Salsa is dead, reggaeton is dead: Long live the rolling Afro-Latin music thread 2009

For discussion of Afro-Latin music forms, especially salsa, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Boricua forms, as well as merengue, bachata, and cumbia. And also reggaeton because of it's dominance by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, even though it's not really what I mean by Afro-Latin music. (And throw in Latin rap if you want.)

Gonna repost this link I posted on Jazz thread, since it falls under Afro-Cuban http://www.jazzgallery.org/live/. I'm definitely going to try to make that Rodriguez Brothers show- Ernesto Simpson is my new Best Drummer Ever

Yeah, I almost said feel free to use this for Latin jazz too, although there are other places that could go.

There's this, but it doesn't see much action: Latin Jazz: Generic Thread Forever. Latin Jazz seems to end up either on the Jazz thread or this one. Dimension 5ive reads them both, which is all that really matters.

Ha

worst music ever

(this opinion comes solely from seeing buena vista social club)

And what do you like oh wise one who can't explain why he/she did not like Buena Vista.

x-post-here's what Ned Sublette saw live last year and enjoyed--

I had some fine musical experiences at home in New York (the quartet of Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, Boris Kozlov and Dafnis Prieto at Iridium, damn), in Barranquilla (at Carnaval de las Artes and Barranquijazz) and in Sto. Domingo (more about that in a minute). But my absolute high-point musical experience of 2008 was the Bebo and Chucho Valdés duo concert at the Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival. To see those two lions communicate with each other across facing Steinways was something to remember forever. I’ve written an article about it for a forthcoming issue of Downbeat. The Juntos para Siempre concert, and the duo’s other tour dates in Spain, were supporting the album Juntos para Siempre recorded by the two last year, produced by Nat Chediak for his and Fernando Trueba’s label Calle 54, where it joins other valuable entries in the label's Bebo Valdés catalog. It’s not released domestically so far, only available by import from Spain.

While I was in Barcelona, I met Omar Sosa for the first time. He handed me a copy of his new one, Afreecanos. It has African musicians (including singers) from Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, Morocco, plus Cubans, Brazilians, and, hey, French and U.S. players. Very different traditions melt into each other, and it works because the musicality is so high -- Julio Barreto is the drummer -- and because they’re all reaching for the divine. It radiates aché. Constance loves it.

worst music ever

(this opinion comes solely from seeing buena vista social club)
Bah, I'm going to come and box your ears with the Tumbao Benny More and Chano Pozo box sets.

Man, I kick myself for missing those Eddie Palmieri/Brian Lynch shows. And Boris is a great bass player, maybe will go check him out this weekend with Arturo O'Farrill. Boris was in the audience at the best Latin Jazz show I saw last year, Samuel Torres at Cachaça.

Hm. Samuel Torres is playing Cachaça next Friday with a quartet, almost the same group as the Rodriguez brothers show.

FWIW, the descarga.com pick for best of 2008:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/best_of_2008

You can preview the new Los Van Van album here:

http://www.latinmusicstore.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=1&flypage=shop.flypage_p&product_id=151&option=com_virtuemart&I=0&vmcchk=1&Itemid=65

(I doubt I will ever like Los Van Van nearly as much as I do, say, vintage Eddie Palmieri or most El Gran Combo, but I don't hate this so far.)

GILBERTO "PULPO" COLÓN
Pulpo's Hot Bread
The Mambo Project
Originally released: 2008
Category: SALSA/SON; SALSA

EditorsPick: A recording like this will probably be overlooked today, though not tomorrow. The greatness of the groove, the explosion of the Puerto Rican/New York style so late in the day will be appreciated in historical terms — you know, a work of genius after the genre had flowered, e ...

This appeared on most of the descarga.com ballots. Their hyperbole often sucks me in at first, but then I end up less wowed the more I listen to the release myself.

Here's Christgau from his Consumer Guide on one of those dj cumbia mix efforts some bloggers seem to love. I think he has missed out on some intervening years of cumbia in his description--

Various artists
"Arriba la Cumbia!"
(Crammed Discs)

Want a recipe for Steam Table Surprise? How about an English DJ in search of "the latest global dance music phenomenon" promoting a charming, Colombian-gone-Latin style whose heyday was half a century ago? Fold in some Euro modernizers just to stink the joint up a little more. But then culinary magic happens, and the mélange ends up some kind of cross between one of those fabled musical gumbos and the world's tastiest processed chicken fingers. Salted with autèntico old-timers whenever the corn syrup gets too thick, a Bristol trio and a Mexican DJ and some arty reggaetonians and the beat firm of Droesemeyer & Wetzler and Basement Jaxx getting in on the action rev up squeezeboxes real and imagined. Piece de resistance: Fulanito's "Merencumbiaso," in which a bunch of NYC Dominicans blend Latin America's pokiest pop dance style with its speediest.

Grade: A MINUS

One thing to look forward to in '09 is a new album Gilberto Santa Rosa is producing for the Puerto Rican singer Choco Orta, who has a good voice, at least based on what I've heard (recordings that are at least ten years old--during which time aging might have taken its toll). It feels somehow unusual that GSR would be producing one of her records. (He tends to work with younger performers, I'd say, like the NG2 guys.)

I think my thread title is going to get really annoying (to me) in just a few days.

As far as the Pulpo thing goes, I could only go by the audio clips I heard, which didn't sound too special. Also, it's yet another project consisting mostly, or maybe entirely, of covers, including songs that have already been done pretty definitively (e.g., Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe's "La Murga). I forget, but Pulpo may have even played on some of those recordings, but that doesn't mean his covers of them in 2008 are going to be worth shelling out money for.

That's what you get for making fun of my Jazz D-Bag thread title, RS.

Today's pick hit: Poncho Sanchez, "Bien Sabroso."

Anyway, my point is that some recent reggaeton is leaning strongly in the direction of the music that gets played at cheesy dance clubs (as opposed to non-cheesy dance clubs).

― afrofuturist philosopher (The Reverend), Friday, November 21, 2008 6:14 AM (16 hours ago)

I'd like to go try at least once of the several DC dance clubs that say their djs spin reggaeton and disco to check out the transformation of the sound in that environment. ...

― curmudgeon, Friday, November 21, 2008 6:13 PM

any places worth checking out spinning less vocoder ballady mtv tracks and more bass-heavy dj nelson / shadow kid regueton in the city proper? i don't have a car so don't really want to venture out into the moco/pg spots aside from silver spring and wheaton.

anybody have any thoughts on k-paz de la sierra? i don't know much about them other than their singer getting shot, but i like some of the tunes. especially "volvere":

x-post

Still have not gone yet. I was curious about the Saturday Night SIDE ROOM at Ibiza, 1222 First st. NE, that features ::" DJ NV and VJ Mario spinning Latin :: Salsa :: Merengue :: Bachata :: Reggaeton :: House"

It may not be what you're looking for. I wonder if Club Las Vegas (I think that's what it is called) on Route 1 South in Alexandria still features reggaeton djs as their sign outside once proclaimed. That's not metro convenient though.

x-post:

also, apologies if duranguense is outside the parameters of the thread, being latin but not afro. has anyone started a whirled music '09 thread?

Rolling Global Sublime Whirled Music 2009 (With an emphasis on African likely)

x-post. Someone should probably start a duranguese, banda, Tex-Mex, norteno, mariachi thread although it probably would not have many folks posting on it. A (one-time? or still) Village Voice contributor known here on ILX as Dr. Phil used to post some about duranguese (but he should not be confused with unperson Phil who likes metal, African, avante-jazz, and some salsa and also writes for the Voice)

RS, where do you think such postings should go?

RS, where do you think such postings should go?

Straight to hell. No, but I am trying to keep this thread Afro-Latin. All that Mexican stuff is a very different thing, and should either have its own thread or go on the whirled music thread.

But I'm not going to be all gestapo about it if it comes up here occasionally.

it'd be entertaining to see how many posts a rolling duranguense/norteno thread would get -- maybe 5! but i think i'll just post it to the whirled thread.

Oh, RS, stop playing down your Gestapo connections. You've been doing that ever since Nuremberg. XD

The violins in Los Van Van are one of the things that makes their songs kind of sucky. There's lots of promise there, but those fucking violins! It's not just that they are violins, but how they are used, though I'm going to be inarticulate and not be able to say what that is exactly, at least for the moment.

I don't know if you know, but "Volvere" is sort of a Latin music standard. At any rate, it's widely covered. I'm pretty sure I've danced to it in one of its merengue versions.

Here's a version by Dominican merenguero Krisspy:

(It may for all I know be Mexican in origin. I don't know.) It seems like a song made to go with drinking, too.

There's lots of promise there

Like the coro, and perhaps the soneos, though I'm not 100% sold on them. Is this Mayito Rivera singing? I ask, as though someone here will know.

And the percussion is always fine except for the drum kit.

don't know if you know, but "Volvere" is sort of a Latin music standard.

i wondered about that. a little googling suggests it was written by some italian dudes in the '70s. hard to find much about it (at least, not written in english). anyway, it's a nice tune.

Annoying timba-style "rapping" (or what some prefer to call "chanting") in "Un tumbao pá los dos." It is absolutely the small genre mannerisms that bug me in timba, and it feels very much like a food preference, since I can't break down my reason for not liking it any further.

(Still talking about the new Van Van album. Why bother talking about something nobody is too interested in? Not that it's ever stopped me before. But I'm going to give an additional answer which is that this is a major band and a major release, so it seems worthy of attention on that level, though once I'm through the first preview I doubt I will go back and listen again. Too many obstacles to enjoyment.)

i only have a van van greatest hits, i'm not sure i need more than that. do i?

I'm not sure you need more than that either, but there are three tracks on Llego Van Van that are highly worthwhile.

I'll name them another time as the timer is timing me out and my PC is about to evaporate.

I have some Los Van Van on vinyl that I have not listened to in ages. But I also remember enjoying them alot live at a big outdoor show near DC (Wolf Trap Farm Park) way back when. I don't remember who was in the band then.

someone was listening to some stuff i had around the other day and was all "I LOVE THESE GUYS" thinking it was los van van, when it was really los soneros del barrio off the rough guide to salsa dura nyc comp.

FWIW, these are the three tracks I like (and really like) from Llego Van Van:

La Bomba Soy Yo
Somos Cubanos
Consuelate Como Yo

(The last is actually a Cuban oldie, I'm pretty sure, or at least incorporates part of a Cuban classic.)

Nice 2008 recording of Luisito Carrion singing oldie "Pa Bravo Yo" with Michael Stuart and I think that's Ismael Miranda as well (both mostly on additional percussion, actually).

I'm really happy Luisito Carrion is back on his feet and sounding good.

(We all love youtube.)

Michael Stuart doing "Fuego en el 23" (same concert apparently):

Those of you in NYC should run don't walk to see Samuel Torres tonight.

So I read something about Tito Puente complaining about somebody playing "Para los Rumberos" out of clave. I think it was here: http://pertout.customer.netspace.net.au/lclavetp.htm. This week it saw in a book that it was Carlos Santana!

i've been shedding timbales in preparation for (hopefully) some gigs with a latin jazz band. i used to listen to latin records with no idea of who was playing what so it's been nice to break it down (not that i'm an expert or anything now, but i think i can handle the gig)

Awesome. Maybe soon we'll be posting you to Drum geek sick chops youtube thread

Do you have one of these?

Listened to that Pulpo album once, sounded pretty solid.

Jordan, let me be a pest and ask you, do you play the cascara on those timbales?

In the next few years, Samuel Torres is going to mess you people up.

And then I will post a link to this thread to prove that I predicted it.

james, yes and yes

Cool. Never mind the jam block hataz.

I'm trying to ignore the Descarga (and Dusty Groove) hype as much as anybody else, but this Pulpo album is pretty good. Doesn't make me wish I listening to,say, Asalto Navideño instead.

Speaking of Asalto Navideño, I went ahead and bought the (apparently self-published) Irv Greenbaum memoir from Descarga and found it highly entertaining, particularly his James Brown anecdote and all the stories about when he thought he was sure he was going to get a little special mention at an awards ceremony from somebody like Harvey Averne or Eddie Palmieri but was denied.

Version of "La Murga" significantly different from the original- instrumental, more uptempo among other things.

the cascara
In my limited efforts to understand the clave in the past year, it was lightbulb over head time when I learned to start listening to the cascara. And the bell.

The song "Salsa Y Sabor" on Tito Puente's Para Los Rumberos, in particular the organ solo, sure reminds me of "Vamonos Pa'l Monte."

Tito Puente's 78s and stuff-

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/taking-care-of-tito-puentes-musical-legacy/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/arts/music/11play.html?scp=3&sq=pareles%20january%2011&st=cse

Tito Puente never forgot that his band’s main job was to get people dancing: with romantic boleros, sinuous cha-chas and insistent mambos. His repertory was huge; he recorded more than 150 singles as 78s from 1949 to 1955. What makes the two newly released collections of “The Complete 78s” (Fania) — 40 each on Vol. 1 and the brassier but more uneven Vol. 2 — so enjoyable is how often and how far Mr. Puente went beyond the utilitarian. The masterly mesh of percussion, sleek horns and suave singers is a given. Beyond it are jazzy harmonic excursions, Afro-Cuban throwbacks, exotic travelogues and experimental stretches like “Vibe Mambo,” which presages Steve Reich — all packed into less than four minutes per track.-Jon Pareles

this thread gets the burt_stanton official seal of: i don't give a fuck

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. burt_stanton.

bruto stanton

Shakira at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday.

I got Vol 1 of the Tito Puente 78s right when it came out and listened to it once but then got distracted by some other stuff including the Alegre compilation and some of Tito's 116 other albums.

so ... la excelencia? i grabbed their first album off emusic (new one's not up there yet). i like it. i think i get what's dura about it, but i'm a dilettante on all this.

Shakira at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday.

Discussion of Shakira is banned from this thread.

I streamed that first La Excelencia album and didn't really like it that much. (I realize that's not the optimal way to check something out, but for a genre I'm as sympathetic to as salsa, it's generally enough to let me know what I think of something.) The fragments I've heard from the new one sound more appealing.

But anyway they get very good grades from many people who know more about salsa than I do, and I haven't given that first album a real listen in my stereo (but I still personally think they are overrated and find their coros, especially on the first album, a bit uninspiring).

