Downtown tumbao

Downtown Tumbao, based in Baltimore, is a powerhouse Latin Jazz band. A multi-generational ensemble, Downtown Tumbao's sound is one of the borderlands that merge Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian beats, creating an original, synergistic mix of Jazz, Samba, Cumbia, Bolero, and Son. The band brings together rising talent of the DMV with seasoned skill, as they experiment at the crossroads of new and perennial themes. Downtown Tumbao grooves with vocals, sax, keyboard, bass guitar, percussion and drums and spotlights high energy rhythms, rich, driving tumbaos and sultry vocals performing the music of Latin America to preserve and reclaim it in an act of restoration and revival.

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 Luz "Tiki" Bermejo,  Valeria Rojas on her album Río Revuelto, Trío La Reunión: with Valeria, and Flora Pasquet, performances with Jorge García Montemayor, Baldomero Jiménez 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.

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.

Brazilian percussionist Bruno Lucini showcases through his music an openness to the world’s cultural diversity and its wide vocabulary of rhythms and instruments. As a world-fusion musician he blends hand percussion and drumset in a polyrhythmic hybrid setup. Lucini plays Samba, Bossa and Brazilian Jazz, as well as Salsa and Latin Jazz performing frequently in Washington DC/New York city corridor with well-known groups Origem (Lucini Bros), Veronneau and John W. Warren and Downtown Tumbao. Has performed at nationally recognized venues such as Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, DC Duke Ellington Jazz Fest, Sculpture Garden Jazz DC, Blues Alley, Howard Theater and Silver Spring Jazz Fest. 

Joshua Jenkins joined Downtown tumbao in 2023! He has been playing the piano since he was seven years old and began performing in public at the age of twelve. A proud alum of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, he holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, where he also majored in Spanish. An ever-growing multi-instrumentalist, Joshua studied pipe organ for several years under the tutelage of organist Clyde T. Parker, having performed numerous times on this instrument at People’s Congregational Church in Washington, DC. Joshua was the Jazz Ensemble Director of CAAPA (the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts) from 2018 to 2020. He has a keen interest in Afro-Cuban drumming and his energetic and rambunctious style illustrate his brilliant skill on the keys. He brings straight up fire to the stage!

Michael Paxton, tenor and soprano sax man, carries the band to the outer limits of Jazz improvisation with a warm, fresh style that fills any performance space with the luscious sounds of Latin Jazz, bright mambos and intense Bebop. Mike has graced Downtown Tumbao with his skill and feeling for four years now, and we have been grateful for it with every gig we play. Mike holds a BA in Jazz performance from Towson University and he has toured across the U.S. with the band Never Ending Fall. You can catch him with the fiery Noah Pierre Band, TOB, Moontide Gallery and, of course, Downtown Tumbao.