Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie with Montuno Swing

Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie!, the open-air salsa dance party in Jessie Square (near the Contemporary Jewish Museum), takes place on the third Thursday from May to August from 6:00pm – 7:30pm with salsa dance lessons at the beginning of every program.

When Mexican-born pianist Christian Tumalán isn’t co-leading the Grammy Award-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, he gets his groove on with the lean and mean Montuno Swing, a hard-driving nine-piece combo that delivers old-school salsa dura (as opposed to swooning salsa romantica). With a double trombone front line harkening back to Eddie Palmieri’s Conjunto La Perfecta, the band puts a contemporary spin on the classic sound that set New York spinning in the 1960s, powered by a stellar percussion section with Venezuelan-born Omar Ledezma Jr., Uruguayan-reared Edgardo Cambon, Oakland’s Gibby Ross, and Peruvian-born Braulio Barrera (who also plays with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra).