Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

PIERO F. GIUNTI (TOLOACHE) PAVILION 6:00 PM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 FLOR DE TOLOACHE –Intermission– DOS SANTOS † –Intermission– KUMBIA KINGS † † Ravinia debut KUMBIA KINGS Los Kumbia Kings remained at the forefront of Latin pop for years on end, primarily as producers with a long track record as hit songwriters. A bilingual hit-making collec- tive that fuses traditional Mexican music— cumbia, above all—with other styles from across North America, including hip-hop, funk, R&B, reggae, Kumbia Kings tops it all off with a slick sheen of easily enjoyable pop accessibility. Their recording career began in 1997 with the first of many albums that Kumbia Kings would produce and co-write themselves. The group struck gold with 1999’s Amor, Familia y Respeto , hitting that metallic sales milestone while getting several singles into regular radio rotation and soon reaching multi-platinum sales in Latin regions. Kum- bia Kings began hitting number one regularly with 2001’s gold-selling Shhh! and another se- ries of radio hits—especially the title track, a Latin top-40 sensation. The group went inter- national following the release of their fourth album, 4 (2003), scoring a top-five smash and a Lo Nuestro award with a cover of “No Ten- go Dinero” featuring the original artist. Fast forward to 2019, Los Kumbia Kings reunit- ed original members from both its first and second generations, led by founding member Cruz Martínez, and returned to all sides of music-making, especially concert touring. They broke numerous attendance records in Latin America, packing more than 140 ven- ues to capacity that year, and have even been rumored to be working on their first new stu- dio record in more than 10 years. Los Kumbia Kings are making their Ravinia debut. DOS SANTOS Dos Santos is a quintet just 10 years young working in Chicago but already established as one of the city’s most potent, impactful performers. A band known to be at home in a broad spectrum of venues and contexts—as proficient at nailing epic progressive arrange- ments for summer street festivals in the Latine culture hub of Pilsen as they are at extended improvisational, experimental cumbia sets on the jazz-centric cabaret stage of the Cal- ifornia Clipper, or the Chinook Lounge of The Hideout—Dos Santos brings both elas- ticity and consistency to live performances, earning the group an enthusiastic and highly diverse audience in the too-often segregated Chicago music scene. Across its first EPs and singles, Dos Santos established a sound that garnered wider attention for faithful rekin- dling and re-presenting of vintage tones. But those same followers quickly found perspec- tive in the band’s musicianship and aesthetics to know not to oversimplify Dos Santos as purely a psychedelic/cumbia revivalist outfit. The group has been steadily tipping forward into something more future-minded and uni- versal this whole time, transcending nation- alism and adding to the vocabulary needed to escape. Logos , Dos Santos’s 2018 International Anthem debut, was a bold and vulnerable push into this transcendence, the band’s effort to proactively poeticize the future in sound. On its most recent disc, 2021’s City of Mirrors , Dos Santos created a quasi-cinematic journey reflecting sounds from across the Americas combined with compelling poetic narratives, exploring themes of social justice, migration, and contemporary human struggle. Dos San- tos is making its Ravinia debut. FLOR DE TOLOACHE Having performed at Coachella and on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the Latin Grammy– winning Flor de Toloache is one of the finest all-female mariachi groups on the planet. The group began as a trio named for the deliri- um-inducing Mexican flower used as a love potion for generations. As it has grown in no- toriety, the band has expanded to as many as 10 members depending on the setting, form- ing a truly global ensemble with musicians hailing from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Domin- ican Republic, Cuba, Australia, Colombia, Germany, Italy, and the United States. During its early years, Flor de Toloache toured Eu- rope and the US alongside The Arcs; fol- lowing sold-out performances in the UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, and France, they captivated crowds in their home state of New York, as well as at First Avenue in Minneapolis, The Vic in Chicago, and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. After winning critical with their eponymous debut album in 2014, Flor de Toloache scored that Latin Grammy with 2017’s Las Caras Lindas and followed up with 2019’s Grammy-nominated Indestructible , featuring collaborations with John Legend, Miguel, and the all-female new flamenco quartet Las Migas. That same year, Flor de Toloache performed at the Grammy Museum’s inaugural Latin Music Gallery Exhibition rib- bon-cutting ceremony and paid homage to Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center Honors. The group’s newest music, Florecita Rock-ERA , was released in March. Flor de Toloache first appeared at Ravinia in 2016 and is making its first return to the festival. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 49