Matt and Jose have been working hard to complete new tunes and arrangements in preparation for the new Rebel Tumbao full length recording. The riddim section tracks will be recorded in NYC the last week of August and we plan to finish it sometime before the holidays for release early 2011 with tours set up for later in that year.

We’re very excited to announce that we’ll be working with RUBEN RODRIGUEZ (bass), ANTHONY CARRILLO (percussion) and ORLANDO VEGA (percussion) completing the rhythm section for the recording. ALSO, we’re blessed to be receiving guidance and inspiration from GREG LANDAU, an amazing musician, engineer, producer who works seamlessly between the reggae and Afro-Latin worlds.

TUMBAO — túm-‘Baó (Spanish) 1a: slang – to play music with extreme passion b: to groove your ass off

Before you do anything, please see our “Rebel Tumbao is…..” video to the right!! Also, the only recording we have to date is a 3 song demo featuring arrangements of Marley’s STIR IT UP, IS THIS LOVE and REBEL MUSIC. It hasn’t been released yet, so all that’s posted on this site are short excerpts. You can hear them on the music player to the right, below the video.

Rebel Tumbao (Rebel “GROOVE”) is the soulful merging of the earth shattering rhythms of Afro-Cuban soul and the conscious-raising mission of Reggae. At the center of this creative endeavor is its brain-soul-child, pianist/arranger Matt Jenson and José Clausell, world-renowned timbalero with Maestro Eddie Palmieri for the past 18 years. Matt and José met at an Eddie Palmieri summer camp workshop in Vermont (USA) 8 years ago and the two visionary musicians quickly realized a mutual calling to play deep, soul nourishing music with a genuine concern for the well-being of the planet and the people who live on it. The musical brotherhood was so compelling that they formed a partnership to bring forward this supercharged music and 10-piece band that merges Roots Reggae and Roots Afro-Latin vibrations with original compositions (See some of Matt’s lyrics for these originals to the right, below.) and wicked arrangements of Bob Marley’s music, all with a critical social message for our times. The sound of the group is squarely based in the sonic depths of the 1960-70’s soul, reggae and Afro-Cuban eruption yet arrives in the early 21st century creatively merging these styles with a contemporary depth of understanding and subtle use of electronic textures. (Listen to brief excerpts of Matt’s arrangements of three Marley tunes via the music player to the right.)

Matt (who is an assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music in Boston) and José are committed to presenting this music on the absolute highest artistic level and aim for international success via touring, recording and presenting educational programs.

We are also in the process of raising funds for the project and upcoming recording. Last March we held a hugely successful fundraising concert in Oakland, Ca at Piedmont Piano company. We presented a special “unplugged” version of the group featuring Karl Perazzo (percussionist with Santana for decades!), Toussaint Yeshua on vocals and Geoff Brennan on bass. The house was packed! (Our video from this event will be completed soon.) We will probably be holding another fundraising event in Boston or NYC this Fall or Winter, but in the mean time you can make tax deductible donations via our association with Fractured Atlas.

ALSO, if you wish to help support us RIGHT NOW, you can join our email list (above, right) and also consider that in this day of internet connectedness many organizations from indy microfunding companies, to booking agents and artist managers rely on energy generated through social networking sites such as Facebook to help determine their interest in working with a new musical project. In light of this we would GREATLY appreciate your becoming a fan on our Facebook Rebel Tumbao page.