SONANDO
TUMBAKA
‘Crocro y su Tumbaká’ is a multicultural musical group founded by Jorge 'CroCro' Orta in 2010, which just released its first CD in 2014. Crocro y su Tumbaká was formed with the ambition to do something different in the city of Houston in the Salsa genre to interpret different tropical style music of recognized groups and singers of the 70s, 80s and 90s; however, in its first CD Tumbaká interprets songs with echoes of latin-jazz, percussion solos, batá, son, güarachas and opera/salsa, which has resulted in a wealth of sounds and musical colors.
Thanks to the experience and long musical career of its founder and director, the internationally renowned percussionist Jorge 'CroCro' Orta, whose musical journey includes among others eight years as the percussionist of the renowned "Grupo Niche" of Colombia where he acquired a vast knowledge of how directing a band of high musical caliber and then the idea to relocate CroCro Tumbaká to Houston in late 2007, and from there the name of his first production 'Capitan de mi Barco'. The inclination of CroCro has always been to interpret music and salsa with solo percussion, but also guaracha, son and charanga to please the audiences of different nationalities which led him to define Tumbaká as a Salsa and tropical music band.
The name Tumbaká comes from the African word 'tumba' which in some of the West Indies islands was synonymous with percussion to the extent that tumba evolved to name traditional instruments like congas, conga rhythms and traditional French tumba of Haiti. While Tumbaká is a relatively new group, its members are all musicians of various nationalities with a vast experience in the different and very intricate Salsa and tropical music genre.
Tumbaká’s members are its Conguero and Founder/Director, Jorge 'CroCro' Orta (Venezuela), bongo player Howard Meneses (Venezuela), in timbales Ronald Carrizales (Venezuela) Pianist player Damaris Suarez (Cuba), bass player Davi Crow (Colombia), trombone players Jesse Duran (Mexico), Julio Madrid (Venezuela), and Louis Sanchez (Mexico), vocalists Kevin Castillo (Puerto Rico), Julio Rodriguez (Cuba) and Katherine Ocando (Venezuela). All are recognized musicians who have been performed with bands in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and New York.
Tumbaká is projected as one of the best Latin bands in Houston with a successful future.
Jorge 'CroCro' Orta