Stacie Sandoval

I grew up listening to salsa in my home. My mom and stepdad would wake up early on the weekend and blare the music, not having any consideration for the two little girls still sleeping, but hey, what a way to wake up! They'd always be dancing. Being Cuban-Argentinian (but really only being exposed to the Cuban side), one might say it was in my blood. However, I didn't have much rhythm for it growing up (and not too much has changed!) but I've always loved the music.

I'm from Los Angeles, CA and salsa was always around as well. In 1997, I was at the Mayan and a salsa band was playing. I've always been a vocalist but I had never tried that style. I was familiar with it and could sing, so why not? I contacted the bandleader and he invited me to rehearsal. Little did I know that it wouldn't be enough to sing along with the CD and learn the song that way. I showed up to rehearsal, seemingly prepared, and failed miserably. It was pretty funny but it made me realize that this music is much more complicated than it sounded.

From that point, I would go out to see all salsa bands and I would listen to all salsa music (from when it started to the modern music). I would talk endlessly to musician friends and learn about clave, maracas, guiro, etc. I would listen to rumba. I am naturally drawn to percussion in salsa so normally when I go to the Blue Cactus on Saturday nights, you can find me bothering Gerardo Becerra learning tips on the percussion. Little by little I felt ready again and about a year later I was singing salsa finally with different bands in Los Angeles. I sang with local salsa bands, Rudy Regalado y Orquesta Chevere, Yari More, Macondo, La Palabra and Mazacote. My first national act that I had the honor to sing for was Frankie Negron. That was amazing and especially because I was so new. I then had the opportunity to perform with other national acts such as Kevin Ceballo, Michael Stuart, Johnny Rivera, and Eddie Santiago.

When I moved here, I became a realtor with Re/Max Preferred and loved working with home buyers and sellers. I also focused on finding a new band and started singing with Urbanos. That band focused on the golden era of Cuban music, which was an interest of mine. However, pretty soon I was craving salsa music. I talked to Olivia Martinez, Andre Rosa-Artis and Jason Ellis to see what they thought, since I already had a lot of music. We got more people together and those people brought other people. Now we have such a great group of talented, enthusiastic and involved musicians. We had our debut at the Blue Cactus on February 27. We also had a Cinco de Mayo event at Birdy's. Upcoming shows include the Indy Jazz Fest on Friday 6/17 at 7 pm, Cincinnati at the 20th Century Theatre on 7/8, Jazz Kitchen on 8/5, and Fiesta Indianapolis (where we have the distinction of being the local headliner) on 9/17. For more information, you can visit our website: www.orquestabravo.com. I hope you can come to some of our shows!