At 8:00 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, UW-Platteville’s Center for the Arts will be hosting the first show in its Performing Arts Series. Los Hombes Calientes, a Grammy nominated Latin Jazz band, will be opening the 2006-2007 season.

Los Hombres Calientes, based out of New Orleans, is led by Irvin Mayfield, trumpet player, and Bill Summers, percussionist.

In 1998, Mayfield told Summers his idea of starting a band that would record their albums on location. Summers agreed to play with Mayfield and they soon formed the only band whose leaders are 30 years apart in age, Mayfield said.

“Bill’s 58 and I’m 28,” Mayfield said.

Summers has worked with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and performed with Herbie Hancock for 20 years.
“Bill’s kind of a big deal,” Mayfield said.

Los Hombres Calientes has opened for music sensations such as Carlos Santana, Grace of Dead and Widespread Panic, Mayfield said.

According to the band’s website, in 2000 the band was awarded Billboard’s Latin Music Award for Contemporary Latin Jazz Album of the Year, and in 2001 the band’s third album was nominated for a Grammy.

“The style of the music is particulary interesting and stands out,” said John Hassig, director of performing and visual arts programs and facilities, who booked Los Hombres Calientes.

Los Hombres Calientes travels to different countries such as as Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti to record their albums and to give their listeners a direct feel of their music.

“We go in the ghetto and give people an example of it,” Mayfield said. Through the band’s music the audience can take a historical and geographical tour of these places. “It’s like having one foot in 2000 A.D. and one foot in 2000 B.C.,” Mayfield said. “At our concerts we like people to party really hard.”

“We havn’t had a Latin Jazz group here before,” Michael Lewis, a member of the PAS advisory board and professor of low brass, said. Lewis recommends others to watch the band, noting its excellent musicians.

Tickets are available at the University Box Office and are $22 dollars for adults, $20 for seniors and faculty, $12 dollars for children, and $8 for students.