The Los Angeles-based quartet La Santa Cecilia likes to defy labels. With their combined Mexican, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan backgrounds, the members embrace traditional and alternative Latin genres, as well as classic rock, jazz, funk, soul, R&B and blues.
“People are always asking us, ‘What kind of band are you?’ ” said bassist Alex Bendaña, ahead of the group’s concert Sept. 22 at Concord Music Hall. “We’re just a band from L.A. Put us in any category, the more the merrier. That’s the essence of the band. It’s about not following trends, but really growing as a group. We reflect what L.A. is — a melting pot of cultures and music.”
That’s certainly the case for the band’s next disc, simply titled “La Santa Cecilia” and due out Oct. 18 on Universal. “Coming off ‘Amar y Vivir’ [2017], our last release, which was so rooted in traditional Latin music, this disc goes into what La Santa Cecilia really is,” Bendaña said.
“Some of the tracks do sound like ’80s pop mixed with bachata [a tropical Latin genre originally from the Dominican Republic]. It comes down to our musical influences while we were kids. I grew up in the ’90s listening to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg — lots of hip-hop, but also bolero and other traditional Latin sounds. Meanwhile, there’s a strong disco influence, thanks to our parents listening to ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ The music of the ’70s and ’80s belongs to our parents, but it’s also our music. It’s memory music. The album reflects the essence of the band, mixing styles to keep it interesting and fresh.”
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Named after the patron saint of music, La Santa Cecilia consists of Bendaña, requinto guitarist/accordionist Jose “Pepe” Carlos, percussionist Miguel “Oso” Ramirez and vocalist Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernández. Producer-composer Sebastián Krys, whose credits include Latin acts such Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi and Carlos Vives, as well as Anglo artists All-Star Weekend, Elvis Costello and the Roots, could be considered an unofficial fifth member of La Santa Cecilia. He produced “Treinta Días” (2013), the band’s major label debut, which won a Grammy for best Latin rock album, and has overseen the group’s subsequent releases.
“Sebastián Krys did a great job of making us sound super cool on the new album,” Bendaña said. “We’ve collaborated with him on all of our discs. He’s the George Martin of our group,” referring to the influential producer known as “The Fifth Beatle.” “He gives us focus; he likes to try new things all the time. Everyone had good ideas for this disc, and we tried to get out of our comfort zone. In the end, it sounds new and fresh, and that’s thanks to Sebastián. He’s a musical genius.”
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Krys also has co-written some of the group’s signature songs, such as the socially conscious “ICE/El Hielo” (an indictment of U.S. immigration policy) from “Treinta Días,” and “Cumbia Morada” from “Someday New” (2014), and most recently, “Winning,” the first single off the new disc. “The song is about how social media is making us feel lost and disconnected,” Bendaña said. “At concerts, everyone’s trying to take selfies while we’re playing. It’s like it’s not real unless the experience is shared on social media. We’re losing the human connection.”
As usual, all four members share songwriting credits on the new disc. “The four of us hash out ideas, discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’re feeling,” Bendaña said. “We all chime in lyrically and musically.” Over the last year, they shared a rite of passage, with three dealing with the death of a parent. “It happened to Oso first, me second and then Marisol,” he said. “It took a toll on us, losing part of our support system. We grappled with these feelings and then turned them into songs.”
La Santa Cecilia sings in Spanish and English, but for the new disc, English dominates. “We wrote over 20 songs, but the English ones really reflected what we were going through,” Bendaña said. “We were sharing our stories, so it made sense to go with these songs.”
The album ends with a cover of the Depression-era standard “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” popularized by Bessie Smith, “The Empress of the Blues.” Accompanied by the Dixieland ensemble the California Footwarmers, La Santa Cecilia turns it into a hymn for the disenfranchised. “Marisol has such a bluesy voice,” he said. “It’s like you’re hearing Bessie brought back to life.”
In Chicago, expect to hear that song and “a bit of old stuff and really cool new stuff as we share the stage with everybody,” he said. But wherever they are, “it’s always important to be honest and original. We’re all about finding who we are as a group, building a sound from L.A., embracing our bicultural experiences and merging those two worlds through music.”
Laura Emerick is a local freelance writer.
