Touring with the Big Band

About the Book

One day, I picked up a journal I kept while touring around the world with the internationally-renowned Mario Bauza Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. What wonderful visual memories the diary evoked for me! Friends and family who read my words and flipped through the colorful photographs claimed they felt as if they had traveled with us. I wanted to share my experiences with the public in hopes of bringing them inside the orchestra of this great bandleader while educating them on the highly-contagious music and the people who made it. This inside view is unique, because I traveled with the band as a performer—yes, I sing and dance too—and as a personal friend of Mario and the dynamic vocalist, Graciela. I listened carefully to their very detailed recollections, because their stories were not only entertainment for today, but the history of a lifetime. Both well into their 70s when I first met them, the performers demonstrated exceptional recall as they shared their captivating experiences. I know there is an audience for this information—whether readers are music fans, Hispanic immigrants, photography buffs or travel bugs. I am pleased and proud to make people aware of Mario, Graciela and the magnificent—and flamboyant—touring band. I had a ball—I believe you will, too.

About the Author

A native New Yorker born in Manhattan on November 4, 1947, Yolanda Maldonado has spent her entire life in the Big Apple except for two years in California and one year in Florida. She is the oldest of three children. In addition to spending - years on the road as a singer and dancer with the Mario Bauza Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. Yolanda has worked as a medical transcriptionist in the Radiology Department of Bellevue Hospital where her mother was born for more than 20 years. Yolanda’s greatest admiration is of knowledge and compassion. She has a deep love for music and photography. In fact, it was photography that led her to the first meeting with Maestro Bauza, and her love for music that made her stay with them. She readily admits that the knowledge she absorbed from her association with this great group of people could never have been acquired in any school. While her life has been centered around New York, her experiences and memories have been garnered from around the world.