Mark Easley(bass player) 

The original bass player on Patrick’s two albums.  He has played with artists
such as Emmy Award Winner, Melba Moore, Hair, Pearl, Freddie Jackson, and many more. 

Mark has toured and performed in Switzerland, Japan, France, China, and
Germany just to name a few. 
He has also performed “ I’ve got sunshine with the Softones in Bob Turks’s commercial for Channel 13. 

With Melba Moore he has performed on such shows as the Love Boat, and
the soap opera All My Children. 

He has recorded with artists John Palumbo from Crack the Sky, Rob Fahey,
just to name a few. 

Rafael Monteagudo Moliner  Drums, Timbales, percussion
Born: Havana Cuba

Education: National School of Art, Havana, Cuba.

For the last 3 years Rafael is having a ball playing full time with Patrick Alban
and Noche Latina, Rafael is one of the best drummers in the East Coast with a
range from Latin to
Blues Jazz, Rock and any kind of music there is.

Drummers of all kinds come to the gigs from all over to learn what they can
from this
fabulous drummer extraordinaire

Rafael is currently sponsored by Sabian & Toca Percussion

Hoppy Hopkings: Drums, percussion, vocals

El Señor “Hoppy Puentes” is the leader of the famous band “Mambo Combo”
and a good friend of Patrick’s.

Once in a while you can catch Hoppy playing drums when Rafael is out of
town and
Hoppy’s busy schedule aloud him

For more info on Hoppy and his band: click here

Juan “Cheito Quiñones: Percussion, Vocals, Trumpet all around master musician

On special occasions or when he is in town “Cheito” joins Patrick and his band.If you recognize his name is because he has recorded and played with so many
famous artist such as Gloria Stefan, CarlosVives, Julio Iglesias and many more…
for more on “Cheito” click here   Juan “Cheito” Quiñones

For The Gloria Estefan Band
Cheito Quiñones - Background singer, brass musician,

Past musical contributions:
Released a solo album in 1994
Carlo Vives El Amor De Mi Tierra Back up Vocals
http://www.geocities.com/carlosvivesamigas/esunafrutafresca.html
2000 Grammy Nominees Album (Latino) (Various Artist) Choir, Chorus http://zahedaan.usc.edu/~yishin/web/743217455125.html

WILLY CHIRINO
Acuarela Del Caribe [CBS 80228]
coro: Tany Gil, Juan J. "Cheo" Quiñones
http://www.s-latino.com/reference/coro_e.html

GLORIA ESTEFAN
Abriendo Puertas [Epic 67284]
coro: Cheito Quiñones, Kike Santander, Diana F. Serna



Patrick Alban
Patrick Alban & Noche Latina release October 2001
http://www.gabirecords.com/

Benito Lopez

Born in Washington DC of proud Mexican parents. Benito was raised in the Mt Pleasant and Adams Morgan neighborhoods. Growing up, he learned the basics from his brother Adalid, who was a conga player with several musical groups in Mexico.  There was always a pair of congas in the house to jam with.  As a teenager, during the summers on the weekends there were always drum jams in
the neighborhood.   There were guys from Cuba and Puerto Rico jamming away.   These types of jams became a way of learning the Afro Cuban rhythms and
styles.

For the past 15 years Benito has been playing Latin jazz, Salsa and rock with
many of the Washington DC metropolitan area bands at many different venues, private events and festivals in the DC and Baltimore areas.  Currently
performing with Patrick Alban and Noche Latina.

Recordings:
Sacasa Del Sur- Mario Sacasa 2004

Groups played with:
Mario Sacasa
Ritmo y Sabor-salsa, merengue, latin jazz
Zeniza Allstars-salsa big band
Patrick Alban-gypsy kings salsa rock style band
¾ squeegee  band-classic rock band
Zalerozza-latin band
Latin Cool-Latin jazz

Jeff Lopez (bass player)

Jeff was born and raised in the Big Apple (NYC). Jeff found delight in Jazz.
Being denied a drum kit in his early teens he borrowed his brother’s bass
and found himself a life long love and a channel with which to express
himself freely. As a late starter, Jeff was determined to catch up to his
peers and with his determination and drive soon managed to excel.

Accepted at Berklee College of Music Jeff earned a Bachelors of Music and
went on to attend Manhattan School of Music for his graduate studies,
receiving his Masters of Music in ‘93

Jeff has performed with many great musicians over the years including Phil Woods, Kevin Mahogany, Kenny Werner, Dave Douglas, Rita Moreno,
Jerry Gonzalez, Toots Thieleman, Rick Margitza, Craig Handy, Gary
Thomas, Gary Bartz, Winona Judd, Chris Isaak, Marvin Hamlisch with the National Symphony, Baltimore Pops, Pittsburgh Pops, Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Pops and The Boston Pops at Tanglewood. His touring has taken
him to 35 countries and 49 of the 50 states. He is still waiting for the Alaska
gig! Jeff has even performed at Carnegie Hall, NYC, (practice, practice,
practice!)

