World-renowned band celebrating Hispanic heritage at Northern concert

Montana State University-Northern Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Program's Multicultural Center will be hosting Friday its annual celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

"It will just be a fun time," Multicultural Center Diversity Committee member Jasmine Carbajal said. "I'm really excited because they think that it is going to be the one big event of the year where we are going to be able to shed light onto the Latino community and the culture behind it. So it's going to be a fun event for the family."

The event will start with a salsa dancing lesson at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building at Northern, with the band, John Roberts y Pan Blanco, a national and international touring band, starting between 6 and 6:30 p.m., Carbajal said. Beaver Creek Golf course will be serving alcoholic beverages at the event and Guadalajara Family Mexican Restaurant will be selling nachos at $5 a plate. The money made off of the nacho sales will go to Havre High School Spanish Club to help pay for the club's bi-yearly trip, this year to Peru.

She added that the event will conclude by 8:30 p.m.

A press release about the event says the Latin concert is open to all ages and free to everyone.

Carbajal said that the big highlight of this year is John Roberts y Pan Blanco's performance.

John Roberts y Pan Blanco plays West African, funk, soul, salsa, jazz and rhythm-and-blues ensembles.

Some of the band's performances and recordings include multiple Grammy and Emmy events, opening or performing with or on the LA Philharmonic, Fallout Boy, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Frank Sinatra Jr., Christina Aguilera, NPR, PBS and Disney. 

John Roberts, who is also an assistant professor of low brass at Montana State University-Billings, said he had originally grew up on the Hi-Line and is excited to return to his old stomping grounds. He said he grew up in Malta and attended Malta High School before moving to Billings to attend college. After he graduated, he moved to Los Angeles, where he performed professionally for 17 years. It was there, he said, he got involved with a number of people and bands, many of them playing Afro-Latin music. 

He added that in his professional career as a musician, he has played on almost every continent. Antarctica is the only one he has never traveled to. He said he has also played a number of shows in Latin America in multiple different countries. 

Latin American music moves him because it's music with soul and life and makes people move, he said. He added that the music really grooves in relation to American jazz and soul music.

"It's just full of life," he said. "It's music made by poor people for celebration. It makes people dance. It always seems like the poorest people in the world make the happiest music."

He added that no matter where he is performing, his favorite part of the show is watching the audience's response and seeing them enjoy the music.

For the event at Northern, Roberts said, they will have a six-member band, playing on a wide range of instruments which includes instruments such as timbals, the Spanish word for kettledrums, drums, congas, bass guitars trombones, saxophone and vocals.

He said that the last time the band was in Havre was five years ago, when they played a show at Northern. He added that if the event goes well he would be more than happy to come back in the future.

"It's my old stomping grounds," he said.

He added that people should be reminded to bring their dancing shoes.

Carbajal said that the band is great and the Multicultural Center would be happy to host them in the future. She added that it is exciting to have a band of this caliber perform in Havre.

The concert is made possible by grants from the Hill County Community Foundation, Triangle Communications, the Havre Tourism Business Improvement District and the Multicutlural Center Planning Committee's fundraising efforts.

Carbajal said the event is also part of the Latin salsa dancing nights, which started last year through the Multicultural Center. The Latin salsa dancing nights took place once a month at either Vizsla Brewing Co. or Vine 19 and were an opportunity for people to learn Latin salsa dancing.