Kristina Bennett - Lead Vocals
Kristina Bennett came from a musical family where mom was a professional singer, uncle played every instrument he got his hands on, and a father who danced as a pro as well. She started her musical journey at age 6, when she joined a Children’s Radio Choir in Slovakia, then at 14 joined a Hungarian professional choir Young Hearts (“Ifjú Szívek”) and kept touring with them for 6 years around Europe.
In 1994 she founded Pro Mix Productions with Tomas Krchlik, a recording studio where she started writing and recording songs for upcoming artist. She has also published her first album called "Soul of Love" under the stage name Chris Lawal with PMP. Two of the songs made it on the top charts: "Lady Dracula" and "Don’t let me down". In 1996 she won first place at Rock FM Fest, a competition between 400 bands & artists. Her winning performance of her song "Lady Dracula" was televised along with the top 12 contestants.
She moved to the US in 1997 where she performed with several bay area bands like Touch of Class, Jump City, Phanorama, 2Delicious, Rudy and the Funky Coalition and 925 Band to name a few.
In 2012 she discovered and fell in love with Brazilian jazz with the help of her musician friends (guitarists Bob Castell-Blanch and Mark Waterford). She started performing performing with several musicians as duo/trio at Bay Area wineries (Wente, Las Positas, Mitchell Katz, Longevity, Del Valle & more), bars and restaurants (Yoshi's, McNamara's, Faz, Locanda, Nonni's, etc.), and private events in multiple languages (Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Hungarian). Her absolute favorite was performing a solo show at Oakland's famous Yoshi's, July 2022.
Kristina recorded her favorite Antonio Carlos Jobim songs with the help of Keenan Foster on two Brazilian Jazz albums "Jazz it Up Brazil" - Volume 1 (July 2020) & Volume 2 (September 2020) that can be found on all major music platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc. Johnny Reason has created most of the music for the album, but some of the solos were played by her musician friends: Jeff Jones (Saxophone), Mark Waterford (guitar) and Shawna Love (guitar/vocals) - who also agreed to join her current band Karambá.
Her heart and soul found a home when she joined/co-created the band Karambá with Clark Seal and Frances Izon, where she can sing her heart out in multiple languages while dancing and groove on stage with her bandmates playing all her favorite Latin/Brazilian tunes.