Percussionist, vocalist, and bandleader Sheila E. recently brought funk, salsa, jazz and R&B to the stage at the Lehman Center for Performing Arts in the Bronx. The artist, who has collaborated with legends like Prince, Michael Jackson and George Duke, will be joined by R&B vocal group Klymaxx. “It’s an honor and privilege to play the Lehman — it’s a beautiful facility,” said Sheila E. to the AmNews in an exclusive phone interview. “So many great artists have been performing there for a very long time.”
Sheila E., who recently won a Grammy for her performance of Celia Cruz’s “La Bemba Colorá” from the album Bailar, which featured vocalists Gloria Estefan and Mimy Succar, has deep ties to New York City and the Bronx. Her godfather was genre pioneer Tito Puente, who was a friend and colleague of her father, musician Pete Escovedo, who also performed with Santana. “I might’ve been in my late teens, my dad and I would fly to New York from the West Coast and meet with Tito, and wherever he was performing we’d go there and hang out, whether it be on the streets or in the clubs,” Sheila E recalled. “That whole vibe in the community and the people was just amazing … it definitely is about community, and family, and the food … we’re really excited to perform there.”
While well known for producing hits across the spectrum of funk, R&B and pop, Sheila E. marries a diverse blend of styles through her use of rhythm, linking her art back to one of the world’s oldest and most central instruments — the drum. “A lot of the percussionists in the Bay Area, they really studied rhythm, and we learned a lot from them,” she said. “We learned tradition, and what it was to learn the history of drumming and the music from different villages and different countries — from Brazil to Africa, and then you got Cuba and everything landing back in New York, and in the Bronx. It’s just incredible, it all flows together.”
Recalling the scene in Oakland where she grew up, Sheila E reminisced about the sounds of groups that permeated the city, including Sly Stone, Tower of Power, Santana, the Grateful Dead, and the music of her father, who would rehearse in the family’s home. “What my brothers and I used to do was catch the bus to a community center and sit outside on the sidewalk and listen to these bands play and rehearse …. To us it was all one big connection.”
Community is a central part of Sheila E.’s work with nonprofit organization Elevate Oakland, which seeks to provide artistic and educational resources to children in the Northern California community. “We’re bringing the music and the arts back into public schools because all of those programs have been cut for a very long time, and those are the first to be cut.” she said. “Some of these kids have really come into themselves and become very confident in who they [are] … some of them were abused to the point where they weren’t speaking a lot, or didn’t know how to communicate, or look someone in the eye … with our classes, we were able to help them to express themselves through the music and the arts. And some of the stories that they would tell, or the art projects they would show us — how they would start and what they would end up with — from dark to light, it was just incredible, and that creativity is so important.”
You can find out more information about Elevate Oakland at elevateoakland.org. Stream Sheila E.’s latest album Bailar Instrumentals, on Spotify.
Awesome 🎵 music 👏