Candela (Spanish for candle and/ or fire) is a San Francisco-based nine piece salsa music and Latin jazz band created in 1986 under the direction of Uruguayan born lead singer and conga drummer Edgardo Cambón.
[2] Edgardo Cambón arrived to San-Francisco in 1986 and made records with Chucho Valdés (with Irakere, 1994),[3] Keith Terry & Cross Pulse,[1] Joan Baez, Claudia Gomez, Omar Sosa, Mark Levine, Jeff Narell, Andy Narell, Sovosó, Mike Spiro, Rebeca Mauleón, Jackie Rago, Richard Olsen Big Band, Los Compas, Sol y Luna Band, Eddie Montalvo, Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez, Armando Perazza and many others.
He also taught percussion for 5 years at Folsom State Prison as part of the rehabilitation program [4] The Bands repertoire includes various kinds of Latin music: Salsa, Son, Bolero, Mambo, Cha-cha-chá, Merengue, Timba, Bachata, Cumbia and Latin Jazz.
Many great musicians play occasionally with this 30 years Bay Area musical treasure, like Doug Beavers (Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Eddie Palmieri) on Trombone, Karl Perazzo (from Santana and Avance bands), pianist Israel Tanenbaum, Jesus Diaz and Christian Pepin rotate on percussion as well.
All of Candela's records feature mainly compositions and lyrics by Edgardo Cambon with an array of great arrangers like: Rebeca Mauleón, Wayne Wallace, John Calloway, Marco Diaz, Charlie Gurke among others.