Arts & Culture

Dos Santos' sound is a cultural melting pot as eclectic as their Chicago home

XPN | By Raina Douris,

Miguel Perez

Published January 23, 2023 at 12:08 PM CST

Last April, the city of Chicago rolled out their new tourism slogan: "The Middle of Everything." It's a phrase that not only applies geographically, as Chicago is essentially in the middle of the country, it also extends to the music scene and our guests today, Dos Santos.

For our latest installment of the Sense of Place series, the World Cafe team is exploring Chicago's music scene. In this episode, we sit down with drummer Daniel Villarreal and percussionist Peter "Maestro" Vale, who explain how Dos Santos exists in the middle of a whole lot of different things: genres, influences and cultures.

Plus, the whole band joins us for an exclusive mini-concert.

Arts & Culture

Raina Douris

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She is also involved with Canada's highest music honors: Since 2017, she has hosted the Polaris Music Prize Gala, for which she is also a jury member, and she has also been a jury member for the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.

See stories by Raina Douris

Miguel Perez

Miguel Perez is an assistant producer at KERA. He produces local content for Morning Edition and KERA News. He also produces The Friday Conversation, a weekly interview series with North Texas newsmakers.