Las Cafeteras at YBG Festival

Opening Set from Discos Resaca Collective

Blending the percussive Afro-Mexican tradition of son jarocho with electronic beats and cogent rhymes, Las Cafeteras have earned a global following with their infectious live performances. Emerging from an East Los Angeles community center in the mid-aughts, the group has taken their electric sound around the world, from Bonnaroo and the Hollywood Bowl to WOMAD New Zealand and the Montreal Jazz International Jazz Festival. Modern day troubadours dedicated to remixing Mexican roots music with lyrics that document stories of a community seeking to “build a world where many worlds fit,” Las Cafeteras have honed an encompassing sound infusing soul, rock and hip-hop into Afro-Mexican grooves. Busy at work on a multimedia production celebrating the legacy of Chicano rocker Ritchie Valens, Las Cafeteras honor the past by deploying traditional instrumentation like the 8-string jarana, 4-string requinto, donkey-jawbone quijada shaker and wooden platform tarima for percussive footwork. Determined to reach all audiences, Las Cafeteras sings in five distinct languages: English, Spanish, Spanglish, love and justice.

In an ideal double bill, Discos Resaca Collective opens with a set of new-school cumbia. The eight-member Bay Area combo brings together a cast of gifted bilingual musicians who mix traditional cumbias with hip-hop and oldies, while also drawing on rancheras, salsa and soul. Rather than making audiences woozy, Resaca, which means hangover in Spanish, leaves audiences buzzed with energy. The two-time album-of-the-year winners (KQED 2020 and Vogue Mexico 2023) recently released their first LP, Y Te Cuento, an album of original cumbias with vocals by Las Mariposas del Alma, the Oakland-based Meza sisters who lead the collective with soaring harmonies.

Pre-show music from KALW DJ Margarita Azucar at 1pm.

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Host or Publisher Yerba Buena Gardens Festival