Susie Hansen Latin Band

• For a concert, we'll play great Latin music -- salsa, cumbia, merengue, bachata, cha cha cha -- and we'll have your audience up and dancing the entire time.
• For your private event, we can play an even wider variety of music. We can play not only all the great Latin music that we are well known for, but also swing, funk, R&B, disco, Motown, classic rock, standards and big band.
• We have a terrific band-and-DJ package, which can take care of all your entertainment needs!
• For your wedding, we can emcee your entire celebration in English, Spanish or both. We would introduce your grand entrance; play your first dance; emcee the toasts; play your father/daughter and mother/son dances; introduce and play the cake cutting; introduce the money dance (which the DJ will play); emcee, play music and have great fun with the bouquet/garter toss and more. We'll meet with you in advance, and help you plan all your musical choices and your entire timeline, from the beginning of cocktail hour (or your ceremony) until the very last dance. Together we'll create the itinerary/script from which the band can emcee, with all the details of your party, and I'll send it to you via email, subject to your approval and revisions. There is no additional charge for this planning service and emceeing. You can share the timeline with all your other vendors, such as your personal coordinator, the caterer, your venue contact, the photographer, the videographer and more. It's like getting a coordinator and an emcee for free!
• We are always professional, reliable, on time, responsive to your needs, polite and gracious, and well prepared for your event. We come early and set up before the guests arrive. We always dress well!

Susie Hansen Latin Band -- Bio
The band plays lively Afro-Cuban salsa and Latin jazz for dancing, along with oldies-pop-rock, too, if you like. Lead by electric violinist and vocalist Susie Hansen, they have been a favorite in Los Angeles for over twenty-five years. The Susie Hansen Latin Band, has performed to hundreds of thousands of people, and they love to get the audience up and dancing—as Susie says, “We aim for the feet!” Their music appeals to audiences of all ages and a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. Susie and her band play familiar and traditional salsa in Spanish, cumbia, merengue, bachata, cha cha cha and bolero, original salsa and Latin Jazz compositions, Latin-style interpretations of great American jazz standards, typico Cuban charanga music, and salsa and cha cha cha in English. On the English side, they can play swing, funk, R&B, disco, Motown, classic rock and big band. The salsa vocals are authentic and improvisational. Her all-star band features Daniel Castillo on lead vocals and congas, Kaspar Abbo on lead vocals and guitar, Joe Rotondi on piano, Tony Shogren on timbales and drum set, and other great musicians. The band is truly a crowd pleaser with its rhythmic energy and drive. Typically, they play with a six-piece to a ten-piece band.

Their most recent CD release, Representante de la Salsa, has received great reviews around the world. Matt Marshall wrote in Jazz Inside Magazine, New York City: “Hansen stakes a claim as the music’s Representative, not an unfounded boast . . . with her hard-driving Latin jazz and naturally powerful playing.” On (link hidden) in Switzerland, Daniel Niedermann penned, “This album is beautiful! Its music enchants me.”

Their live dance music has received great reviews, too. According to Brian McGackin of the Glendale News-Press, “I am usually hesitant to rave so dramatically about the quality of a band, but I just cannot seem to help myself. Raucously fun and upbeat, it’s hard not to get up and dance.” Phil Elwood wrote in the San Francisco Examiner, “It’s a sizzling, swinging Salsa band. Hansen can solo as if her bow was afire. The whole room was jumpin’ for joy.”

In 2004, Latin Beat magazine chose Susie’s first CD Solo Flight as one of its top 100 Independent Latin Jazz recordings, and Mark Holston wrote in JAZZIZ Magazine that “her violin speaks the language of Latin jazz with total fluency.” Her second CD, The Salsa Never Ends, was dubbed a “Salsa anthem for the 2000s” in Europe, and features the prominent song “La Salsa Nunca Se Acaba,” which has been popular across the country and around the world. Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times says, “Hansen was a ball of energy, creating an atmosphere of high voltage excitement.”

A long-time favorite in Los Angeles, Susie and her band play at least 100 to 125 live performances each and every year, including for such events as the Playboy Jazz Festival, Fiesta Broadway, San Jose Jazz Festival and Newport Beach Jazz Festival. Susie has toured nationally with her band, and has personally appeared and/or recorded with Tito Puente, Orquesta Los Van Van, Celia Cruz, Giovani Hidalgo, Vikki Carr, Orquesta Aragon, Paquito d’Rivera, Francisco Aguabella, Macy Grey, Jose Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side All-Stars, Tierra, El Gran Combo, Rachel Z, Bobby Matos, Orquesta Broadway, and Sonora Poncena. The band has opened for Los Lobos, Diane Schuur, Andy Montanez, Tito Nieves, Nestor Torres and more. Her recorded music has sold widely and charted well with radio and club DJs across the US and throughout the world.

You can find links to our tech rider, stage plot, input list at our website. Just Google Susie Hansen Latin Band, and then click on "Electronic Press Kit." Over on the right in the list of links, you will find links to our technical needs mentioned above. For our 6-piece band, we request a stage size of 12' x 16' minimum. For our 10-piece band, we request a minimum stage size of 16' x 24'.