Latin Music Festival devuelve
Cimafunk headlines Latin culture fête featuring authentic cuisine, professional dancers, art and kids activities
Michelle Colón elaborates on songs, Malentina of the Lafayette Latin All-Stars, and the line-up
by DOMINICK CROSS
LAFAYETTE, LA — Absent two years courtesy of COVID, the Latin Music Festival returns and is raring to go at Parc International in Downtown Lafayette, Saturday, October 1, 2022.
A new start time, 4 p.m., is in place along with Festival International de Louisiane as producer of the Asociación Cultural Latino Acadiana’s family-friendly event that showcases Latin food, dance, art, and, of course, music.
The line-up features Cuban funk superstar Cimafunk, Rumba Buena from New Orleans, Acadiana’s own Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars, as well as Latinos on the Rise, a variety show.
Tickets are $10 and are available here and at the gate. Kids 12 and under admitted at no charge.
Front and center of Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars is Michelle Colón, a native of Puerto Rico and Lafayette resident for 10 years. Colón is a singer, songwriter, and stage (most recently, “Closer,” at Cité des Arts in Downtown) and film actor.
“We’re performing some of our most established classics that people love to hear and they’re the ones we get the most requests and for good reason,” said Colón. “They’re the ones we like to play the most. So that’s a good thing.”
The band, together since February, is scheduled to take the stage at 5:30 p.m. with a set list that includes Latin classics by Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, La Lupe, Willie Colón.
Other songs (viewable on YouTube) include Héctor Lavoe‘s “No Me Den Candela” at The Grouse Room, and Palmieri’s “Café,” performed at The Hideaway. Both venues are in Lafayette.
In addition, keep an ear out for a couple of originals by Colón, who has also penned songs in other genres.
“I am extremely happy we’ll be playing two original tunes,” she said. “I have plenty more, but to get a band to learn all the parts and rehearsing within enough time has been a challenge. So I decided we’d do two instead all of the rest of mine.
“I thought it was a good balance to do a few songs people have never heard before, combined with a lot of classics that they can sing along and dance to.”
The Lafayette Latin All-Stars (Editor’s note: The pedigree of these guys earns the All-Star moniker) are Josh LeBlanc (GIVERS, Serpentine Man), trumpet; Tim McFatter, saxophone; Paul Tassin, keyboard; Troy Breaux, drums; Eric Auclair, bass; Jeff George, guitar; and Evan Ceaser, congas.
Colón takes a personal interest in the songs she sings, even when they’re not her own.
“I’ve always felt that if I’m singing it, I want it to be my story,” she said. “Even the songs that I choose to cover, actually, I still think, ‘Would this be something I feel — it’s my story.’”
Colón has a procedure she follows when writing a song.
“I usually have a very good idea of what the song sounds like, which means I have the melody,” said Colón. “Now, because I cannot produce and I’m not very well versed in an instrument, I’ll usually use a piano to find my melody.”
From there, she’ll take the song to Josh LeBlanc “and he will find the chords and then he can translate that for the rest of the band,” she said. “And Troy (Breaux), because he knows so much about this music, he will lay down the percussion aspects and he will also inform the band anything in their (music) language that they wouldn’t understand otherwise.”
Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars plan play to Colón originals, “Missing Out” and La Mala.”
Colón said “Missing Out” is sung in Spanish, “but the chorus is a call and response from Spanish to English. So I decided to call it ‘Missing Out.’”
Expect “La Mala” to be the band’s opener.
“It’s interesting because I think that it’s Malentina’s signature song because Malentina, the name, I derived it from the malicious one,” she said. “I love it because I always did what everybody told me to do.
“The day that I decided that I was going to go out on my own, it just felt right to call myself ‘The Malicious One.’ It’s not about doing evil, but it is about making and breaking my rules.
“And it gives me a lot of freedom,” Colón said. “I think that’s why I suddenly feel I’ve found myself — my voice and my lyrics — because I feel free to do that.”
Which is a nice seque to…
When not singing with the the eight-piece Latin band, Colón takes Malentina on solo endeavors, as seen and heard in Para Tí (a must see and listened to visual EP).
“She definitely has an esthetic; she’s definitely a persona,” said Colón. “At the end of it all, what’s cool, is that at the bottom of it all, I’m still me. And I am her. It’s impossible to divide myself from her.
“But I feel like when I embody her, I have a little more freedom to be who I want to be,” she said, adding, “which is ironic, but I think that’s just how us humans operate sometimes.”
Malentina’s “Camelia,” a full-length album with a wide-range of genres in English/Spanish, is expected to hit the streets in 2023.
As either Malentina or herself, Colón looks forward to the festival, the food and taking in the music.
“The acts we’re having — I still can’t believe Cimafunk is coming back,” she said. “I was kind of star-struck by them at Festival International.
“I’ve seen the other band that’s performing, Ruba Buena, in New Orleans,” said Colón. “And they are fantastic. In fact, there are like 10 people in one band.
“It is my hope that it sets the tone for years to come and people can expect a really bombastic and lively Latin Festival.”