Andrés Soto is an East Bay born and bred homeboy and a primarily self
taught musician who has drawn upon the many styles of music he has grown
up with in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was raised in a family where
music was heard everyday. His uncle Manny Garcia has long been a
Latin-Jazz band leader in Chicago and his aunts Nina and Linda Garcia
were popular nightclub singers in Chicago in the 1930s through the
1960s. In junior high school he began his musical education in band
class, first on Clarinet and then adding Saxophone and Flute to his
repertoire of instruments.
Andrés played in the award winning Richmond High Jazz Band and Contra
Costa College Big Band while playing in the group Third Rail Band (later
Natural Impulse) with Rick Ramos, also of the Latin Soul Project.
In 1977, he began studying Afro-Cuban Jazz with pianists Mark Levine
and legendary Panamanian-born Bay Area musician and composer Carlos
Federico. While a student at the University of California Berkeley,
Andrés co-founded and played with the Latin-Jazz Salsa group, Sonora
Maravilla. Sonora Maravilla featured such players as timbalero Viqui
Torres, trumpeter Robbie Kwock and guitarist Jesse "Chuy" Varela, now a
popular Jazz DJ with radio station KCSM. Andrés and Sonora Maravilla
jammed at Berkeley's La Peña Cultural Center with the world famous
Tex-Mex accordionist, Flaco Jimenez
In the mid 1980's, Andrés shifted gears and played for five years with
the one Northern California's most popular Chicano bands, Los
Universales. Los Universales played a wide variety of Latino and
American musics in concerts, clubs and weddings all over Northern
California along with groups such as Ray Camacho, Los Elegantes and
Malo.
Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, Andrés performed with the
Richmond Symphonic Band playing an array of musical styles from
Dixieland and Swing to Classical, American and Spanish band music and
classic American March music. The Richmond Symphonic Band performed at
various community events and concerts such as the Richmond Cinco De Mayo
Festival, Holy Ghost Association parades, 4th of July celebrations and
the San Francisco Festa Italiana.
By the late 1980's, Andrés was back playing Jazz at the East Bay Center
for the Performing Arts, along with such notable stars as Stanley
Turrentine. At this time Andrés also reunited with some of the members
of Natural Impulse and formed the GTS Band. Andrés also was able to
fulfill one his long time dreams of performing with his uncle Manny
Garcia's Latin-Jazz All Stars in the Chicago area.
In the 1990's and the new millennium Andrés has been playing with the
Contra Costa Big Band, featuring such stars as Clairdee, Barbara
Morrison, and John Santos, and the Junius Courtney Jazz Orchestra in
addition to his work with the GTS/Latin Soul Project. Recently, Andrés
has also been performing with the Bay Area classic rock band, Cold
Turkey, at clubs and events in northern California
Andrés' major saxophone influences are John Coltrane, Gato Barbieri,
Skip Mesquite, Lenny Pickett, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Junior Walker,
Charlie Parker, and Johnny Hodges.
Andrés' favorite composers are Igor Stravinsky, Duke Ellington, Maurice
Ravel, Billy Strayhorn, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Peter Tchaikovsky
and Lennon-McCartney.
Andrés' equipment specs are:
1970 Selmer Mark VI with a #7 Dukoff mouthpiece and Hemke medium-soft
reeds.
1950's era King Super 20 Alto sax with sterling silver neck, Otto Link
#7 hard rubber mouthpiece and Hemke medium soft reeds.
1950's era Armstrong 90 flute
Noblet B flat soprano Clarinet with a Brillhart medium open mouthpiece
and Van Doren medium V-16 reeds
Under construction
