Santa Esperanza Band

Band

General Description:

Jazz band from Santa Cruz. This quartet more than proved their worth at the recent Tamarindo Jazz & Blues Festival, held at Ristorante La Laguna del Cocodrilo. The band is comprised of Jose’ Contreras on flute, saxophone and lead vocals, Pedro Golobios on Bass, Mauricio Vargas on piano, and Greivin Vallejos handling the percussion.They have a self-produced CD which has just come out, titled “Lindo Mi Pais”. The songs are like a travel guide to Guanacaste. In fact, the first song on the disc, “Santa Cruz”, is demonstrative of the format for the whole disc. It is rife with local references of all things Guanacastecan. The terrain and divergent landscapes are constant reference points on the entire CD, as are the pueblos and townships of Filadelfia, Santa Cruz, Monteverde, Diria, and Tilaran. Even Liberia gets a mention or two.

Featured Services Description:

“Lindo Mi Pais” is not what I would term a traditional jazz composition. The two instrumentals on the disc, “Malamba” and “Nosara”, certainly fall into this category. With their catchy saxophone hooks and refrains, they sound like something you might here late at night in a quiet bar anywhere in the world. The rest of the songs on the CD, all of them also originals by the band, are basically modern Guanacaste folklore, with Santa Esperanza’s own spin on it. In this case, beyond the traditional local music, the band has an at least jazz-influenced approach. There is a very comfortable feeling in the end result. And well there should be. They are playing music about the things they know.

The Santa Esperanza CD, “Lindo Mi Pais” is available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.