Dominican Palo and Tambora Meet Jazz
September 9th, 2006 Albany, New York

Alejandro & Grupo Sabor performed at the Riverfront Jazz Festival in Albany, New York. The 12-member ensemble, known for its heady mix of salsa, merengue, and jazz, and the infectious beat of traditional afro-dominican rhythms, infused a unique latin flavor to a line-up headlined by Jazz great, Grammy award-winning saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Branford Marsalis.

THE 2006 ALBANY RIVERFRONT JAZZ FESTIVAL LINEUP:
Sarah Pedinotti • Alejandro & Grupo Sabor, Mose Allison • Diane Schuur • Branford Marsalis

If you missed it.....

Feast on Fest:
Moose Allison, above, entertains an appreciative audience during the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival at the Corning Preserve.
On right, singer Diane Schuur takes her turn before a full house. Bassist Erick Revis, drummer Jeff Watts, Marsalis, Miguel Fenton and the sublime Sarah Pedinotti.

Avobe, singer, songwriter Alejandro Torrens shares a moment with Marsalis before their performances at the Albany Jazz Festival, New York.

Reproduced from the Times Union

Danilo Perez sits with Sabor, Jazz fest 2002

All the way from right here
By Tom Huntington
Reproduced from the Burlington Free Press

Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez was driving around Burlington last month following his jazz festival performance with the Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Flynn Center. Passing by lower Church Street, he heard the sounds of live Latin music and got out to check it out. Making his way through the dancing throng at Red Square, Perez discovered Grupo Sabor, a Vermont salsa-merengue collective. After hearing the group put their own spin on the Cuban classic “Lagrimas negras (Black Tears),” Perez couldn’t resist any longer, asking Abbi Sperry, the stunned pianist, if he could sit in with them for a couple of tunes. Like many people who experience Grupo Sabor for the first time, Perez was more than a little surprised to discover that the Latin group is actually a Vermont product. “We get that a lot”, said Torrens. Sometimes, I introduce the band by saying:
‘We are Sabor, all the way from right here”