Musical fundraiser for Puerto Rican Hurricane Fiona relief

GREENFIELD, MA - Matthew King, lead composer and creative force behind the Latin funk-fusion band TapRoots, will be organizing a fundraiser for Puerto Rican Hurricane Fiona relief at Hawks and Reed Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 8, at 8 pm.
Doors will open at 7 pm. The event will include live painting, vendors, and incredible performances by world music masters TapRoots, Boston’s Los Sugar Kings, and the legendary Jose Gozalez and his Banda Criolla.
For TapRoots’ King, who has friends and adopted family on the island, the time to act is now. King will donate everything he makes in ticket and merchandise sales to the Fiona relief effort and is in the process of researching different local grassroots community organizations to donate the proceedings to. The other bands have agreed to do the same and King hopes that the Hawks and Reed owners will join in and help with this much needed cause.
The entertainment for the night will be an eclectic mix of highly danceable Latin-inspired bands. King’s own band, TapRoots, is charting new musical territory with its unique mix of Latin-prog-funk. While the music is at once familiar - borrowing from elements of rock, soul, reggae, salsa, soul, hip-hop, samba, folkloric rhythms, and beyond - it taps into the roots of these traditions while imagining something refreshingly new.
Intertwining elemental foundations of spirit, rhythm, planetary reverence, and sociopolitical transformation, TapRoots braids a vision of human experience united by struggle, celebration, resilience, ceremony, and fierce desire for social change. This is not Epcot-style cultural fusion; this is a raw, energetic, untamed,  and complex look at how these musical traditions and all of humanity are related.
The other band on the event’s lineup is a perfect compliment to the sonic and creative vision of TapRoots. Sugar Kings is a Boston-based quartet known for their dynamic live performances, rich harmonies, intense musicianship, and ability to transcend genres with an authenticity rarely heard. In their world, respect is paid to the forefathers and traditions of Afro-Cuban son, salsa, and rumba-flamenca but Sugar Kings - named after a Cuban baseball team - also actively draw on influences from nearly every continent in their unique roots-rock-reggae repertoire.
Tickets are $15 though additional donations are welcome. For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.hawksandreed.com.