The summer’s final “Tuesday Tunes” concert, produced jointly by The Livermore Cultural Arts Council and the Hispanic Heritage Center, will be “Tito Gonzalez and Son de Cuba”.
Shea Homes is also the major sponsor of “Tuesday Tunes”.
The Hispanic Heritage Center promotes the rich facets of Hispanic culture by offering varied educational and cultural events for the East Bay at large. They are proud and feel fortunate to have Tito Gonzalez for the last concert.
There aren’t many people who can claim to have cut their musical teeth while traveling worldwide as a fisherman, been blasted onto national television as part of a taxi-driver’s collective of musicians, and had a government agency land them a gig playing for one of the top Cuban son bands of their era. Tito Gonzales spent his young life picking up guitar licks around Cuba’s coastline due to a company that sent fisherman like him far and wide. Back on dry land in a more urban setting, he traded up for the sound of the tres (small Cuban guitar) and the Cuban son (genre of music and dance that originated in the eastern Cuba highlands during the late 19th century, blending elements of Spanish and African origin). For years his talent was only noted locally. Fate had in store for him a different destiny, a rapid ascendance from cabbie to star of the Cuban music scene. Now, with a new life in San Francisco and the songwriter’s freedom to experiment and story-tell, Tito, a consummate master of Cuban traditional music, uses a lifetime of experience to bring fresh sounds. His album, Al doblar la esquina (March 9, 2010), features a fresh take on classic Cuban son backed up by exile talent in his band, the “Son de Cuba”, available at http://titoysusondecuba.com