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Costa Rican band heats up bar scene

KIMBERLY NICOLETTI

SUMMIT COUNTY – One of the biggest bands in Central America has arrived in Summit County.Pimienta Negra, a salsa, merengue, Caribbean and rock band from Costa Rica, plays tonight at Cecilia’s in Breckenridge and Thursday night at the Goat in Keystone as part of its two-month promotional tour of the United States.Diego Piedra, a Keystone resident who moved here from Costa Rica, says the band is one of the most popular in Central America. The eight-piece band has been around for 10 years and has won such prominent contests as Oti, a Hispanic songwriting competition, Piedra said.Piedra helped bring the band to the bars in Summit County to cater to the Latin American community.”The Mexican community is bigger than the Latin American community up here, and they have different tastes when it comes to music,” Piedra said. “Most people from Latin America go to Denver because you can’t find Latin American music here. The instruments they use in Mexican music are a lot noisier; it’s drums and tuba and chorus oriented. Latin American music is easier to dance to. You hear piano, bass and one lead singer.”Pimienta Negra came to the United States, touring the East Coast, Midwest, South and Colorado in hopes of making a name for themselves in North America.”Everybody dances salsa and merengue. I see it everywhere I go,” said band manager Bernal Wilson. “It’s a good time to reach the U.S. and promote ourselves. Everybody says they’ve been waiting for the band to come to Colorado.”The band plays half originals and half cover tunes from bands from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Mexico.”We make everybody feel happy every time we play in a nightclub anywhere,” Wilson said. “The people are going to dance. Our music is energy music. It has life.”Kimberly Nicoletti can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 245, or at knicoletti@summitdaily.com.


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