Nosotros is busy. The 10-piece Latin band is playing everywhere, from Fort Marcy Park to the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater this summer, bringing its brand of salsa-tinged fusion music to festivals in such far-flung locations as Telluride, Colorado, and Bloomington, Indiana.
Founding guitarist Randy Sanchez has seen Nosotros grow from a three-piece instrumental guitar trio formed in Las Cruces to a headliner based in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Over a span of 30 years, he says the group has pushed its sound forward as relentlessly as its made the choice to add new members.
“The goal is to do as much as we can and push the band wherever it wants to go,” says Sanchez, who started Nosotros in 1994. “Last year, we worked in developing audiences outside New Mexico quite a bit. We were up in Colorado and Utah. It was a lot of work to get up there, but it was really satisfying to make this journey — hours on the road or the plane — and then you get somewhere that’s a thousand miles away. It’s definitely outside your comfort zone, and to have the crowds react to our music and our performance is very gratifying.”
Sanchez, who grew up in Las Cruces, says his relationship with the guitar started early. His mom bought him a Harmony guitar and amplifier when he was a teenager, and he honed his skills through lessons and tips from other players in town. He’s been performing since about age 17, and over time, he built Nosotros into a band with a reputation around Las Cruces.
Then fate intervened: Sanchez and his bandmates were invited in 2000 to perform in Albuquerque, and they sensed an opportunity.
“We did a few of those gigs, and they just kept getting better and better,” he says. “We were like, ‘We should really move up to Albuquerque. There’s a regular thing.’ It seemed like we were coming into a place where nobody knew us. In Las Cruces, we had quite a following. But you can’t grow that. We started preaching to the choir, which is nice. We love the support of our hometown, but at the same time, it was like, ‘Can we really do this elsewhere?’”
Drummer Dennis Javier Jasso was willing to bet they could. Jasso joined the band while he was still a student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and was close to finishing his degree when Nosotros was moving north. Jasso says he comes from a family of musicians and learned to play piano at age 9 but switched to drums during his sixth-grade year. He stuck with the drums through middle school and high school bands and while studying at NMSU.
“They were beginning the transition of leaving Las Cruces and coming up here to central and northern New Mexico,” Jasso says of his senior year. “I made the decision and felt like college would always be there. But here we are, 24 years later, and I’ve yet to go back to school.”
The early days in Albuquerque were lean, but Nosotros built a following, show by show. Sanchez recalls he would spend hours making fliers and distributing them around Central Avenue, the Nob Hill area, and the University of New Mexico campus. He says he sometimes would cold-call venues looking for gigs for Nosotros, and sometimes he’d drop in on bars unannounced.
“One day we went in Brewster’s Pub — which is the Library Bar & Grill now — but me and Dennis went in there and happened to meet the owner,” Sanchez says. “We told him who we were, and he was like, ‘Cool, I’ve got a Friday night for you guys. Do you want it?’ And we were there for years. We also picked up the Hilton; they wanted to start a Happy Hour Friday, and that thing blew up like crazy. So we were going for a couple years where we’d set up both gigs, hit both of them, have a great crowd at Happy Hour, and finish off at Brewster’s.”
The band organically grew over time. Nosotros found vocalists, horn players, and a bassist, and Jasso was joined by percussionists on timbales and congas.
Sanchez says that former member Chris Trujillo — who had previously played in the 1980s band Toto — helped push Nosotros to a new level, and this year, their two singles “#esperanza” and “Mentiras” have been produced by Ozomatli guitarist Raul Pacheco.
“I feel a similar kind of thing to when Chris Trujillo came to the band,” Sanchez says of Pacheco. “Raul has been another mentor for us at this stage in our career in terms of really refining our sound and making things feel good for the listener. Being individual musicians and artists, we want to play our instruments; Raul kind of helps shape the sound.”
Nosotros explored new frontiers last summer when it played with the San Juan Symphony Orchestra in Durango, Colorado, and Thomas Heuser, guest conductor, helped translate their music to scores that a classical body of musicians could play along with. That was a first for Nosotros, and they walked away with the scores and the confidence they could do it again.
“At first, we weren’t sure how it would work. We knew we had to tighten up our own playing,” Sanchez says. “It turns out it was kind of like a Pops thing. We have our arrangements and we do what we do, and the orchestra’s arrangements are just basically following what we’re doing with Thomas’ direction. He was the link between us and the orchestra.”
The band followed up this summer by playing with the Santa Fe Symphony at Fort Marcy Park earlier this month, which was a full-circle moment for Sanchez, a former member of the Zozobra Orchestra. To this day, Nosotros often plays at the Zozobra after-party at Evangelo’s Cocktail Bar, and the band has gigs at Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery (Saturday, July 20) and at Paradiso (August 3) this summer.
Nosotros is also headed to the Salsa Under the Stars event at the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater on July 26 and will bring the sounds of New Mexico to outdoor shows at the Ritmos Summer Fiesta in Bloomington, Indiana, on August 10 and the Sunset Music Series in Telluride, Colorado, on August 14.
“I feel like as a drummer you can let loose a little more,” Jasso says of playing outdoors. “When we’re inside sometimes at a place like Tumbleroot or Evangelo’s, I’m on a loud instrument and sometimes I get the feeling like I have to hold back. Once you’re outside, the sound is going in every direction possible. I can really let loose, and I think that goes hand in hand with the outdoor shows and crowds; they’re generally fun to play for.”
