La Santa Cecilia

Artist: La Santa CeciliaAlbum: Noches Y CitasAdd to Playlist
La Santa Cecilia is named after the patron saint of musicians in Latin America. The lead singer, Marisoul Hernandez, grew up in the heart of Mexican Los Angeles, and learned to sing with the mariachis and trios on Olvera Street. "La Negra" is up for Best Tropical Song, and it has several layers to it: You hear a taste of cumbia, the sensual lyrics of a romantic bolero, a little jazz vocalese, a rich mix of different sounds that the musicians are exposed to in L.A.

This album is available on Amazon.

- NPR

Latin Grammy nominees La Santa Cecilia take over New York


By JACQUELINE SANTILLAN BEIGHLEY
Channel: Entertainment

From Edith Piaf to Rodrigo y Gabriela, many artists cut their teeth performing on the streets of their hometowns, acquiring the fearlessness, versatility, and loyal following all great performers need. La Santa Cecilia—made up of lead singer Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez, guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordion and requinto player Jose “Pepe” Carlos, bassist Alex Bendaña, percussionist Miguel Ramirez, and drummer Hugo Vargas—are no exception. All six members are Mexican American, except Bendaña, who was born in Venezuela to Nicaraguan parents and “raised by Mexicans.”

La Marisoul and Pepe’s story dates back to high school, when they both sang for money on the colorful and bustling Olvera Street in Los Angeles. They crossed paths with most of their bandmates performing under the stars at La Placita or at backyard parties in Boyle Heights.

Since officially forming in 2007, the band has gained momentum by touring around the country, and turning every gig into an energetic dance party. Their unique blend of bossa nova, tango, cumbia, mariachi, and rock has even been featured on Weeds and Entourage.

The group’s profile reached a new level this year with a Latin Grammy nod in the Best Tropical Song category for “La Negra,” off their full-length debut album, Noche y Citas. (The awards ceremony will take place November 10 in Las Vegas and will air live on Univision).

We recently caught up with the group from a rooftop in Brooklyn, New York, on a rainy and windy October night, as they ripped through a spirited version of “La Negra.”
- Univision.com

Latin Grammy nod could be breakthrough for La Santa Cecilia
Published October 22, 2011

EFE

Print Email Share Comments Miami – La Santa Cecilia is using the visibility provided by a Latin Grammy nomination to promote their EP "Noche y citas."

The Los Angeles-based group's "La Negra" will be one of the tunes vying for the Best Tropical Song award at the Nov. 10 Latin Grammy gala in Las Vegas.

"It was something we really didn't expect, but it filled us with much joy," accordionist Jose Carlos said in an interview with Efe during a visit to Miami. "How fantastic, to be nominated along with Calle 13 and Gilberto Santa Rosa."

Accompanying Carlos were lead singer Marisoul and guitarist Gloria Estrada. Bassist Alex Bendaña, percussionist Miguel Ramirez and drummer Hugo Vargas complete the lineup.

Though La Santa Cecilia was founded in 2007, it was only last year that the band came to the attention of Grammy-winning producer Sebastian Krys, who liked what he heard during a showcase organized by the BMI label.

Krys produced the group's second EP, a four-song set, including "La Negra," that offers a taste of La Santa Cecilia's heady stew of cumbia, bossa nova, bolero, tango, blues, jazz and rock.

"We are a fusion, a mixture of the traditional, the Latin American, but also of American pop music," Marisoul says.



Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2011/10/22/latin-grammy-nod-could-be-breakthrough-for-la-santa-cecilia/#ixzz1gXx00dmJ - Fox news Latino

Entertainment


La Santa Cecilia is an L.A. story
The band's influences are diverse: mariachis, ranchera, English-language rock icons. Its members are looking to move beyond their status as subculture icons.
August 30, 2011|By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times
Before she morphed into the ruby-lipped, hip-shaking diva La Marisoul, Marisol Hernandez lived in alternate musical realities as an L.A. teenager.

She spent weekends among the tourist emporiums of Olvera Street, where her grandfather owned a shop, singing traditional Mexican boleros for spare change. Then, during the week, as a Hollywood High School student, Hernandez says, "I would dress in black, I was all about the Doors and the Beatles, and I was all dark. It was like two different lives."


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Those who've attended a Levitt Pavilion concert in MacArthur Park lately, or thrashed among the Dionysian throngs at the Mucho Mas musical bacchanals at La Cita, would quickly grasp that Hernandez ultimately united her creative personas. Now the torchy belter of misty-eyed rancheras coexists on-stage with the popster who lays down a charming, irony-free Spanish-language cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever."

The same could be said of La Santa Cecilia, the ebullient sextet that La Marisoul fronts as lead singer, with her oversize gift for personal fashion statements and a voice that puts some listeners in mind of a bilingual, less angst-ridden Janis Joplin with its bluesy, lusty forthrightness.

Like any number of older-sibling L.A. bands of Chicano pedigree — Ollin, Quetzal, Quinto Sol — La Santa Cecilia crafts music that is both anchored by regional influences and well-traveled. In the trans-border world of contemporary rock and pop, mariachi trumpets joust with Stax-style horns, East L.A. tough guys weep over Morrissey's despairing passion plays and digitally enhanced accordions lure dancers onto the floor as relentlessly as a disco beat.

La Santa Cecilia hails from that milieu, and after years of attracting passionate followers across California and the Southwest with its dance-ready aural montages of cumbia, funk, punk, samba, son jarocho and klezmer, the band seems eager to make the leap from hardworking subculture icons to headliner status.

Between Labor Day and mid-October, the band named for the patron saint of musicians — whose other members are guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordion and requinto player Jose "Pepe" Carlos, bassist Alex Bendaña, percussionist Miguel Ramirez and drummer Hugo Vargas — will play gigs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio, and their first New York dates, at El Museo Del Barrio and Joe's Pub.

