La Sonora Santanera

Background

Sonora Santanera is an orchestra playing tropical music from Mexico with over 70 years of history. Modeled after an earlier Cuban band called Sonora Matancera, the Sonora Santanera was founded in 1955 by Carlos Colorado in the state of Tabasco, and went on to find enormous success during the 1960s. In 1960, comic actor Jesús “Palillo” Martínez helped the band play in Mexico City and get a professional record deal under the name of Sonora Santanera. From that time until 1986, the band changed members, but remained focused on Carlos Colorado, the sole musical arranger for the group. Colorado died in a bus accident in 1986, causing some members to split off and form another orchestra called Los Santaneros. The remaining members changed name to Internacional Sonora Santanera. Since the 1980s, little of the band's sound changed although members continued to do so. In the 2000s, more bands appeared using the name of Sonora Santanera as part of their names, leading the orchestra to pursue legal actions and another name change in 2007 to the current name Sonora Santanera de Carlos Colorado.