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Berklee Assistant Professor
Matt Jensen debuts New Group
Rebel Tumbao
Press Release

Rebel Tumbao: Bob Marley Inna Latin Vibration
Debuts at Berklee Performance Center
Thursday, July 6, 2006

Boston, MA, June 16, 2006 - Berklee Assistant Professor Matt Jenson
will debut his new group Rebel Tumbao: Bob Marley Inna Latin
Vibration, at the Berklee Performance Center, located at 136
Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA, Thursday, July 6, 2006. The concert
begins at 8:15pm. Tickets are $5 for the general public (free for
students in advance, $1 day of). For tickets and information, please
call 617-747-2261 or visit www.berkleebpc.com.

With Rebel Tumbao, Matt Jenson has created something entirely new.
Bob Marley’s music is set to pianist/arranger Jenson’s Afro-Cuban
arrangements and played by a 10-piece band. “Perhaps my two biggest musical loves are reggae, but specifically Bob Marley, and more traditional Afro-Cuban styles,” says Jenson. “This project is the
result of my years of work in both genres and is a truly inspired and
original merging of the depths of both styles, while bringing this
concept to the 21st century with subtle use of electronic textures
and sampling. Bob Marley was very intent on ‘freeing the people with
music.’ So are we!”

Rebel Tumbao’s lineup includes Berklee Assistant Professor Ernesto
Diaz (congas); students Scott Flynn (trombone) and Shanise Brown
(vocals); alumni Alex Alvear (bass, vocals), Squantch (trombone), and
Regina Daniels (vocals); and Manolo Miarena (bongo, vocals) and
Toussaint Yeshua (lead vocals).

The group also features Jose Claussell, timbalero for Latin music
legend Eddie Palmieri. Says Claussell, “We’re talking about a great
artist, and to do something that’s quasi, that doesn’t come from the
soul, would be sacrilege. We have great music, and Matt created these arrangements through a spiritual muse. That’s what’s going to
transpire on stage.” Jenson met Claussell while studying with
Palmieri at a Latin jazz camp in Vermont, and the two developed a
friendship that evolved into the formation of the group. Jenson saw
Claussell perform a few years before they met and knew he wanted to
play with the musician. Says Jenson, “His intensity and humility are
a combination that is totally enticing. He's a timbalero who uses
space and really speaks on this instrument. He also deeply
understands, and is helping develop, what I’m going for with this
project.”

Rebel Tumbao – ‘tumbao’ is the Spanish slang word for ‘groove’- takes
some of Marley’s best and least known works, leaves the vocal
treatments as they appeared in the original (in English), and adds
engaging coro/soneo sections and some kicking mambos as well. While
the vast world of Latin music and the vast world of reggae and Bob
Marley have been around for quite some time, what’s new and exciting
is the reworking of these energies with vision and purpose. Says
Jenson, “Ultimately, that’s what this project is all about: the
merging of the Sun of Bob Marley with the Sun of Latin music...Sun
energy, positive vibration, enlightened and truthful.”

Matt Jenson also leads his group The Acid Reggae Xperience, an
experimental reggae/dub/neo-soul band which performs occasionally in
Boston. His only full-length recording to date is entitled This Is
Acid Reggae: One Drops, Spirituals and Riddim. Jenson teaches the
popular Music and Life of Bob Marley performance studies class at
Berklee. Rebel Tumbao will also be performing at the Montreal
International Reggae Festival, July 15, and the Vermont Roots Reggae
Festival, August 12. Please visit www.rebeltumbao.com or
www.acidreggae.com for more information.

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle
that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was
through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over 60
years, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the
art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance
and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body
representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of
alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of
today — and tomorrow.

Boston LiveTM

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