The band's Latin-alternative music has been gaining traction elsewhere. It has a recent EP to promote, and its bouncy-melancholic song "Chicle" turned up on an episode of the Showtime series "Weeds" and spun off a video that would win the MTV Cuteness Award, if such a thing existed, with children appearing as the band members' doppelgangers.

La Santa Cecilia's energy and authenticity have been earning props from previous-generation East L.A. and Boyle Heights bands who know how hard it can be to break out when you don't fit the cookie-cutter templates of mainstream Latin radio. "They're inspiring people, they really are," says Scott Rodarte of Ollin, which has shared a concert bill with La Santa Cecilia. "With every show they're getting stronger."

The band came together through concentric friendships. Marisoul and Carlos met while playing on Olvera Street. Marisoul and Estrada then crossed paths through a percussionist mutual friend at a party and started "dating musically," as Estrada puts it. Estrada had known Vargas and Bendaña during her student years at Pasadena City College and Cal State L.A.


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As mostly native Southern Californians (Carlos was born in Oaxaca), the group's members, all of whom are in their late 20s or early 30s, grew up thinking it was perfectly natural to hear and perform music in two languages, from mariachi to jazz.

Estrada remembers hearing musicians at Mariachi Plaza while growing up in Boyle Heights, as well as the neighborhood's backyard parties. "I used to just go to backyard punk rock shows, in Boyle Heights, because they used to have them all the time and I couldn't afford to go to a club," she says. "Backyard gig, $3. Then the cops would come like an hour later."

Ramirez fondly recalls chi - Los Angeles Times

El concierto de Bomba Estéreo fue abierto por La Santa Cecilia, un grupo local que cuenta ya con un numeroso y fiel contingente de seguidores, como lo demostraron los gritos de entusiasmo y la excitación provocada en la audiencia durante su presentación. Liderado por la estupenda vocalista Marisoul (que apareció en escena con un pintoresco atuendo en el que se combinaban las tradiciones mexicanas con el post-modernismo), el combo angelino practica una fusión tan vibrante como constante, en la que descubrimos elementos de la cumbia, el ska, el rockabilly, el funk, la rumba y hasta el hardcore (éste último en menor medida).

En el plano musical, el conjunto combina también instrumentos de distintas procedencias, logrando un interesante contrapunto entre los sonidos de la guitarra eléctrica (brillantemente interpretada por Gloria Estrada) y los del acordeón (en manos del experto José Carlos). En determinado momento, José Carlos dejó de lado el acordeón para apoderarse de un requinto, que le sirvió para efectuar un apasionante duelo de solos con Gloria.

El repertorio incluyó “La negra”, un animado vallenato con inflexiones vocales del soul (de ahí el apelativo de la cantante) que se incluye en el más reciente EP del grupo, “Noche y citas”, pero también una divertida recreación de “Groove Is in the Heat”, el recordado tema ‘disco’ de Deee-Lite.

“Podemos ser lindas y sumisas, pero también cabronas y chingonas”, dijo Marisoul, muy cerca del final. Y no le faltaba razón; mientras tratábamos de abrirnos paso entre la multitud del Roxy para encontrar un buen ángulo de fotografía, una dama más grande que nosotros nos empujó y nos gritó, aparentemente porque habíamos invadido su espacio sin darnos cuenta. Respeto. - Manganzon

2/23/2011
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Music > Music
Beyond limits
LA’s La Santa Cecilia proud — a mucha pinche honra — to pull from variety of sounds
Courtesy photo
From left: Alex, Oso, Gloria, Hugo, Marisoul, and Pepe, looking ahead in LA.


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By Enrique Lopetegui

If you want to oversimplify the super-eclectic world of Latin alternative/rock music, you can divide everything into two camps: the foreign-minded artists who stick to Anglo/American formulas, and the joy-loving pachangueros who excel at organic fusions of rock and local rhythms. La Santa Cecilia (named after the patron saint of musicians) doesn’t belong to either of those groups. Not completely.

The Los Angeles-based band on their way back to SXSW (and making their San Antonio debut February 24 at The Mix, followed by a February 26 show at Boneshakers) can make you want to dance all night with an edgy, smart, electrified cumbia and then leave you flat-footed with awe two minutes later when they rock the house with an electro-acoustic version of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Their style includes elements of rock, bolero, rumba, tango, samba, jazz, and even Romania’s klezmer music, and their brand new second EP, Noche y Citas (Night and Dates), produced by 2007 Latin Grammy Producer of the Year Sebastian Krys, has the band flying high.

“To me, they were the perfect blend of kids who grew up [in the U.S.] and were influenced by both cultures,” said Krys, who has won four Grammys and seven Latin Grammys. “They’re not about nostalgia and they’re not into placating to what the mainstream industry or media outlets think ‘Latino’ is. And as musicians they take their craft seriously. They have the work ethic, the drive, but most importantly a clear vision of who they are as artists, and they defend that vision. That’s refreshing in today’s music world.”

He has a soft spot for the singer, simply known as “La Marisoul.”

“She reminded me of those great singers in the mold of [Argentina’s] Mercedes Sosa, Lila Downs, and Edith Piaf, and ‘old’ soul,” said Krys, who chose LSC to be the first band he signed to his own label, Rebeleón Music.

Going back and forth in English and Spanish, Marisoul spoke to the Current on the phone from LA, where she was born. By the time she moved to Morelos, Mexico, at age 11, she was both a full-fledged rocker and an expert in singing corridos, rancheras, and boleros, which she learned while playing at her grandpa’s business at historic Placita Olvera, a sort of Angeleno Market Square.

“We had no babysitters,” Marisoul said, “and I just used to run and play at the market, and the mariachis and trios taught me how to sing. I loved it because they’d give me a dollar and I’d spend it on sweets.”

