La Lucha is a Tampa Bay based trio that consists of three best friends from three different parts of the world; Colombia, Mexico & United States. Its members are Alejandro Arenas, bass; John O’Leary, piano; and Mark Feinman, drums. Their repertoire is a diverse mixture of Latin inspired rhythms with Jazz standards, twisted arrangements of pop songs and original compositions. Each member of the trio has extensive national and international performance experience, including a tour of Italy and France with performances at the “Umbria Jazz Festival” and “Jazz a Juan” in Juan Les Pins.
La Lucha aims to create music that transcends genres and classifications. They consider music to be live art, which will continue to breathe, grow and evolve with their commitment to it.
La Lucha was awarded Creative Loafing’s “Best of the Bay Jazz Ensemble” in 2013, 2014 & 2015; the “Think Small to Think Big Grant,” by Creative Pinellas; featured presenters at TEDxTampa Bay (2014) & TEDxUSF (2015); and were recently honored by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to present a multi- media project raising awareness for Alzheimer’s disease.
Their debut album, “A Cup of Fuzzy Water” was released in 2009 and their second self-titled album was released in June 2012. Their third album, “Standards, Not-Standards,” featuring vocalist Jun, was released January, 6th 2015 on Blue Line Music.