Conjunto Tierra Linda — “tierra linda” means “beautiful land” — came together in New Orleans in 2019 as a collective of musicians from diverse United States, Caribbean, and Latin-American origins. It is led by bassist, singer, and arranger Gabriel Case, who started the band after moving to New Orleans from the San Francisco Bay Area. Raised in a Latino household, Case was immersed in Puerto Rican bomba y plena, Mexican mariachi, Cuban rumba, and the annual Brazilian Carnaval in San Francisco’s Mission District — and came to understand how many of those folk traditions were woven together into the music North America calls salsa.
The conjunto’s approach is rooted in the son-montuno tradition developed by the great Cuban tres player Arsenio Rodríguez, with guaguancó, mambo, cha-cha-chá, bolero, and guaracha woven through fresh arrangements of Latin dance repertoire and original music. You can hear them regularly around New Orleans — at dances, festivals, and the Blue Nile’s Balcony Room, and on the Jazz & Heritage Stage at Jazz Fest — and offstage they set up informal rumba sessions in the parks and collaborate with Latin-dance choreographers.
