Calendar of Events

November 2024
November 4, 2024
La Santa Cecilia
Show Starts:
8:00 pm
Show End:
Doors will open approximately 30minutes prior to show start time.
Entry Fee:
$
29.5
Ages
21
and up allowed
About the Show and the Artist:

Show 8pm // $29.50 Advance / $32 Day of Show

***This is a standing room general admissions show. There will be a limited number of chairs located in the back of the concert hall. Seating will be first come first served. The restaurant will be open for dinner starting at 4pm.

Felton Music Hall Presents:

LA SANTA CECILIA

Santa Cecilia (named after the patron saint of musicians) was formed in 2007 as a  sextet. Its founding members were guitarist Gloria Estrada, accordionist and  requintista Pepe Carlos, bassist Alex Bendaña, percussionist Miguel "Oso" Ramírez,  drummer Hugo Vargas and lead vocalist Marisol "La Marisoul" Hernández. The band  members were born or came to the United States when they were very young. While  they all grew up with traditional forms of Latin music at home, they were also  exposed to the sounds of American pop culture: rock, soul, blues, jazz, jazz, funk,  punk, ska, reggae and other sounds of the world that were playing on the airwaves  and in the neighborhoods. They performed at block parties, bars, coffee shops and,  from time to time, as opening acts for out-of-town artists and at festivals.  

Los Angeles-based Santa Cecilia is a Latin rock band that draws inspiration from  music around the world, using Pan-American rhythms from Colombian and Mexican  cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero and tango, and combining them with rock, soul,  R&B, ska, jazz and even klezmer. Children of Immigrants, their acclaimed 2013  debut album, Treinta Días, offered an upbeat yet intensely personal take on Latin  life, and released the hit single "Ice el Hielo," which became an anthem for the 14  million undocumented inhabitants of the United States and paved the way for the  band to win a Grammy for Best Latin Rock Album. In 2017, La Santa Cecilia released  Amar y Vivir, an audiovisual album composed of cover versions. The set was  recorded live in the streets, plazas, cantinas and theaters of Mexico City. The  eponymous 2019 mini album was recorded as a tribute to the parents of three of the  band members, who had passed away in the previous 18 months. Its closing track  is a cover of the Bessie Smith blues standard "Nobody Knows You When You're  Down and Out." Two years later, La Santa Cecilia released "Quiero Verte Feliz". The title track was recorded in collaboration with singer-songwriter Lila Downs. 

The group recorded their first eponymous EP in 2009. Aside from their superb  songwriting and performances, the CD revealed something else that was different  about this band: They wanted to be part of their community. They sponsored "paint  parties" where they played and designed and hand-painted their CD covers with  friends and fans, using materials ranging from recycled newsprint to wrapping paper,  cardboard and more. No two covers were alike, making them objects d'art. The  band's music spread throughout the city and local listeners invited them to play more gigs and festivals. Their incendiary live performances garnered them a fanatical fan  base, and music from the EP ended up appearing on the cable TV series Weeds, in  the documentary Re-Encounters (about Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago) and  elsewhere.  

La Santa Cecilia's second EP, Noche y Citas, was released in 2010 and garnered  more critical acclaim, and the group began touring Mexico and eventually North  America. Their third EP included four covers and one original song. The covers  ranged from Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" and U2's "One" to "Love Came Here" by  the late Lhasa de Sela and "Viento" by Caifanes, showing not only their variety, but  their commitment to a wide variety of music.  

With growing popularity at home and abroad, La Santa Cecilia signed with Universal  and reduced the core group to La Marisoul, Bendaña, Carlos and Ramirez. Their  debut album, Treinta días, was released in May 2013 and became the most played  debut of the week on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums chart and won the Grammy Award  for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album in February 2014. The band hit the  road, playing Bonnaroo, SXSW and many other festivals. They shared the stage  with Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder and Los Lobos. In March, less than a month after  winning their Grammy, the band released Someday New. Their single "Cumbia  Morada" hit the charts in its first week. In addition, a cover of the Beatles' "Strawberry  Fields Forever" was a hit. Another version of "Ice El Hielo" appeared on the album;  the song was used in the FX series “The Bridge”. 

