photo by Corey Rourke

(Editor's note: This Q&A previews a CD release show Saturday at 9 p.m. at the Bourbon Theatre with Son Del Llano and their album Recordando Los Maestros. Jarana will open along with special guest DJs Blue Agave and $pencelove.)

by Michael Todd

Justin G. Jones is a roots kind of guy. He helps cultivate the Latin music scene in Lincoln with his band Son Del Llano. He helps people grow healthy food and live sustainably, too, by working for Community CROPS.

So it’s no surprise that he says the styles of music Son Del Llano plays have cross-pollinated over the years. He laughs quietly to himself after the analogy then continues explaining the history of the Son Cubano genre.

“It’s the more traditional or older style of Cuban popular music that we were introduced to by our former guitar player, René Paula, who is from Cuba," says Jones, who plays timbales and other percussion and also sings chorus vocals. "He is from the Son generation, you might say.”

Paula left the band amicably as a sort of retirement from full-time music. He still plays a few songs at occasional concerts and sits in on two tracks of Son Del Llano’s debut album, Recordando Los Maestros. But since his departure, Jones says, the band has delved more into other genres, some mambo and salsa as well as the umbrella term of Latin jazz.

“The main point is that it’s sort of all along a continuum,” Jones says, “but each of those types of music stems from different eras and probably evokes something different for the listeners. We love it all, though, so we try to play it all.”

Recordando Los Maestros means “remembering the masters,” and the album is a collection of standards. Songwriters such as Chéo Feliciano, Orlando Valle and Guillermo Rodriguez Fiffe provided the material Son Del Llano pressed to CDs. A jazz standard, “Autumn Leaves,” closes the disc, and the song Paula imbued with his Son Cubano style is “Guajira (Amor Verdadero).”

Jones says he’s happy with how the record turned out, and that’s saying something.

“Well, I actually like it, and I don’t say that about very many records I’m on,” he says with a laugh. “My main goal was to make a record with energy because that’s what we go for with live shows. I was willing to sacrifice note-by-note perfection to maintain that sort of energy.”

Son Del Llano plays their live set at the Bourbon Theatre on Saturday night with Jarana and and DJs Blue Agave and $pencelove. Jones says after about six years of bringing Latin music to the people of Lincoln and the surrounding area, Son Del Llano remains one of the few bands channeling the masters of mambo, salsa, Son Cubano and latin jazz. What’s interesting to note, Jones says, is the number of people who love Latin music and who come to dance.

“It’s a real community-based kind of music,” Jones says. “You bring together the musicians and the dancers, and it’s a lively kind of music fit for a party.”

Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He sends his love to Latin America, and to Peru in particular, as his girlfriend settles in for her study abroad. Reach Michael at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.