Dos Santos

Outline

Dos Santos (formerly Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta) is a quintet based in Chicago. Their music reflects their varied backgrounds in Mexican, Central American, Puerto Rican and American music with a wide variety of Latin American rhythms and song styles, typically modernized or updated in some way. This may take the form of a simple update of instrumentation or complete transformation into psychedelic rock or some sub-genre of indie rock/pop, the constants being the drumming of Peter "Maestro" Vale and Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo leaving no doubt about the Latin American basis and Alex Chavez's emotive tenor, almost exclusively in Spanish. The result can, at times, recall other cultural adaptations of American psychedelia, such as Dengue Fever. At others, the mixture of styles resembles more Cuban-influenced Afrobeat. Dos Santos will certainly leave you guessing what to expect from one song to the next and their musicianship and energy make for memorable live performances.

Antibalas, Lokkhi Terra, Dengue Fever

Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo is also in The Los Sundowns. Nathan Karagianis is known as carefulGIANTS in his solo work. Jaime Garza is in the group Ida y Vuelta and performs solo under the name Almafuerte.

Alex Chavez : Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Jaime Garza : Electric Bass
Nathan Karagianis : Guitar, Vocals
Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo : Drums
Peter "Maestro" Vale : Congas, Bongos, Percussion

The majority of Dos Santos members hail from musical families. Alex Chavez, from Midland, Texas, with Mexican heritage, is a fourth-generation musician. Villareal-Carillo, from Panama City, has a musician father. Karagianis is a third-generation musician from Peoria, Illinois. Garza's father was a musician and concert promoter. Garza was born and raised in Chicago. Vale, also a Chicago native, is the only permanent member who isn't the child of a professional musician but grew up in his hometown's Puerto Rican community absorbing varieties of salsa. All were accomplished musicians prior to joining Dos Santos.

Alex Chavez, in addition to fronting Dos Santos, is in a trio that plays huapango music (a family of Mexican music styles) and is an associate professor of Anthropology at Notre Dame and has authored a book on the cultural significance of huarango.