I've been burned a lot by buying CDs by current New York salseros, so I am very suspicious of anything that comes out of New York these days, frankly. On the other hand, La Excelencia are genuinely a new group of musicians. They aren't part of the SHO/Soneros del Barrio pool of performers.

yeah, i admit their "newness" is part of what made me curious. the vocals don't particularly grab me out of the gate -- though they don't bother me -- but i like the grooves. which is about all i can sensibly say.

Jesse, did you end up going to the Blue Note last week?

nawp. spousal social plans interfered. my determination to see more live music this year is so far entirely theoretical...

Maybe one of these days you can come out with me on the Latin Jazz tip.

yeah i'd dig that. keep me posted on yr. outings.

La Excelencia may be new, but I don't hear them doing anything particularly new. Not that I demand that, just pointing it out. I still might be this new one, since it sounds more interesting to me than the first, from inadequate sampling anyway.

All right, Jesse, in a little bit I'm going to head up to Smoke to meet a friend to see the 10 o'clock set of Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band. Sorry for the late notice.

hey, i think i can make it to that. smoke is like 6 blocks from me. so yeah, i'll look for you.

Meanwhile in DC--courtesy of the Washington Post blog the Official Latino Inaugural Ball.

Hearing American Idol Season 7 runner-up David Archuleta sing the national anthem, for instance, wasn't quite as thrilling as watching Yerba Buena singer CuCu Diamante gyrating while wearing an American flag-patterned ball gown.

The '70s funk group War was the first act of the night, and the outfit ran through hits such as "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?" During "Low Rider," the band was joined by comedian George Lopez, who played cowbell.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano backed singers Michael Salgado, Elida Reyna, and Lila Downs. The band was one of the few acts that battled the venue's acoustics and won -- although all fought valiantly. The horns and strings sounded crisp despite the barrel-vaulted, 96-foot ceilings, which amplified every laugh, cheer, and shattering glass.

After the explosive Cucu Diamante/Yerba Buena set, golden girl Paulina Rubio emerged to sing a few songs, including "Ni Una Sola Palabra" and "Yo No Soy Esa Mujer." She was followed by balladeer Alejandro Sanz, who performed "Corazon Partio," and "Quisiera Ser."

By the time the night's marquee act, Marc Anthony, was introduced by his wife, Jennifer Lopez, the program was already about an hour and a half behind schedule. However, the salsero made the most his short time on stage. As he sung "Valio La Pena" and Hector Lavoe's "Mi Gente," Union Station's Main Hall turned into a massive dance floor.

-- SARAH GODFREY

I just went with my kid to the Lincoln Memorial event during the day (Shakira with Usher and Stevie Wonder on "Higher Ground," plus lots of baby-boomer pop-rock stuff, Bettyle Lavette w/ Jon Bon jovi, Mary J Blige...). Did not pay the big bucks for this. Unfortunately missed the unofficial Mambo for Obama and the Socarama with David Rudder and Alison Hinds.

Compiltation of recordings of songs written by Tite Curet Alonso:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23459.10?MGV8hX8v;;383

An obvious idea, but I don't think I've seen one before. Some favorites missing, but I think this still gives an idea of his significance.

the program was already about an hour and a half behind schedule

Surprise, surprise.

(Of course, if you like Fania era salsa, you're eventually going to want many of the albums these songs come from, and you're going to end up with a collection of his songs anyway, just scattered across many recordings.)

As he sung "Valio La Pena" and Hector Lavoe's "Mi Gente," Union Station's Main Hall turned into a massive dance floor.

augh, this would've been kind of badass.

Isn't Eddie Santiago just a salsa romantica artist? He's gonna be at Cecelia's (aka the Salsa Room)in Arlington outside DC this Saturday and I wanna make sure I'm not missing anyone I'd like.

ridiculous e-mailed press release no. 1,224,000 re Cuban-born rapper:

PITBULL
TAKES A BITE OUT OF LOS ANGELES AND SETS NEW ATTENDENCE RECORD
AT CLUB NOKIA

Isn't Eddie Santiago just a salsa romantica artist?

He is, but I like some of his old hits quite a bit (maybe because they remind me of my earliest salsa dance classes).

Like this:

This actually feels really nice to dance to, imo. I mean, really, is this such a bad song? I don't think so. I'm not sure I'd go see Eddie Santiago live though.

Not that I dance any more, or work, or spend much money, in our declining empire (but that's another story).

And yes, in fact, I will take this over any number of current New York ideologically salsa dura songs.

(This is a pretty good example of how I'm less of a salsa purist than I might seem at times. I don't hate all the poppy salsa.)

Been trying to figure out what this song is forever. Oh well, call me late but this is a jam.

Somebody should give Robert Christgau a subgenre-by-subgenre breakdown of all these current Latin acts he's asking about:

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/02/anuncios-de-servicio-publico.html

oh mio.

Wow, the Dean wants to be schooled.

I might want to attempt that (but that's going to be a homework type thing--away from the internet). I see some people have already started. I'm a little surprised he wouldn't know who some of these acts are (but good for him for asking).

Here's a real time attempt (but these aren't going to be sentences necessarily, so I realize this isn't the response he was looking for--I'm doing this for my own amusement)):

Pepe Aguilar (Don't know), Akwid* (Mexican or Mexican-American rapper, I think), Alacranes Musicales!! (don't know), Alegres de la Sierra (don't know--sounds Mexican), Alexis and Fido (Reggaetoneros, presumably Puerto Rican), Ricardo Arjona (don't know), Aventura!! (pop bachata), Hector Bambino (Puerto Rican reggaeton), Ana Barbara (don't know), Bebe (don't know, but sounds familiar), Graciela Beltran (I should know this--is this the Machito Graciela or someone else?), Bety y Sus Canaris (don't know), Miguel Bose (don't know), Bronco (unless this was a Fania reissue that sold well, I don't know--but there was an older salsa band called Brocno), Cafe Tacuba* (rock en espanol), Calle 13* (reggaeton/Latin alternative), Cristian Castro (don't know), Manu Chao* (that guy, who I think is actually Spanish, right?), Chayanne!! (d/k), Conjunto Atardecer (d/k), Conjunto Primavera!! (d/k), Celia Cruz* (the starred ones he knows, I guess), Daddy Yankee*, Dareyes dela Sierra (d/k), Oscar de la Hoya (huh?) (d/k), Duelo (d/k), Tito El Bambino (Puerto Rican reggaeton), El Patro de Sinoloa (d/k), Valentin Elizalde (d/k), Vicente Fernandez!! (norteno, right?), Luis Fonsi (name very familiar but don't know), Ana Gabriel* (Mexican--mariachi, maybe other styles), Kany Garcia (d/k), Grupo Innovacion (d/k), Jean Luis Guerra* (boring poetic bachata/Christian Latin music), Enrique Iglesias* (I still don't really know what this guy sounds like), India* (anyway I'm skipping the starred ones), Inquietos de Norte (d/k), Ivy Queen (I think--they're on Univision, a Latin label) (la reina del reggaeton, Puerto Rican), Jaunes*, K-Paz de la Sierra (Mexican, poppy banda mixed other stuff?), La 5A Estaction (d/k), La Arrolladora Banda El Lima (d/k), La Factoria (d/k), Hector Lavoe*, Los Creadorez (d/k), Los Cuates de Sinaloa (d/k--I assume these bands with Mexican place names in their names are Mexican), Los Enanitos Verdes (d/k), Los Originales de San Juan (d/k), Los Pikadientes de Caborca (d/k), Los Primos de Durango (d/k), Los Rieleros del Norte (d/k), Los Super Reyes (d/k), Los Temerarios (d/k), Los Tigres del Norte*!!, Los Tucanes de Tijuana (d/k), Eddy Lover (d/k), Mana*!!, Victor Manuelle (salsa, often considered "salsa monga" (or soft or literally "retarded" salsa) but considered a legit. sonero by some--also does some Latin pop, Puerto Rican), Ricky Martin*, Mercyme, Luis Miguel!! (I forget), Montez de Durango (d/k), Tito Nieves (primarily salsa, but has charted with Latin house and recorded in some other genres, Puerto Rican), Don Omar (Puerto Rican reggaeton), Yolanda Perez (Mexican pop banda--did those bandaton songs that I liked and only discovered thanks to Chuck), Pesado (d/k), Rakim y Keny (reggaeton--like any name that looks kind of like that), RBD (Latin pop? or just very watery rock en espanol?), Reik (d/k), Diana Reyes (d/k), Jenni Rivera (d/k), Lupilla Rivera (d/k), RKM y Ken-y (cf. Rakim y Keny just above), Paulina Rubio*, Adan Salina Sanchez (d/k), Gilberto Santa Rosa (salsa, often on the salsa romantica/salsa monga side of things, but clearly a strong talent in more traditional styles of the music, Puerto Rican, frequently collaborates with Victor Manuelle on various recording projects), Alejandro Sanz* (Spanish, right?), Joan Sebastian (d/k), Marco Antonio Solis!! (Mexican pop of some sort, not too bad), Olga Tanon (merengue, though I believe she is from Puerto Rico), Tierra Cali (d/k), Gloria Trevi (d/k), Tropical Fantasia (d/k), Sergio Vega (d/k), Julieta Venegas (I know who she is but I'm not even sure where she is from--probably Mexican?), Alicia Villareal (d/k), Wisin y Yanda!! (that's YANDEL--Puerto Rican reggaeton, now doing bad house music with increasing frequency), Xtreme (pop reggaeton very much in the Aventura vein), Yuridia (up and coming Mexican pop singer).

I'd be willing to bet at least half my "don't knows" are Mexican acts.

I don't think most fans, as opposed to professional epxerts, could identify the whole gamut. "Latin music" includes disctinct musical worlds. (I'm not suggesting anybody involved here doesn't know that.)

now doing bad house music with increasing frequency

otm

Have you guys seen Nina's blog [url]http://lamusicalatina.wordpress.com/[url] She posted a response to Christgau also

[i]Hip Hop Dominicano is Dead?
January 18, 2009 by La Evangelista de la Salsa

Well, that figures. First salsa then reggaeton (though I like to pretend it isn’t) and now THIS? Whats left? Im almost afraid to go trolling for music lest I run across an obituary out there.[i] She linked to another blog that said hiphop Dominicano is dead

Nina wrote: Ivy Queen is the most successful reggaeton artist, she hails from Puerto Rico and is known

for her very long fingernails and her rough almost masculine voice.

I presume this should have said "most successful female reggaeton artist"?

Yep

Christgau could find some of those artists on allmusic.com and use youtube and imeem and stuff too (the Latin Grammys show on tv). Also, at the same time that he points out that he, the Dean, has never heard of these big-selling artists, he mentions how he couldn't be bothered to review a Juanes cd for Rolling Stone. I don't get it, Christgau writes up "dud" albums for his consumer guide every week and has written up many an artist like Juanes who speak in English (slick radio-friendly slightly hip rock). I recall reading a Los Tigres review in the NY Times so Pareles and Caramanica there realize to a degree that Latin music of all stripes needs to be covered. I guess Christgau did acknowledge knowing of Los Tigres.

I shouldn't have said "heard of" I should have said he wasn't very familiar with.

And yes he does the Consumer guide every month not every week.

Ha. Not too many folks have weighed in on the najp.org Christgau posting. He's already moved on to praising SFJ for a Beyonce article.

he mentions how he couldn't be bothered to review a Juanes cd for Rolling Stone. I don't get it

Maybe he was just didn't feel he was qualified to offer up a review of Juanes, whose music is way out of Bob's usual scope? I dunno -- and I know this will seem an odd thing to say about Christgau -- but it actually strikes me as a fairly humble decision.

victor manuelle + gsr were on despierta america this morning... love how utterly awkward manuelle is when not singing

Actually seeing Victor Manuelle (in video form anyway) didn't do anything to increase my enthusiasm for him. But inspired by the recent discussion, I listened to the old VM Oro Salsero (and older edition than what's available now though?) collection this morning, which has most of my favorite VM songs on it. Quite a few of these songs remind me of particularly times and people. These songs were all over when I started venturing into salsa dancing in the late 90s. Despite the flaws (such as arrangements that often seem to work at cross purposes), I think these are pretty good songs, and his performances here somehow do sound a lot stronger than most of what's come from him 1999 on. By Inconfundible the melodramatic schtick just gets too heavy, the formula too rigid. (I still hang on to that CD, mostly because of personal associations I have with the songs.) An example of his early songs (no endoresement of the video!):

Re: Christgau's Juanes comment, I too got the sense that it wasn't so much that he couldn't be bothered with it, but that he thought it would be appropriate to give it to a reviewer who might be more sympathetic to what Juanes was doing.

(I think I'm going to change this display name soon. Making "political statements" with my display name already seems like a really bad idea.)

Oh look it has a rating. I didn't know that was going to pop up.

I like this one a lot too (despite--I think it really is despite--some of the synth or keyboard sounds):

Maybe it's not real salsa to a lot of people, but I think it's good popular music.

And as long as we're talking about old chart topping Latin music, this Aventura song was huge (and remains one of my favorites):

(Monchy & Alexandra and Aventura were pretty much my introductions to bachata, which was only getting picked up as part of tropical music in general, rather than a more specifically Dominican thing, in the late 90s. Of course, to many bachata purists, this stuff is an abomination.)

Adjudging me a world kind of guy, Rolling Stone once assigned me a Juanes album; I liked it so little the project was abandoned by mutual agreement Christgau's words

He clearly listened to a Juanes cd and did not like it, the rest is subject to interpretation. I'm not even clear why he threw that into the posting. Did he want people to point out Juanes-style music so he could ignore it?

He wanted to give an example of how certain kinds of Latin romantic ballad pop might well be out of his ballpark (pretty much what he'd said two sentences earlier), and that in fact he's not expecting to love a lot of the acts listed below? (I think he also confesses in the intro of one of his books that he doesn't really get much salsa, either. Ditto much metal, actually. What's wrong with admitting that?)

