Released: February 2, 2012
Lincoln, Neb. - If you haven't heard of SYOTOS, think Tito Puente meets James Brown meets Charles Ives and you've got it right. On February 10, the Hixson-Lied College and its third annual Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium (IAS) present Latin jazz band SYOTOS at Lincoln's Rococo Theatre. The performance is sure to be a highlight of Lincoln's vibrant arts season.
Chris Washburne and SYOTOS perform live at downtown Lincoln's Rococo Theatre on Friday, February 10 at 8 p.m. The performance is preceded by an audience talk and dinner with Chris Washburne at 5:30 p.m. The talk at 5:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Tickets for dinner and the performance are available through the Rococo Theatre Box Office and online at rococotheatre.com. Prices are $12 for the performance only, or $27 to also attend the lecture and dinner. UNL students can see the performance free of charge by reserving a ticket at marketplace.unl.edu/liedcenter/.
"SYOTOS will hypnotize you. Their gorgeous music runs the gamut - it's lush and lyrical, smoking hot, and complex, thoughtful jazz," said Dr. Rhonda Garelick, IAS founding director. "Front man Chris Washburne has it all - he's a Grammy-winning musician with 150 recordings to his name, as well as a publishing scholar and professor at Columbia University. I hope people will come and hear him talk and then stay for the concert."
Garelick explains, "This is what IAS is all about: offering a thrilling evening of world-class performance enriched by a public talk by an expert, which adds context and depth to the experience."
The Band
S.Y.O.T.O.S. (an acronym coined by Chris Washburne, meaning "See You On The Other Side") was founded in 1992 by trombonist Chris Washburne and features some of the best Latin jazz players in New York City. This boundary-breaking band exemplifies Latin jazz with a global reach, combining Afro-Cuban, funk, jazz, gospel, and contemporary classical music. They have held the longest running Latin jazz gig in New York, performing weekly for 20 years straight.
Their five recordings have each received critical acclaim and their latest "Fields of Moons" was listed as one of the top ten jazz releases of 2010 on the JazzTimes critic's list. In 1999, SYOTOS wowed the critics with their debut release, Nuyorican Nights (Jazzheads) which Down Beat described as "Booty-shaking heat."
SYOTOS has performed at the most revered venues including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Blue Note in NYC, Lincoln Center, BB King's, Smoke, BAM, Museum of Modern Art and many jazz festivals across the US, including the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival and Lake George Jazz Festival.
Chris Washburne, bandleader and trombone player, is an internationally known musician, composer and scholar who is also an Associate Professor of Music and Founding Director of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program at Columbia University in New York. He has published numerous articles on jazz, Latin jazz, and salsa. He is author of the book "Sounding Salsa: Performing Latin Music in New York" (2008) and editor of the book "Bad Music" (2004).
He has performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Justin Timberlake, Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony, Celine Dion, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Bang On A Can All-stars, David Byrne, Bjork, Gloria Estefan, They Might Be Giants, Chico O'Farrill, Don Richols, John Cale, Grady Tate, Baba Olatunje, Danilo Caymmi, Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, among many others.
The SYOTOS name refers to a time in 1992 when Washburne was diagnosed with severe nerve cancer and told that he had only a 50-50 chance of surviving an operation but no chance whatsoever of ever playing the trombone again. He insisted that before going into the hospital he play one more gig. After the show, he turned to his bandmates and said S.Y.O.T.O.S. "see you on the other side." Washburne survived the operation but was left with severe nerve loss and damage to one side of his face. Proving the experts wrong, he managed to re-master his instrument and become an even better player.
The Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium
The Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, founded and directed by Dr. Rhonda Garelick, is sponsored by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, presented, in part, by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and funded, in part, by the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
IAS 2012 Season III is supported by the Cooper Foundation and is devoted to exploring the rich cultural fusion that results from "Immigration, Migration, and Transplantation in Performance." More information on all IAS 2012 events can be found at unl.edu/ias.