Audio By Carbonatix
David Oquendo has good reason to believe in the American dream. The Cuban immigrant moved from the island to New Jersey in 1991 looking for artistic freedom. And he found it in a little club in Union City. Back in 1996 Tony Sequeira, the owner of a joint called La Esquina Habanera (the Havana Corner), invited Oquendo and a few friends to drop in for a little rumba — a percussion jam session — on a Sunday afternoon. Even though everyone had a great time, Oquendo thought it was a one-time deal. Then he got a call from the cafeteria the next Sunday, letting him know an eager crowd was waiting for him to come back and play again. And so he did — from four in the afternoon until three in the morning — that week and pretty much every Sunday since. It didn’t take long before someone had the idea that Oquendo, along with his percussionist pals and dancers Rita and Pedrito, should capture the magic of those Union City Sundays in the recording studio. With no record contract and no budget, except what they came up with themselves to actually press the discs and print the liner notes, it took three years and a lot of goodwill to get the record done. The result: Raices Habaneras, an album so spectacular that it has been nominated for a 2003 Latin Grammy alongside such folkloric legends as Mercedes Sosa.
