Costa Rica’s Own..Home-Grown Band
(Version en Español aquí)
This is the case of the hottest new Latin Musical group,” El Combo Style,” from my home country, Costa Rica. Really, just keep doing what you’re doing and share your talent with the world!
I love a good cause, and for me, people with artistic talent, dedication and humility are always a good cause.
The first time I heard this group, was in some studio recordings from the University of Costa Rica.
Even though the quality was not the best, I saw, felt and most importantly heard, the talent of this very tight and charismatic band.
David Mendez who plays trombone and maracas, (blind since early childhood) and David Jimenez (singer-guitarist) are part of the backbone of this band. D. Jimenez writes all the songs and lyrics and D. Mendez along with Gerson Rodriguez on keyboard make all the musical arrangements for the music the band plays ( 100% original music) . They are focused, dedicated and just plain GOOD. I promise if there is any life left in you, even if you are 95, you will be moved to get up and DANCE when they start to play! They have put together an eight- piece band, that from the first bar, will entice you to get up, wiggle your bod and just move to the catchy and hypnotic “Ritmo Tropical” (Tropical Rhythm)
I know these musicians personally, and when I heard their first recordings, I started to get excited. It’s exciting to know that a group you know and care about, maybe now only needs a little luck to break out and become very well known not only nationally but hopefully internationally. This is their case. They need some luck, good promotions and people who believe in them. I think Nat and I fall into this last case. I put a few of their songs on my stream at Kari’s Bar and Dance, and invited Nat and Joey to dance with me
and they both fell in love with the rhythm, the tight arrangements, and the very addictive Latin beat and feel. It only took Nat and I a few minutes to realize that we WANTED to help them, by making a machinima using their brand new, first time, professional recording. When I asked them permission for their music, they gave me/us full permission to do it as we saw fit, so we chose two songs off their new CD, entitled, “Curandero”and combined them in Randt and Hoisan’s very first DANCE VIDEO (collaboration #16:)
The musicians from the Combo Style are:
David Méndez Camacho-Trombone-maracas
David Jiménez Vargas- Vocalist-Guitar
Ariel Soto -Drums
Luis Hernandez Gil- Percussion
Andrés Alas- Flute-Percussion
Antonio Echeverría-Sax
Gerson Rodriguez – Keyboard
Julian Jiménez – Bass
Thank you all for sharing your music with us personally and with the world!!
“Curandero”
by El Combo Style
We put out a “cattle call” for gorgeous dancing extras and old friends and new alike showed up to Salsa/Lindy Hop/ Bar-tend.. whatever we needed:)
I want to thank each and every one for their patience and willingness to dance for hours until we got the shots we needed! Big hugs and sincere thank-yous to all!
Actors:
Dale Innis : New York, USA
Joey (joeytwoshoes) : Germany
Amira Kevoli (amirakevoli) : Florida, USA
Anje Aichi: Boston, USA
Odracir Wrigglesworth: Boston, USA
Henri Godenot: Alaska, USA
Amiata: Costa Rica
Shepp (shepphard.galbraith) New Zealand
Maria Vought : UK
DzinWiz Babii-Avro: Nebraska, USA
Gamma Infinity : Arizona, USA
Shesa Quandry: New York City, USA
Soto Hax : Canada
Jeykob Moyet : Puerto Rico
Feanor DeCuir : Germany
Natascha Randt : Germany
Karima Hoisan : Costa Rica
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*A special thanks to Poett for letting us use her RL footage of the band at a live show.
For Nat and I, this is another labor of love; done because we wanted to, in the hopes of maybe helping a bit to get the word out about this great up and coming group. This might be a Virtual World First, where a Real Life group entrusts their brand new CD to a couple of Machinima makers from Second Life to see what they can do with it. Thank you so much to all the members of the group for doing this and for believing in us. We believe in you and hope we can get thousands of views for you too!
So dear friends and readers, if you enjoy the film and the music, please share it on all your social media connections. Best viewed full screen in HD (1080p)
Let’s help “The Combo Style” take off…. all the way to SUCCESS!!
Hechos en Costa Rica!
