Music artists gather tomorrow in benefit for Dave Valentin

Latin jazz flutist Dave Valentin

Bob Baldwin & Friends: Music for Dave

A Benefit for Dave Valentin

Tarrytown Music Hall

Thursday, November 7 

7:30pm

featuring Bob Baldwin, Bobby Sanabria, Robby Ameen, Lincoln Goines, Dave Samuels, Bill OConnell, Mayra Casales and many more

Fellow musicians and artists will donate their time, talent and resources to perform a fundraiser for the Grammy Award winning artist. Net proceeds will benefit the Bronx, NY native and said proceeds will assist in medical bill payments and basic living needs as Valentin has not worked any musical performances since suffering from a stroke on March 3, 2012.

On March 3, 2012, Latin Jazz Flutist and Grammy Award Winner, Mr. Dave Valentin, suffered a stroke that has limited his ability to perform his beloved instrument. The native New Yorker has been in physical therapy since that tragic day. There is a chance that he may be able to wow his audiences on stage worldwide again, but not before he's the beneficiary of some more critical physical therapy.

In the interim, his medical bills have climbing been through the roof. Dave Valentin has insufficient medical insurance to cover the enormous bills surrounding his stroke.

Joining the party are:

Bill O'Connell (Piano)
Lincoln Goines (Bass)
Robby Ameen (Drums)
Ragan Whiteside (Flute)
Gilberto "Pulpo" Colon (Piano)
Bob Baldwin (Piano/Keyboards)
Chieli Minucci (Guitar)
Dave Samuels (Vibes)
Mayra Casales (Percussion)
Eddie Montalvo (Percussion)
Bobby Sanabria (Drums/Percussion)
Richie Morales (Percussion)

Tarrytown Music Hall
13 Main Street, Tarrytown, NY
(directions)

TICKET INFORMATION

This road is officially opened: Paseo

This road is officially opened...

There is no road to nowhere, only to what is still here. 

-- La Bruja

Bobby Sanabria

"As this has never been done before, we have no idea what we're doing today," Joanna Haigood half-joked at the launch of Paseo, less a walking tour than a movable, danceable feast, a peripatetic block party that, for one delightful hour, would twist through the South Bronx neighborhoods of Hunts Point and Longwood. Haigood, a site-specific choreographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, had teamed up with musical director Bobby Sanabria (multiple Grammy winner) and Dancing in the Streets executive and artistic director Aviva Davidson to create this public celebration.

La Bruja (photo by Rosalia Rivera)

With hip hop poet La Bruja's blessings, the procession stepped off from Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education on Simpson Street. Threatening clouds hung low, but spirits flew as we followed the lead of the ebullient Sanabria and his musicians, passing dancers on fire escapes and brownstone stoops. Cries of "Que vivo, Puerto Rico" went up as we passed balconies flying the island's flag.

Haigood had warned of the temptation to stop along the way: "Paseo is best enjoyed as a stroll, a promenade," she said. Indeed, it was hard not to linger with the guitarists and dancing couple in front of Nico Laundromat, or the curbside conga players, or the four doo wop singers, or the chorus in their smart white suits and skirts or even to stop to comfort a couple of unnerved cats who scampered away from our surging procession.

Yes, my lower back and feet talked to me long after I returned home, but still....

Rumbas in the park till past midnight in the canyons of da’ projects in the summer. 

Couldn’t sleep? Who cares, you didn’t want to.

--Bobby Sanabria

To read an excerpt from Bobby Sanabria's Nuyorican Memories, about his youth in the historic, still vibrant South Bronx, click here.