As with Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden and Jaco, Jeff is not only an accomplished, award winning, composer, bassist but bandleader as well.
Jeff was influenced by all the great bassists but none more so than Jaco,
having studied with him in the mid ‘80’s. With the recent CD of all original
tunes, a second CD of original tunes underway, and his big band charts being played by military and university bands, Jeff has shown he can hold his own under the titles Composer, Bassist, Bandleader and Educator as well.

At age 11 he took drum lessons before switching to percussion in high school. When Martin Cohen interviewed him for MPR, Edwin recalled the beginnings of his musical career.

"I got into timbales listening to Ray Barreto back in the 70's. Orestes Vilato was one of my inspirations, Nicky Marerro, and Tito Puente definitely. I started listening more and more to Latin music and not so much to the Motown. From there I got into congas, bongos and everything else.
I started playing in bars when I was 13, 14, playing timbales. My first gigs as a timbale player were with Puerto Rican trios. I also played Latin rock. Whatever bands were in town, I'd get my gear and go rehearse with them. And that was mainly my practice."

One of the strongest influences on his career was playing with the group Charanga Casino.

"When I started playing with Charanga Casino I began to understand the depth music, of Cuban music. I got into listening to the older material: Sublime and Arcaño And that's how I picked up my danson chops. Which has helped me now to do work with people like Cachao and Arturo Sandoval".

Cachao is an 80 year old Cuban bassist and living legend who frequently calls Edwin for studio sessions.

" First of all, it's a very great honor to be working with a living legend. He's been one of the greatest inspirations in my life as far as playing Cuban music is concerned. And it's an art that's been lost. A form of music that hasn't been kept up with and danson is a very important part of our music, Latin music, Cuban music"

He's also recently begun working with Stevie Wonder, which required him to adjust a bit musically.

"I don't play as much percussion with Stevie as with Gloria. With Gloria I have to be more versatile and play more rhythmically. With Stevie it's more funk. I've done a few local gigs with Stevie before and that's how I got the gig."

As if this weren't enough to keep him busy, he also just released a CD that's getting major airplay around the world. Martin Cohen asked him about a rumor that the recording was completed in just 3 days. How was that possible?

"Okay, I have a compadre, a very talented guy, whose name is Jesus Perez. He plays piano, bass, flute, and arranges-he's a great arranger. Anyway, we got together once in Montreal when I was there with Gloria and he had this song about Cuba and Puerto Rico together and how they swing. And I said why don't we just do a demo. So he got a studio and we went in and in a few hours we put that down. Then we called in a trumpet player from Montreal, Eduardo Sanchez, and he did a great job--we got four tracks out of him. It was a 1940's style, very simple, nothing fancy, every thing straight down the pike for the dancer. And I played it for Emilio (Estefan) and he loved it and said can you bring me more like this. But he had me busy with other things. Then I let music producer Roberto Torres hear it--his fundamental has always been Cuban songs--and he said Wow, this sounds great. If you'd like to finish it I'll help you. So I took a few days off and went back up and we wrote and recorded all the material in 3 days doing 12 hour sessions.
And it's getting airplay all over the world."

As is the case with all great musicians, Edwin feels that he will never stop learning and growing musically. Throughout his career he has continued to hone his skills on a variety of percussion instruments from around the globe.

"Right now one of my favorite drums is the djembe. I really had to master that with Gloria. She loves that instrument and so does everybody else in the band. I think I became pretty good at it on the tour, and I feel very comfortable on that instrument now."

Cuban and Brazilian instruments like the pandeiro and shekere are also part of his arsenal. Gloria Estefan's current hit, Santo Santo, features Edwin on djembe, tambourine, pandeiro, repenique, surdo, and congas. With the mix of ethnic music becoming ever more prevalent, percussionists must be fluent on a range of styles and instruments. Given this trend toward rhythmic and percussive music that shows no signs of slacking, and because we are standing on the threshold of a new millennium, it was only natural that Martin ask Edwin for his thoughts on the future of Latin percussion.

"Well, this is the perfect time for us Latin percussionists because of all the crossovers that are happening. Santana was one of the first, and Gloria as well, definitely. Now you have Ricky Martin, Cheyenne, Marc Anthony and all the others. Marc Anthony has got a nice tune out that brings the Latin element to the forefront. I did a song with Jennifer Lopez on her latest CD--which is a great CD, the production is great--and it's one of her best tunes, "Let's Get Loud". That was a tune I originally did for Gloria. It's a cha-cha-cha, disco tune but it's got Latin percussion. It was done for Gloria but Gloria gave it to Jennifer. And I think when that tune comes out it will put Latin percussion even more in the forefront."

"The last thing I'd just like to say is Hello to all the fans out there at Congahead.Com. And to all the people at LP as well, they're the greatest."

All quotes taken from an interview conducted by Martin Cohen for MPR in October 1999.

Story written by Jim McSweeney.