The band's debut album,
President Alien, was released on April 15, 2003. For the recording of the album, Levin and Diamantes invited several colleagues with whom he had collaborated in the past, including: • singer & songwriter
Descemer Bueno; • singer & songwriter Divine RBG; • singer
Cucu Diamantes; • singer
Xiomara Laugart; • singer
Pedrito Martinez; • singer El Chino; • singer/bassist
Meshell Ndegeocello; • Brazilian singer-songwriter and percussionist
Carlinhos Brown; • guitarist
Andres Levin; • guitarist
Marc Ribot; • keyboardist
Money Mark; • jazz trumpeter
Roy Hargrove; • rapper
Stic.man; • drummers
Horacio Hernandez and
Terreon Gully; • bassist
Sebastian Steinberg In 2004, the album was nominated for the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album Grammy Award. The popularity of the band has taken the group to play at multiple summer festivals such as
Central Park Summerstage, The
Hollywood Bowl, The
Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal's Nuits D'Afrique and
Tempo Latino in France.
Ben Ratliff of
The New York Times has described Yerba Buena as "one of New York's best new dance bands, mixing up the Latin
boogaloo of the 60's, Cuban religious music, some American soul and Fela-like Afrobeat. It's a history of the transmission of Yoruban culture in a nutshell, and it's a good party." Since
Island Life, both Diamantes and Laugart recorded solo albums, with both artists veering closer to traditional Cuban music. ==Current members==