist Adrian Quesada's production plunks the listener directly on the dancefloor, right in the sweet spot between the hot-pepper horn section and the mighty rumble of congas and timbales. While I'm sure these folks picked up some tricks from Prince on the road, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the Purple One himself might be taking a few notes as well…

Drawing upon timeless Latin song forms such as cumbia, salsa, and meringue, but frequently expanding the roots to include elements of funk, dub, and psychedelia, Grupo Fantasma aren't strict traditionalists per se. Even a casual listener could easily pick up the occasional similarities to War or old-school Santana, for example - and as classic as both artists might sound today, it's worth remembering that they were quite revolutionary at the time for their genre-splicing. Still, unlike contemporaries such as Ozomatli, the band does not seem overly beholden to the idea of sounding uber-modern or "of the now" - there are no rappers or turntablists or post-hip hop songwriting structures on Sonidos Gold, in other words.

The fact is, most of the disc sounds like a long-lost artifact from the '60s or '70s - a quality certain to delight any true-blue lover of soul and funk, as those two decades form the pinnacle for such sounds. One frequent point of comparison Grupo is likely to garner, particularly thanks to the new record: the unbelievably funky Latin jazz/boogaloo juggernaut the Fania All-Stars, an ever-rotating crew of largely New York-based groove superstars from the flawless Fania label, including Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, and pianist-arranger Larry Harlow. The resemblance is helped by the addition of Harlow as an auxiliary member on Sonidos Gold: his piano and keyboard work here keeps the album rooted in the golden age of Latin funk. If you've ever fallen prey to the fast and furious grind of the Fania sound, this one should hit you just as hard.

As one should probably expect, almost all of Sonidos Gold is sung in Spanish - and while knowledge of the language obviously doesn't hurt, it also need not be a prerequisite, considering the wonder of the grooves contained within. If dance music truly does transcend all language barriers - and I honestly believe it does - then the inability to follow along to the words shouldn't really preclude anyone from succumbing to Grupo Fantasma's seductive rhythms. Sure, maybe those without any fluency in Spanish might not be able to shout along to the chanted vocals of roof-raisers such as "Levantate" with the same levels of bravado, but there are plenty of other ways to feel equally connected to the music - the group's intricate polyrhythms practically scream for crowd participation, thanks to the layers of congas and timbales pounding away here. And while knowing that the ensemble is actually singing, "The eyes are going to see / the body is pleasure" doesn't hurt, there's something implicit in the song's sultry horn-filled pulse that conveys the same message without speaking a single word.

"Levantate" also offers a few flashes of carefully measured dub echo heaped upon the guitar, in order to ratchet up the drama before exploding into electrifying unison-vocal and horn duels over timbalero Jose Galeano's blazing rhythms. The technique is deployed to tremendous effect on "Bacalao Con Pan," a stretched-out eight-minute rave-up that imagines a collaboration between early Funkadelic and the Fania roster, thanks to inspired use of echo as well as some wonderfully head-floating keyboard work from Harlow.

There's a similar space-jazz key-twinkling on Arroz Con Frijoles", and it pairs tremendously with the thick blankets of reverb applied to the easily learned chorus of "Aah, aah, ahh, arroz con frijoles." About three-quarters of the way into the song, the rhythm suddenly shifts - double-time, triple-time! Screaming horns, battling congas and timbales - total dancefloor emancipation, to be sure.

Those seeking to relive the fiery majesty of early Santana - San Francisco Bay Guardian

By Rodney Anonymous

World music junkies and regular run-of-the-mill junkies have two things in common: Each awakes every morning on a bare, pee-stained mattress on the floor of a stranger's garage, and each then spends every waking moment of the remainder of the day searching for "the pure stuff." In generic junkie terms, the pure stuff is anything currently being smuggled into Dr. Drew's clinic in the body cavity of a D-list celebrity; however, in world music terms, the pure stuff refers to those rare CDs on which aural zeitgeist of a specific geographic location has been captured to be dissected by soulless honky musicologists and critics.

It's a sad fact of life that world music junkies get burned in their search for the pure stuff with far greater frequency than do ordinary junkies. Is there any experience more frustrating than firing up what you had assumed, from its title, to be a CD of Chinese protest songs only to be greeted by the warblings of Axl Rose?

