Drumming Up Support

Earlier this year, Poncho Sanchez and his band filtered onstage at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard for a CD-release party for “Afro-Cuban Fantasy,” the latest of numerous albums he’s made for the Concord Picante label. The house was full and was undulating to the infectious groove machinery of Sanchez’s band from the first downbeat. The air tingled and sweat poured, on both sides of the stage, and a kind of civic pride rose up, with the realization that conguero and bandleader Sanchez has been a West Coast representative of the global Latin-jazz scene for many years. The syncopated beat goes on.

When percussionist Sanchez and band come to the Oxnard Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoon, there will be a cause beyond just music. Sanchez will headline a benefit to help defray the considerable medical expenses of Ruben Estrada, an Oxnard-based vibist and co-founder of the Estrada Brothers who suffers from a debilitating kidney condition.

The benefit falls into place with a long-standing tradition: musicians do benefits for other musicians, partly because insurance doesn’t come easily to those outside a corporate or institutional work structure. But this particular benefit has taken on epic proportions, turning into a daylong event that will also honor a Ventura County musical legend.

The Estrada Brothers have been an institution in the area for many years, but have taken off to new levels in the last few years, propelled, in part, by their 1996 debut on the Milestone label, “Get Out of My Way.”

The catalyst behind the benefit was Raul Rico Jr., the long-standing conga player in the Estrada Brothers’ band and a familiar champion of Latin-jazz on the airwaves, with two weekly shows on KCLU-FM (88.3). In January, at an Estrada Brothers gig in Fullerton, Rico proposed the idea of a benefit to Sanchez, who was eager to participate.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” Rico said. “Once Poncho agreed to do it, the momentum started. With that trump card, I couldn’t go wrong.” Sunday’s show will also be a rare performance for the Estrada Brothers, who have been on a hiatus of late. As Rico explained, “we’re not doing anything at all, because we decided we should wait until Ruben got better, health-wise.”

Estrada and Sanchez have been close for years, and it was a natural choice when Sanchez called on the vibist as a featured guest--and to play a starring role--on Sanchez’s tribute to the late Latin-jazz vibist Cal Tjader in 1996. Sanchez was Tjader’s conguero--or conga-player--until the vibist’s death in 1982, and has, in a sense, carried the Tjader torch forward since then.

Latin-jazz is the mainstay genre of the headliners, but the festival will cover a lot of stylistic ground, including traditional jazz of the Untouchables, blues from the Pontiax, big band jazz from Societe and straight-ahead jazz by the Equinox Ensemble. Veteran jazz-radio personality Chuck Niles, from KLON-FM (88.1), will be the master of ceremonies.

DETAILS

The “Ruben Estrada Benefit Fund” Music Festival, Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard. Tickets are $12.50-50; 486-2424. On the Internet, go to https://www.rumbajazz.com.

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Aaron Copland’s opera career was a fleeting thing, consisting of one work, “The Tender Land.” We’ll get a rare chance to see and hear it starting this weekend, when the Ventura College Opera and the Ventura Master Chorale join forces. The opera comes in time to celebrate what would be the 100th birthday of Copland, who died in 1990 at the age of 90.

The production continues the surprising operatic trend in Ventura County. Opera Workshop director Linda Ottsen, who as a young singer was conducted by Aaron Copland, was also involved in last summer’s world premiere of John Biggs’ “Ernest Worthing,” a musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

“The Tender Land” will run six times over the next two weekends. The opera will be produced by Ottsen; Burns Taft is the conductor and Dan Balestrero directs. Copland’s opera, like his other works, mixes folk influences and serious compositional structures into an identifiable cultural whole--artful Americana.

DETAILS

Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land,” at the Ventura College Theater at 8 p.m. today, Saturday and March 26-27; and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and March 28. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $15 for students and seniors; 654-6459.

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Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].