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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38123/full/38123/get-ready-to-rumba-south-bay-cantor-sitting-in-with-blues-band-at-s.f.s-car/ <br /><br /> <b>Get ready to rumba: South Bay cantor sitting in with blues band at S.F.’s Carnaval</b> <br /> Thursday, May 21, 2009 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>Amid the sambas, rumbas and cha-chas at this year’s Carnaval, festivalgoers will also catch a small taste of Yiddishkeit.</p> <p>The Tribal Blues Band, fronted by native Israeli Raya Zion, will perform at 12 p.m. Sunday, May 24 at Carnaval, San Francisco’s annual salute to Latin music and culture. Sitting in with the band will be Cantor Doron Shapira of Foster City’s Peninsula Sinai Congregation.</p> <p>He won’t be singing. He’ll be accompanying the band on congas, dumbek, djembe and all manner of Latin and Middle Eastern percussion instruments.</p> <p>“[The Tribal Blues Band] is a lot of fun,” says Shapira. “There’s no formality. They get into the audience and the audience gets into them.”</p> <p>On tap for the band’s set will be its customary mix of classic horn-and-guitar-driven blues, jazz, funk and swing. Zion, who lives in Foster City, says her band covers everyone from James Brown to Etta James to Stevie Ray Vaughan.</p> <p>“We’re a living organism,” says Zion of the nine-piece group. “We have such great musicians. They have a pretty wide repertoire.”</p> <p>As for Shapira sitting in, it isn’t the first time he and Zion have played together. In the past she has performed with his former band, Milk and Honey, a South Bay Jewish music ensemble that played weddings and bar mitzvahs.</p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="Ashapira" class="left" height="235" src="/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/zd_05_22_09/Ashapira.jpg" title="Cantor Doron Shapira" width="360" /> <div class="caption">Cantor Doron Shapira</div> </div> <p>The two also used to host a Jewish music show at Stanford University’s radio station, KZSU. Shapira has also been a regular at Chabad’s Stern Grove Lag B’Omer drum circles over the years.</p> <p>“Doron is a musical genius with a wide knowledge base of a lot of different music,” says Zion. “You could drop him anywhere as a percussionist and he would get up to speed.”</p> <p>While this Carnaval likely marks the first time a professional cantor has performed, it may also be the last time, at least for Shapira. He will be making aliyah to Israel later this year.</p> <p>“I am wrapping up 15 year as cantor,” he says. “You’re at the kids’ baby namings and now their bar/bat mitzvahs, so its tough to leave. But if not now, when?”</p> <p>That’s an easy question to answer: The day after Yom Kippur he’ll be leaving on a jet plane, bound for Israel.</p> <p>But in the meantime, there is still music to make here, including the upcoming Carnaval gig.</p> <p>And as much as Zion and Shapira would like to play straight-up Jewish music there, they realize it’s mostly a Latin festival. So they intend to stick more with the salsa-flavored rock ’n’ roll.</p> <p>Says Zion of her guest percussionist: “I don’t expect him to do ‘Adon Olom’</p> <p>at Carnaval.”</p> <p><br /><strong>Cantor Doron Shapira </strong>performs with the Tribal Blues Band at 12 p.m. Sunday, May 24 at the 2009 Carnaval street festival, at the stage located at 22nd and Harrison streets, S.F. More information: <a href="http://www.tribalbluesband.com">http://www.tribalbluesband.com</a>.</p> <p> </p>

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