‘Our way of communicating is through our instruments’: La Lucha among Tampa Bay’s best instrumental bands

La Lucha regularly collaborates with vocalists as it stretches the boundaries of jazz and pop, but the Bay area jazz trio’s 2020 album Everybody Wants To Rule The World is a must listen for anyone who believes in the power of instrumental music’s visceral grip on a listener’s mind.

The record showcases the chemistry pianist John O’Leary III, drummer Mark Feinman and bassist Alejandro Arenas have cultivated over two decades of bandom and also presents wonderful pairings (percussionist Chuck Redd and trumpet player Houston Person come together at one point). Arenas told CL that the album also let La Lucha put their personal perspectives on tape.

“Our way of communicating is through our instruments and when we play a jazz standard or other compositions that are not ours, we are in a way processing somebody else’s personal expression through our own filter,” he added.

“Compositions on the album like ‘The Sundering ‘(O’Leary) and ‘Lilis’ (Arenas) have very deep connections to our family lives, while ‘Otra Vez’ (Feinman) and ‘Por La Tarde’ (Arenas) are expressions of our multicultural backgrounds.” See a list of the best Tampa Bay instrumental bands you can listen to right now.

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