Like Marisoul, the rest of the band has a similar bi-cultural story. Accordionist Pepe Carlos was born in Oaxaca but grew up in Koreatown; percussionist Miguel “Oso” Ramírez was born in Orange County and grew up in Walnut, Calif., but his playing is all AfroCuba; guitarist Gloria Estrada grew up in East LA’s tough Boyle Heights section and has a jazz background; drummer Hugo Vargas (the band’s metalhead) is from Mexico City; and stand-up bassist Alex Bendana, the band’s other jazz connection, was born in Venezuela to Nicaraguan parents but grew up in LA. “He’s a Venezuelan nica raised by Mexicans!” jokes Marisoul.

“They set me free,” says Marisoul about the band’s skill and versatility. “They each have their own vibes, but we challenge each other and that’s great. I don’t know if I can sing ‘She’s So Heavy’ or a punk song, but I try and it’s a lot of fun to do it with people like them behind me.”

When she arrived in Mexico she was la gringuita who was into the Beatles, the Doors, and the Pixies. But it was in Mexico that she learned that there was nothing wrong with also embracing the music her family played at home.

“When you’re a teenager, you’re like, ‘I’m too hardcore for this or that.’ You feel you have to define yourself as for something,” she said. “But in this band we celebrate the fact that you can listen to everything, a mucha pinche honra [very fucking proud]. There’s no shame in saying, ‘I like corridos, but I also like hip-hop and punk.’ The more you know, the more you grow. We’re not just the band that plays cumbias. We like to explore without limits. We go out there, we play, and we see what happens.”

La Santa Cecilia will be playing a little bit of everything when they hit San Antonio.

“We’ll celebrate our traditional music, but also rebellion and new ideas. People should come with an open heart, because we’re having a good time, and we do everything we can so that people scream, cry, or get cachonda.”

I ask her if “horny” is the right translation for cachonda.

“Horny? I guess …” she says. “It sounds a little weird, but that’s what it is, isn’t it?” • - San Antonio Current

Named after the Patron Saint of Musicians, it is only fit that La Santa Cecilia is a musical blessing. Elements of Norteno accordion, Mexican Folklorico, and even conjunto all come together to form the Los Angeles based sextet. If you listen carefully to their self titled EP, you will hear more subtle elements of Latin music such as Bolero and Cumbia. Fronted by the one they call "La Marisoul", La Santa Cecilia offers traditional sonidos for your parents and grandparents, while having enough soul for all of us to appreciate.

La Marisoul reminds me of a younger Linda Ronstandt with a hint of Sandra Velasquez of Pistolera. Her voice is strong but not overpowering, and best when en Espanol. The band from La Santa Cecilia is also very talented. On the EP they display musical capabilities to play just about any style, including Latin Jazz on “Jack” or Brazilian Samba on “Samba CA”. Both of which are excellent tracks. Accordion lovers will enjoy my favorite track on the EP, “Chicle”. After all, everyone needs a little conjunto in their life.

There’s not much more to say at this point, except for the La Santa Cecilia EP belongs in your collection in between your Flaco Jimenez and your Lila Downs albums. Although it seems to go by too quickly, the self titled EP from La Santa Cecilia is a good preview of what should be a solid album to come in the near future. I’m sure of it.


link:
https://www.austinvida.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159:album-review-la-santa-cecilia&catid=21:reviews&Itemid=7
- Ian Morales

La Santa Cecilia is Learning the Ropes of Independent Music

Written by Hilda Gabriela Monday, 24 August 2009 10:19

LSCOn any given day, we may come across endless EP’s, burned CD's, swapped iTunes, numerous music leads, gig invites, etc etc. After all, this is L.A.-city in which you can find an eclectic array of gigs that have you gig-hopping from electro to soul to vallenato to indie to urbano to experimental to mariachi… all on one single strip. And if you’re really L.A. savvy, you may even catch a “La de la mochila azul” blasting from an L.A. alley somewhere.

Every now and then, amongst that same pile of endless EP’s or somewhere in a dimly lit venue, you hear or see something that strikes a chord. Perhaps it’s the guitar riffs that send a chill down your spine, or the lyrics may hit close to home, or (as it often occurs to me) it may just be the way the lead singer wears his jeans that make you take note of this newfound music. In the case of La Santa Cecilia, however, it was neither in my endless pile of EP’s nor in some L.A. venue that I came across something interestingly refreshing but, rather, it came to me in a sealed manila envelope. Encased in a fluorescent pink CD sleeve decorated with glitter, ribbon and cut offs of graffiti-art were, to my surprise, six tracks that would take me back to waking up on a Saturday morning to the sounds of Canciones de mi padre and the neighbor’s rooster letting me know it’s time to get crackin’. It was thus that I was introduced to La Santa Cecilia, a name that was taken in honor of the patron saint of all musicians. By the time this creatively packed EP arrived to me, the six-member folk-experiment group had just wound down from a summer concert series that allowed them to perform all over the city. I caught up with the band’s percussionist, Miguel “Oso” Ramirez, who spoke to us about the essence of LSC, and who also gave us a brief rundown on what the band has learned from working as an independent band and what they hope to accomplish.

La Santa Cecilia
Throughout Latin America there is a local band named “La Santa Cecilia” in nearly every town! She’s the patron saint for musicians. I proposed the name to everyone because I wanted a name that represented our belief in music not for religious purposes, but rather, for a strong representation of how much we love la musica. That inspired and connected us to the beauty that is Latin America. La Santa Cecilia is a natural expression of who we are as young Mexicans and Latinos raised in Los Angeles. That means we experiment with a fusion of sounds from all over the world with strong Latin and American roots. If La Santa Cecilia could be any ice cream flavor, it’d be all the flavors of the rainbow cause our drummer makes ice cream for a living at Fosselman's in Alhambra! Lol.