Digital Rabbit Hole 
Pingback: Randt & Hoisan # 16: El Combo Style | aetherisavidi
Nat wrote a great post about our experience making this video too. Please see her pingback above and Google translates this pretty intelligently too:)
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¡Muy delicioso!
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jeje a wonderfully synthesized comment Scottius that I will reply to with one word:)
¡Sabroso!
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Haha! Scottius is so cute!
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Fabulous video and a great band! And handsome dancers 🙂
Valiente.. aquellos que se atreven a soñar.. que hay un mundo mejor.. o por lo menos uno más musical.
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I totally agree and the actors were so handsome! Especially that one in the white white shirt:) Thanks for your great comment Odracir. It is much appreciated:)
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Kari and Nat, Congratulations!! Great fusion SL/RL I love the colors and the combination with the pictures!!! The min 4:00 So great to see all the musicians and musical instruments involved. Very cool and wel done .. Ohh and the Lufthansa, I mean “Lusthansa” aircraft, hahaha Funny!!! Happy energy here and ¡Qué buen ritmo! 😀
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Abrazos!! Haha yes the “Lusthansa” was just some positive vibes for their future world tour:) Someone said we should have used “Copa” or “Lacsa” jeje. Was so much fun doing this, and the band was amazed what you can do on a virtual platform:) Was a win/win all around. Thanks Yesi for your great comment and continual support. Muaaaks
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I am happy and a little proud that we did it! Everytime I watch the video, I smile because of all what we have done, all of those last second ideas and all the fun we had.
And again we entered a new path, a new path for us. With this marvelous and inspiring Latin Beat (it’s just a rumor, I danced during postpro… hehehe).
An experience I don’t want to miss! Really!
I want to thank all actors and supporters and the band and last but not least Karima!
Its always a pleasure to work with so many talented people.
Especially when I am the commander in chief… I mean the director.. I mean ok, just kidding:)
Big Big Hugsss
Nat
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Haha Nat I heard that “post-pro” rumor too:) Well this turned out to be a win -win-win…etc project because I think everyone who was part of it and especially the band got some major enjoyment out of it. I think we should be proud..proud and grateful to them for trusting their music to us, and proud that we could invent all these crazy ideas and have them work:) Bows to the Director from the back seat where she “helps drive” haha. Hugss Nat and big big thank yous!
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In Germany we say “schlechter Beifahrer”:) But you are not!
Hugss
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Wow, so amazing! It was fun and an honor to be in the cast, but seeing what you two have done with the footage of us basically sitting, standing, and dancing, is always a pleasure. And the RL connection is great, too; you will bring another generation of people to the Virtual Worlds fold!
Speaking of which, I should go say this on the YouTube page as well… 🙂
Thanks and congrats again, on another great machinima!
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What a fabulous video to complement a fantastic band! You two have done an amazing job and merging RL and SL worked brilliantly, It was so much fun to be part of the cast even though I look tiny dancing on the plane!
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Aww thank you Maria..I thought you looked gorgeous:) Thank you for taking time out to do this with us.. The band also appreciated our global effort:)
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Well that worked!! Viva Nat and Kari !!!
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WOOOT! I’m glad you think it did and thank you for being a graceful part of it too:)
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Reblogged this on Dale Innis’s Weblog and commented:
I know I mostly reblog other people’s things these days 🙂 but it’s because they are cool. This is another Karima and Nat machinima, this one with a great RL aspect to it. I was one of the actors again (in a bigger role even, he said modestly), but what those two, and the RL band, have done with our actors’ posing about is really amazing; watch and enjoy!
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Hmmm. My first comment must have fallen down Digital Rabbit Hole. Let us try again. This band is great! The music had me shimmying and shaking. Karima and Nat, as always, your film is so well done. And now… Miss Karima Hoisan is not only a writer and producer, but wears a new hat. That of a fiery, and feisty talent agent. Between the band, Nat, and Karima there is a deep well of talent here!
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Well Hoyt even if it got side-tracked it finally made back here. Thank you so much for trying again:) Love the description “fiery and feisty” talent agent! I hope I live up to that moniker, even though I am just a total fangirl for their music:) Thank you so much Hoyt for always being there for our productions!
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