RAMON TARANCO is a New York City-based, Toronto raised-and-educated, Cuban-Mexican composer & guitarist whose world beat fusion music runs the gamut from Afro-Cuban Jazz & Blues to Southern Rock & New Orleans Funk.
Solo, duo & band performances in New York City include Guggenheim Museum's World Beat Jazz Series, "Celebrating the Diaspora: Strummin the Americas" for African-American Heritage Month @ Bronx Museum of Fine Arts, Liz Swados' opera "Missionaries" @ Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theater, Queens Museum of Art, Harborside Jazz Festival, New York State University @ Stony Brook, Manhattanville College, Monroe College, The Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Latino Heritage Month Celebration @ Javits Convention Center, concert celebrating Martin Luther King Jr's birthday @ Newark Public Library, in NYC jazz & blues clubs ie La Belle Epoque (Cabaret Nights & Jazz Brunches), Izzy Bar, Mozart Cafe and Cornelia Street Cafe.
Toronto appearances include Harbourfront Centre's Brigantine Room & Water's Edge Cafe, C'est What, The Riverboat, University of Toronto's Hart House Theatre, Windsor Arms Hotel's Courtyard Cafe, Art Gallery of Ontario, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, the Top O' the Senator Guitar Bar Series & in numerous other jazz & blues venues. He has toured in Western Canada & several times across Ontario (including Sudbury's Laurentian University) giving concerts, lecture/recitals & guitar clinics.
Taranco has recorded 2 CDs of original music: Music From the Bermuda Triangle (recorded in Toronto, Canada; released in 1992) & The Adventures of Bo Segovia (recorded in Brooklyn, New York; released in 2007). Tracks from both CDs have received airplay in Europe, The Americas & Russia.
Live radio performances include The Gutbucket Blues Show on NYC's WBAI; & in Canada on national CBC radio shows ie Morningside & Musical Friends. Taranco's music has also found its way onto an American documentary, "Poverty Outlaw," & the Canadian film, "L'Hombre."
Instrumentation:
Ramon Taranco offers 5-piece band, 7-piece band & 10-piece band configurations:
5-piece band: guitar(s), bass, sax/clarinet, percussionist/West African vocalist & drums
7-piece band: 5-piece band plus 2 singers
10-piece band: 7-piece band plus: keyboards, harmonica & violin.
Discography:
Ramon has recorded 2 CDs of his organic and very natural eclectic compositions which have a wide variety of styles and range from solo guitar (electric and acoustic) to full band.
There are 8 tracks on each CD and Ramon will soon be recording another CD.
At
http://www.ramontaranco.com/,
we offer other recordings including "Pavane For a White Jungle" from Taranco's A CUBAN'S CANADIAN CHRISTMAS medley which has frequently been played on Canada's CBC radio during the festive season, His solo guitar piece entitled "Waltz For Jane" is written in a classical contemporary vein.
IF YOU ARE A MUSIC SUPERVISOR representing film and television projects, please contact Ramon directly at bosegovia1@yahoo.com He will give you more information about his full body of work. He is also willing to write original music for new film and television projects.
Grants:
Taranco received several arts grants: an Ontario Arts Council multicultural music recording grant, a composition grant from the Toronto Arts Council, another composition grant from the Ontario Arts Council, and a new talent recording grant from The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record (FACTOR). These grants made it possible for Ramon to continue recording songs for his first CD of original compositions, “Music From the Bermuda Triangle.”
MUSIC FROM THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE:
Ramon's first CD of original music, “Music From the Bermuda Triangle,” is an Afro-Jazz-Latin fusion album. Strong on percussion, it offers a balanced blend of instrumental and vocal songs using authentic ancient traditional instruments as well as electric guitars and keyboards. “Snow Scorpion,” “Mantiki I” and “Mantiki II” are African-related instrumental pieces. “Yoruba Cuba” and “Music From the Bermuda Triangle” are Afro-Cuban inspired songs with vocals. For some classic southern rock, there’s “Sugar Can Rider” where Ramon shares special memories of his childhood in Cuba. There’s also a tango on the CD, “Tango Solito.” And for R&B lovers, there’s the gospel-influenced “Hard Work.”