“La Santa Cecilia”, the EP
Most of the songs on the EP vary in style, but that wasn’t done purposely; that’s just the way it occurred. But regardless of what style each song may be, each one is our own interpretation. The song “Klezmer”, for example, is a cool song because it’s a declaration of our hopes and desires to live all the beauty that life has to offer. It’s a declaration of traveling with our music, of expressing all that life is about, it’s about all of us taking a stand to live our dreams at this current moment in our life. In life, each person tells their own story and La Santa Cecilia just so happens to tell stories through sound, colors and lyrics.

“Chicle” is about all the cliché things that friends or family members offer you as advice when you’re feeling down. It talks about that feeling of thinking that all of that advice is just another unclear generic way of them trying to calm your doubts and fears. Instead of naming the song a total "cliché" we turned it into “Chicle” because sometimes it’s better not to give advice and just chew "chicle" (gum)!

There are definitely some things that we would want to change from our EP. We sound so different now than when we recorded, that we wish we could have more money to make a great sounding record. We would like to take it a step further and produce an album sometime in the future. So long as there is cash to do it, we’re in!

The arts & crafts EP cover
Marisoul loves painting, arts & crafts and visual arts in general, so she wanted to take that and do something different for our album covers. It all started with a desire to make things homemade, so she “got creative” on a couple of blank covers. We then took those CD's to our gigs and the more of them that we gave out, the more people started asking for them. It got to the point were we needed help making them, so with the help of our friends and family members we would get together in what are now our “painting parties” where each person makes as many CD covers as they can and, at the end of the night, we end up with covers that are unique and creative works of art. The interaction we have with our fans by - Al Borde

"LA SANTA CECILIA"
spotlightartist, September 09/14/09, 2009
“The modern-day creative hybrid”, this LA based six-member band creatively mixes South American Rhythms, Bolero, Tango, Afro-Cuban Percussion and Jazz accompanied by singer Marisoul’s haunting voice. Delivering a message of love, loss and heartbreak in strong, sensual and powerful performances; with individual influences ranging from John Coltrane and Miles Davis to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, one thing is common amongst the members: a love of music! LA SANTA CECILIA – named after the Mexican patron saint of musicians – was born in the year 2007. The band is comprised of guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordion and requinto player Jose Carlos, bassist Alex Bendana, percussionist Miguel Ramirez, drummer Hugo Vargas and lead singer Marisoul. In this ROCKOLETA Spotlight we speak to lead vocalist Marisoul who shared her and La Santa’s roots, experiences and influences with us.

ROCKOLETA : Were you guys born and raised in United States? There is the impression that your cultural history might be mixed, from different parts of Latin America. What are your cultural backgrounds?

MARISOUL: Most of us were born here or came to the United States at a very young age and were then raised here. Jose, the requintista and accordionist, was born in Oaxaca and Hugo is “Chilango” but they both came to live in LA at a young age. Alex, the bassist, was born in Venezuela but his parents are Nicaraguenses. And Gloria, on guitar, was born and raised in Boyle Heights and “she is very proud of that!” Also, Oso, we call him that because he looks like a bear (laughs), the percussionist in the band, was born and raised here. I myself was born here in Los Angeles but I also lived in Mexico. My mother moved out there so I went back and forth. But we are all Mexican or of Mexican descent with the exception of Alex who is the “Nicaraguense-Venezolano” but he says he feels Mexican because he grew up with a bunch of Mexicans.

ROCKOLETA:Your music is diverse, you call it a “creative hybrid”. It is like a mixture of different regional music from different parts of Latin America combined with traditional genres like blues and jazz but obviously with La Santa Cecilia’s own personality thrown in. Why this mix and style of music? Why not do something traditional like rock, punk, ska, metal or something else?

MARISOUL: Well, me personally, I am very indecisive and I like everything. Because of that I sometimes find it hard to commit to just one style. And, well, I think that as humans we are ever-changing in our tastes because of our age, our styles, how we dress, how we grow and get to know the world and people around us, and we change in what we like or don’t like. We didn’t start this band thinking “oh we’re gonna be like this or we should be like that”. We simply wanted to make music because all of us had been working in bands and singing or playing covers. And, we all had this desire to express ourselves through our instruments and voices. Now when we sit down to work on our material, our backgrounds contribute to this: Gloria’s influence is Mariachi, she loves Mariachi but she also studied Jazz guitar, and that’s her thing. Oso’s influences have been Afro-Cuban rhythms, African Music, Bossa Nova and more. He loves all of that stuff and that’s what he brings. Hugo, the drummer, is the “metalero”, he’s an Iron Maiden freak and he loves loud music. Alex, the bass player, studies Jazz but has been playing in a Ska band for years. And, Jose, the accordionist, loves boleros and traditional music. Me and him had been playing in a trio for a long time and have known each other since we were children and always played traditional music: Norteñas, Mariachi, Musica Romantica and Boleros. So that is our thing but at the same time my favorite artists are bands like The Beatles, The Doors and Os Mutantes. So we just wanted to make music based on all of our influences and everything that we learned as musicians. We play music to experiment and there is no plan that “this will be like this” or “that will be like that”, it just kind of happens.

ROCKOLETA: That being said, is your music heavily motivated by your family, your traditions and your culture? Is there anything specific in your roots or personal experiences that has lent itself to the creation of your work?

MARISOUL:Definitely, of course. Me personally, I grew up in downtown LA, in La Plazita Olvera. There was a market on a small street and that is where I grew up because my grandfather had a stand there. And, there were “artesanias” (handicrafts) and street musicians. Most of them where bohemian (artists living unconventionally) or played in trios. And, my father always loved to celebrate and enjoy “the good life”. So I would hang out with these people and my father and his friends. They would cheer me on to sing for them or I would overhear the conversations that they had and the stories that they told. All of this influ - rockoleta

I am IN LOVE with Los Angeles band, La Santa Cecilia, named after the patron saint of music. They play an electic fusion of everything rootsy – from bolero to soul to Rancheras to Cumbias to the Beatles to Folk to Jazz/Jam to Klezmer. Lead singer, La Marisoul is absolutely adorable and sweet but on stage she is simply fierce – simmering with her sexy, sultry vocals. Guitar player Gloria Estrada is a complete bad-ass; laid back as cool as any blues cat out there. The guys in the band, all flippin awesome and 100% on point musicians: percussionist Miguel Ramirez, drummer Hugo Vargas, Alex Bendana on upright bass, and Jose Carlos on Requinto and accordion. This band is TIGHT – solid and all smooth as can be, each member with their own unique style and coolness.