Grupo Fantasma's Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol) is the pure stuff; a perfect example of what Tex-Mex music can and should be. It's all there: mad horns, hip-shaking rhythms and cooler-than-Ted Williams'-frozen-corpse vocals crooning in Spanish. Thank Darwin these guys were smart enough to lock the studio door before some dick freckle could stick his head in and say "Hey fellows, maybe you want to, you know, tone it down a little so you can appeal to a whiter, er, I mean wider audience." - Philadelphia City Paper

Texanen die Latin spelen kom je niet elke dag tegen. Grupo Fantasma uit Austin heeft weliswaar goed geluisterd naar de klassieke salsa van de Fania All Stars uit de jaren zestig, maar ook cumbia, rumba, veel funk en zelfs mariachi-achtige ingrediënten gebruikt.
Daarmee trokken ze de aandacht van Prince, met wie ze meermalen hebben samengewerkt. Als je het kolkende brouwsel van blaasinstrumenten, slagwerk, gitaren en keyboards hoort begrijp je waarom.

Behalve de stemmen van de twee prima zangers, is de voornaamste stem die van de hele groep met zijn overdonderende orkestraties. Solo’s zijn er nauwelijks, behalve één van Maceo Parker, die met zijn altsax Gimme Some extra sappig maakt.

-Door Frank van Herk - de Volkskrant (Netherlands)

By Rodney Anonymous

World music junkies and regular run-of-the-mill junkies have two things in common: Each awakes every morning on a bare, pee-stained mattress on the floor of a stranger's garage, and each then spends every waking moment of the remainder of the day searching for "the pure stuff." In generic junkie terms, the pure stuff is anything currently being smuggled into Dr. Drew's clinic in the body cavity of a D-list celebrity; however, in world music terms, the pure stuff refers to those rare CDs on which aural zeitgeist of a specific geographic location has been captured to be dissected by soulless honky musicologists and critics.

It's a sad fact of life that world music junkies get burned in their search for the pure stuff with far greater frequency than do ordinary junkies. Is there any experience more frustrating than firing up what you had assumed, from its title, to be a CD of Chinese protest songs only to be greeted by the warblings of Axl Rose?

Grupo Fantasma's Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol) is the pure stuff; a perfect example of what Tex-Mex music can and should be. It's all there: mad horns, hip-shaking rhythms and cooler-than-Ted Williams'-frozen-corpse vocals crooning in Spanish. Thank Darwin these guys were smart enough to lock the studio door before some dick freckle could stick his head in and say "Hey fellows, maybe you want to, you know, tone it down a little so you can appeal to a whiter, er, I mean wider audience." - Philadelphia City Paper

BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO

Central Texas is an area where Latin music roots lay firmly in the accordion-driven sounds of conjunto and the country- western flavors of Tejano. But the Lone Star State capital (aka the Live Music
Capital of the World) is home to an array of bands including the 10-piece Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma. “[Austin] is the liberal oasis of Texas and there’s more of an international presence here as far as the youth and artistic movements are concerned,� says bassist Greg Gonzalez, a Laredo native. And while it’s expected that an eclectic group like this would be a hometown favorite, Grupo Fatasma’s instrumental prowess has burst beyond the city limits with the help of some famous friends.

Not only has it attracted the attention of Prince, but the Purple One has taken the group under his wing: He recruited them for a residency gig in his now defunct Las Vegas nightclub 3121 back in
Thanksgiving 2006, and hired them to play with him before 20,000 people in England last August at the Coachella festival, among others.

