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Banda Atómica performs with Santa Fe Bandstand on July 25. Photo: Courtesy of Banda Atómica

Dancing in the Streets Banda Atómica kicks off Santa Fe Bandstand's fourth week of concerts

July 21, 2017 by Emily Van Cleve Leave a Comment

Get out your dancing shoes. You’ll need them when Banda Atómica takes the Plaza’s stage on July 25 during the Santa Fe Bandstand’s fourth week of free music concerts.

Only six months old, Banda Atómica is a high energy wind and percussion ensemble featuring instruments including clarinets, saxophones, trombones and tubas. It’s based in Albuquerque and modeled after marching bands that are popular throughout South America.

“Our idea was to put together a big band with mostly Latin American sounds,” explains co-founder Kilko Paz, who assembled more than a dozen musicians to play a wide range of contemporary and traditional instruments.

“I’m from Bolivia where we have large bands that play outdoors while people dance in the streets to their music.”

Five of Banda Atómica’s members also play together in Baracutanga, a smaller band consisting of eight musicians that has its own unique sound. Music is, however, crossing over between the two groups. Banda Atómica plans to play three arrangements of Baracutanga’s original tunes about love, the environment and immigration during its July 25 performance.

“A lot of the traditional South American music we play is about love,” Paz adds. “But the main idea behind the band is to play great dance music. The wonderful thing about dancing is that it brings all kinds of people together in one place.”

Banda Atómica kicks off Santa Fe Bandstand’s fourth week of concerts, which begins on July 25 and features the eclectic sounds of Davina and the Vagabonds, operatic tunes from the Santa Fe Opera Apprentices, jazz standards from The Santa Fe Great Big Jazz Band and traditional New Mexico folk music from Cipriano Vigil, Rob Martinez and Antonia Apodaca.

The Santa Fe Bandstand’s second Southside show on July 29 showcases the talents of Danny Duran & Slo Burnin’, a primarily country band that also plays New Mexico Spanish, classic and contemporary rock.

Santa Fe Bandstand
Santa Fe Plaza
July 25: 6 p.m. Banda Atómica; 7:15 p.m., Davina and the Vagabonds
July 26: 6:30 p.m., Santa Fe Opera Apprentices; 7:45 p.m., Santa Fe Great Big Jazz Band
July 27: 6 p.m. Antonia Apodaca; 6:30 p.m, Rob Martinez; 7:15 p.m., Cipriano Vigil
July 29: 6 p.m., Danny Duran & Slo Burnin' at Swan Park
For more information and a complete schedule: santafebandstand.org

See more in: Music

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