South of the Border Soul

This Saturday, Nov. 1 Mex 1 Coastal Cantina will be celebrating the Mexican holiday  Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. The party will get started at 7 p.m. with live music from Dallas Baker and Steven Sandifer then will continue with the Latin grooves of Malandro Soul at 9 p.m. There will also be Day of the Dead facepainiting, dancing with the Capeoeira Warriors and an ice luge.
While it’s not exactly “Mexican” music, there is an undeniable a Latin feel to the music of local eclectic five-piece band Malandro Soul. The band plays Brazilian popular music, specializing in samba and bossa nova, with a little rock, jazz, and funk thrown in the mix.
Formerly the house band of Taco Boy on Folly Beach and Downtown, Malandro Soul has been playing around Charleston for several years. But when asked exactly how long they’ve been playing together Phil Kelly, who plays bass guitar and surdo drum,  scratches his head. “Dunno. Lemme see … Maybe five-plus years? But we only actually recollect about 20 percent of the nights that we have gigged, so let’s just call it a year,” jokes Kelly, who also jokes about how a red-headed, light skinned boy who went to University of Kansas got into Brazilian music. “Giant misconception there,” he says. “I am actually an albino Tupinamba from the depths of the Amazon rain forest.”
In addition to Kelly, Malandro Soul features Glauber Mosca on Guitar, vocals, and pandeiro, Carlos Thiago on cavaquinho, woodwinds, Patrick “Alemao” Brown on all things percussive, and Jesse “Queixo” Colon on drums.
This is not Malandro Soul’s first stop at Mex 1, in the past they’ve played the West Ashley restaurant’s Cinco de Mayo  party.