‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: La Lucha

La Lucha is a fixture in contemporary Tampa Bay jazz. These three guys, each in his early ‘30s, have been performing together since meeting as University of South Florida music students in 2015.

John O’Leary (piano), Alejandro Arenas (bass) and Mark Feinman (drums) joined us – separately – Wednesday on The Catalyst Sessions to discuss Everybody Wants to Rule the World, their about-to-be-released new album, and how it was written and recorded.

This edition of The Catalyst Sessions includes audio of the album track Por La Tarde, written by Arenas. And O’Leary plays live at the end of the program.

La Lucha will perform during Sunday’s “We Are Family” online fundraiser for the Pinellas Arts Relief Fund. Information about the event is here.

For “We Are Family,” they’ll be playing (together) behind dancer Helen Hansen French – who happens to be our guest today (Thursday) on The Catalyst Sessions.

The program streams the Catalyst Facebook page weekdays at 7 p.m.