Downtown Tumbao

Downtown Tumbao offers a vibrant show of HOT Latin and Jazz music. We are as experienced and skillful as we are fun! Our largest ensemble of six players includes vocals, sax, keyboards, bass guitar, drums and percussion. We can scale down to a quartet of vocals, piano, bass guitar and percussion. We perform Latin Jazz, Jazz standards and Latin music that spans five decades. Chuco Mendoza brings 50 years of performing expertise to his musical direction that inspires creative interactions across the stage.

Chuco Mendoza
Musical Director
Chuco Mendoza's almost 40 years of performance experience includes venues like the Hollywood Bowl, Teatro Alves in Bahía, Brazil, Mexico City's Bellas Artes Palace, its National Auditorium as well as the Metropolitan Theater, to name a few. He has toured across Europe, the U.S. and Latin America with artists like Latin Grammy winner Lila Downs, Tania Libertad, Ricky Martin, Salvador "El Negro" Ojeda, y Oscar Chavez, among many others. He participates in several ensembles in the Baltimore/Washington region. Chuco’s sound is the cement that binds the rhythm and the harmony and gives Downtown Tumbao its identity.
Bruno Lucini
Percussion
Percussionist & drummer Bruno Lucini is open to world's cultural diversity and its wide vocabulary of rhythms and instruments. As a world-fusion musician he performs in a unique hybrid/mix set of percussion & drums, showcasing coordination, independence and Polyrhythm. From Rio - Brazil he plays Samba, Forro, Bossa and Brazilian Jazz, as well as Salsa, Son, Songo, Timba, and Latin Jazz. Performs in DC/New York area with well-known groups like Origem (Lucini Bros), Veronneau, Nanny Assis, Alfredo Mojica and more. Bruno has performed at nationally recognized places such as Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, DC Duke Ellington Jazz Fest, Sculpture Garden Jazz DC, Blues Alley, Smithsonian Jazz Cafe, Howard Theater and Silver Spring Jazz Fest.
Sarah Taylor
Vocals
Sarah Taylor Cook, classically trained and nurtured in the bosom of Jazz in New Orleans, is a crossover performer who launched her professional career in Mexico City. The gritty lounge scene in El DF, informs her estilo picaresco: an unforgettable chemistry with her bandmates that infects her audience. Sarah’s recent projects include collaborations with Valeria Rojas on her forthcoming album Río Revuelto, Trío La Reunión: with Valeria, and Flora Pasquet, performances with Joao Enrique and Dorio Ferreira, and Jorge García Montemayor, pillars of the Mexico City Jazz and Blues scenes, and of course her performances with the Mexico City version of Downtown Tumbao with Chuco, Baldomero Jiménez and Mauricio Blass.