Biography

The dynamic acoustic trio La Tuza performs Mexican roots music. The band presents a colorful collage of dance music from three musical genres in Mexico: the fiery son huasteco of central Mexico, the lively son calentano from the Mexican Hotlands, and the syncopated son jarocho with its rhythms drawn from African traditions.

La Tuza strums, plucks, and rattles its way through high-energy shows with traditional Mexican instruments, such as jarana jarocha, guitar, jarana huasteca, requinto, violin, cajon, marimbol, pandero, and quijada (donkey jawbone). Audiences throughout New England at festivals, weddings, music clubs, bars, schools, and private receptions have embraced La Tuza’s exciting approach to folk music, proving that while son comes from the Mexican countryside, its infectious spirit has no boundaries.

Interestingly, son is now also played in urban centers and performed in places far from its native region (such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and now Boston!) As far as we know, we are the only band of our kind in New England and one of only a few on the East Coast. We hope you enjoy our interpretations of these songs and if you don't know about this style, read up about Mexican son here.

How did this whole project start?

David Wax first heard a son huasteco trio while volunteering with the American Friends Service Committee in the Huasteca region of central Mexico. He instantly fell in love with the music with its lilting falsettos and the syncopated strumming that make you want to move your feet. After that summer in Mexico, David kept returning to Mexico every year. His connection to the coffee-growing community of Puerto Encinal compelled him to study Latin America at Harvard and get involved with Oxfam America’s Fair Trade Coffee Campaign. After graduating summa cum laude, David was fortunate enough to receive the Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship to return to Mexico for a year and learn son.

Meanwhile, Ana Lisa Portillo was completing a Two-Year Certificate in 2007 at the Berklee College of Music. Earlier, Ana Lisa had graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Cultural Anthropology, but many salsa, Latin American folk, and mariachi bands later, she decided that Latin music was her true calling. She quit her job as a middle school orchestra teacher to study at Berklee, and started to search for people with whom to play son. Ana Lisa received a fortuitous email from a recently-returned David, asking whether she’d be interested in beginning a son band. The two were performing together within a month, and soon after, Ana Lisa connected with local Boston-area musician Brian O’Neill, who rounds out the trio as percussionist and singer.

Brian O'Neill has performed extensively nationally and internationally as a percussionist in Boston since 1999, having performed with acts as varied as Donna Summer, the Arizona Opera Company, Archie Bell and the Drells, Gabe Baltazar (Stan Kenton), and a variety of local Boston bands currently including Newpoli (percussion), the Jazz Factory Orchestra (vibraphone), and his own group, Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica: a 21-piece big band that plays transcriptions of Mexican lounge king Juan Garcia Esquivel’s space-age bachelor pad music. A native of Phoenix, Arizona, and a summa cum laude graduate in Percussion Studies from Northern Arizona University, Brian has been excited by the southwestern ties La Tuza brings to life in Boston and in addition to music, he is a designer and co-founder of TravelDragon, a search engine for boutique travel and trips.

Changes

In the summer of 2009, Ana Lisa decided to pursue other opportunities and in September, David and Brian welcomed violinist and multi-instrumentalist Paddy League to La Tuza. Paddy grew up around traditional Greek and Irish music, and for the last fifteen years has been one of the most dynamic percussionists and string players on the acoustic music circuit. After several years living and studying music in Greece and Brazil, Paddy moved to Boston, where he plays Greek, Turkish, Celtic, Brazilian, and now Mexican music with a number of groups. He has performed at festivals and concert halls across the US, Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Brazil, and Western Europe, and been featured on over 50 recordings. Paddy also teaches Modern Greek Studies and Music at Hellenic College in Brookline, Massachusetts, and is on staff at numerous acoustic music camps across the US.

What's going on now?

La Tuza has performed at major Boston-area venues such as Johnny D's, Club Passim, and Ryles. They continue to play private functions for universities and fair trade organizations such as Equal Exchange (see our interactive past-shows map). Currently, La Tuza is expanding its fan base and booking shows throughout New England. Their first recording, Son del Otro Lado was released in the summer of 2009.

View our upcoming dates and be sure to get on the mailing list. We also have an RSS feed and ICAL feed to stay abreast of performances.

This page was last updated Sep. 2009