“We formed in ’89, and in that time so many people have been in the band and come out of the band,” he begins. “Basically it’s just kept evolving and bettering itself until now, and it continues to do so. It was formed initially as a rumba band, Spanish rumba. Then it changed and the Latin/Afro Cuban influence started coming into it, and different players, and basically it just got better with age I guess!” he laughs.
“I’m very conscious of choosing a wide variety of the best stuff that I’ve heard, and really enjoyed listening to in the past,” he continues, regarding the band’s influences and musical evolution over time. “I try to be as broad with the Latin music as possible. You know, I choose my favourite Puerto Rican Salsa, and I choose my favourite Latin Jazz tunes, Afro-Cuban with New York Salsa. I try to not stick to one genre of Latin music – we like to mix it up as much as possible.”
The band recently made it through to the Grand Final of a prestigious national Latin band competition, the ‘Clave Contra Clave’ Latin music comp. The competition ran heats all over the country during October, and is culminating in the Grande Finale this coming Sunday evening at The Plenary in South Wharf. Leo tells us that being in the comp and making it through to the Grand Finale has revived the fortunes of the band in a way.
“At the moment, basically our singer lives in Columbia,” he states. “Half the time he’s here, half the time he’s there. So this competition gave us the opportunity to kind of re-form the band to play in the competition. So it’s been a great opportunity, not only for us but for any up and coming Latin band…and it basically lifts everyone’s game, just because the competitive nature of us human beings makes us want to do our best when it comes to a competition format.
“We’ve been working hard on the backing vocals, the horn section, the rhythm section and the percussion,” he explains. “We knew that the band, doing a lot of residencies, tends to slack off a bit with rehearsals and things like that, so I think it’s been a real positive for everyone.”
So what will it mean to you and your band if you win the competition? “It’d be great to win,” he admits. “It would be a bit of validation for all the hard work we’ve put in over the last 20 years. It’s also nice when people come up to you and congratulate you, people who’ve seen your band for years and years, that you’ve won something that involves what we do.
“(It’s) just the positive energy that we get from people either by Facebook or people that we meet, sending messages, I think it just gives everyone a second wind, a re-energising of what we do. That’s sort of what it means to me.”
After the competition and a short break over Christmas, and the band’s singer returning to his home country for a few months, Rumberos have some serious plans for themselves next year.
“Our singer’s going back to Columbia until February,” Leo says, “but we plan to record some time next year. As far as the actual band is concerned, we probably won’t be doing many gigs until early next year. The guys all play in other different bands. When you’ve been playing such a long time, we’ve got to be not playing all the time, but be more selective, and just get together when we all can. When we play a gig we want to do it with our full strength lineup.
“So that’s kind of the position with Rumberos at this stage. We’ll just wait a few months until the full lineup can get back together, and keep changing songs and keep people enjoying it.”
Overall, Leo is very positive and optimistic about the present and future of Latin styles of music in Melbourne and Australia. He feels that it is a style of music that evolves and changes over time, and has plenty to offer young people and existing fans alike.
“Yeah, I think it’s gets bigger all the time,” he opines. “I think all around Australia, doesn’t matter where you go, there’s a good scene for it, and think it can only grow more and more every time.
“I think there will always be a scene from now on,” he predicts. “I don’t think it’s a fad anymore; it’s really well established now. I’ve been doing this music for over 20 years now, so many new people are coming for the first time, and it just seems to grow and grow. And young people keep coming back, so it feels very healthy.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
