Yerba Buena

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Andres Levin, a Venezuelan native whose session work includes albums by Marisa Monte, Arto Lindsay, Aterciopelados, and Tina Turner, assembled the Latin American collective Yerba Buena. Levin had also produced the critically acclaimed Fela Kuti tribute Red Hot + Riot. He envisioned the project as a gathering of musicians able to fuse longstanding and contemporary styles while instructing one another in a classroom-like environment. The roster took shape over time, featuring vocalists Xiomara Laugart, Cucu Diamantes, and El Chino, percussionist Pedro Martinez, reed player Ron Blake, trumpeter Rashawn Ross, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummers Terreon "Tank" Gully and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez. After opening dates for the Dave Matthews Band, Yerba Buena secured a contract with Razor & Tie and issued its 2003 debut album, President Alien. Island Life appeared two years later.