They are coming up strong this year with songs appearing on shows including Weeds and Entourage, playing SXSW, the Hollywood Bowl, and the GRAMMY block party. They are generating quite a buzz, with veterans of the music biz being blown away by their sound. La Santa Celicia…I guarantee we will be hearing a lot more of them and thank goodness for that because they are the real deal.




Their current EP is distributed at their shows and each CD has a unique handmade design painted by the band members, their artistic community of friends, and even children at painting parties. Here’s mine – thanks guys!! I took this picture in front of my own wall of music in my room: - root note music

Vesper PR: La Santa Cecilia on 'Entourage', GRAMMY Block Party, Hollywood Bowl, Descarga 2010!
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:28pm
LA SANTA CECILIA will bring joy, rhythm, folklore to an episode of the award winning HBO series, "Entourage"

Summer Concert Series at The Hollywood Bowl July19 -30, 2010
GRAMMY Block Party on Saturday July 31, 2010


Vesper Public Relations. Los Angeles Wednesday July 13, 2010. . La Santa Cecilia are true ambassadors of the city of Los Angeles, will spread their joy, color, rhythm and folklore on an episode of award winning HBO series "Entourage" airing on July 25, 2010.

The band was invited to participate in the 4th episode of the new season of "Entourage", in which the group appears as themselves in a performance, in addition two of their songs "El Farol" and "Chicle" will be featured on the episode.

This milestone accomplishment reaffirms the musical impact that La Santa Cecilia represents in the city of Los Angeles & beyond.

La Santa Cecilia has a string of high profile performances this summer such as: GRAMMY Block Party concert benefiting Music Cares Nashville Flood Relief to be held on Saturday July 31, 2010 from 3 pm to 7p.m. at The Recording Academy, Santa Monica, California located at 3030 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90 404.

This outdoor concert will feature artists such as: Aka Cassidy, Charice, Raphael Saadiq, Chuck Wicks and La Santa Cecilia to raise funds and help the local music community that resides in the city of Nashville who suffered during the recent floods. www.musicares.com/NashvilleFloodRelief


Media: Welcome: 2:30 p.m.
Parking 3003 Exposition Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
R.S.V.P. Media is Mandatory 310 581 8790


In addition La Santa Cecilia’s performances at the Hollywood Bowl Summer Concert Series kick off this week 19 to 30 July 2010.

Lastly, the group is set to perform on at the 4th annual 'Descarga' @ Universal/CityWalk {Telemundo Eventos and mun2 } concert series on Sunday August 15 2010.

For those who have not yet seen a live performance of La Santa Cecilia ... is enjoying a Pan American musical platter where you can sample everything from a rich Samba, Bossa Nova, Merengue, Mambo, Mariachi, Afro-Cuban, Cumbia, Bolero, to a rich Flamenco.

• July 9 7pm Bell Gardens Veteran Park/6662 Loveland St Bell Gardens
• July 18 5pm Target Arts & Wonder Family Festival Peck Park, San Pedro
• July 19-30 10am Summer Sounds/ Hollywood Bowl 10 a.m. & 11 a.m. Monday through Friday
• July 31, GRAMMY Block Party
• August 15, Descarga 2010/ CityWalk {FREE} 5:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
• Aug 21 7pm Levitt Pavillion Pasadena/30 N Raymond Avenue

Santa Cecilia’s impressive achievements in recent dates:
• Showcase at Mi Casa Cantina SXSWEST 2010 (Austin)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I858pYA17ic
• In 2009, Invited to participate in the 6th Music Festival Diego Rivera, better known as Anahuacalli Festival in Mexico City
• Anahuacalli Festival:
• http://www.youtube.com/user/LaSantaCeciliaTV1#p/a/u/1/gMW9609bDSA
http://www.youtube.com/user/LaSantaCeciliaTV1#p/a/u/0/EzAPQ6G9J48
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cObEG7Nzr8E
• Autograph signing up shoes and socks in the Santa Cecilia Anahuacalli Festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cObEG7Nzr8E

La Santa Cecilia – named after the Mexican patron saint of musicians – was born. The band is comprised of guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordion and requinto player Jose Carlos, bassist Alex Bendana, percussionist Miguel Ramirez, drummer Hugo Vargas and lead singer Marisoul.

Contacts:

For more information on La Santa Cecilia visit:
http://www.myspace.com/lasantacecilia
http://lasantacecilia.com/

Mariluz Gonzalez/Vesper Public Relations
(818) 667-6403
mgonzalez@vesperpublicrelations.com
www.vesperpublicrelations.com - Vesper Public Relations

Monday, August 16, 2010 2:08pm

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LA SANTA CECILIA: GUIDED BY A SAINT AND LED BY A DIVA TO A SPECIAL PLACE
By Melissa Henderson
August 16, 2010|Featured, Music| Photo: John Gilhooley / Greater Long Beach

santaceciliaband The stage is tiny. Six musicians are crammed elbow to elbow, a tangle of sparkly costumes, mic stands, guitars, congas, an accordion and a full drum kit. A photograph of the Beatles, with the faces of John and George colored in as calaveras, or skulls, hangs off the bandstand near photos of Janis Joplin, Celia Cruz, Nat King Cole and Lola Beltrán, the famed Mexican ranchera singer.

