An earful at Bocado by Chet Williamson

The new guys have come a long way in a hurry. Six months ago they started playing together. Their early gigs were playing at house parties for family and friends. Today, they are in residence every Thursday at Bocado, drawing steady crowds and getting better and better.

The new kids on the block are Pueblo Nuevo, a trio playing refreshing music of the Latin kind, featuring rumba and cambia rhythms from Colombia, bossa novas and sambas from Brazil, Argentinean tangos and Cuban son, not to mention boleros, salsas, merengues or any other rhythm that you can name emanating from the Afro-Caribbean experience.

The new people are guitarist Paulo Alzate, bassist/guitarist Jose Castillo and percussionist Johnatan Latorre. Think: The Gipsy Kings with Caetano Veloso meets The Buena Vista Social Club, only these guys are all in their 20s and they live in the area.

Alzate lives in Bolton, but he hails from Colombia where he went to music school to study voice. He says he picked up guitar as a way to accompany himself. "I studied voice in the conservatory of music for five years and guitar for a couple," he says. "I had a band in Colombia. All my life I've been a singer. That's my forte. My thing is to sing."

Pueblo Nuevo Both Castillo and Latorre live in Worcester. Alzate says Pueblo Nuevo started as a duo. "I had a band before," he says. "It was just Johnatan and me. We didn't really have a name. The Jose came into the picture. He was the best friend of Johnatan."

Alzate started working with Latorre in September. Castillo came on board in November. From the beginning the trio knew they had something special. "With Johnatan, as soon as I started playing, he was following me so easy. I was like, ‘Why don't we do something?'"
In full agreement, Latorre says, "We haven't been playing for a long time but we got together and it was like chemistry. We connected. We get along so well. That's the best thing."

Where Alzate blocks out the chords and sings the song, Castillo elaborates and expands with his freewheeling improvisational lines on guitar. He is a fearless soloist who complements every song with his tasty licks. "Jose is really established," Alzate says. "He studied at Berklee College. Every time we play, he doesn't really have a particular part. He just goes."

In addition to playing at parties, Pueblo Nuevo has also appeared at openings and functions at ARTSWorcester, the Worcester Art Museum and Centro Las Americas before scoring the Bocado date.

A couple of months ago the three amigos started going around to area restaurants looking for gigs. "I heard about Block 5," Alzate says. "I went there first asking if we could play Latin jazz there. They said ‘We have a new restaurant called Bocado.' Fortunately I found Mike Covino [one of the owners]. I showed him my marketing folio and he said, ‘OK, let's do it.'"
Alzate says that it is known that Latin bands play salsa, merengue and bachata music. "Pueblo Nuevo is different," he says. "I came from Colombia with a lot of rumba in my repertoire. I have flamenco mixed with pop. I have cambia mixed with rock and Spanish."

Bocado's a nice little weekly showcase for Pueblo Nuevo. The group views the place as their anchor and hopes to fan out from there. "My plan is to go for it, further than Massachusetts, out of Worcester first, then to Boston and hopefully go to New York," Alzate says. Latorre adds, "Of course we have to practice more, but I think we will get there."

It's already happening. Pueblo Nuevo plays in Lawrence on July 13. In the meantime, catch them every Thursday night right here in Worcester.

(Courtesy of Worcester Magazine)