Recorded in Toronto, Canada and mixed by Grammy and Juno Award Winning engineer, Kevin Doyle, this fascinating World Beat Fusion gem features musicians from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Ghana, Holland, Jamaica, Portugal, South Africa and the USA. Vocalists: Raul Galvez, Yohanna van der Kley, Cooly Koaho, Betty Richardson, Jackie Richardson, Ramon Taranco, Pat Thomas and Liz Tilden. On violin, Ben Mink; harmonica, Carlos del Junco; accordion, Jose Sousa; organ, Peter Nunn; saxophones, Pat Labarbera and Mark Promane; electric and acoustic guitars, Ramon Taranco; cello, Doug Innis; double bass, Kieran Overs; electric bass, Jeff Jones and John Yelland; drums and percussion, Memo Acevedo, Bob Becker, Steve Foster, Basi Mahlasela and Dick Smith.
Engineers: Kevin Doyle, Tom Rogers, Jeff McCulloch
Producer: Ramon Taranco
“Music From the Bermuda Triangle” received extensive radio airplay across Europe and North America [New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Portland, Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal...], in Havana, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Moscow, Russia. It was often featured on Iñaki Peña’s unique Trébede, the highly popular and original strictly World Music radio show on Madrid’s Radio Naçional de España.
FILM COMPOSER & MUSICAL ADVISOR:
Music From the Bermuda Triangle has 2 tracks that have been featured in films. “Tango Solito” (written and produced by Taranco) was commissioned by the Canadian Film Centre (founded by Norman Jewison) for the film “L’Hombre” (Catherine Martin, director) that premiered at the Montreal Film Festival. The CD's final track, “Mantiki II,” was featured on the soundtrack of documentary Academy Award winners Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates’ documentary, “Poverty Outlaw” that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Ramon also served as a music consultant and guitar teacher for the 20th Century Fox feature film “PCU.”
THE ADVENTURES OF BO SEGOVIA:
The Adventures of Bo Segovia (recorded in Brooklyn, New York; released in 2007) includes 2 songs with Native Indian themes: "Buffalo Skies" & "Ghost Dance." "Buffalo Skies" is a spontaneous outpouring inspired by Ramon's fascination with the ghost dance and the odyssey of the Plains Indians. Its Shoshone and Sioux imagery and its New Orleans Funk rhythms make it an interesting musical and lyrical marriage. "Ghost Dance" is a song about materialism versus the spiritual. It has an Afro-Blues feel and a dazzling Middle Eastern violin solo. The title song, "The Adventures of Bo Segovia" tells the true life story of Ramon's grandfather who fought with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution, escaped into Texas, rode the rails to Chicago, and eventually settled in Los Angeles. "Babes Elusive" is a funk-soul-reggae ballad. "Isolation Blues" has a jazz feel that cuts into a latin-rhumba groove. "Spirit of Muddy Waters," "Blues Keep Thrillin' Me" and "St. George Street Overture" are blues-oriented.
THE HAVANA BLUES REVUE:
Vocalists: Denosh Bennett, Eddie Bobe, Craig Derry, Danny Frazier, Marchelle Jackson, Eunique Mack, Ramon Taranco and Lee Williams; drums/percussion: Eddie Bobe, John Jenkins, Danny Sadownick, Ernesto Simpson; harmonica: William Galison; tenor sax /clarinet: Craig Handy; organ: Greg Lewis and Danny Mixon; violin: Samir Shukry; electric bass, Essiet Okon Essiet, Buster Hemphill, Harvie S; guitars: Taranco
Engineers: Ethan Donaldson, Brian Martin
Mastering: Tom Rogers
Producer: Ramon Taranco
Links:
Ramon's website
