Dance class gig

We had a fun time playing for a packed house in Napa last weekend. It was our forth performance together as a 'troupe'

When I moved to Napa, people would tell me - 'there isnt anything cool happening in Napa'

I figure it was just as easy to make something cool happen, as to say no one got to it, so...

I saw a brother playing in downtown Napa with the new Giovanni technique.. i quickly recruited him to come play with us. - Rick McKinney, an Irish school teacher, of all people, turned out to be a 'solid second' as they say... so Ritmo Napa was born.

We added a jazz trap drummer, Steve on cata, and John, the only Puerto Rican in the valley. We worked together to get up to speed, of sorts.. hooked up with dancer Remi Cohen , one of CK's students who lives in town, and we had a class going....

We had 25 dancer the first class up in a nice studio in Yountville, just north of Napa.

Sad to say, we moved to another studio, due to local politics, and lost most of the crowd. For some reason, the dancers were happy with just a few girls there, so it never really got going, as far as the dancing. But we had some fun working on all sorts of Cuban folkloric work on the tumbadoras.

Im moving out of town...to be closer to the musical action... but it was fun while it lasted!

Keep in mind... these are actually the only people who can play at all in Napa. stoked to get them this far!

Video to come... - gotta edit out all the belly dancing.. well... ok.. ill include some of that too... why not..

Tony