This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover.
We had no thought, once we invited Danny Ocean to the Tiny Desk, that his live performance would happen amidst one other wave of political protests and violent repression in his native Venezuela. Regardless of the tumultuous timing, Danny and his band eased proper into his lover boy pop anthems “Me Rehúso,” and “Volare.” The latter, kicked off by an ingenious jingle of plastic bottle caps, reworked right into a beach-side serenade full with a saxophone and singalong. Later, throughout a shock percussion breakdown in the midst of “AMOR” from his newest album REFLEXA, the Tiny Desk magic couldn’t have been clearer: a studio-polished tune took on new life as a result of the band was clearly having enjoyable simply jamming out.
Then, Ocean paused to acknowledge the disaster unfolding again house. “Venezuela, I like you with my complete coronary heart,” he stated in Spanish. “No matter it’s we’re going by way of, I hope we will resolve it.” Off the cuff, he performed the primary half of “por la pequeña Venecia” off his EP venequia. NPR staffers and visitors waved Venezuelan flags; a few of us obtained teary-eyed. However similar to that, Danny Ocean and his band saved the great vibes going. The second is indicative of the steadiness the artist has at all times managed to strike: making common music about love and heartbreak with out shedding sight of the bigger human battle for peace and justice.
SET LIST
- “Me Rehúso”
- “Volare”
- “AMOR”
- “por la pequeña Venecia”
- “Vuelve”
- “Fuera del Mercado”
MUSICIANS
- Danny Ocean: vocals
- Curtis Crump: keys, saxophone
- Tiago González: bass
- June Medina: drums
- Daniel Feldman: percussion
- Alvaro Cadavid: percussion
- Mauricio Guerrero, Jr: guitar
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producers: Anamaria Sayre, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josephine Nyounai
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Body, Joshua Bryant, Zayrha Rodriguez
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Audio Engineer: Josh Newell
- Manufacturing Assistant: Elle Mannion
- Photographer: Sofia Seidel
- Tiny Desk Group: Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins