By Joshua Staloch
Correspondent
BELLEVUE – Even on New Year’s Eve, there’s something to be said for a live band that gets a Green Bay crowd up and dancing before its first song is finished.
Grupo Detalle helped a big crowd at The Blue Opus welcome 2020, and it was only a matter of minutes before the eight-piece group had the majority of the audience out of their chairs dancing.
“They’re just really good,” said Bill Hill, owner of The Blue Opus as well as trombone player for Brass Differential, a New Orleans style brass band. “It’s high energy music and there’s always a lot of dancing when they’re playing. We get a diverse crowd when Grupo Detalle plays, all different kinds of people show up and you’ll notice that there’s a lot of attention to the stage. There’s never a lot of conversation or TV watching when they’re playing. We’re really excited to have them here.”
Keyboard player Horacio Flores and his brother Pablo on drums started Grupo Detalle in 2015.
Over the years, other members of the band have come and gone, but Horacio believes the current group of eight, most of whom have been playing together for awhile now, is making music people are responding to.
Grupo Detalle’s sound is a bit salsa and a bit tropical as it originates from a style of Cuban music known as Cumbia, which is known for featuring a wide variety of instruments.
But the group’s approach to performing is ever-evolving.
“We’re definitely sticking to the Mexican style music,” said Horacio, who came to Green Bay from Toluca, Mexico, 20 years ago to join his older brothers, who had already immigrated to the U.S. “But we have some new members and also, our audience is very mixed and so we’re going to try to cater to what they’d like to hear. Those new members help. Chuck (Collier) has a lot of jazz style to the way he plays the saxophone and our new guitarist (Victor Boudreaux) has a nice blues sound. We’re working on adding all of that into what we do.”
Versatility and adaptation are clearly top priorities for Grupo Detalle as the band moves forward.
For example, Collier will be seeing more time as vocalist without sacrificing too much horn sound as Patricio Marquez will back him up on alto sax.
Also finding his groove in the band as a new member is Carlos Inda, a percussionist who compliments drummer Pablo Flores nicely with his orange set of bongos and congas.
It’s all in the interest of making a style of music, one that might be unfamiliar at first, but more accessible to folks who just want to see a live performance that moves them.
“A lot of musicians I’ve played with in my peer group, there’s really no place for the saxophone,” said Collier, who has been playing saxophone for 13 years and with the band since last July. “But finding these guys has been great.
There’s definitely room for the sax here. We’re motivated by the fun of it, with Cumbia and salsa music, the entire point is to get up and dance, to have a good time. It’s great to see that. No matter how well we’re doing on stage, with the crowds we’re seeing, they’re always dancing. It’s very gratifying.”
Anyone looking for a night of live music can catch Grupo Detalle every week at The Blue Opus for Taco Tuesday, but keep an eye out for the band at other venues in the area as its sound gets more popular.