Mingo Lewis & Deborah Yates Launch Vortex Tribe

Emeryville, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Pres Pak Public Relations) - Legendary Bay Area progressive jazz percussionist Mingo Lewis and 'magical' symphonic flautist Deborah Yates have teamed to form Vortex Tribe, the Bay Area's next big party band. The duo's upcoming debut CD, 'Hall of Souls,' captures the excitement of their live show where some of the area's legendary players join them to create a fresh melding of acid jazz, funk and World Beat. Maintaining a solid schedule of performances, Vortex Tribe next takes over San Francisco's legendary Warfield Theatre for a concert with Al DiMeola and WAR during January 2009 to coincide with the expected release of the band's debut CD, 'Hall of Souls.'

Vortex Tribe began in 2005 when Deborah Yates moved to the Bay Area from Europe and put together her own Latin Jazz band. While auditioning a new keyboard player, another musician, Mingo Lewis, was in the rehearsal studio. She lost the keyboard player to Mingo but developed a strong musical relationship with him instead. The following year, the two musicians combined their influences to form Vortex Tribe.

Each piece performed by the band is composed of grooving genres, each changing to provide an eclectic and sophisticated aura. The band's music is written and arranged by Mingo Lewis. Mingo began performing with Santana in his teens and is generally credited with helping to drive Santana's music towards his Latin Jazz explorations. From there, Lewis moved on to work with artists including Chick Corea and Return to Forever, Al DiMeola, and The Tubes. Along the way, he produced and composed pieces for all the above as well as his own bands, Flight Never Ending, The Tong and Combination Go. During the Eighties, Mingo wrote with Jan Hammer ('Miami Vice') and for film score. His combination of rhythmic excellence together with fluid use of sounds has fused together to create joyful compositions of compelling virtuosity.

Flautist Deborah Yates was accepted into her first symphony orchestra at the age of 13. From the age of 16, she was touring Europe with symphonic orchestras as the piccoloist. She was a featured performer at the Brandenburgh Hall in Vienna, Austria, for the President of Austria, and had the honor of a performing as a soloist in Carnegie Hall. Deborah branched out into jazz and latin playing throughout Britain and the Bay Area. She performed weekly at Jazz at the Station in Ascot, England as well as the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.