Gary Mandell, producer of the Summer Music Festival with the Long, Balky Name, promised to bring variety to the Dale Jones Courtyard at City Hall on six Thursdays in July and August.

This evening at 7, a Big Band will be in the klieg lights.

Perhaps, though, not the first Big Band image you are thinking about.

This is the 12-piece Orquesta Tabaco y Ron, featuring players from all over Latin America who specialize in salsa sounds.

Here is the story of the birth of Orquesta Tabaco y Ron from their files:

“In 1998, executive producer Nissim J. Baly was looking to expand his catalog of Latin music-sound recordings.

“A longtime salsa music aficionado, Mr. Baly approached his friend Hector Manuel Rivera, a musician and composer.

“Mr. Baly’s idea was producing a record for the recently launched imprint of Dimelo! Records.

“They talked collaboration, and a new sound representative of their hometown of Los Angeles was crafted. Orquesta Tabaco y Ron was born.”

The Orquesta’s spokesman describes the band’s style as “a high-energy, hard-edged brand of salsa music that has appealed to salsa dancers and Latin music DJ’s worldwide.”

He said their rhythms are contagious. “Their rhythms produce an energy that revives the almost extinct salsa sound of generations past,” he said.