Meet Sarah Willis & the Sarahbanda, the Cuban band with a difference!

The idea for the Sarahbanda came out of my Mozart y Mambo album (also available at NativeDSD) with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, a three-album fusion of the music of W.A. Mozart with Cuban rhythms. With the Mozart y Mambo album, as well as recording all of Mozart’s horn concertos (with a Cuban twist!), we also included a few pieces which experimented with the French horn joining the traditional Cuban band mix of saxophone and rhythm section.

Being part of a Cuban dance band with my French horn was something I found I absolutely adored. I’ve been a passionate salsa dancer for years and love the atmosphere of the dance clubs. My Mozart y Mambo experience made me want to play more Cuban music and take the horn/salsa band combo to the next level – despite the horn traditionally having no place in any such band, not just in Cuba.

So I asked some of Cuba’s most talented popular musicians to join me in a new band and thus, the Sarahbanda was born.

We are now proud to present our first album Sarahbanda. On it, we explore the myriad of popular Cuban dance rhythms, adding the French horn into the mix. We pay homage to some of Cuba’s most famous songs, including Chan Chan, Sandungera and Contigo en la Distancia in stunning new arrangements by Jorge Aragón and Edgar Olivero. The two original pieces, Guajira Sencilla by Yuniet Lombida and Nostalgias by Aylín Pino, show how much love and respect the composers have for traditional Cuban music. And of course we have added a couple of ‘classical meets Cuban’ surprises too…!

Sarah Willis & the Sarahbanda
Sarah Willis – Horn
Yuniet Lombida – Saxophone
Aylín Pino – Violin
Jorge Aragón – Piano
Carlos García – Bass
Alejandro Aguiar – Percussion
Adel González – Percussion