Juan de Marcos’ Afro-Cuban Continuum at Miner

Minutes after returning to Miner Auditorium’s stage, Juan de Marcos González shared a revelation that would have discouraged many bandleaders. “I am very happy to play tonight for you,” he told the packed house, “but I had hip surgery 15 days ago.” A low gasp moved through the room. At 71, managing arthritis in his hands and still recovering from the procedure, he stood at center stage prepared to conduct, sing, dance, and play the tres. The disclosure hinted at fragility; the music that followed projected stamina and resolve.

That tension between vulnerability and vigor shaped the evening. De Marcos brought his Afro-Cuban All Stars back to the intimate Miner Auditorium for their annual visit, and expectation weighed heavily in the room. Many listeners came hoping to reconnect with the Buena Vista Social Club era that he helped ignite as conductor and arranger on the 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club (Nonesuch Records). He answered with a program that treated that period as one chapter in a longer story, leading a 12-piece band of younger musicians through arrangements that kept the repertoire in motion rather than under glass.

For de Marcos, Cuban dance music functions as a form of endurance, both personal and collective. He reminded the crowd that he had “given them the possibility to get back to the stage,” referring to the elders he had championed during the Buena Vista years, and he clearly felt a similar responsibility to the current ensemble. Thursday night’s performance, part of a four-night run at SFJAZZ, presented the music as a continuum that adapts to new hands and new circumstances while retaining its rhythmic backbone.

Luis Chavez, trumpet. Photo: Steve Roby

From the opening blast of “Yo soy el del Sentimiento,” any sense of polite, museum-grade revival fell away. The band moved as a single engine. Big-band figures rose and fell over a precisely steady rhythmic foundation, the five-stroke pattern of the clave acting as an axis around which melody and harmony revolved. The horns—three trumpets and a sax—answered with compact riffs and bright unison lines that thickened into short, bracing fanfares. Underneath, the piano, bass, and percussion section kept the groove clean and forward-leaning. At the center of it all, de Marcos’s acoustic tres cut through with a high, woody attack that shaped the band’s phrasing as much as any conductor’s baton.

The heart of the Afro-Cuban All Stars lay in that rhythm section. Tany Allende Dominguez on congas and Asley Rosell Varela on bongos stood front and center, often taking concise, hard-hitting solos that pushed the energy higher without breaking the flow. To their left, Caleb Michel on timbales and background vocals added the extra lift that made the room want to move. Above this engine, on a riser, the brass and wind players rotated down for focused solos, reinforcing the sense of a road-tested orchestra rather than a nostalgia package. Surrounded by these younger musicians, de Marcos recalled that 30 years earlier, he had brought Ibrahim Ferrer to the stage. “And now, I am the same age as him, and I have the pleasure of being with these young guys.” “Yaimara’s Groove” became the clearest early example of those “young guys” setting the tone with tight arrangements, brisk tempos, and a deep, elastic pocket. That balance of youthful drive and long memory prepared the ground for the pieces he soon dedicated to absent friends and family.

Niño Rivera, whom de Marcos described as “the greatest tres player I ever heard,” occupied a central place in that lineage. Introducing “Tributo al Niño Rivera,” drawn from the Afro-Cuban All Stars album Distinto, diferente, de Marcos briefly situated Rivera as a key architect of modern son cubano and early chachachá. The arrangement began with bright, clipped tres figures over a lively son pattern and then widened into full big-band writing, stacked brass chords and answering riffs riding the groove. The mood was exuberant and celebratory, classic Cuban dance music intensified by the color and volume of a 12-piece ensemble. De Marcos’s tres, with its sharp, percussive tone, sat at the core of the texture, treating Rivera’s themes as working material rather than relics. The tribute functioned as present-tense music, proof that Rivera’s ideas continue to move through new arrangements and new bodies.