Here's my additions to the R_S list:

Pepe Aguilar (major figure in mariachi, though I don't like his voice)
Akwid* (Mexican-American twin rappers)
Alacranes Musicales!! (pop norteño; I don't like 'em)
Alegres de la Sierra (don't know--sounds Mexican)
Alexis and Fido (poppy reggatoneros)
Ricardo Arjona (a balladeer, I think)
Aventura!! (pop bachata - hate these guys)
Hector Bambino (Puerto Rican reggaeton)
Ana Barbara (big florid ballads)
Bebe (Spanish alt-rock pissed off chick w/touches of flamenco)
Graciela Beltran (ranchero/mariachi singer)
Bety y Sus Canaris (don't know)
Miguel Bose (Spanish pop singer, has also acted in an Almodovar movie or two)
Bronco (I think he's referring to a norteño band)
Cafe Tacuba* (rock en espanol)
Calle 13* (reggaeton/Latin alternative)
Cristian Castro (pop balladeer, I think)
Manu Chao* (Spanish or gypsy or something - hate him but liked the first Mano Negra album)
Chayanne!! (pop balladeer)
Conjunto Atardecer (d/k)
Conjunto Primavera!! (d/k)
Celia Cruz* (well, duh)
Daddy Yankee* (well, duh)
Dareyes dela Sierra (d/k)
Oscar de la Hoya (didn't know he put out an album?) (d/k)
Duelo (d/k)
Tito El Bambino (Puerto Rican reggaeton)
El Patro de Sinoloa (d/k but can presume norteño)
Valentin Elizalde (norteño)
Vicente Fernandez!! (the motherfucking KING/GODHEAD of norteno)
Luis Fonsi (pop balladeer)
Ana Gabriel* (Mexican - sometimes mariachi, sometimes goopy ballads)
Kany Garcia (Mexican singer-songwriter, alt-pop division)
Grupo Innovacion (d/k)
Jean Luis Guerra* (boring poetic bachata/Christian Latin music)
Enrique Iglesias* (boring bilingual pop)
India* (80s club queen gone salsa)
Inquietos de Norte (d/k)
Ivy Queen (la reina del reggaeton, Puerto Rican)
Juanes (hate this guy)
K-Paz de la Sierra (Mexican, poppy banda mixed other stuff?)
La 5A Estaction (alt-rock from Mexico or maybe Spain)
La Arrolladora Banda El Lima (d/k)
La Factoria (pop reggaeton w/two female vocalists)
Hector Lavoe (well, duh)
Los Creadorez (norteño - saw a video by these guys the other day)
Los Cuates de Sinaloa (d/k--I assume these bands with Mexican place names in their names are Mexican)
Los Enanitos Verdes (alt-rock, kinda fun in a Dead Milkmen/Blink 182 way)
Los Originales de San Juan (d/k)
Los Pikadientes de Caborca (d/k)
Los Primos de Durango (norteño)
Los Rieleros del Norte (d/k)
Los Super Reyes (some weird mix of cumbia and clubtronica)
Los Temerarios (norteño/Tejano)
Los Tigres del Norte (norteño - I have 38 albums by these guys in my iPod)
Los Tucanes de Tijuana (more norteño - I own two 2-disc best ofs)
Eddy Lover (reggaeton)
Mana (the Nickelback of rock en español)
Victor Manuelle (salsa, often considered "salsa monga" (or soft or literally "retarded" salsa) but considered a legit. sonero by some--also does some Latin pop, Puerto Rican)
Ricky Martin (bilingual pop)
Mercyme (d/k)
Luis Miguel!! (Mexican pop balladeer)
Montez de Durango (d/k)
Tito Nieves (primarily salsa, but has charted with Latin house and recorded in some other genres, Puerto Rican)
Don Omar (Puerto Rican reggaeton)
Yolanda Perez (Mexican pop banda - never heard her)
Pesado (d/k)
Rakim y Keny (reggaeton--like any name that looks kind of like that)
RBD (Latin pop? or just very watery rock en espanol?)
Reik (Mexican alt-rock, ballad division)
Diana Reyes (d/k)
Jenni Rivera (sort of a Tejano Mary J. Blige)
Lupilla Rivera (I know the name but can't remember the sound)
Paulina Rubio (Mexican pop - totally insane and awesome)
Adan Salina Sanchez (d/k)
Gilberto Santa Rosa (salsa, often on the salsa romantica/salsa monga side of things, but clearly a strong talent in more traditional styles of the music, Puerto Rican, frequently collaborates with Victor Manuelle on various recording projects)
Alejandro Sanz* (Spanish pop balladeer)
Joan Sebastian (d/k)
Marco Antonio Solis!! (Mexican pop of some sort, not too bad)
Olga Tanon (merengue, though I believe she is from Puerto Rico)
Tierra Cali (d/k)
Gloria Trevi (Mexican pop, super sexy in her heyday but now post-prison not lookin' so hot)
Tropical Fantasia (d/k)
Sergio Vega (d/k)
Julieta Venegas (Mexican alt-rock)
Alicia Villareal (Mexican balladeer)
Wisin y Yandel!! (Puerto Rican reggaeton, now doing bad house music with increasing frequency)
Xtreme (pop reggaeton very much in the Aventura vein)
Yuridia (up and coming Mexican pop singer).

do not care, love aventura + xtreme

and agree with the general sentiment of manuelle, i can only take it in small doses at this point

i don't know where this original list is coming from but have n'klabe and ng2 already been hit?

also, can't have a list with reggaeton artists without mentioning dj blass, nelson, or joe

fauxmarc, Christgau made the original list from big-selling artists that he was not that familar with, and he posted the list on a website linked to above.

Chuck, not to be overly nitpicky and run this into the ground, but yea, I'm fine with Bob Christgau saying he's not into latin ballads here (and whatever in his book), but your or his attempt to lump his sentence(s) about that with his dislike of Juanes does not follow for me, as Juanes is not just a schmaltzy balladeer. He may not rock like many a rock en espanol or English act, but some of his material is way more upbeat (if still slickly produced) and to me, is very comparable to lots of new wave or contemporay pop-rock that Christgau has reviewed over the years (but just not in English).

faumarc and unperson:

I gave Aventura a mixed but largely favorable live review for the Washington Post once. I did not expect to like 'em as much as I did, although I can see how their polished pop-bachata and heartthrob schtick might rub some the wrong way.

On a different subject, I apparently made it to Circuit City's going out of business sale a week too late. Stuff is now 30 % off--only Fania reissue I could find left was Willie Colon and Ruben Blades 1983 The Last Fight that I found later described as follows online:

A movie soundtrack. This sounds like it was cut in a weekend: the two new Blades compositions are tossoffs, and the rest is rearrangements of standards. By this point Blades was seeking to complete his Fania contract as rapidly as possible. But Colón's band is so good even the most mediocre material holds your interest, and Blades' "What Happened" is amusing. (DBW

I'm actually kind of amazed that Christgau doesn't like Juanes, as it seems like Juanes would punch all his white-liberal-guilt buttons: semi-rockin' dude singing about troubles in a foreign land, charity work, pseudo-poetic lyrics, blah blah blah. I fucking hate the guy, but I figured Christgau would love him.

Re Aventura, it's not just the heartthrob schtick that bugs me, it's the guitar sound of pop bachata - I hate it; it's like smooth jazz guitar coupled to cheesy love lyrics. I can see how it would go over well in an arena full of sexy, screaming Latin ladeez.

xp Well, Curmudgeon. all I can say is that Xgau apparently hears Juanes (at least the one Juanes album he checked out )with different ears than you do (not that strange -- he's definitely heard schmaltz in some music that I don't, or where I at least don't mind the schmaltz, over the years, and vice versa.) Either that, or I just made an incorrect assumption in connecting his not-liking-Latin-ballads sentence to his not-liking-Juanes sentence. (Interestingly, "new wave or contemporay pop-rock" is how I would describe what little music I've heard by Mana, who unperson likened above to Nickelback; they reminded me a lot more of the Police, actually, and I thought they sounded okay. Though admittedly that was their earliest music, and I haven't really kept up on their more recent stuff. Also, I should add that what little music I've heard by Juanes -- who I've probably invested even less time in than Xgau has -- actually hit me as more schmaltzy than pop-rocky, which may be part of why I Rorschached Xgau's blurb that way. Out of curiousity, Curmudgeon, what new wavers and pop-rockers who Xgau likes does Juanes remind you of?) (And oh yeah, I don't hate Nickelback so much.)

semi-rockin' dude singing about troubles in a foreign land, charity work, pseudo-poetic lyrics

Well, Xgau doesn't speak Spanish, for one thing.

And he's also way less a sucker for do-gooders and psuedo-poets than you seem to think (in fact, he's been criticizing both types for four decades or so.)

(Which isn't to say that he might not fall for more of them than you or I do -- excepting the fact that heavy metal is one of the most pseudo-poetic genres in human history, that is. But he's actually pretty skeptical about that kinda stuff, believe it or not.)

Some evidence (in reference to an artist that I'm guessing might be fairly comparable to Juanes):

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=sting

>But he's actually pretty skeptical about that kinda stuff, believe it or not.

He's a lot more susceptible when the artist in question isn't white, is my impression.

Re Aventura, it's not just the heartthrob schtick that bugs me, it's the guitar sound of pop bachata

i can see that, it'd definitely turn me off in most any other genre but coming from just a dancing perspective, bachata rhythms at the core are so simple/understated it's actually a nice addition considering not much is there in the first place.

ahhh i just read the above post about hip-hop domincano is dead... lol, sheesh. i guess they're not all that big (although they've got xemo and villano sam on it so they must be making some waves), and if one wants to squabble about the lines between rap and hip-hop then fine it won't apply but all i have to say in regard to this is: THE EVILTWINZ. if applicable, that recent mixtape they did "we here now" blows this sentiment out of the water.

Christgau made the original list from big-selling artists that he was not that familar with

okay, yeah salsa artists n'klabe and ng2 definitely need to be brought up here - the only reason i've even know about them is because they're up for univision's tropical album of the year award in march. yeah, award shows are always suspect but i tend to give any outlet that's not part of the english us mainstream machine benefit of the doubt, and tried them out - cannot put ng2's album in the running, "con todas las de ganar" down. i think n'klabe's album up for it, "la nueva escuela" is just ok, but then i went back and checked out their 2004 album "salsa contra viento y marea" which KILLS it.

also: reggaeton dude voltiooooooo. his track "ella menea" is actually just a remix off that ng2 album, both versions are on theirs.

NG2 is one of those Victor Manuelle/Gilberto Santa Rosa projects. VM/GSR produce them and they are pretty much a VM/GSR brain-child. VM has written for N'Klabe, as well. I'm not hugely thrilled with either band, and they certainly take a lot of abuse (especially N'Klabe). The first NG2 album was pretty experimental (that might be the 2004 one you mention) in its way, pulling in a lot of stuff from Cuban timba. (My favorite track from that is a salsaton type number.) And I liked "I Love Salsa" probably more than the next guy, but I can't take N'Klabe too seriously.

Incidentally (I hope she doesn't mind me saying this), Nina hasn't reappeared on this thread due to ILX account problems.

huh?

Descarga is now pushing new Orestes Vilató album, his first as leader. Looks good to me.

huh?

I don't know what happned but it sounds like she tried to change her password and didn't get the new one but doesn't remember the old one. Etc. Maybe she'd have to change her e-mail address to re-register, and I doubt she can be bothered.

Another Buena Vista member has passed on--bassist Orlando Cachaito Lopez. R.I.P. (Ned Sublette linked to this Miami Herald article in his e-mail service)

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/02/10/index.php?section=espectaculos&article=a09n1esp

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/v-print/story/896245.html

Posted on Mon, Feb. 09, 2009
Buena Vista Social Club bassist Lopez dead at 76
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, considered the "heartbeat" of Cuba's
legendary Buena Vista Social Club for his internationally acclaimed bass
playing, died Monday of complications from prostate surgery, fellow
musicians said. He was 76.
Lopez, a founding member of the band brought together in the
1990s by American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder, died in a Havana
hospital several days after surgery, said Manuel Galban, a Cuban musician
who played with Lopez for decades.

"We have lost a great companion," said Galban.

Born in Havana in 1933, Lopez became an international sensation
as part of the Buena Vista Social Club - a group of elderly, sometimes
retired, musicians who were living quietly in Cuba before Cooder brought
them together and they became worldwide sensations.

"I will remember him as marvelous, both in his music and as a
person," Galban, a guitarist, said by telephone. "He was extraordinary,
affable, a great bassist."

Lopez died less than a week after turned 76.

"I called him last week because it was his birthday and his
voice didn't sound too good," said musician Amadito Valdes, who added that
Lopez had undergone prostate surgery several days ago. "He was a person who
was always sharing with everyone around him, very noble."

Lopez was held by many to be Buena Vista's heartbeat and had
played to international audiences as part of its touring company.

The group, which plays a mix of traditional Cuban rhythms, has
lost many of its key members of late. Singer Compay Segundo - who was born
Maximo Francisco Repilado Munoz - pianist Ruben Gonzalez, and vocalists
Ibrahim Ferrer and Pio Leyva have all died in recent years.

But Lopez was also a star in his own right, independent of Buena
Vista. His groundbreaking debut album Cachaito won a BBC Radio 3 Award for
World Music in 2002.

Lopez hailed from a family of at least 30 bass players,
including his uncle, legendary bassist Israel "Cachao" Lopez. His nickname
translates to "Little Cachao." His father Orestes played piano and cello in
addition to the bass and was also a composer.

Lopez originally played the violin, but as he said publicly many
times, eventually switched to the bass after his grandfather urged him to
take up the family craft.

He was a pioneer of Cuban mambo, and by 17 was part of a noted
big band group known as Riverside. He later joined Cuba's national symphony.
He also played with a band called "Los Zafiros."

Lopez was at home playing classic as well as popular music but
also dabbled in late night jazz and jazz fusion.

However, he only gained international notoriety when Cooder
brought him together with such standouts as Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer,
Ruben Gonzalez and Omara Portuondo to form Buena Vista.

Later, Wim Wenders released a documentary titled Buena Vista
Social Club, in which he profiled the musicians whose talents had all but
been forgotten.

Family members planned to cremate the body but there was no
immediate word on funeral services.

Ah, he was Cachao's nephew.

And "Macho"'s son. Only outlived his uncle by a year. Didn't know that he had played with Los Zafiros. RIP.

Now there are a couple more good responses (including a very detailed rundown by Carlos Reyes) on that Xgau blog post, btw:

http://www.najp.org/articles/2009/02/anuncios-de-servicio-publico.html#comments

Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta II at Lincoln Center. Man, I wish I had gone to see this.

Carlos Reyes' expanded list/description is gonna send me to the record store - not a good thing, since I'm newly unemployed.

