NPR MUSIC calls their album ’16 Rayos’ (released in 2021), “a groove as intense as a runaway train.”
GRAMMY® Award Nominated Cuban Big Band ORQUESTA AKOKÁN burst onto the global music scene 3 years ago and their no-holds-barred 21st century take on the venerable Cuban mambo lit up stages around the world with a fierce and unremitting joy. Orquesta Akokan imbued the legendary Cuban grooves with a renewed vitality and powerful sense of "akokan" - used by Cubans to mean "from the heart" or "soul." Orquesta Akokan's 2021 album release, '16 Rayos', is a triumphant follow up to their GRAMMY® Nominated debut from 2018. "Their music captures the sound of 1940s and '50s Cuba, when the country was one of the world's most glamorous destinations and an epicenter of music and culture," raves the NEW YORK TIMES. "Even though the contours of the group's sumptuous brass and reed sections recall the great bands...its percussion-augmented rhythm section feels supercharged in a remarkably contemporary way," says the NEW YORKER. "Brilliant music," states POPMATTERS. "Orquesta Akokán is a joy," says NPR.