At the many little tables clustered around the stage, votive candles twinkle in bouquets of marigolds and sugar skulls. Half empty bottles of Absinthe and rum and the occasional pack of Camel filters remain untouched because no one’s sitting there. The audience is further back, lining the periphery of the scene.

Widen the focus slightly and the nightclub is revealed to be a burial plot, a patchy bit of grass transformed into a ghostly bohemian café for the evening, one of the hundreds of altars at Hollywood Forever’s Día de los Muertos celebration in 2007. Local artist Guido Mendoza created the altar to honor the legacy of dead musicians and invited his friends, the freshly-minted Latin-alternative band La Santa Cecilia, to help pay tribute to the immortality of music. It’s fitting that the band was named after Santa Cecilia, the patron saint of music, since their performance rocked that altar hard enough to raise the dead.
[ From the grave to the stage ]

Flash forward three years and La Santa Cecilia has a bigger stage, a tighter sound and their audience is going completely nuts. They’re playing a benefit at Self Help Graphics in East L.A. in support of 1.8 Million Dreams, the project aimed at raising awareness about the plight of the millions of undocumented students in the United States.

The crowd is obviously a friendly one, since everyone who’s trekked out to the parking lot at the back of the community center is united in the fight for immigration reform, but something special happens when La Santa Cecilia plugs in. Whether it’s their huge, shiny sound or the band’s ability to effortlessly shift from soul-wrenching boleros to cumbia-infused dance songs, the atmosphere is infectious.

And then there’s that voice. An intoxicating fusion of soaring lyricism and raw emotion, Marisol Hernandez’s singing is a punch to the sternum. Like any self-respecting diva, she has a stage name: La Marisoul.
[ Chilling with the saints ]

La Santa Cecilia’s recording studio (aka the drummer’s pad) is cluttered with stacks of CDs to be sold at shows and hand-painted toy guitars that are in various stages of completion and vying for space with chipped mugs of red wine, numerous threadbare couches and instruments scattered all over the floor. The band is in the middle of laying down tracks for a song that might be called “Mambo,” front door wide open, giving the neighborhood an impromptu concert in the middle of a sunny Thursday afternoon in suburban Alhambra.

Hanging out with the band is a bit like visiting with the fun side of the family. They laugh and tease each other mercilessly, when they aren’t bickering about what to call one of the songs they’ve been playing together for the last two years.

“It’s called ‘Mambo,’” says Miguel “Oso” Ramirez, the percussionist.

“No, no!” protests La Marisoul, or simply Marisoul for short.

“No?” Ramirez asks.

“That’s not the name of the song,” insists Marisoul.

“But we’ve never known any other name,” argues Gloria Estrada, the guitarist.

“But that’s not the name yet. We’ll get a name,” says Marisoul. “How about La Ciudad?”

The debate int - Greater Long Beach

Loosely inspired by the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) spirit of punk bands, La Santa Cecilia’s home-made pins have become an essential element to the band’s live shows and has brought creativity and originality to LSC’s merchandise, which to many are collectibles. La Santa Cecilia not only create original music and hand paint their cd covers, but they also make their own pins which one can buy at their performances for under $4, some are even as low as $1. Why so affordable? It’s a great way to generate additional income and financial support for the bands’ future while allowing anyone on a budget to take home something home-made and unique after seeing their memorable live shows.

Friends, family and band members get together and cut out shapes and figures out of felt, foam, and recycled fabrics and materials. The designs for the pins range from unicorns to donuts, cacti to sombreros and even smiley-faced condoms, for their more unabashed fans. They assemble the pins with a glue gun and a small army that’s willing to help out. The week before a big event is always really busy as they gather to come up with more pin ideas or to simply mass produce them. Somebody glues, someone else cuts more figures, while someone else is using puffy paint to write the band’s name on the various shapes and designs.

Sometimes the pins get googly, plastic eyes and/or are embellished with all kinds of arts & crafts supplies donated by friends or bought by the band themselves. The pins have really developed into another trademark for the rising band; people at their shows ask for them and some even collect them as different designs are made available. Whenever somebody buys one, they get their picture taken wearing the pin and they then become part of La Santa Cecilia’s Pin Pals on their Myspace page.

There are even people who have gotten them as a gift or who didn’t get their picture taken that e-mailed the band a picture of them wearing it so that they can add them to the Pin Pals page. Want to be a Pin Pal? Go see La Santa Cecilia live and buy pin.

http://soyfashionista.com/funky-fresh/articles/la-santa-cecilia-pins-pals.html
- Sandrini Gonzalez

La Santa Cecilia Are LA's Next Big Genre-Bending Latino
By Gustavo Arellano
Published on December 02, 2009 at 1:06pm

*
They got my back
They got my back

The Patron Saints of Genre-Bending
La Santa Cecilia are LA’s next big Latino band—and, man, can they play a mean klezmer!

Every couple of years, a Latino band emerge from the Los Angeles area who match their emerging neighborhood and times perfectly, a band who transcend Latino LA to become a regional crossover hit. The 1990s closed with Ozomatli, whose post-riots combination of hip-hop and a multicultural rotating cast created a sound so ultimately soothing they’re now musical ambassadors for the government. Earlier this decade, the group was Quetzal, proud Chicanos from East Los Angeles, proudly sticking to Afro-Mexican beats to the point where they downsized to two members committed to mastering son jarocho instead of pursuing further mainstreaming. Following them came Los Abandoned, Valley kids who stayed away from politics while crafting three-minute pop songs; they dissolved in 2007, just as our nation’s hard times necessitated more sobriety.

The new It Group just might be the best of them all: La Santa Cecilia, six twentysomethings who synthesize the different strains of Latino life in Southern California into free-for-all tunes, firing off funk licks as easily as cumbia riffs. They really haven’t done much professionally—just a self-titled, self-released, six-song EP last year, each individual case decorated by members and fans with glitter, ribbons, markers and original artwork. One of their songs, the melancholy norteña ballad “Chicle,” found its way into an episode of the show Weeds. But La Santa Cecilia are still underground enough that you can catch them at the most intimate locations.