Not bad for an outfit created out of the remnants of two local Austin acts, The Blue Noise Band and The Blimp. Like fellow horn-driven combos Antibalas and Sharon Jones and The DapKings, Grupo Fantasma puts a distinct hybridized twist on traditional sounds, in this case fusing Colombian cumbia with Afro-Caribbean slices of salsa, merengue, son and guarachas, all smothered with hefty doses of funk.
Over the course of four albums, the band has refined its sound, starting with the psychedelic-flavored ‘70s Latin-rock of its 2002 self-titled debut and evolving into 2004’s Movimiento Popular, a collection of songs steeped in Caribbean music that Gonzalez credits to the arrival of singer/timbale player Jose Galeano in the band’s ranks.
“He learned from his uncle, Chepito Areas, who’s the original timbale player from the Santana band,� says Gonzalez. “At the point we incorporated [ Jose], he showed us a lot of techniques that we
were aware of but didn’t quite understand how they worked. You hear tropical music, which is what they called it on the border, and it was kind of a generic term that covered all the Cuban and Caribbean styles.� While he feels Movimiento was a good step forward, Gonzalez felt its polished production didn’t capture the vibrancy of the band’s concerts, which the release of 2006’s Comes Alive attempted to do. Recorded at a March 2006 Austin gig, it finds Grupo Fantasma stretching and soloing as the band effortlessly changes gears between cumbia, rock, funk and everything in-between.
But it’s on this year’s Sonidos Gold where it all comes together—the effort- less mastery of styles and potency of the band’s formidable instrumentalists, caught up in a warm analog embrace. Touchstones abound: Cuban fusionists Irakere has given Bacalao Con Pan a dirty
funk workout overflowing with wah-wah guitar and fleet-fingered keyboard runs that could have been a vintage ’70s Malo outtake. Arroz con Frijoles mixes a Brazilian bossa nova groove with the exu-
berant whistle-blowing associated with Carnaval, while including brassy punctuation reminiscent of Johnny Ventura’s brand of vibrant Dominican merengue. One influence that’s also apparent is that of the Fania All-Stars, whose legendary bandleader/arranger Larry Harlow appears on Rumba y Guaguanco, with spirited boogaloo rhythms and Yoruba chants, and Se Te Mira, whose congas,
hand claps and sharply played horn arrangements offer up plenty of grit. “We were huge into the Fania All Stars, especially artists like Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentin, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon and Celia Cruz,� Gonzalez says. “When we wanted to hear salsa, we
wanted to hear grimy, Colombian and Puerto Rican salsa from the ‘70s, played by sweaty guys in polyester suits who were trying to mix in funk and doo-wop sounds because they grew up in New York. ... To me you can’t consider something funky unless it gets people dancing up a sweat and they don’t care what they look like. It’s like saying you can have sex without touching somebody.�

Elsewhere, the reverb soaked dub cut Cumbia de Los Pajaritos not only slows the pace down, but is a solid bridge between the passionate shuffle Rebotar and Gimme Some. The only English-language number on the album, Gimme Some has a guaracha imprint, a fiery solo by sax master Maceo Parker and Santanaish guitar riffing further accentuated by the inclusion of the chorus from that band’s No One Can Depend On.
There’s a certain connection Grupo Fantasma has with second and third- generation Latinos—those who are most likely bilingual and respectful of cultural traditions while trying to navigate the mainstream.
“I can easily hear the influence of the funk and rock and roll from America, and I can clearly hear the influence of Latin America in the cumbia, but I think more than anything, it’s the openness we bring,�
Gonzalez sa - Hispanic Magazine

Already brandishing the Purple One’s stamp of approval — Prince hired them to be his impromptu backing band for a Golden Globe Awards after-party before taking them on tour as openers — Grupo Fantasma add another album-length credit to a growing legacy with their fourth release, Sonidos Gold. Austin’s resident Latinofunk orchestra mingle all manner of grooves into the unrelenting energy of their fiesta vibe, and they even snag Maceo Parker for a few solos on the James Brown-invoking “Gimme Some.� Free-flowing arrangements sound both spontaneous and precise; like the Meters-style guitar slinking beneath the bombastic horns and throbbing bass on “Arroz Con Frijoles� (that’s Spanish for black beans and rice, for those of you who aren’t regulars at Sneaky Dee’s) or “Bacalao Con Pan,� which marries the opening groove from Belle and Sebastian’s “Another Sunny Day� with a psychedelic ’70s-sounding Latino-funk crossbreed of Santana, Axelrod and the Ewok jam at the end of Return of the Jedi. Grupo Fantasma absolutely live up to the near-unanimous praise they’ve been receiving for years.

