Yerba Buena (band)

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For other uses see Yerba Buena

2003 President Alien album cover

2005 Island Life album cover

Yerba Buena is a Grammy-nominated fusion band based out of New York. The fatherhood of the project is the object of a dispute between Venezuelan songwriter, producer and instrumentalist Andres Lavin and Cuban musician Decemer Bueno. Both worked together during the conception of the band, but soon after, Bueno left the group. Since then, both claim a leading role in the original idea of the project.

Yerba Buena's music (as described by Razor and Tie, the band's record label) is a blend of African-rooted Latin music (Cuban rumba, Colombian cumbia, Pan-Caribbean Soca, and Nuyorican Boogaloo) with hip-hop, Motown soul, Nigerian Afrobeat with a dash of Middle Eastern themes.

The band's debut album, President Alien, was released on April 15, 2003. For the recording of the album, Levin invited several colleagues with whom he had collaborated in the past, including:

singer/bassist Meshell Ndegeocello;
Brazilian singer-songwriter and percussionist Carlinhos Brown;
guitarist Marc Ribot;
keyboardist Money Mark;
jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove;
rapper Sticman (of Dead Prez fame);
drummers Horacio “El Negro” Hernández and Terreon “Tank” Gully;
bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and a host of other artists.

President Alien was an immediate success. In 2004, the 12-track album was nominated for the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album Grammy Award.

August 2005 saw the arrival of Island Life, the band's sophomore album. This CD focuses more on hip-hop but without abandoning the band's Afro-Cuban rhythmic heritage.

The popularity of the band has taken the group to play at multiple summer festivals such as Central Park Summerstage, The Hollywood Bowl, The Newport Jazz Festival and Montreal’s Nuits D’Afrique and among others.

Ben Ratliff of The New York Times has described Yerba Buena as “one of New York’s best new dance bands, mixing up the Latin boogaloo of the 60’s, Cuban religious music, some American soul and Fela-like Afrobeat. It’s a history of the transmission of Yoruban culture in a nutshell, and it’s a good party.”