I wouldn't trust that blog guy's rankings (on the Christgau site).

(Well for stuff I care about anyway, which is only maybe a third of it, if that. Also, why you would trust my rating of his ratings. . .)

He hates on Enrique Iglesias. I never really paid attention to him but this cool dude plays with him and says good things about him, so the guy can't be all bad.
(haha xpost)

He criticizes Victor Manuelle because Manuelle likes to improvise. That's an essential part of salsa's vocal aesthetic!

U right about that.

Looks like next time EP appears in NYC is at S.O.B.'s on April 16. Not billed as a La Perfecta II gig though.

Is it wrong of me to say Ivy Queen is a man, baby?

aka Sending Subscription She-males

Sorry.

I have issues with this site. I'll have to paste the password on the monitor.
Ignore Carlos Reyes, I mean he knows the sht he likes, but he doesnt get reggaeton much. His aesthetic is totally different so his take on what is good in afro-latin music is pretty much the opposite of what most fans' would be.
And not to play a certain card, but he likes the whiter less urban stuff and dislikes the gritty shit.
Now Im not saying you should like Hector el Father. But if you like Calle 13 and think Ivy Queen and Hector El Father are so so and love Alexis and Fido, you are probably not judging the music from a fans perspective. Which is ok.
But state it as opinion. Like it or not, Hector and IQ are pretty representative of the "standards" of the genre.

La India? Her voice SUCKS. Sucks. Reeks.
And saying a salsero improvises too much, thats like saying hiphop has too much rapping in it.

That last part sounds like he was making a joke that backfired.

state it as opinion

He did.

Otherwise, I am thoroughly enjoying this debate (partly because I have no coherent opinion myself.)

I think there was a point when there was some kind of big push for La India as "the next Celia Cruz" and she made an album with Tito Puente and Hilton Ruiz and people like that, but seems like the grassroots support wasn't really there.

xp (Well, no coherent opinion except that he didn't give Yolanda Perez and Jenni Rivera enough stars.)

One of the problems I see here is that Latin/Spanish language music has a bunch of different stuff going on and lots of people who like one thing don't necessary like another. Just to ask "explain what all this is" is casting too wide a net. Maybe Bob X should just start small with a Trio Los Panchos record and work his way up from there. He wrote a blurb about the Ned Sublette Cuba book saying how "Even in Spanish, there is nothing nearly so thorough" (!!) and I think he gave those Cachao comebacks As so presumably he knows something about about that side of things- maybe it's Latin/Spanish pop he is trying to get a handle on.

Yea, I agree about the wide net. Carlos Reyes is more into Latin electro-dance and alt-rock it seems although he likes some reggaeton (but naturally it's the more alt sounding stuff). It appears that some of his blog readers are disappointed that he likes any reggaeton.

It will be interesting to see where Christgau goes from here on this. I was thinking about how Sasha Frere-Jones wrote up a reggaeton show at Madison Square Garden for the New Yorker a long while back, and has not touched Latin music of any kind since. But that was when reggaeton was having its big crossover moment on r'n'b and rap radio, and that's more SFJ's area of interest I guess. Christgau has seemed to show more interest in some ways over a longer period.

I wish my basic cable package (from Comcast) included a Latin music video channel

I dont like some forms of music, but I try to be objective. On the Reggaetonica blog someone was criticizing the rap skills of reggaeton artists, comparing them to those of the best hiphop rappers. I think its unfair to judge any genre as if it were another.
Just like those dog shows- if you cant objectively evaluate the individual members of a breed based on that breeds standards, instead comparing them all to your favorite, get out of the ring and let someone else do it. And be honest and state that you arent objective.
Since my dogs are both underfoot, I'll stick with the dog analogy. I think too many people, as far as reggaeton, get caught up in trying to evaluate it as if it were hiphop. Thats like me complaining everytime I see a Rottweiler that its too heavy, to large, to blocky and doesnt have a pointy muzzle like a Doberman. Hey, they look similar, they share common ancestors. They are not the same thing. The best Rott doesn't look like the best Dobie. If you are unable to put aside your preferences pr simply aren't aware that there are different standards, get out of the way and be quiet unless you can be clear that you arent qualified to judge merely to opine.

in regard to sunez' comments brought up on reggaetonica back when, it wasn't really even an issue of trying to compare disparate genres - the issue was just that he tried calling tego calderon out as an average mc, which just isn't the case, in hip-hop or otherwise.

May go to Cucu Diamantes with Bio Ritmo tonight...

With Sunez comparing the skills of Tego to Rakim I think he was comparing disparate genres. Would one compare Billie Holiday's mic skills with those of Marian Anderson?
If one expects Billie to sing like Marian or vice versa, sure one may be considered merely "average".
Though most reggaeton fans like hip-hop, that doesn't mean they want and like the same sounds in both. What works in hiphop doesnt always(usually) work in reggaeton. So what may sound to a hiphop fan like weak flow, may be exactly what a reggaeton fan likes.
Sort of like someone saying Lavoe is a bad singer, he's so nasal. Well, DUH...

I have issues with this site.

We all do.

Nina, as a side issue, I actually think Hector el Father's work under his own name tends to be weak, but as we've discussed, I agree that he is good as an MC (or whatever I am supposed to call reggaeton vocalists). I think if you were to collect all the cases when he's made an appearance on other people's tracks, that would be an impressive collection, more impressive then his solo "albums." (I can't entirely blame someone for dismissing him on the basis of Los Rompe Discotekas--that was the one with Jay-Z on it for those who aren't familiar by title.)

I very much prefer Tito to Hector, who just kinda washes over me.

I can't even remember what Tito El Bambino sounds like (not to put him down, because I think I like him some of the time, though I wouldn't know it from my complete lack of any memory of his sound).

I think Hector's solo stuff is so weak because it came when they were trying to do that hiphop crossover stuff.
I suppose since I am not an album listener, but a track listener, my view of his body of work is different. I think of all the cameos and guest spots, not just his cds.

Tito was a good counterpoint to Hector when they were together, alone his voice has little heft. Plus, now that he croons its gotten really soft.

Hector & Tito

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Tito-
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<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8YjlwwM7dt8&hl=en&fs=1";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8YjlwwM7dt8&hl=en&fs=1"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

dammit
how the heck do i DO that????

This thing is already formatted to embed youtube videos. You just need to copy the url.

From Puerto Rico

JOWELL & RANDY

LOS MAS SUELTOS DEL REGGAETON

PERFORMING LIVE!

THURSDAY MARCH 5TH

@

IBIZA NIGHT CLUB

Thursday's a busy Dad night for me, so no live reggaeton.

yeah, just caught rolo's email. not really into jowell and randy but may check it out anyway.

I've never been to Ibiza. I've seen reggaeton at H20, the Patriot Center, and El Boqueron II.

Rumbera, I kinda love Tito's lightweight-going-hard-like-the-big-boys thing. When he does that, at least. His croonier stuff does dissolve into mush, I give you that.

Thanks. Man all these forums,platforms etc handle youtube differently and I just cant remember how to format the links.

Ok, lets try this again.

Hector and Tito when they were trying to be hard. Gata Celosa

From La Reconquista aka the yelling album. For those who dont speak spanish, this is a song seducing a woman. I realized a lot of people arent aware of the proper emotional tone of the songs becasue they hear the music and vocals but dont know the lyrics. Well, its a song to a hot chick and then segues into a song about heartbreak.

Hector pops in for a few with Trebol Clan

IMO Hector's verse on this one is the best of the song Noche de Entierro @ 1:06
"maria lola vete soy perrito viente cuartro siete"

and he does a good job on what I see as the predecessor to NDE, Mayor Que Yo

He comes in at about 3:04

Noche de Travesura, yet another kickass bachaton

Hector on Vamos Pa La Calle

Classic Hector & Tito

Tito belting out my favorite reggaeton power ballad, Te Encontrare. Very heavily modified vocals tho.That section from 1:02 to 1:14, specifically 1:12 is what makes the song.

Tito and Olga Tanon- He totally needs a deeper voice to offset his, even if its a woman's voice.
In keeping with her being older and having the deeper voice, I love how he assumes the submissive position when he approaches her to dance, even slapping his own ass!! I havent heard this sort of merengue in years, I've missed it.

OOps, Mayor Que Yo with Hector's verse.

thanks! will get on project hector at some point

Joe Cuba R.I.P. (Father of Boogaloo/Bang! Bang! Push! Push!)

RIP Joe Cuba thread

NY Times Article about Fania songwriter Tite and how 5 years after his death a compilation of his songs is out and doing well

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/arts/music/18tite.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

He never did give up that day job, laboring in the Postal Service in Puerto Rico for more than 30 years, mainly as a clerk. But in the recording studio the biggest names in salsa, from Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe to Celia Cruz and La Lupe, all deferred to Catalino Curet Alonso, the man — known to all as Tite (pronounced “TEE-tay”) — who seemed to be able to write hits for them at will.

That was a great article. I was going to link to it with the xhuxk-like title I Have Never Heard Of This Latino Tunesmith Named Tite Until Today Even Though He Wrote Two Of My Favorite Songs: "Anacoana" and "Puro Teatro."

Yea that would be clever, and the 6 people (if it's that many) who post on this thread might chime in. Oh well.

I did start a thread (consisting mostly of my own posts) when he died:

Tite Curet Alonso--RIP

That new New York Times article is quite good, you're right. Packs a lot in there.

(It's a little sad this thread is dominated by discussion of past greats like Joe Cuba and Tite Curet, or past pretty-good songs from ten years ago, just in the sense that I wish there were more currently that I could get excited about.

im with ya RS, would be nice if salsa hadnt died
fortunately i like new bachata and there is some kick ass mambo merengue being made in the D.R.

Well feel free to post some links to videos and such, if there are any available. (Linking to downloads is pretty much still discouraged here, I think.) Or at least name some names. I don't remember seeing you talking about much recent bachata or merengue on your blog, so I'm wondering what you have in mind.

Also, what the hell is "mambo merengue"?

I'm still not as definite as you are about the whole "salsa is dead" thing. I understand what you mean by it, and I mostly agree, but not entirely. Or maybe I just don't agree that saying salsa is dead is the best way to express it. After all, you liked Back to da Barrio and that came out after you had declared salsa dead. Granted, I would have to agree that that was an exception. But 2006 was not a bad year for salsa, with some of the stuff from Salsaton and also the Guayacan Orquesta album (though I don't think you liked that as much as I did) and Arroz con Habichuela. I know, I know, you make an except for El Gran Combo and ask who is going to replace them--and the correct answer probably is: nobody. But I don't think you can conclusively write the genre off as dead. Merengue is older than salsa and somehow it's still going. Somehow merengue has been able to reinvent itself repeatedly in a way that's kept it alive on a street level, I guess.

And if you aren't going to post this link, I will.

Here's an extensive list of Tite Curet Alonso's songwriting credits:

http://www.herencialatina.com/Cachao/Canciones_Tite/Cancionero_Tite.htm

Wow. I only made it to the Bs. Is that the same "Brujeria" that's the title track of the Mark Dimond album?

I'm not sure.

Not a good sign for salsa in DC (although the club in question is not ideal and music starts so late there)

After 9 years and 9 months no more Thursday salsa nights at Zanzibar:

My dearest friends,

I received word Friday that Zanzibar management is canceling Thursday Salsa Nights. It has been a losing proposition and they were left with no other choice than to stop the loss. I will hold special events there from time to time and inform all well in advance.

I will be very happy if you will join me for the last hurrah this Thursday night at Zanzibar. DJ’s Bruno & Carlos “El Cacique” will close out the great era. Please spread the word since there are only a few days to inform as many as possible. You can help me in expressing appreciation to all the fabulous DJs and dance performers that have entertained us and brought us joy. ...-Eileen Torres

i'd never made it out (rarely get down to sw or se these days), but was under the impression it was one of the best nights out for dancing in the city proper... I'd like to see the night's at Station 9 (the old Cada Vez) on U street pick up but Wednesdays are awkward.

I'm guessing that the hardcore salsa crowd they were attracting is getting older and less interested in going out late on a Thursday night than a younger crowd who may enjoy Thursday nights out. Just a few years ago H20 managed to get old and young out on Friday nights for salsa, maybe at Cecilia's out in Arlington that's still do-able.

Merengue, IMO, never got "listenable". Merengue has pretty much one mood- FIESTA!!!! So I think that has helped it keep its edge or relevance to the dancers. Same with bachata, its still street and low class and ghetto.
The epitome of what made salsa die(IMO) is that Tito Nieves Fabricando whatevers song.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT???
Salsa got all Kenny G.

Merengue MAMBO??

http://www.dr1.com/forums/general-stuff/71021-merengue-de-calle-mambo.html
http://www.listindiario.com/app/article.aspx?id=43647

Let me see if I can post a link here, me and this board dont always get along well.....

I always hesitate to post some stuff as I realize many people like street music but not the culture or people that spawn it.
I wont lie, I have some class issues myself, but I enjoy merengue and salsa and perreo. And I dont like the music but gasp in horror at the dancing. I do kinda sorta get irritated with people, perhaps white-ish people, who like the music but then see something like the above video and get all uptight and stuff and complain about the vulgarity of it.
Or u know, they talk shit about the way people dance and dress.

I kinda take it personally.

Its like, dont listen to STREET music if STREET bothers you. Paul Robeson this aint.

Anyway...
Nothing nasty here.....

I never can resist this song-

When this song came out everyone was like OMG-you'd have to understand the lyrics. He says he is pure dominican and lists some (stereo)typical traits- riding a bike all over town talking with hands etc

I love this song

Tulile

Guilty Pleasure

Someone mentioned salsa in the comments of the above video and it reminded me- wtf does salsa have to do with this?? Why the hell does everyone compare merengue to salsa and criticize it based on it not being salsa? Kinda why I almost never say Im a "latin music" fan, I say I like "salsa, merengue, bachata, reggaeton".

Imagine someone looking for good "white music" and getting miffed when they go to a club that plays Shania Twain because they wanted to hear The Beatles.Or crying about their crappy gospel cd because they like 50 cent, and figured they'd try some more of that "black music".

Im cranky and will come up with a nice big fat essay later, for now enjoy the merengue and it aint supposed to sound like salsa or bachata or reggaeton or cumbia or whatever. So you know....

Maybe I will take the plunge and listen to some merengue on Dominican Independence Day on Friday.

white-ish people etc.

