Lookie Lookie at Regattabar

Lookie Lookie is a octet playing Latin Bugalu, a crossover genre pioneered primarily by Puerto Rican New Yorkers in the 1960s. The most famous exponents are Joe Cuba and Ricardo Ray. The music was created in an attempt to bring Latin music to a mainstream audience, and the result mixes a bit of funk and blues into the Afro-Caribbean matrix, along with English as well as Spanish singing.

Lookie Lookie transforms the genre by changing the instrumentation, replacing piano with saxes and augmenting the percussion. Paradoxically, the transformation makes the band sound sometimes like the early soukous bands of the Congo. The players' jazz and rock roots assure that the group is entertaining and earthy while maintaining a strong improvisational element....

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Lookie Lookie is a octet playing Latin Bugalu, a crossover genre pioneered primarily by Puerto Rican New Yorkers in the 1960s. The most famous exponents are Joe Cuba and Ricardo Ray. The music was created in an attempt to bring Latin music to a mainstream audience, and the result mixes a bit of funk and blues into the Afro-Caribbean matrix, along with English as well as Spanish singing.

Lookie Lookie transforms the genre by changing the instrumentation, replacing piano with saxes and augmenting the percussion. Paradoxically, the transformation makes the band sound sometimes like the early soukous bands of the Congo. The players' jazz and rock roots assure that the group is entertaining and earthy while maintaining a strong improvisational element.

The members of LL are veterans of the Boston-area music scene. The founder and leader is Chris Maclachlan, who played bass in the seminal New Wave band Human Sexual Response. Percussionist Rick Barry toured for many years with Bim Skala Bim; percussionist/vocalist Vicente Lebron is a pillar of Boston's Latin music scene and a long time member of the Either/Orchestra and Club d'Elf; sax/flute man Russ Gershon leads the Either/Orchestra and trumpet Scott Getchell plays in Agachiko and Lars Vegas.

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