La Santa Cecilia worked on the road, taught songwriting workshops and were  selected as one of two opening acts for Café Tacuba's 25th anniversary tour. They  also became an international headliner in their own right before returning to the  studio. In August 2015, they released a pre-release single in English, "I Won't Cry  for You," and followed it up with "Nunca Mas (Never Again)" in December. The full  Buenaventura album was released in February 2016. The album featured  appearances by Enrique Bunbury, Fito Páez, members of Los Lobos and  Milwaukee's Latino Arts Strings Program.  

The band deepened its collaboration with producer Sebastian Krys and signed to his  Rebeleon Entertainment label. The result was the most ambitious recording of their  career to date. They decided to record an "audiovisual album" in Mexico City. La  Santa Cecilia started out as a street band in Los Angeles, singing rancheras and  boleros, as well as pop, soul and rock songs in Spanish and English. To reflect this  across the border, they recorded each song - 11 versions, one original - in the plazas,  parks, bars and theaters of the great metropolis. Each song was recorded live and  accompanied by a video. The material reflected their roots. There were versions of  rancheras, boleros and mariachi classics by some of Mexico's best composers, such  as Violeta Parra, Consuelo Velázquez (composer of the song "Bésame Mucho") and  Tomás Méndez, as well as modern songs by Café Tacvba, Juan Gabriel and Smokey  Robinson. La Santa Cecilia has also had the collaboration of Mon Laferte (Chilean  singer-songwriter), Noel Schajris (Argentine-Mexican singer), Eugenia León and  Rebel Cats (rockabilly). The band previewed Amar y Vivir with three videos, all  released on the same day in April 2017, including a cover of the title track, "Amar y  Vivir" (written by Velázquez), featuring Mexican rock band Comisario Pantera. The full album was released in mid-May. It reached number 28 on the Top Latin Albums  chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. 

La Santa Cecilia returned in 2019, with a self-titled full-length. Produced once again  by Sebastian Krys, the album was written in the midst of loss and grief: three of the  parents of the band's four members had passed away in the previous 18 months. Its  first single and video, "Winning," was released in July. Mixed by Grammy-winning  Dave Pensado, the track was an '80s-inspired surf-rock that addressed the idea that,  in the early 21st century, people were more likely to live online rather than experience  it, dulling and replacing our reactions to tragedy, disaster and the struggle for justice  with clickbait that would be easily replaced during the next "trending" news cycle.  The recording also included a groundbreaking version of the Bessie Smith classic  "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" to close the set. Saint Cecilia was  released in mid-October.  

Although the band toured for the first few months of the new year, they were forced  off the road and into quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021.  They reappeared in October 2021 with the single "Quiero Verte Feliz," recorded in a  rare collaboration with singer Lila Downs. The cut served as the final track (and title  track) on the band's eight-track album that appeared in November; and was  nominated for a Grammy and Latin Grammy for Best Tropical Vallenato / Cumbia  Album in 2022 and 2023. 

During 2021 and 2022 La Santa Cecilia toured several cities throughout the United  States and Mexico with her tour "Quiero Verte Feliz". This tour consolidated their  musical career, performing in venues such as The Goldfield, Sacramento; UC  Theater, Berkeley; Lunario del Auditorio Nacional; CDMX, among others. In addition  to getting 2 sold outs at The Regent California and his first Sold Out in Mexico City  at the emblematic Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris. Likewise, 2022 served as a  year of new music for the Mexican-American band, who produced their ninth album  titled "4 Copas: Bohemia en la Finca Altozano", released on April 14, 2023; from  which titles such as "Dos Botellas de Mezcal", "Copa Rota", "El Andariego",  "Almohada" and "Cuatro Copas" can be heard; 

La Santa Cecilia continues with its harvest of successes, new music and  presentations. They have managed to expand their music to more and more corners,  performing at large scale festivals in Latin America such as Vive Latino on March  18th and 19th in Mexico City and the Tecate Pa'l Norte festival on March 31st in  Monterrey, Mexico. In addition to achieving an important step in their career by  arriving for the first time in Europe, specifically in Spain, where they will participate  in the Rio Babel Festival in Madrid and the Pirineos Sur Festival in Lanuza on July  1 and 8 respectively. In addition to two individual dates such as O grove at the  Nautico on July 2 and Sala Sidecar in Barcelona on July 7.