Get your hate speech off my thread!

I don't think too many people who post to this board are all bent of shape by vulgar things. I'm probably more bent out of shape by some of it than most, it depends. And I'm just not street, and that's the way it is.

Dominican Indpendence day is this Friday? Hmmm, maybe there will be some free music I can go hear this weekend. I subscribe to a Yahoo ABQ (or New Mexico?) salsa/merengue list but it's dead.

And this first track you posted sounds pretty good to me. I am not watching the video so far. I feel slelf-conscious sometimes sitting in the library watching videos where anyone can look over my shoulder. Instead I am very non-vulgarly checking out the body of the woman across from me, in red.

And seriously, please do promote the newer Dominican music you like, whether on this thread or on your blog. It's certainly not too easy to find out about in English language print or blogs or whatever. (I guess maybe I could make the effort to search out discussion forums dealing with it.)

(I almost posted that to the Leucocyte thread.)

I find that getting all analytical about what I consider acceptable or comfortable or whatever just makes it more difficult for me to immerse myself in dance in a way that is enjoyable (and comfortable) to me.

Have you all seen this letter to Obama pleading for a lifting of the cultural blockade on Cuba:

http://www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter2009

(Note: this is really just meant for artists and cultural something or others, but not activists per se or men and women in the street.)

The organization behind it is based in New Mexico: http://www.cubaresearch.info/whoweare

nice

Nina, I like most of this stuff you linked to, so far. I'm not sure why you were being so pre-emptively defensive about it (of course, you might not have had me in mind in particular to begin with).

Nina, where might I find your blog?

I especially like that second Tulile song.

x-post: Nina's blog:

http://lamusicalatina.wordpress.com/

RS- I was just generally cranky and should have shut up and just posted. But I was reading the news and comments on other sites and stuff and found it irritating. Just some free floating ire.

why cant i find that damned quiscalle cd on youtube for you guys

I can never remember what I've posted where, sorry if I repeat myself.
This is from my Im Cranky and It Shows playlist->

i wish i didnt listen to this song ever

"pa ponerte, pa ponerte bien bellaca"

I like the 2nd part of this video best:

Ole School Perreo

Arcangel has turned into Prince

i love voltio, i want him to be my personal hypeman

also: plan b, trebol clan, and ñejo are the only ones out of that pool of artists that always end up on a regueton comp that i feel really have any merit and more often than not surprise me with some good beats. i try and give arcangel a chance especially as he seems to be particularly blowing up lately but i think there's only one song of his i've ever been really into.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101140904

Joe Cuba and Reggaeton and so forth

good article, i can't really think of any other npr music piece i've taken note of but it touches on all of those areas so briefly, it almost implies (unintentionally i'm sure) "and that's about it on that subject." but i suppose npr is by nature, sound bites.

I remember the author of that piece, Felix Contreras, from somewhere--either I read something else he wrote, heard him on public radio, or saw him speak at a Smithsonian event, or maybe all of the above.

Gipsy-Kings-a-tón: second track: http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23504.10?cSNdPitY;;415. (Yeah, I like the Gipsy Kings a little, but come on Cuba, you can do better than this.)

Some of this newest cluster of reggaeton songs posted I probably wouldn't like at all if I hadn't gotten so hooked into the basic rhythm.

3 De La Habana: definitely a contender for worst Cuban release of 2009. Maybe it's just some kind of very advanced Cuban camp I'm not getting.

Barretto's Indestrcutible con bonus tracks: http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23490.10?cSNdPitY;;510

I'm not a huge Barretto fan (don't bother asking why since I don't think I can explain though I suspect it has something to do with his particular way of using jazz elements in his music), but "Indestructible" itself is most likely my favorite song of his. I've heard some live versions I like even more than the original album version.

(Incidentally I'm suddenly hyperactive on ILM today (as though it were, say, mid-2003 again) because I'm planning on changing my routines a bit (a lot, hopefully) next week, and this is sort of a last indulgent hurrah.)

That's the album he did after his band quit and he did like James Brown and hired a bunch of new guys to show that he was the star and could do it with any band, no?

There is a Roberto Rodriguez, trumpet, listed on those credits, not to be confused with the bass player Bobby Rodriguez. This Roberto Rodriguez seems to be the father of a percussionist name Roberto Juan Rodriguez. Not to be confused with the piano player Robert Rodriguez who has played with Roy Haynes and Ignacio Berroa among others, whose dad was named Roberto Rodriguez. I guess it's a common name, but still.

I don't remember (if I ever knew) the details about Indestructible but somehow that sounds right. Or do you want the Bobby Jindal version? Well, I was in the studio with Ray and. . .

Imma listen to Tito Puente-Top Percussion tonight.Then Imma wonder how the F.U.C.K. certain people get paid to write for certain magazines and sites when they clearly know nada. Then Imma try to get Quiscalle uploaded for you guys.
FYI
Alternately, I listen to that Nely Dirty Beat all night and lounge on the sofa.

I was listening to "Indestructible" yesterday and all these words I could actually kind of understand were tumbling out, which surprised me.

Re: I was just generally cranky. . . It's okay, you know I like it when you stir things up. This thread generally needs some stirring.

Some Bachata

Remember, "urban bachata" is pretty much NYC, NJ bachata. So we arent looking at Santo Domingo style stuff, but stuff by kids whose parents listened to SD bachata and a lot of hiphop and r&b. I actually like it a lot. Plus it TOTALLY TOTALLY warms my cold little heart to see young black american men singing songs of LOVE and with tenderness. We have enough 50 Cents and gangstas. THIS is a side of afro/latino masculinity that needs to be seen.Young black URBAN men, in jeans and cornrows, with muscles and athletic shoes. Singing. about. love. and. heartbreak. Vulnerability, tenderness.

That second one has doumbeks in it. Needless to say, I am sucker for dumbeks. (I can't decide how I want to spell it.)

Por Un Segundo is the shit. I'm in love with it! Aventura tends to be rather adventurous.

When this one came out it was like WOW, love it.

I didn't think you liked Aventura that much, for some reason. Since you are going all soft bachata on me, I'm going to post this, which has been popping into my head lately. I had gone off it for a while, but I think I like it for good. (Don't tell Rockist Scientist I am putting hip-hop videos on his thread.) I love the nervous little synth. thing that squirms through this song, although it's certainly not anything obviously noteworthy.

MUCHOS TRATAN - BIG MATO FT. AMPERAJE & REYCHESTA

My favorite Aventura songs are still "Cuando Volveras" and "Obsesion" but that's probably because those are the ones I heard in a club setting. I do like others as well, including the one you just linked to (which I have to admit I'm not even sure if I've heard before or not).

that aint soft bachata!! i think its less soft than Monchy and Alexandra, but a lot of that has to do with the lyrical content of M&A which tends to be about LOVE, where Aventura and Toby Love etc still stick to bitterness and heartbreak

HAHA!!

i'll out ghetto you yet

x-post:

:( embedding disabled. . .

on those first two.

Oh, I'm sure you can outghetto me.

:) i have to work hard at it
:)

RS, you can doubleclick through those youtube links

Shades of Soul the latin edition
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/november-15-1972

that episode of thirteen makes my day, thanks

Some of the questions asked are kinda dumb, but the performance footage is awesome. Tito Puente with an afro, and a young Willie Colon. Wow.

RS, you can doubleclick through those youtube links

I should have know try that that, thnx.

Did I mention that Spanish Harlem Orchestra is full of shit?

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/02/21/entertainment/doc499e332c48588233110982.txt

RS how come some of your posts mysteriously appeared here today, I didnt see the ones from the 25th earlier. HEll, whatever. LOL

Did I mention that Spanish Harlem Orchestra is full of shit?

However, leave your dancing shoes at home. Oscar Hernandez, SHO's bandleader, insists that the audience should pay attention to the quality of the music being showcased live, instead of complaining because there is no space to dance at the performing arts center. After all, it's not a party.

"I respect that, but, unfortunately, the dance trivializes what we do from an artistic point of view," says the Puerto Rican pianist, arranger and producer, during a phone interview from Los Angeles. "People think it is one big party, and we are up there in a creative trip trying to present a musical artistic vision."

That's okay, their songs don't make me want to dance most of the time anyway.

I can't believe they actually said this! This more than vindicates every swipe I've taken at SHO ever.

Salsa bands: "We'd really rather be playing Latin jazz."
Latin jazz bands: "We'd really rather be playing hard-bop."
Hard-bop bands: "We'd really rather be playing free jazz."
Free jazz bands: "We'd really rather be playing free improv."
Free improv. bands: "We'd really rather be playing pop music."

Really those comments are beyond parody.

i wrote the same on my blog re SHO
AH, yes. Since NO ONE WANTS TO DANCE, say that YOU DONT WANT PEOPLE TO DANCE TO IT!!!

you forgot one
"Tego Calderon,"I'd rather be doing hiphop/salsa/bomba".

Maybe they'll do an album with Autechre.

the dance trivializes what we do

this is amazing

Wow

http://stevebroback.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/sprockets.jpg

The next Spanish Harlem Orchestra album title has leaked!

¡NO SOY LA RUMBA!

Featuring "Bailadores (Get Off My Lawn!)"

Hey New Yorkers (I'm in suburban DC): A message from author/musician Ned Sublette

Today-Saturday at 4

i will be speaking today (saturday) at 4 p.m. at columbia university, at an ethnomusicologists' conference called "sound in circulation." the title of my paper is "the movement of music through the afro-atlantic world in the prehistoric era before sound recording."

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cmsc/

the hard-working daphne carr, who put it together, sent these directions.

>Philosophy Hall is best got at by the 1 to 116th. Walk through the main
>gate, up the left stairs towards Alma Mater statue, walk right towards
>the east on the terrace. There's a Rodin statue in the courtyard where
>Philosophy Hall stands. There will be a number of yellow landscape
>sized posters on the door announcing the gig. Inside main floor left
>side. You're on at 4pm and Chris Washburne is going to intro you. We
>roll at 10am, breakfast is served. Bring a posse!

all right, posse, you heard the lady. . . .

Speaking of presentations, Seattle area resident Rev will have to brief us on the following at the EMP Pop Conference April 17th:

>> iReggaetón! Perreo and Beyond
Venue: JBL Theater
Reggaetón and especially perreo, the genre's doggystyle dance, has been accused of facilitating corruption. This discussion, keyed to a new book, links sympathetic and critical observers from the humanities and social sciences, visual artists and genre performers, and a perspective from Jamaica.
Moderated by: Alexandra Vazquez
Featuring:
Carolina Caycedo, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Wayne Marshall, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Raquel Rivera, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Alexandra Vazquez, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond

nice, i've been waiting for the book to be available already

http://www.dukeupress.edu/cgibin/forwardsql/search.cgi?template0=nomatch.htm&template2=books/book_detail_page.htm&user_id=3813148904&Bmain.item_option=1&Bmain.item=17490

Speaking of presentations, Seattle area resident Rev will have to brief us on the following at the EMP Pop Conference April 17th:

>> iReggaetón! Perreo and Beyond
Venue: JBL Theater
Reggaetón and especially perreo, the genre's doggystyle dance, has been accused of facilitating corruption. This discussion, keyed to a new book, links sympathetic and critical observers from the humanities and social sciences, visual artists and genre performers, and a perspective from Jamaica.
Moderated by: Alexandra Vazquez
Featuring:
Carolina Caycedo, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Wayne Marshall, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Raquel Rivera, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond"
Alexandra Vazquez, "¡Reggeatón! Perreo and Beyond

Suggest Ban Permalink
― curmudgeon, Saturday, March 7, 2009 6:08 PM Bookmark

oh btw, I have my hands on a copy of the book and am in the process reading it

of

Fauxmarc, did you go to Jowell y Randy? I know you said you weren't crazy about them, but I got the impression since the show was within the city limits you were thinking of checking it out anyway. I did not find any newspaper or blog writeups of the show online.

i did not, it's still a minute or two to get out to ibiza at the edge of northeast, and i'm lame about leaving downtown.

Arlington me was busy at home with parental duties. Speaking of Arlington, El Canario is gonna be at the Salsa Room, formerly Cecialia's, on March 21st. I have seen him a few times, opening for Celia Cruz once and I forget where the other time. I liked him live.

i actually move to nyc next week, and although i'm coming back and forth over the next month, the 21st i'm supposed to do the stuckonsalsa + clavekazi spring fever jam at clavekazi's studio on new york avenue (411 NE, same spot as "the warehouse"). no live music, but djs neo, renzo, bruno, lee el gringuito and the elite rumbero, and a rack of the dancing community, should be a good time.

Dj Bruno is very knowledgeable

Um, RIP Ralph Mercado.

Back when I was just starting to get into salsa, I think most of the CDs I bought were on the RMM label (Ralph Mercado Media), mostly since that's what dominated the selection at the HMV and Tower's I went to (and of course I really didn't know what else to look for or want at that time).

Did everybody hear this Afro-pop feature on bugalu?

http://www.afropop.org/radio/radio_program/ID/75/Bugalu

I caught it last night and it has some great snippets of interview with Joe Cuba. (Apparently parts of what became "Bang! Bang!" were lifted from what the audience itself started yelling when it was performed.) Also, Johnny Colon talks about a conspiracy to silence bugalu.

Here's an excerpt featuring the Joe Cuba segments:

http://odeo.com/episodes/24292355-Bugalu

Here's a new Fania reissue that was on my wish list. (I haven't actually heard the whole album.)

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/12483.10?yoY7EFWs;;393

This looks like a good collection of newish merengue, but I'm awaiting further input from la mulata rumbera:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23517.10?M3vaGRWb;;411

Not really into hearing "wiggle wiggle wiggle just a little bit" in English; I wonder what I'd think of a lot of this stuff if I understood Spanish.

That Larry Harlow reissue with Berrios and Faddis on it does look nice.

Howdy y'all

I will check out that merengue release and report when I get a little more time.
For now, aint nothin like sunshine, blue skies, warm days and SALSA. Salsa CLASICA!

Tito Nieves BEFORE he fell OFF!

God I love cowbells!!

Merengue in the news!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090325/ap_en_ot/crespo_plane_incident

"I don't recall doing that"

R.I.P. awesome timbalero Manny Oquendo

RIP

How come all these guys have issues (re: Crespo)? (Not so much all these Latin music guys, but all these celebrity guys.)

