BEST LOCAL LATIN ROCK BAND

BEST LOCAL LATIN ROCK BAND Suenalo Sound System www.suenalomusic.com Every year the Florida frontier becomes more polyglot. About the only South Americans who haven't made a move on these parts are the Bolivians, the Guyanans, and the Surinamese. They're also about the only ones not representin' for Suenalo, the source of Miami's best new spin on rock, Latin or otherwise, since Nil Lara first whipped out his son-ified electric cuatro. Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico: presente. Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba: presente. Chicago, New York, and the Republic of Texas: presente. Outgoing lead singer Itagui Corea is Colombian; incoming Amin DeJesus is Miami-Dominican. Drummer and singer Fabio Patiño is Mexican; conga player Alan Ramos is Puerto Rican; keyboardist Tony Laurencio and sax player Juan Turros are Miami Cubans; guitarists Phil Maranges and Gerard Glecer are New York Cuban and Massachusetts French, respectively. Chicago's man in Suenalo is trombonist Chad Bernstein. Other cities, states, and nations may not have a guy in this band, but they are there in spirit: The ensemble employs rhythms from Brazil to Jamaica, including samba, cumbia, rumba, son, hip-hop, and reggae. "We're mainly focusing on fusing Afro-beat and Latin rhythms with funk and rhythm and blues," Maranges says. "Afro-Latin funk?" Whatever you dub it, the Suenalo sound is buzzing from the fashionable warehouse parties of Wynwood to the trippy lounge scene of South Beach.