-Chris Bilton - Eye Weekly (Toronto)

BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO

Central Texas is an area where Latin music roots lay firmly in the accordion-driven sounds of conjunto and the country- western flavors of Tejano. But the Lone Star State capital (aka the Live Music
Capital of the World) is home to an array of bands including the 10-piece Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma. “[Austin] is the liberal oasis of Texas and there’s more of an international presence here as far as the youth and artistic movements are concerned,� says bassist Greg Gonzalez, a Laredo native. And while it’s expected that an eclectic group like this would be a hometown favorite, Grupo Fatasma’s instrumental prowess has burst beyond the city limits with the help of some famous friends.

Not only has it attracted the attention of Prince, but the Purple One has taken the group under his wing: He recruited them for a residency gig in his now defunct Las Vegas nightclub 3121 back in
Thanksgiving 2006, and hired them to play with him before 20,000 people in England last August at the Coachella festival, among others.

Not bad for an outfit created out of the remnants of two local Austin acts, The Blue Noise Band and The Blimp. Like fellow horn-driven combos Antibalas and Sharon Jones and The DapKings, Grupo Fantasma puts a distinct hybridized twist on traditional sounds, in this case fusing Colombian cumbia with Afro-Caribbean slices of salsa, merengue, son and guarachas, all smothered with hefty doses of funk.
Over the course of four albums, the band has refined its sound, starting with the psychedelic-flavored ‘70s Latin-rock of its 2002 self-titled debut and evolving into 2004’s Movimiento Popular, a collection of songs steeped in Caribbean music that Gonzalez credits to the arrival of singer/timbale player Jose Galeano in the band’s ranks.
“He learned from his uncle, Chepito Areas, who’s the original timbale player from the Santana band,� says Gonzalez. “At the point we incorporated [ Jose], he showed us a lot of techniques that we
were aware of but didn’t quite understand how they worked. You hear tropical music, which is what they called it on the border, and it was kind of a generic term that covered all the Cuban and Caribbean styles.� While he feels Movimiento was a good step forward, Gonzalez felt its polished production didn’t capture the vibrancy of the band’s concerts, which the release of 2006’s Comes Alive attempted to do. Recorded at a March 2006 Austin gig, it finds Grupo Fantasma stretching and soloing as the band effortlessly changes gears between cumbia, rock, funk and everything in-between.
But it’s on this year’s Sonidos Gold where it all comes together—the effort- less mastery of styles and potency of the band’s formidable instrumentalists, caught up in a warm analog embrace. Touchstones abound: Cuban fusionists Irakere has given Bacalao Con Pan a dirty
funk workout overflowing with wah-wah guitar and fleet-fingered keyboard runs that could have been a vintage ’70s Malo outtake. Arroz con Frijoles mixes a Brazilian bossa nova groove with the exu-
berant whistle-blowing associated with Carnaval, while including brassy punctuation reminiscent of Johnny Ventura’s brand of vibrant Dominican merengue. One influence that’s also apparent is that of the Fania All-Stars, whose legendary bandleader/arranger Larry Harlow appears on Rumba y Guaguanco, with spirited boogaloo rhythms and Yoruba chants, and Se Te Mira, whose congas,
hand claps and sharply played horn arrangements offer up plenty of grit. “We were huge into the Fania All Stars, especially artists like Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentin, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon and Celia Cruz,� Gonzalez says. “When we wanted to hear salsa, we
wanted to hear grimy, Colombian and Puerto Rican salsa from the ‘70s, played by sweaty guys in polyester suits who were trying to mix in funk and doo-wop sounds because they grew up in New York. ... To me you can’t consider something funky unless it gets people dancing up a sweat and they don’t care what they look like. It’s like saying you can have sex without touching somebody.�

Elsewhere, the reverb soaked dub cut Cumbia de Los Pajaritos not only slows the pace down, but is a solid bridge between the passionate shuffle Rebotar and Gimme Some. The only English-language number on the album, Gimme Some has a guaracha imprint, a fiery solo by sax master Maceo Parker and Santanaish guitar riffing further accentuated by the inclusion of the chorus from that band’s No One Can Depend On.
There’s a certain connection Grupo Fantasma has with second and third- generation Latinos—those who are most likely bilingual and respectful of cultural traditions while trying to navigate the mainstream.
“I can easily hear the influence of the funk and rock and roll from America, and I can clearly hear the influence of Latin America in the cumbia, but I think more than anything, it’s the openness we bring,�
Gonzalez sa - Hispanic Magazine