The group—guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordion player Jose Carlos, bassist Alex Bendana, percussionist Miguel Ramirez, drummer Hugo Vargas and lead singer Marisoul—are all individually gifted, but depend on one another to transform their talents into La Santa Celicia’s addictive charm. “We’ve all played in other bands and done other people’s music, and all of us got in a place two years ago where we just wanted to experiment,” says Marisoul, possessor of a husky voice that can switch from roaring to weeping within seconds à la Janis Joplin, but who delivers with the grace of Ella Fitzgerald.

The members of La Santa Cecilia—named after the patron saint of music—already knew one another, whether from playing in the same bands, attending the same schools, or showing up at one another’s events. “We talked; we jammed. Someone played jazz or mariachi; someone else brought in the Afro-Latino rhythms. Some rock,” Marisoul says. “It’s like being in the kitchen. If I put a little bit here, a little bit there, something good might come out. But if I put a lot over here and even more over there, ¿que chingado estamos haciendo [what the hell are we doing]? Let’s see what comes out.”

What emerges is a dizzying, glorious spin that sonically captures Southern California life. Their signature song, “Klezmer,” starts with Bendana, Ramirez and Vargas unleashing the bone-rattling bass, drums and tambourines of the Jewish genre as Marisoul declares in Spanish, “From the streets of the grand city/Plays and booms/The six protegées of La Santa Cecilia!” In comes Carlos’ lazy accordion, out purrs Marisoul’s voice—and then about a minute into the song emerges Estrada’s guitar, seemingly stolen from Django Reinhardt, crystalline and twangy. A minute later, the sextet switch into a deft bossa nova as gently comforting as a Getz-Gilberto collaboration. Those three separate strains trade off leads, faster and faster, until climaxing in a chant that recalls the frantic enthusiasm of a Chabad telethon.

Live shows allow La Santa Cecilia to extend song length, the better to feed off the inevitable dancing they provoke from the old and the young of all ethnicities. And though their songs have yet to address politics, their commitment to community is legion—the few times they’ve played in Orange County have been at the behest of nonprofits looking to guarantee their financial salvation by asking the band to play at a fund-raiser. They’re being called to play the savior role again this Saturday, when the group perform for the second straight year at Breath of Fire Latina Theater’s “Noche de Milagros” benefit.

“It hasn’t been a plan to do them—it’s just happened,” Marisoul says of the fund-raisers. “We have all types of fans, but a lot of them are conscious who work at nonprofits and have their own causes. We are very aware of what we play for. It’s not just, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’ to anything. We have to like it.” Some of them have included shows for Tia Chucha’s Cafe (the community space run by famed Chicano author Luis Rodriguez), a group that gathers indigenous grandmothers to document their culture’s traditions, and a documentary about women activists i - Oc Weekly

Trae La Santa Cecilia su música por primera vez a México
Espectáculos - Jueves 10 de diciembre (18:32 hrs.)

* La banda actuará los días 12 y 13 de diciembre en el Museo Diego Rivera
* Los géneros que mezclan van desde el reggae, funk, blues e incluso mariachi


El Financiero en línea

México, 10 de diciembre.- La agrupación estadunidense La Santa Cecilia visita por primera vez México para presentar su propuesta musical, en el marco del 6° Festival de Música Diego Rivera, que se llevará a cabo los días 12 y 13 de diciembre.

En entrevista, Marisoul (vocalista), detalló que La Santa Cecilia, es un grupo originario de Los Angeles, California, formado hace dos años. "Nos juntamos porque teníamos la inquietud de hacer música a nuestra manera, además ya habíamos trabajado en otros proyectos".

La agrupación demostrará su calidad interpretativa el día 12 de diciembre a las 18:00 horas en el escenario principal del Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli, de la Ciudad de México, tras el éxito que ha tenido en Estados Unidos.

Sobre su propuesta musical, afirmó que ahora que se juntó con Gloria Estrada (guitarra), José Carlos (acordeón y requinto), Alex Bendana (bajo), Miguel Ramírez (percusión) y Hugo Vargas (batería), realizan sus propias composiciones.

"Mezclando a nuestras influencias y gustos, tratando de experimentar, es como si cocináramos, viendo qué menjurje no sale, qué música va surgiendo", abundó Marisoul. En tanto, José añadió que mezclan, pero con la intención de que se escuche muy natural, "dado que nuestras influencias se dan depende del arreglo o letra y los acordes que se presentan inicialmente".

Abundó que los géneros que mezclan van desde el reggae, funk, blues e incluso mariachi, pero de una manera muy natural, "las canciones se van dando solas, pero de gran calidad".

Marisoul comentó que La Santa Cecilia es una banda independiente, por lo que ellos hacen y pagan toda su música. "Incluso el arte de la portada de nuestro EP de seis canciones, las hacemos nosotros, son varios diseños de un sólo material".

"Son totalmente originales y adornados a mano con crayolas, brillantina, papel reciclable y revistas, ha sido algo muy bonito que se realiza en comunidad con la gente y nos ayudan nuestros cuates y familiares en centros culturales o en nuestras presentaciones".

Sobre las expectativas de su visita a este país, señaló que no tienen ninguna, "pero venimos con el corazón abierto y con muchas ganas de presentar nuestra música, de compartir y sembrar algo a futuro.

