The band
Nolosé means “I don’t know”
Lausanne, 2004, a concert night at the Chorus. A programmer from the OFF programme of the Verbier Academy Festival has just heard the workshop band of the EJMA, the city’s school of jazz and contemporary music. She wants these musicians for her festival and asks for the band’s name. It has none. “No lo sé”: I don’t know. The answer came out on its own.
That workshop became an orchestra: sixteen musicians today, from six countries. The compositions are home-made. They take the harmony from jazz and the tumbao from salsa, with Havana D’Primera and Isaac Delgado in their ears, and the band went to record them at the Radio Progreso studios in Havana.
What came next happened far from Lausanne. October 2014: opening for El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico in Geneva. 2015: the Half Note in Athens, then two weeks on tour through the Greek islands, from Spetses to Zakynthos.
Nobody makes a living from Nolosé. Laurent, the founder, plays the congas; his wife sings on the same stage. When Covid closed the venues, the band kept rehearsing, composing, playing. “It really saved the band,” says Laurent. And every year since 2004, Nolosé returns to the Chorus.
The band’s history
They come from Switzerland, Cuba, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Poland. The band has been honoured four times between 2009 and 2018; it has performed in Colombia, Cuba, Greece, France and Switzerland. The awards, year by year, and the big stages are in thepress kit.
The musicians
The whole orchestra, from the voices to the drums.
Edgar LopezVocals 
Sarah FarjonVocals 
Idalmis CuénoudVocals 
Seeler Subero SanchezVocals 
Michaël ConusTrumpet 
Irène HernandezTrumpet 
Franko CasanovaTrombone 
Oswaldo ParraTrombone 
Emmanuel SchwabSaxophone 
Matthieu TrovatoPiano 
Patrick GuenatBass 
Slawek PlizgaTres & guitar 
David LazoBongos & campana 
Marco PerezGuiro 
Laurent CuénoudCongas 
Cyril RegameyDrums & timbales
Who played with us →Press & awards →Musical style →
Nolosé in three questions
What kind of band is Nolosé?
A Cuban salsa orchestra of 16 musicians, founded in Lausanne in 2004. The repertoire is composed by the band, in the language of timba and Cuban son. The album “Qué Cuenta La Habana?” was recorded in Havana, at the Radio Progreso studios, and received the Premio Internacional at Cubadisco 2014.
Where does Nolosé play?
At the Chorus in Lausanne every year since 2004, at the Montreux Jazz Festival six times between 2007 and 2018, at JazzAscona, at Caliente! in Zurich, at LakeLive in Biel. Outside Switzerland: Havana, Athens and the Greek islands, and a ten-date tour of Colombia including the Bogotá Timba Fest.
How many musicians on stage?
Twelve in the standard line-up: three singers, three horns and the full rhythm section (piano, bass, congas, drums and timbales, bongos and campana, guiro). Sixteen on a big stage, eight to ten for a private or corporate evening. The tech rider for each line-up is in the pro area.
