The whole of Nolosé Salsa on the main stage of JazzAscona: sixteen musicians in white, the singers in red

Salsa orchestra · Lausanne · since 2004

Feel the emotion of a live salsa orchestra

Winner of the Premio Internacional at Cubadisco 2014, Cuba’s answer to the Grammys. Sixteen musicians, six nationalities.

Book the band Hear the band live

Next public concert: Saturday 23 January 2027 · Chorus, Lausanne

They booked us

Montreux Jazz Festival2007-2018
Havana Jazz Festival2013-2014
Bogotá Timba Fest2018

2004
founded in Switzerland: 16
musicians: 500
concerts: 3
awards

Nolosé Salsa is a salsa orchestra founded in Switzerland in 2004: 16 musicians from Cuba, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Poland and Switzerland.

There are sixteen of them on stage, dressed in white, the singers in red, five horns answering four voices. You can pick them out from the far end of the field. The repertoire has been road-tested over five hundred concerts: salsa, Cuban son, timba and the band’s own compositions, with a full album recorded in Havana.

Close your eyes on the first montuno: the congas take your pulse, the clave moves your feet. Open them again and you’re already dancing.

Each concert is scaled to the venue, with 8 to 16 musicians, from an intimate bar to a festival main stage.

From Switzerland to Havana

The record Havana nearly banned

In Cuba in 2013, and again in Bogotá in 2018, the name made our hosts laugh. Laurent, founder and conga player, is reminded of Ulysses telling the Cyclops his name was Nobody: a false name to get out of trouble. Ours did better than that: it opened the doors of Havana to us.

We stayed five weeks, long enough to record ‘¿Qué Cuenta La Habana?’ at the Radio Progreso studios. In Havana, the pun in the title and the cover were at first deemed subversive. Copies were recalled, we went from office to office explaining ourselves, and a new cover photo was shot on the Malecón. At Cubadisco 2014, the very same record won the Premio Internacional.