Alberto Alberto, lead singer. Photo: Steve Roby

De Marcos also incorporated his own family history into the set, illustrating how this continuum extends through both private and public memory. The emotional center of the night arrived with “Bongosero,” his homage to his late brother, the bongosero with the Buena Vista Social Club. “I wrote this song about 12 years ago,” he told the audience. “It was dedicated to my brother… he passed away in 2009. Now Ramón is going to sing the song for my brother, so he should be somewhere nearby, watching these guys on stage.” The tune kept a firm dance pulse yet carried a distinctly elegiac tone, its son groove functioning as both celebration and memorial. A lighter but equally personal dedication followed with “Glicy’s Mood,” written for his daughter, who once played in the band and now sells houses, “making a lot of money” and, as he joked, “supporting her daddy.” Cast as a graceful danzón with a buoyant lift, the piece sounded like a character study in motion—tender, amused, and quietly proud. Heard together, the two songs traced a family line through loss and renewal, making clear that de Marcos regards this music as a living inheritance.

For the final song of the main set, he transformed that inheritance into collective energy. Up to that point, only a few listeners had slipped into the aisles to dance, but de Marcos decided it was time for everyone to join in. “Our contract is for 90 minutes, right? We have been playing for 80 minutes. So, when are you going to dance then? Are you ready?” he asked, then added in a deeper voice, “We are coming from the great island of Cuba. We will survive because we are warriors. We are going to make it at a certain point.” With that, he led the band into a long, rising version of “La Mujer del Bárbaro.” The groove grew intense and layered, with piano, bass, and percussion locking into a fast, swirling pattern that pushed the horns and vocalists Alberto Alberto and Reuben Alvarez higher with each chorus. As more of the audience stood, clapped, and danced in place, the band responded with even more energy; both singers stepped off the stage to move through the crowd, while pianist Orlando Cardoso Herrera broke into his own exuberant dancing on the riser. In those final minutes of the set, Miner Auditorium felt less like a concert hall and more like a shared declaration of endurance, national pride, and rhythmic freedom.

Juan de Marcos González. Photo Steve Roby

After a brief pause, the full band returned for a conga. “Everyone who is sitting down, even the old guys, we are going to do a conga now. Remember, old age is not a sin, it is a blessing!” de Marcos called out, and the aisles filled as a long line wound through the hall. Listeners of all ages and backgrounds fell into step with the band’s rolling rhythm. When the last chorus landed, de Marcos moved along the front row, shaking hands and thanking people for their support before making his way backstage. By then, the evening had traced a complete arc: tributes to mentors such as Niño Rivera and his brother, affectionate portraits of his daughter, and a disciplined young band at his back, all carrying forward the language he helped define with the Buena Vista elders. At Miner Auditorium, that legacy moved through the room in the form of present-tense Cuban dance music. On this night, Juan de Marcos turned survival into sound.

Program Notes

Band: Juan de Marcos González,& The Afro Cuban All Stars

Venue: Miner Auditorium

Location: San Francisco, California

Date/Showtime: Thursday, November 13, 2025, 7:30 p.m.

Personnel: Juan de Marcos González, tres, vocals, conductor; Alberto Alberto, lead singer; Ramon Alvarez, lead singer; Thommy Lowry Garcia trumpet & flugelhorn; Luis Chavez trumpet & flugelhorn; Orlando Fraga trumpet & flugelhorn; Jorge Brauet, saxes; Orlando Cardoso, piano; Yorgis Goiricelaya, bass; Asley Rosell, bongo & cowbell; Tany Allende, congas set; and Caleb Michel, timbale set.

Sound engineer: Ronaldo Garcia.

Stage announcements: Rebeca Mauleón, Director, Education & Community Engagement at SFJAZZ.

Setlist: “Yaimara's Groove,” “Yo soy el del Sentimiento,” “Chan Chan,” “Tributo al Niño Rivera,” “Bongosero,” “Glicy's Mood (Danzón),” “No quiero verla,” “Huelas del Pasado,” “No creo en jeva,” and “La Mujer del Barbaro.”

Encore: Conga