RIP Manny Oquendo.

think you will like this blog full of Kwaito house, Suicide meets Cumbia http://generationbass.com/

Anyone see Juan DeMarcos and his AfroCuban Allstars on their first US tour in years. The membership has changed somewhat

02/17/2009, Tacoma, WA, Broadway Center for the Performing Arts
02/18/2009, Olympia, WA, Washington Center for the Performing Arts
02/19/2009, Longview, WA Rose Theatre
02/20/2009, Eugene, OR, Hult Center for Performing Arts
02/22/2009, Arcata, CA, Arcata Theater
02/24/2009, Chico, CA, Cal State University/Chico
02/25/2009, Berkeley, CA, UC / Berkeley
02/26/2009, Berkeley, CA, UC / Berkeley
02/26/2009, Davis, CA, UC/Davis
02/27/2009, Cerritos, CA, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts
02/28/2009, Santa Barbara, CA, UC / Santa Barbara
03/02/2009, Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona
03/03/2009, Mesa, AZ, Mesa Center for the Performing Arts
03/06/2009, Austin, TX, Paramount Theatre
03/07/2009, Dallas, TX, Titas
03/10/2009, Iowa City, IA, West High School
03/13/2009, Madison, WI, Overture Center for the Arts
03/14/2009, Grand Rapids, MN, Myles Reif Performing Arts Center
03/15/2009, Minneapolis, MN, Orchestra Hall
03/18/2009, Urbana, IL, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
03/20/2009, University, IL, Governers State University - Center
03/21/2009, Toledo, OH, Valentine Theatre
03/22/2009, Cincinnati, OH, Aronoff Center / Procter & Gamble
03/24/2009, Oxford, OH, Miami University - Hall Auditorium
03/26/2009, Trenton, NJ, War Memorial Patriots Theatre
03/27/2009, Greenvale, NY, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
03/28/2009, New York, NY, Town Hall Theatre
03/29/2009, New Bedford, MA, Zeiterion Theatre
03/31/2009, North Bethesda, MD, The Music Center at Strathmore
04/01/2009, Charlottesville, VA, Paramount Theatre
04/02/2009, Hampton, VA, American Theatre
04/03/2009, Greensboro, N, Carolina Theatre
04/04/2009, Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse
04/07/2009, Ft. Pierce, FL, Sunrise Theatre
04/08/2009, Ft. Pierce, FL, Sunrise Theatre
04/08/2009, West Palm Beach, FL, Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Arts
04/09/2009, Tampa FL, Ferguson Hall
04/11/2009, Miami, FL, Knight Concert Hall

http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.bio/project_id/401.cfm

I saw the dvd of an AfroCuban Allstars tour from a couple years ago I think, decent if unsurprising Cuban big band sounds(horns, flute, tres, bass, piano, timbales, percussion, vocalists). I 'm gonna see 'em tomorrow night. The Rock paper scissors link above has all the musicians listed.

So the Washington Post has a cover story re how the White House and Congress, over opposition from Congressman Menendez(I think that's his name, Cuban-American Democrat guy who represents New Jersey) is going to loosen restrictions on visiting Cuba and sending money to people there. Menendez says that European countries and others never had the embargo/sanctions the US had and Cuba is just as dictatorial.

Saw Juan de Marcos' latest version of the Afro-Cuban Allstars tonight. 2 hour show in an 1,800 or so seat hall. Kinda uneven but still worth it--I liked when they stuck to classic Afro-Cuban dance music (or even almost timba sounding variations)but de marcos was eager to let everyone show off their Latin-jazz chops. So that meant solos by everyone--all three trumpeteers, the two trombonists, numerous piano solos, timbales, congas, bongo. The piano player,Nachito Herrerra, was good-alternately offering lively and cinematic, and melancholy tones plus classic Latin rhythmic fingerwork. The three vocalists who were onstage for various songs ranged in age--so the young one added some raps and got salsa romantica, the oldest one was the sonero, and the other one blended the best of older and younger. They also did Latin meets Motown group choreography with a few modern gyrations thrown in. The sound was good-so when all those horns were roaring together over the clave beat there were some awesome moments. De Marcos also talked a bit (he likes Obama, likes allowing Cuban-Americans sending money home, and he still hopes for freedom there). He also slow-danced and salsa'd with his wife whom he thanked for helping get Buena Vista musicians back in forth to the studio in the '90s. The Cubans and others in the audience who wanted to dance finally got a shot for the final 2 numbers.

5/29 La Historia Continua - Gilberto Santarosa & Victor Manuelle 9:00PM $41-$81 at George Mason Patriot Center

Can these guys pack a 5,000 seat DC area gym in 2009? I'm skeptical

i think it's possible, especially out in nova as opposed to dc proper. speaking of names coming to nova, toby love in annandale of all places.

Oh, the Star Lounge in Annandale! I picked up a flyer once for that place. The Star Lounge and a place in Springfield, VA and a place in Woodbridge, VA (senile me has forgotten the names) have been booking acts over the past few years. But unless you listen closely to radio ads on El Zol or find the postcards/flyers you will never hear about them. No ads in Spanish language area newspapers and they certainly aren't informing the W. Post or City Paper. I wonder if these gigs are on Facebook now (sometimes googling I find them on Myspace). Maybe I'll have to give in and get a Facebook site.

I think Love played Star Lounge Valentine's Day though. He didn't bring his urban bachata to Manhattan either- his NY area shows were at Jan. 31 - Ritz Theatre, Elizabeth, NJ; Feb. 6 - Passion Night Club, Hartford , CT
Feb. 13 - Angel Lounge, Brooklyn , NY

yeah, i tend to only find out through myspace bulletins

i get all sorts of party invites etc via facebook, its a pretty good source of latin music insider info if ur hooked into the grapevine

u think victor manuelle cant fill a 5000 seat place?

Alright, maybe I'm wrong.

So nobody else cares about De Marcos' AfroCuban Allstars? Too retro and not pop or street enough or Buena Vista backlash or all of those reasons I guess.

i just don't know of them, a woman in my class went out for her birthday though. having to sit around and not dance for most of this sounds painful.

also, any opinions on the spam allstars, "Miami’s hardest-working Latin-fusion band"? their album was recommended to me in miami last week by a woman working a record store after asking for some hard stuff. i'm pretty eh on it, they come off as very fusion / jam-bandish but according to their website http://www.spamallstars.com/ they seem to be getting around.

Yea, they sound like watered-down funk w/ a touch of 'electronica'

again with the va: voltio in falls church april 23rd

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/107/l_0b25dd974cf745cfb6e1a2b251cb18f4.jpg

That's where the audience and the promoters are, but you know that. Thursday's become the big night to do events of all styles it seems.

...is the current incarnation of grupo niche any good? just found out they're playing el morocco in harlem on april the 18th

http://www.clubplanet.com/Events/115111/El-Morocco-Concert-Series-presents-Grupo-Niche

Pretty good Josh Kun piece from today's NY Times on the success of Regional Mexican bands (and especially Los Pikadientes de Caborca, who I haven't heard) in selling music via cellphones:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/arts/music/05kun.html?ref=global-home

"Dr. Phil" started this thread that never quite took off--
OK, I'LL start it: Rolling Banda/Duranguense/Narcocorrido/Flashy Matching Suits Regional Mexican Thread 2009

x-post re Grupo Niche... Haven't seen 'em but I think the current version keeps touring alot so I'm guessing they're still good

So nobody else cares about De Marcos' AfroCuban Allstars? Too retro and not pop or street enough or Buena Vista backlash or all of those reasons I guess.

From what you said about them, it didn't sound like you cared about them yourself. They aren't just retro. Their Step Forward or Steps Forward album, or whatever it was called, dipped into timba, and so it was not only BVSC boring but annoying because of the timba elements.

...is the current incarnation of grupo niche any good?

I think they could be worth seeing. Mind you, the one and only time I saw them was a few years back. I'm not sure if the lineup has changed significantly since then.

I finally got to hear all of Grupo Fantasma's Sonidos Gold, and it's definitely one of my favorite albums from 2008. I think they handle cumbia best, but their extended salsa track "Rumba y Guaguanco" is good as well. Their sound is heavy on surf guitar, afropop/funk/ska horns, and sometimes dubby production. They're kind of derivative, but things end up sounding fresh enough. I definitely recommend checking it out. It's not primarily salsa, and it might appeal more than a straight salsa album to people who prefer, boogaloo to salsa (not that it's boogaloo, but in a way it's in a similar spirit). But their Afro-Latin percussion sounds pretty hot to me. (There is a cameo appearance by Larry Harlow, though it's nothing too noteworthy.)

http://www.myspace.com/fantasmatics

Whoops, I missed your post-All Stars-concert post, curmudgeon.

Henry Knowles from New York City, the most famous Salsa DJ in the world will be the special guest DJ Friday at Divino Lounge 7345 Wisconsin Ave. Bethesda, MD.

Should I go to this?

he holds a seeminly popular after-work mondays in new york i've been meaning to go to but haven't checked out yet, might be ok

More on Grupo Fantasma: one thing they do more than I realized until I sat down and listened more closely is to switch up from one rhythm to another (most often, well twice at least, cumbia to salsa). The fact that I hadn't really registered how much they do this reflects how organically its done. Build tension: jump to a different rhythm. They also blend genres, like afrobeat and samba (which blend pretty easily). I'll have more to say when I get some technical issues resolved. (Notes at home but I've got a virus on my old flashdrive and probably on my PC, etc. etc.)

And as curmudgeon pointed out previously, they are favorites of Prince, who had them playing at his place in Las Vegas for an ongoing gig.

Re: Group Niche (not sure why I didn't say this before), I'm wondering if Osvaldo Román is still with the band. Since he has this solo album (with Diego Gale), which doesn't sound too promising judging by these clips:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23510.10?sKFo6jRB;;446

probably not, everyone on the flyer looks really young

Another thing about Grupo Fantasma: although comparisons are frequently made to the Fania All Stars (probably because of the Larry Harlow connection), some of what they are doing seems to me to have way more in common with 70s Eddie Palmieri. The abrupt cut from the rumba intro. on Fantasma's "Rumba y Guaguanco" is kind of like things you will here on, say, Palmieri's Lucumi Macumba Voodoo. Also the reverb and effects and stuff seems more Palmieri-ish. At any rate, nothing here really reminds me of the Fania All Stars (though I admit there's a good chunk of their catalog I haven't heard).

More on Sonidos Gold:

01 – El Sabio Soy Yo. Funk intro. then moves into cumbia/reggae. “Surf guitar” or “detective movie music guitar” or whatever you want to call it.

02 – Levantate. (Cumbia/salsa) There’s a rich layering of sounds here, even some violin in the mix. Builds up mid-track and switch-up to son clave.

03 – Arroz Con Frijoles. (Samba/afrobeat into samba) 3:04 switches up to pure samba (or at least it sounds that way to me).

04 – Bacalao Con Pan. (Funk/salsa) I guess that’s funk guitar? Vocals go off kind of sonero-like. More of a clave feel comes in at about 2:00 minutes in, though it’s still got one foot in funk somehow.

05 – Rumba y Guaguanco. (Rumba/salsa) Is this really rumba per se or some sort of orisha song? I'm still not sure. Heavy reverb on the vocals. The clapping seems untraditional (too simple to be traditional Afro-Cuban rhythm?) but works nicely. Maybe salsa producers should take note on the successful dub-like production here as an alternative to certain purist notions of salsa dura production. This is really really hot by the middle. Some unhinged-in-a-good-way trombone. Quite a bit of trombone throughout the album actually.

06 – Rebotar. (Cumbia con clave) This melody reminds me faintly of the old (much-quoted in salsa and Latin jazz solos) bolero “Historia de Amor.” No idea if that’s intentional. Switch-up at 3:08, into something more clave-inflected. Long vintage (farfisa?) keyboard solo. & back to cumbia.

07 – Cumbia De Los Pajaritos. (Cumbia Instrumental) Solid cumbia beginning with lots of reverb-y guitar. Pretty dubby overall.

08 – Gimme Some. (Funk) Maybe most outright funk so far, though still bolstered by Latin percussion. Plays off Santana's "No One to Depend On" and, I think, "Evil Ways." A little obvious sub-James-Brown yelling, for fun. Lengthy saxophone solo.

09 – El Desconocido. (Cumbia) Killer cumbia beginning. Lots of electric guitar (with effects) in this one. This was the track I heard on the radio that really caught my attention. I like this at least as much as the tracks where they mix rhythms.

10 – Se Te Mira. (Salsa) Salsa type percussion. Then in with horns and clave. This really is some kind of salsa/funk mix I guess. Sneaky intro to “Soltero” at the end of “Se Te Mira.”

11 – Soltero. (Cumbia) Cumbia. Heavy on trombone.

12 – Perso Fra I Mesquites. (Instrumental somethingorother?) I’m not really sure what this rhythm is, but I feel I surely should know. But the sound is very South/western surf guitar ish. Squelchy guitar effects. I think the unexpected violin soloing saves it from descending to mere filler status. Not sure how to label the violin playing which seems “eastern” to me somehow but maybe not.

One of these days I'm gonna walk out on you people and start a (mediocre) blog.

Ha. RS, I like that Grupo Fantasma cd too, just haven't listened to it in awhile.

Anybody else check out all (11 I think) of those Panamanian reggaeton cuts over the Neyo "Miss Independent" sampled rhythm? Wayne links to 'em on the wayne and wax blog/website.

not sure which post you're referring to. also, did not realize the book is out!

Near the bottom of his April 3rd posting. They may be Panamanian dancehall reggae artists and not reggaeton.

Re the reggaeton book, while Wayne is certainly holding it in his hand in a photo, when I went to Amazon it said it was not available yet.

RS, I like that Grupo Fantasma cd too, just haven't listened to it in awhile.

Weird. Why haven't you made any comment about it (aside from mentioning that Prince likes it) in the time I've been bringing it up? Apparently for a lot of people it's just very average. I think it's above average.

I thought I did, but maybe not. Maybe cuz it's a 2008 cd, I thought I said something about them back then. I wrote a Washington City Paper preview item for 'em a little while back, and years ago when they had a slightly different membership I reviewed their free show at the Kennedy Center for the Washington Post. Back then I posted this on a thread:

Haikunym, interesting you should just mention cumbia and its relation to ska and polka as I just saw the Laredo, Texas formed,Austin-based mostly all Mexican-American Grupo Fantasma do a nice set of mostly all cumbia(although the singing was just ok). They told me afterwards that they're into old-school Colombian cumbia as well as cumbia they've heard in a few surviving dive bars across the borders which they say are attended largely by dancers and hookers.

