~by Dena Burroughs

DR. BOBBY RODRIGUEZ' LATIN JAZZ CHRISTMAS CONCERT AT THE LUCKMAN THEATRE - December 8th, 2007

Last night's was Dr. Bobby Rodriguez 10th Christmas concert at the Luckman, and just my first.  I enjoyed the concert thoroughly, and will consider it the official start to my holidays this year.

Dr. Bobby Rodriguez' awesome trumpet skills were accompanied by excellent musicians, which included Max Haymer on piano, Rochelle Coatney on timbales, Roberto Belloso on bongo, Ricky Hopkins on tenor sax.  The orchestra was later joined by singer Niki Haris, the daughter of Grammy nominated Jazz pianist, Gene Haris, and two girls from "Salsa Juvenil," a 10 year old on flute (I missed her name unfortunately,) and Daniela, 8 years old and the daughter of Roberto Belloso, playing congas.

The program included arrangements of Christmas classics into Latin sounds - "Frosty the Snowman" became a Salsa, "Silver Bells," a Cha-Cha, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," a Merengue, and so forth.

It was really a lovely event.  I recommend it for next year. 

You can read about and listen to Dr. Rodriguez at http://www.bobbyrodriguez.com