Simplemente tenemos ganas de tocar". Puntualizó que para 2010 planean lanzar un nuevo disco con 12 canciones, "será una producción completa". La Santa Cecilia son considerados los embajadores de la música experimental y cultural de la ciudad de Los Angeles. (Con información de Notimex/JJJ)
http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=233778&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

Conocidos como los embajadores de la música experimental y cultural de la ciudad de Los Angeles, los integrantes de la agrupación musical "La Santa Cecilia" arribarán al Festival de Música del Museo Diego Rivera "Anahuacalli", para ofrecer un concierto el 12 de diciembre. La banda, integrada por Marisoul (voz), Gloria Estrada (guitarra), José Carlos (acordeón y requinto), Alex Bendana (bajo), Miguel Ramírez (percusiones) y Hugo Vargas (batería), llegará a tierras mexicanas para presentar su ecléctica fusión de sonidos. La agrupación será parte del elenco de uno de los encuentros más importantes y esperados por los fanáticos de la música independiente, disqueras, y representantes. El festival, mejor conocido como "Anahuacalli" es el escenario idóneo para que "La Santa Cecilia" presente su música al público mexicano, al que promete hacer disfrutar con sus virtuosas creaciones. "La Santa Cecilia", cuyo nombre toma de la patrona de los músicos", sumó a su agenda importantes presentaciones, entre ellas las celebraciones del Día de los Muertos, una de las festividades mexicanas más antiguas y emblemáticas de México, como en "Forever Cementary", en la ciudad de Hollywood el pasado 24 de octubre, en donde compartió escenario con Lila Downs. Su propuesta habla por sí misma: trascendiendo géneros y llegando a toda clase de público en una ciudad donde la diversidad y la mezcla cultural son latentes La banda fue invitada a participar en el evento por los organizadores del festival, quienes descubrieron su música gracias al éxito que la banda ha logrado en Estados Unidos. El encuentro de disqueras independientes incluye otros conciertos en vivo, exposiciones, conferencias, talleres y venta de discos.
http://mx.globedia.com/participara-santa-cecilia-festival-anahuacalli

- Various

Thursday, 22 April 2010 18:28
La Santa Cecilia let's it simmer
Written by Angela Maldonado


La Santa CeciliaHanging out with Los Angeles’ La Santa Cecilia is the same as hanging out with a group of brothers and sisters.

The uni-named lead singer, Marisoul, sits comfortably on the couch at In the Flesh Tattoo Parlor on Sixth Street. The boys, accordionist Jose Carlos, bassist Alex Bendana, percussionist Miguel Ramirez and drummer Hugo Vargas, jostle each other to make room for guitarist Gloria Estrada.

The LA band’s mix of Pan-American-by-way-of-California music has been used in an independent feature film, a documentary and Showtime’s Emmy-award-winning program Weeds, but it’s their homespun style that endears fans.

Austin Vida’s Angela Maldonado sat down with La Santa Cecilia to talk about their music, the homemade CD covers for their six-track EP and what it means to let music “simmer.”



Why "La Santa Cecilia" for the name of your band?

Miguel: We just thought we wanted a really strong name to represent the faith that we have in music, so it’s not like a religious thing even though she is the patron saint of musicians in the Catholic religion. It’s more so we wanted something to represent our faith in music, you know, so it just made sense. And it’s a feminine name for a band that’s fronted by two girls, so it’s special in that way.

Marisoul: And also there are Santa Cecilias all over the world, like bandas Norteñas, cumbia bands, all over and especially in Mexico. You go to any pueblito anywhere and there is always a band that’s called La Santa Cecilia and we thought it’s a really nice thing to have a band that has the same name that reprents the pueblo, so we wanted to be La Santa Cecila de Los Angeles.

Miguel: Hey, Los Angeles is son pueblo tambien, eh? But people forget because it’s a huge city, but it’s originally a pueblo.

santa cecilia liveYour EP has been out for a while. What’s the story behind the recording?

Marisoul: We’ve been together for two years and a half years, so it was recorded two years ago. We had just started and we just wanted to record something because we wanted to get more gigs. We wanted to play and we just saved up our money and went to a studio, and a friend was doing an internship so we got to go into a really nice studio to record. And it’s just that little thing we recorded has been great to us; people have liked it. But we definitely want to record something of better quality; we want to show what we’re doing now. I feel like we’ve grown and we’ve meshed more as muscians together. Yeah, we’re happy about the EP but we’re so looking forward to recording a fuller album, hopefully soon.

Gloria: Well, we had different members initially, so it’s partly recorded with a couple different musicians. We were just getting a sense of who we were. Like Marisoul said, we weren’t quite gelled yet, some of us had just met. I had just met Marisoul and Miguel that summer. We started making music a couple of months after that, so it was a matter of getting to know each other and getting the feel of our dfiferent styles because we all have different specialties, I think, and you hear that. We’re all a different spice, so it took a while to get to know each other’s strengths...

Marisoul: To Simmer! [laughs]

Alex: We were watching a Michael Jackson documentary and he’s telling the musical director, “You got to let it simmer, man” and Marisoul’s like, “I’m going to use that!”

Marisoul: But it’s true right? It’s like que cosa rico, you know? Cuando haces un caldito, you just don’t put the stuff in and then it’s cooked. If it’s cooked great, you got to let it simmer til all the flavors come together.

What’s your process like?

Miguel: The process of writing our music? Well, it’s pretty challenging. We first come up with an idea, and we try incorporating all different styles or whatever works with that song. It’s kind of like Marisoul says, it’s like a soup; we throw all our influences in the bowl of soup and then we mix it.

La Santa Cecilia has been described as a having a "Pan American" sound. How would you describe the music?

Miguel: We’re very much a California, LA interpretation of a Pan American sound, right? So we’re interpreting these things, our influences or styles through a very like California/Southern California/Los Angeles lens, you know, like filters, because that’s where we grew up. We can’t deny our sound’s going to be natural from where we come from. So it’s not like a pure traditional samba or pure traditional Norteña or a pure traditional shuffle, jazzy song. It’s how we feel or how we interpret, naturally, our songs. So I guess it’s cool that it comes out that way.

What’s a “Southern California” lens?

Alex: It’s everything. You got Latinos from all over Central and South America. You got people from Europe and of African-American descent. You got all sorts of things, like a melting pot. We grew up with - Austin Vida