Like Bio Ritmo, they've been trying in DC to reach a crossover Anglo audience, playing rock clubs like Black Cat rather than Latin clubs.

What do you think of the singing on Sonidos Gold? I think it's pretty solid. The rest of the music is strong enough to carry it, anyway. The vocals aren't exactly spectacular, but I like them.

I think because they do funk, cumbia, Santana style stuff, and salsa and have backed Prince, and do lots of gigs aimed at English-speakers, they get ignored or dismissed by some purists no matter how good they sound. Now I've never been crazy about their vocals, but they're better on Sonidos Gold then I remember them in the past. I think they're a good party band. Others may sincerely think they're just average.

I heard one song from the new Jimmy Bosch album last night,“Mujeres Manda,” featuring Johana Castaneda. I was not impressed with either the track overall or her vocals.

I also heard a cut from the new album by Choco Orta album, but I didn't even regonize it as such until it was announced. It didn't make much of an impression, but judging from the samples here, I might want to buy this anyway:

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/Ahora-Mismo/Choco-Orta/e/094922112156/?itm=1

(Otherwise, KUNM's salsa show (which isn't really just salsa, more like the range of what we (theoretically) discuss on this thread) often plays way too much timba for my taste and I often end up turning it off long before it ends.)

Well, Grupo Fantasma are somewhat peripheral to salsa per se, but on this album anyway they seem pretty solidly rooted in cumbia. I haven't heard any of their earlier albums. I do think the salsa tracks are good though. I think the end result of their mixing different styles of music is not the mish-mash some might expect.

Based on the stingy audio clips I've heard, I do think there are going to be at least a couple songs I like on the new Jimmy Bosch CD.

So at long last you're calling off your Jimmy Bosch fatwah?

I've always liked a song here and there by him. (Of course, the same is true for the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Los Soneros del Barrio.) I think he's overrated, but I think pretty much every new "salsa dura" outfit out of NYC is overrated (if only in NYC salsa circles).

I've got a good feeling about this Choco Orta CD, based on these brief clips I'm hearing. I think it will be solid, maybe nothing exceptional, but solid, and since there are hardly any decent soneras around right now, that itself makes it exceptional. I think she hasn't gotten the opportunities she deserves.

Just checked out some Youtube videos of her. She's got a brassy voice, nothing sweet and ethereal about it. So even when she's singing a romantic ballad there's a powerful weight to her tone.

So I did not make it out to "greatest salsa dj in the world" Henry Knowles out in Bethesda, MD last night.

I am also gonna miss on Sunday the 19th "dance lessons from 4-5 pm followed by a Salsa Sabios presentation by Nancy Alonso of WPFW on the life and career of Puerto Rico’s most prolific salsa composer, Tite Curet Alonso from 5-6 pm. A CD with some of his greatest hits will be given to the first 20 people to participate in the Salsa Sabios session. You must rsvp to receive a CD. Open dancing is from 6-10 pm. ...at The Meeting Place Restaurant, 1707 L St. NW DC"

Some good stuff I've found poking around on emusic (esp. the first one):

Plena Libre- Evolucion
http://www.emusic.com/album/-Evolucion-MP3-Download/11261940.html

La India Canela - Merengue Típico from the Dominican Republic
http://www.emusic.com/album/La-India-Canela-Merengue-T%C3%ADpico-from-the-Dominican-Republic-MP3-Download/11182175.html

Various - Quisqueya en el Hudson: Dominican Music in New York
http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Smithsonian-Folkways-Quisqueya-en-el-Hudson-Dominican-Music-in-New-Yor-MP3-Download/10887688.html

Joaquin Diaz - Merengue Alegre
http://www.emusic.com/album/Joaquin-Diaz-Merengue-Alegre-MP3-Download/10898317.html

Plena Libre are fun. I saw 'em at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC once. Not sure I can explain what plena and bomba music is in relation to other Latin salsa/tropical styles, but I know I like it.

I saw Plena Libre once at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia and they put on a very lively show.

Plena and bomba are both specifically Puerto Rican. Bomba is pretty African-rooted and I think plena is has more of a Spanish influence, and maybe has more North Africa by way of Spain. Beyond that I start talking gibberish. Maybe I already have. Perhaps Nina can say more if I can coax her to visit this thread.

A little OT: I caught some flamenco performances (dance with live musicians playing) at Albuquerque's Founders Day this past Saturday. I'm not there yet, but I could see myself getting into it at some point. My mind was echoing with the vocal lines and rhythms as I walked home. I think seeing the music with the dance would make it easier for me to get a handle on it, although I still don't quite understand how the performances unfold. (There was also some Navajo dancing, some mariachi, and some New Mexican music, which is basically close to Mexican, to my ears.)

You're gradually becoming a local out there!

Speaking of live music, I missed Dominican sonero Raulin Rosendo this past weekend and naturally there were no reviews in the Washington Post or blogs. I read that he's supposed to be very charismatic live.

Gonna miss the battle of the 2 reggaetonish club shows on Thursday--Voltio at Terra Mare, and Pitbull at Ibiza. Mayvbe Fauxmarc will come back down from NY and see one of 'em.

I like the songs from Latin popster Ximena Sarinana that I've heard on myspace. She sounds like Julieta Venegas to me, but some are comparing her to both Fiona Apple and Nora Jones. She's at the 930 Club in DC tonight.

i'd check out voltio if it wasn't in arlington, and i can't really get behind pitbull lately... i wouldn't mind not hearing calle ocho ever again

anyone familiar with this board:

http://pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=latin

En Ingles

I was in Dublin and Belfast this past weekend, and it really weirded me out that there was as far as I could tell absolutely zero Latin cultural presence - I mean, there wasn't even a Taco Bell. It was a pretty massive culture shock for me after living in a Colombian-dominated town in NJ for so long.

In other news, I got the Fania "Masterworks" reissue of Eddie Palmieri's Vamonos Pa'l Monte in the mail yesterday, and it comes with four bonus tracks, three of which are previously unreleased studio jams, each one more than 10 minutes long ("VP Blues," the first of them, is 14 minutes long, with some crazy-ass organ soloing from Charlie Palmieri). If you don't already have this album in some version, this is the one to get.

too late, already own

there's gotta be something of at least a salsa scene going on in scotland somewhere, in miami picked up putumayos's "salsa around the world" from 2003 and there was a track by "salsa celtica" on it, in spanish, pretty lush

Yea, many Europeans love salsa, but its probably not obvious as there aren't many Hispanic immigrants from the Americas going there.

Fauxmarc, on another item, I guess they didn't want to compete with Pitbull at Ibiza, so the Voltio show at Terra Mare in Va has been moved to Thursday May 14th. Thursdays, alas, rarely work for me.

Billboard Latin Music Awards Thursday night April 23, in association with a seminar/conference thing they're holding in Florida.

Comment on their website:

ALOT OF THESE PEOPLE ARE FROM SPAIN WHICH EQUALS EUROPEAN WHICH EQUALS WHITE!! AND THE REST ARE WHITE HISPANICS WHO EVENTUALLY ALL COME FROM EUROPE WHICH EQUALS WHITE!! WHERE ARE THE BLACK AND INDIAN HISPANIC WHICH ARE THE MAJORITY OF THE SO CALLED LATIN AMERICAN WORLD WHY IS THE LATIN GRAMMYS FULL OF THESE RICH WHITE EURO SPANIARDS

La Mulata Rumbera has a new more comprehensive blog (and she didn't even tell me it was up yet):

http://arrozconbeans.com/

Thanks.

I forgot to watch those Billboard Awards on Telemundo the other night:

2009 Billboard Latin Music Awards Nominees & * Winners

HOT LATIN SONGS

Hot Latin Song Of The Year
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"No Me Doy Por Vencido" Luis Fonsi
"Donde Están Corazon" Enrique Iglesias
"Si No Te Hubieras Ido" Mana

Hot Latin Songs Artist Of The Year
* Enrique Iglesias
Flex
Vicente Fernandez
Juanes

Hot Latin Song Of The Year, Male
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Para Siempre" Vicente Fernandez
"No Me Doy Por Vencido" Luis Fonsi
"Donde Están Corazon" Enrique Iglesias

Hot Latin Song Of The Year, Female
* "Dime" Ivy Queen
"Culpable O Inocente" Jenni Rivera
"Inolvidable" Jenni Rivera
"El Presente" Julieta Venegas

Hot Latin Song Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Si No Te Hubieras Ido" Mana
"Dame Tu Amor" Alacranes Musical
"Hasta El Dia De Hoy" Los Dareyes De La Sierra
"La Cumbia Del Rio" Los Pikadientes De Caborca

Hot Latin Song Of The Year, Debut
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Hasta El Dia De Hoy" Los Dareyes De La Sierra
"La Cumbia Del Rio" Los Pikadientes De Caborca
"Amantes Escondidos" German Montero

TOP LATIN ALBUMS

Latin Album Of The Year
* "95/08" Enrique Iglesias
"Te Quiero" Flex
"Arde El Cielo" Mana
"Kings Of Bachata: Sold Out At Madison Square Garden" Aventura

Top Latin Albums Artist Of The Year
* Vicente Fernandez
Flex
Enrique Iglesias
Marco Antonio Solis

Top Latin Album Of The Year, Male
* "95/08" Enrique Iglesias
"Te Quiero" Flex
"Una Noche En Madrid: Marco Antonio Solis En Vivo" Marco Antonio Solis
"Talento De Barrio (Soundtrack)" Daddy Yankee

Top Latin Album Of The Year, Female
* "Jenni" Jenni Rivera"
"Real…En Vivo" Ednita Nazario
"Insatisfecha" Diana Reyes
"Julieta Venegas: MTV Unplugged" Julieta Venegas

Top Latin Album Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Kings Of Bachata: Sold Out At Madison Square Garden" Aventura
"Arde El Cielo" Mana
"Si Tu Te Vas" Los Temerarios
"Tu Inspiracion" Alacranes Musical

Top Latin Album Of The Year, Debut
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Wisin Y Yandel Presentan La Mente Maestra" DJ Nesty
"Vamonos Pa'l Rio" La Pikadientes De Caborca
"Con Banda" Los Dareyes De La Sierra

LATIN POP

Latin Pop Airplay Song Of The Year, Male
* "Donde Estan Corazon" Enrique Iglesias
"Te Quiero" Flex
"No Me Doy Por Vencido" Luis Fonsi
"Gotas De Agua Dulce" Juanes

Latin Pop Airplay Song Of The Year, Female
* "Cinco Minutos" Gloria Trevi
"Donde Estara Mi Primavera" Myriam Hernandez
"El Presente" Julieta Venegas
"Ahora Entendi" Yuridia

Latin Pop Airplay Song Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Si No Te Hubieras Ido" Mana
"Cada Que…" Belanova
"No Te Quiero Nada" Ha*Ash
"Inolvidable" Reik

Latin Pop Album Of The Year, Solo
* "95/08" Enrique Iglesias
"5to Piso" Ricardo Arjona
"Palabras Del Silencio" Luis Fonsi
"Cómplices" Luis Miguel

Latin Pop Album Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Arde El Cielo" Mana
"Mejores Cantos Religiosos" Grupo Nueva Vida
"Planet Kumbia" AB Quintanilla Presenta Kumbia All Starz
"Hasta Ahora" Sin Bandera

TROPICAL

Tropical Airplay Song Of The Year, Male
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Sin Perdon" Hector Acosta
"Donde Estan Esos Amigos" El Chaval De La Bachata
"Amor Desperdiciado" Frank Reyes

Tropical Airplay Song Of The Year, Female
* "Dime" Ivy Queen
"Pintame De Colores" Gloria Estefan
"Quiero Tenerte" Marala
"Cosas Del Amor" Olga Tanon Featuring Milly Quezada Or Jenni Rivera

Tropical Airplay Song Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "El Perdedor" Aventura
"En Aquel Lugar" Adolescent's Orquesta
"Todo Lo Que Soy" Marcy Place Featuring Don Omar
"Ahora Es" Wisin & Yandel

Tropical Album Of The Year, Solo
* "Una Navidad Con Gilberto" Gilberto Santa Rosa
"Mitad/Mitad" Hector Acosta
"Historia De Un Sonero" Victor Manuelle
"Soy" Victor Manuelle

Tropical Album Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "K.O.B.: Live" Aventura
"Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall" Buena Vista Social Club
"En Vivo Desde Bellas Artes" Monchy & Alexandra
"Chapter Dos" Xtreme

REGIONAL MEXICAN

Regional Mexican Airplay Song Of The Year, Male
* "Para Siempre" Vicente Fernandez
"La Derrota" Vicente Fernandez
"Amantes Escondidos" German Montero
"El Proximo Viernes" Espinoza Paz

Regional Mexican Airplay Song Of The Year, Female
* "Culpable O Inocente" Jenni Rivera
"Inolvidable" Jenni Rivera
"Me Muero" Diana Reyes
"Aire" Luz Rios Featuring Joan Sebastian

Regional Mexican Airplay Song Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Hasta El Dia De Hoy" Los Dareyes De La Sierra
"Dame Tu Amor" Alacranes Musical
"Y Que Quede Claro" La Arrolladora Banda El Limon
"La Cumbia Del Rio" Los Pikadientes De Caborca

Regional Mexican Album Of The Year, Solo Artist
* "Una Noche De Madrid: Marco Antonio Solis En Vivo" Marco Antonio Solis
"Primera Fila" Vicente Fernandez
"Jenni" Jenni Rivera
"No Molestar" Marco Antonio Solis

Regional Mexican Album Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Si Tu Te Vas" Los Temerarios
"Tu Inspiracion" Alacranes Musical
"Con Banda" Los Dareyes De La Sierra
"Vamonos Pa'l Rio" Los Pikadientes De Caborca

LATIN RHYTHM

Latin Rhythm Airplay Song Of The Year, Solo
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Permitame" Tony Dize
"Dime" Ivy Queen
"Pose" Daddy Yankee

Latin Rhythm Airplay Song Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "El Perdedor" Aventura
"Na Na Na" Angel & Khriz
"Ahora Es" Wisin & Yandel
"Siguelo" Wisin & Yandel

Latin Rhythm Album Of The Year, Solo
* "Te Quiero" Flex
"Wisin Y Yandel Presentan La Mente Maestra" DJ Nesty
"La Melodia De La Calle" Tony Dize
"Talento De Barrio (Soundtrack) Daddy Yankee

Latin Rhythm Album Of The Year, Duo Or Group
* "Wisin Vs. Yandel: Los Extraterrestres" Wisin & Yandel
"La Novela" Akwid
"Nuevas Metas" La Factoria
"The Royalty/La Realeza" RKM & Ken-Y

Ruben Blades y Los Seis del Solar on the Billboard awards

Aventura y Wisin y Yandel y Akon "It's All Up to You" on the Billboard 2009 awards

I put the Paulina Rubio performance on the Spanish-speaking rock chicks rule thread, although she's more pop than rock.

