THIS IS SPAM ALL-STARS!!!! Friday at The Stage!!!
THEN...
DJ Le Spam & Spam Allstars blend improvisational electronic elements and turntables with latin, funk, hip hop and dub to create what they call an electronic descarga. It’s not a known genre. It’s hard to describe. It attracts many types of people. But as they look out and see people dancing salsa, next to break-dancers, and festival-goers driving for hours to catch a show -- they know something very special is going on.
Spam Allstars were formed by Andrew Yeomanson, a/k/a DJ Le Spam, who was raised in Toronto, Bogota and London, and has called Miami home since 1993. He got his start by playing guitar in Haitian band Lavalas, and recording and touring with Miami based artist Nil Lara. Along the way he added to his vinyl collection, and when off the road he would DJ locally. These DJ gigs evolved into collaborations with live musicians, performing on an internet radio show, recording in his home studio, and the first of many residencies combining his samplers & DJ skills with a live band.
In 2002, Spam Allstars began a weekly residency at Hoy Como Ayer in Little Havana, which continues today. In 2003 they started monthly residencies in New York City, Gainesville, Tampa, Atlanta, and New Orleans, and playing nationally wherever people would host them. Today they perform 200+ shows, and average 56,000 miles each year. They still do the weekly in Little Havana, and have monthlies in Miami and Miami Beach.
Big Sam's Funky Nation is a driving force of urban funk. Ryan White, of the Oregonian, says the band is "tight enough (and hot enough) to turn coal into a diamond!" The band is led by trombone powerhouse, Big Sam Williams, formerly the trombonist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who the San Francisco Chronicle calls "the top man on the slide trombone in the birthplace of jazz." Big Sam refuses to let the audience sit still. Between the band's solos, Big Sam's signature dance moves and his distinctive trombone riffs, the energy level is high voltage when this band takes the stage!
"Big Sam's Funky Nation is in rare company as far as their ability to incite a huge dance-a-thon, and their set included his take on "Hard To Handle" and the declaration that Sam is the king of the Jazz Fest [2011] party." Wesley Hodges, Jambase
