Yerba Buena has to be sick of being compared to Ozomatli, but with so few Latin/hip-hop fusion bands hitting the semi-mainstream, it's hard to avoid.
Whereas Ozomatli is a 50/50 combo of American influences and Latin grooves, Yerba Buena comes off as 60/40 or maybe even 70/30 with the emphasis on the Latin side of things.
Yerba Buena, which translates to "good herb," is a collection of talented musicians from St. Thomas, Venezuela, Cuba and the United States all under the direction of Andres Levin who produced such musicians as David Byrne, Me' Shell NdegeOcello and Gladys Knight.
The band, which the New York Times called "a musicologist's dream," blends African-rooted Latin music like salsa, Cuban rumba, cumbia, samba and boogaloo with modern black American strands like funk, hip-hop and soul.
With the first two songs on the latest album, President Alien, "Guajira (I Love U 2 Much)" and "Tu Casa, Mi Casa," this band's detonation of multiple rhythms and styles is attempting to bridge the gap.
Unfortunately, they do this by shifting the focus from powerful lead singer Xiomara Laugart to more pop-digestible aspects of the entire group's character. Laugart's voice is a major strength of this group and she is one of the only singers alive who could pull off becoming the focus of such complex, intricate fusion music.
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Part of what defines her as a singer is the simplicity behind her timbre. Don't look to Laugart for excessive vibrato or virtuoso scalar runs. Instead, her voice is a constant and commanding tone reminiscent of the cantaors of flamenco music.
Levin, like Laugart, is one of the most sought after figures in Afro-Cuban music. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, his first big production hits in the British music industry occurred when he was only 21.
Though Yerba Buena has two major players at its helm, the band functions like a family and the feeling of the album is that of a collective.
The lyrics, in Yoruba, English and Spanish, focus on a feeling of community. Often, the entire group does the singing/rapping in multiple languages and the result is a bombardment of sound.
All of this is punctuated with a diverse collection of rappers, flutes fluttering like dust devils and Rashawn Ross' brazen trumpet. Levin, the founder of Yerba Buena, also plays guitar and keyboards in true fusion fashion.
But the band is not completely under his control.
"We started writing tunes and it came together very organically," he said in an interview with Ottowa Xpress. "Sometimes a producer has an idea and he records everything and then he puts the band together. This is the other way, it's a real band. Everybody's got a big personality."
