Adonis Puentes is a Grammy-nominated vocalist and composer from Cuba who weaves passionate, hypnotic Salsa and Son melodies through jazz arrangements.
Tickets remain for Adonis Puentes & the Voice of Cuba Orchestra, who will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Oats Park Art Center’s Barkley Theatre, 151 E. Park St.
The box office, Art Bar and galleries open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $17 for members and $20 for nonmembers.
Tickets are available at Jeff’s Copy Express, ITT@Naval Air Station Fallon, or by calling the arts council at 775-423-1440. Earlier in the day, a free conversation with the artist will begin at 3 p.m.
Puentes and his orchestra bring a distinct “island” sound to their show, beginning with their acclaimed 2014 album Sabor a Café. It was nominated as World Music Album Of The Year at the 2014 Canadian Juno Awards and was his first collection of all self-composed original songs.
Adonis and his brother Alexis had an award-winning 2001 CD, Morumba Cubana, and Adonis’ 2005 solo debut, Vida, were critically acclaimed, the latter earning Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year in the Island Music Awards.
Sabor a Café builds upon these triumphs with a wide-ranging collection of astonishingly wise and witty songs.
From the playful, sexy lyrics and horn-driven rhythms of the opening title track to the set-capping, elegant soulfulness of Ura, the dozen originals on Sabor a Café offer a rich and varied narrative in praise of the power of love. Adonis Puentes has produced a warm, revelatory self-portrait. Even if you can’t speak a word of Spanish, you can hear his joy, his love of life, his passion.
The songs on Sabor a Café ripple with percussive cross rhythms and lightening-like horn lines that drive the music forward. A crisp studio sound captures a series of brilliant Salsa and Latin Jazz arrangements so skin-tight and dance-inducing that listeners might overlook the musician’s profoundly positive lyrics. It’s a masterful collection of original love songs from a Chekhov-inspired tribute to love’s power to overcome despair to the joyous hedonism of Tumbando Mangos and Sabor a Café — the first, comparing seeking love to knocking mangos from trees, the second describing the taste of coffee on his lover’s morning kiss.