I'm very disappointed by a lot of the winners, especially Ivy Queen's lame-ass bachata song and Jenni Rivera's...well, everything about Jenni Rivera; I can't understand her appeal. And I'm kinda pissed that Wisin y Yandel's reissued deluxe edition beat out Akwid's awesome album for Latin Rhythm Album of the Year, Duo or Group.

I wonder how this was:
from Wayne Marshall's wayne and wax site
Friday, April 17, 2009:
2:00 - 3:45
>> iReggaetón! Perreo and Beyond
Venue: JBL Theater

Reggaetón and especially perreo, the genre’s doggystyle dance, has been accused of facilitating corruption. This discussion, keyed to a new book, links sympathetic and critical observers from the humanities and social sciences, visual artists and genre performers, and a perspective from Jamaica.

Moderated by: Alexandra Vazquez
Featuring: Wayne Marshall, Raquel Rivera, Alexandra Vazquez

I’m sorry to report that our “perspective from Jamaica” will be absent from the conversation. We were excited to have Sonjah Stanley Niaah join us, but at the last minute she was unable to make the trip. That’s unfortunate, especially since I’m eager to talk about perreo (aka, winding, grinding, freaking, etc.) in cross-cultural perspective, not to mention reaffirming the links between reggaeton and reggae. We’ll still do all that, no doubt, especially anticipating all the knowledgeable colleagues who might be in the audience. But it would have been great to have Sonjah inna the house.

For my part, I’ll be discussing the circulation of “perreo” outside of Puerto Rico — both traveling with and, interestingly, also without reggaeton. See, e.g., Colombia, where you get perreo con champeta

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, April 21, 2009 10:07 PM Bookmark

What I learned at EMP:

* "Te Quiero" Flex

Is this thing ever going to go away?

I'm very disappointed by a lot of the winners

Same here, except I think I'd add I'm disappointed by the nominees as well. On the other hand, not much from this period of time has really excited me, especially from the mainstream. (And that's not to say there's been a whole lot of other stuff that's excited me either.)

I think there is a post conference blog about the perreo thing on Reggaetonica.

Ahora Es should have beaten El Perdedor IMO.
Im sick of that Nigga. I mean, I am sick of Flex.

For some reason I feel I am supposed to hate Pitbull, but I can't. Was THIS the awards show that he won on? I should read my own blogs.

I am pleased to see La Republica representing, and yes, I am happy to see a little more negritude than we have seen in recent years. The whole tropical duo or group section was more colorful than usual.Like 100%. Almost enough to make me forget that Flex is named Nigga because he isn't but sings like one.
Is that the other side of "if u cant beat them join them"? If you cant beat them,invite them in and let them on YOUR team?

I am allowed to say that sort of stuff in light (no nonpun intended?) of the thread title.

:) The internets suck.When you write this sort of stuff it looks sort of angry and scary, not like the writing of a woman who played kd lang and sinead for 24 hours straight last weekend.

Corriente Latina podcasts rock. Go check em out.

ignore my new site for now. im still gathering info for articles, i have literally YEARS of collected stuff i want to post. but in the meantime i have been straying from my intended focus, because i have to get myself into the habit of blogging daily. so i'm posting things that actually belong on other blogs

but it will be pretty much about ME, with a heavy emphasis on culture in the form of music, foodways, I mean cooking, folk medicine and so forth. oh, and me hating on The Man.

Anyway, more seriously about the EMP panel, I missed Raquel's presentation and part of Wayne's because I had to run a meeting out in the burbs. Wayne focused on perreo's reach in South America, and included a lot of youtube clips, including the one above. Alex's was about sexual representations the power women have in sexualized dancing and perreo specifically. I talked with Raquel after the panel and she said she would post hers on her blog. I talked to Wayne a bit over the weekend to, but mostly catching up on what each other have been up to since we last crossed paths.

I left the word "and" out somewhere in there.

i think i'd forgotten flex is/was nigga. i'm under the impression that aside from the awards te quiero is finally deaded, even in dc at places that usually beat popular songs into the ground i hadn't been hearing it for a few weeks now.

Lotsa live music coming to the DC area in May

May 8th-Elvis Martinez (Dominican bachata I think) at El Boqueron 2, 1330 E Gude Dr., Rockville, MD

May 14-Voltio (veteran Puerto Rican Spanish-language rapper) at Terra Mare, 6108 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, VA

May 15-Zion y Lennox at Fur, 33 Patterson St. NE DC

Fri. May 22-Bio Ritmo (salsa and funk) at the Rock n Roll Hotel, H. St NE

Sat. May 23-Tito El Bambino (reggaeton) at the Star Lounge, 7203 Little River Tpke, Annandale, VA

Thurs. May 28-Arcangel at Ibiza, NE DC

Fri. May 29-Fri. May 29-Gilberto Santa Rosa and Victor Manuelle (salsa singers) at Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA

DJ Rupture's radio show Wednesday May 6

On Wednesday, May 6th, 7-8PM EST, Raquel Z. Rivera and Wayne & Wax, co-editors of the new ‘Reggaeton’ book, will be joining me live in studio for Mudd Up! radio (WFMU 91.1 FM NYC, streaming worldwide, no te lo pierdas!) !

From Panamanians to Playeros to post-DemBoleros, they’ll be spinning rarities alongside discussion of the genre’s complex roots and current possibilities.

also for nyc, they're going to be talking the book at the center for pr studies at hunter college on thursday.

I missed the radio show. Wonder if its archived? I'll have to go check.

http://www.wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=31359&archive=52082

This Jowell y Randy is not so bad, I guess:

(With enthusiasm like that. . . But anyway I think some of you will like it.)

NEWSFLASH...
Descarga.com has received confirmation that the venerable salsa label, FANIA, has just been SOLD. Emusica, who had purchased Fania in 2005, has sold it's assets to Signal-Equity, the very same group that recently purchased West Side/Seeco. I just got off the phone with a representative of Signal (yes folks, that's my Friday night) and, although few details were offered, I can say that they seem very respectful of the catalog and appear to be committed to doing the right thing with this historically significant material. Look for more formal announcements and release plans later this summer/early fall. And while the 400+ existing Emusica/Fania titles are still currently available, experience tells me that there might be scarcity of product until a re-reissue plan takes effect. Distribution channels are still, as of yet, unknown. We will do our best to keep you posted as more details about the Fania turnover unfold. In the meantime, you might consider stocking up on titles you are missing...
FANIA

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db

I still need to listen to my recent Emusica/Fania purchases from the Borders 50% off certain cds sale

Wisin y Yandel with Yaviah and Franco El Gorila "me La Llevo"

http://www.imeem.com/people/B3ZD9Qf/video/iVN8uxzU/wisin-yandel-ft-yaviah-franco-el-gorila-me-la-llevo-music-vi/

Smoother r'n'b influenced vocals and autotune on some of those

Salsa singer Choco Orta's latest, that RS mentioned earlier this year in this thread, just got a fave review by Ben Ratliff in the Sunday NY Times

The above clips sound rather disco/80's soul-ish to me. De La Ghetto's cd has a strong 80's soul sound.

Check THIS one

I hear '08/'09 r'n'b in Arcangel and that one too (which is all derived in a way from that '80s kid group soul)

They have been raiding their parents' music collections!

And just listening to 2008/2009 r'n'b hits

http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSTRE54F03X20090516

Cuban musicians may get visas again and tour US but...

"The unfortunate side of Buena Vista Social Club and all of its spin-offs was that they saturated the market so heavily it got to a point that nobody wanted Cuban at all," IMG Artists managing director Elizabeth Sobol-Gomez says.

Meanwhile, younger artists who perform the fast-paced dance rhythms of timba and other contemporary Cuban styles have had difficulty translating their popularity among Cuban emigres and committed Cubaphiles into broader commercial success. Even Los Van Van, Cuba's most popular band of the last four decades, has failed to gain more than a cult following in the States. Its latest album, "Arrasando" (Sony International), has sold only 1,000 U.S. copies since its release in January, according to SoundScan.

"Contemporary Cuban music is very virtuosic and interesting, but not well known by the non-Cuban public," says Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the Cuban producer who brought the Buena Vista Social Club artists together in the studio for the sessions with Cooder. "In general, for a lot of people the music is unintelligible and too explosive."

Its latest album, "Arrasando" (Sony International), has sold only 1,000 U.S. copies since its release in January, according to SoundScan.

LMAO. Funny, I think I saw this article already, but must have scanned it too quickly to catch the factoid. I'm all for normalizing relations with Cuba, but most contemporary Cuban music still sucks to my ears (the two Cuban albums I liked from last year notwithstanding).

"In general, for a lot of people the music is unintelligible and too explosive."

Yes, it's just too good for us, too hard-core. We've been hearing that sort of thing for a decade now. I hope the flood-gates are oepend up and timba etc. gets a chance to find an American audience, so that maybe the timba fanatics will finally stop blaming the embargo for the lack of US interest in the stuff. (Admitedly, they have also attributed it to some other sources.)

And the band, a traditional salsa setup with a five-man horn section and three percussionists — but no drum set — makes hard, elegant Latin swing.

Not sure why Ratliff thinks the lack of a drum set is worth mentioning, except maybe to define what a traditional salsa setup is?

New Don Omar album out and I didn't know it. I am obviously not paying very close attention these days. I was hoping this was going to be a reggaeton/Arab thing, after that track with Hakim, but I guess not.

Kind of along the lines of W&Y's house-y stuff, although I think I might like this better:

And Rob Base is new again? Really?

At least this has an eastern wind blowing through it:

I hadn't thought about autotune being applied to children's voices. Scary. Scarier, I think I might like the Miguelito track.

Ever since I was underwhelmed seeing Omar live, I've been less interested in his recorded music. Although I probably shouldn't do that

I think I like "Galactic Blues" best so far from this new Don Omar album, which you can preview here:

http://mp3latino.org/?p=2343#more-2343

A new swing revival as alternative to reggaeton going house? The rhythms shift pretty well on that one, and I think it's a Danny Fornaris track too. (Sounds like he shouts that.)

curmudgeon, I'm not a huge Don Omar fan to begin with (I wish he would do some entirely sung material, since I tend to prefer his singing to his rapping), but I would think that reggaeton might be better heard in studio form than live.

So this album seems uneven and maybe a bit slight, but I think it's probably better than W&Y's last.

It would be better if he stopped yelling "iDON!"

Ha. I need to check out big seller Tito El Bambino. I'm gonna be busy with family and miss his just outside DC in Virginia gig Saturday.

Curmudgeon. I specified 80's and 90's not 2008 or so because the De la Ghetto cd quite clearly borrows from that era, not recent stuff. I think perhaps there are similarities to recent R&B songs, but not so much because they borrow from current R&B, but because both are borrowing from the same pool of music.

De La Ghetto has Teddy Riley and some definite Full Force influenced sounds, some of the other stuff sounds more like Evelyn Champagne King and Abba than it does whoever the hell is making music these days.

W&Y, Don Omar and DY have some killer "live" cds that blow away the studio versions IMO.

I would think that reggaeton might be better heard in studio form sure, but don omar's just never been that great and pretty much overblown.

i'd like to see these live discs mentioned as i've always felt the same way about wisin + yandel.

yankee still holds ground but his recent stuff is just nothing compared to the el cangri and cartel-era nelson-type stuff.

hmm, well it may be a matter of taste. i think DO and W&Y are exciting so I like their live shows, the energy they have
but if u already are all meh about them, them being live prolly wont make a difference

I liked W y Y when I saw them live, but I thought Don Omar was coasting. Maybe it was just a bad night. Plus the sound in the arena was not that good, so that may have had a role.

If you wanted to torture me with music, this would be one of the most effective things to use:

When they do that incredibly mannered choral chest-thumping style choral rapping, and especially when it just goes on and on, I was to pull my hair out, rip my ears off, or pull my entire head off if necessary.

And then many non-Cuban timba exponents have the nerve to complain about reggaeton being monotonous, but at least the reggaetoneros can rap and don't do this drivel. (I know I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by drawing attention to this, since there's always the possibility that someone will hear it and say, hey, I actually like this. But I enjoy hating timba. It's such a visceral hate that it's satisfying.)

This is some of that "too explosive" new Cuban music that's clearly just to edgy for those of us who listen to salsa and reggaeton and Japanese sludge metal and Syrian classical music.

But once Obama lifts the embargo, this stuff will be Top 40 in the US! Of course. The US public is just waiting to descend upon timba concerts in the US. That's why the most famous contemporary Cuban band can only sell 1,000 CDs in the US.

lol
i do hate when people blame lack of timba appreciation on the embargo or unsophisticated tastes

some timba i like. well. some somgo-ish stuff. and some timba. but it doesnt move me.and i would not say my tastes are either unsophisticated or limited.nor are my tastes defined by my race, gender,nationality, class or age. timba just usually fails to excite me

i could take or leave timba, am whatever about it but the above sentiment is sort of how i feel about cumbia, which the indie rock turned "dance music" kids won't stop throwing in my face now that they've finally realized they can't ride on baile funk and baltimore club forever

I like cumbia a million times more than timba, and with cumbia you are talking about a very extensive back catalog. I could care less about the indie rock/dance music kids connection; that wasn't my introduction to cumbia.

But the cumbia you listen to may not be the same as the techno-related remixed kind that the indie-rock crossover kids (and Dj Rupture and Wayne and Wax) love. There seems to be multiple varieties of cumbia.

Well, yeah, exactly. I guess. I haven't especially loved what I've heard of this wave of cumbia. I think I like every version of the genre except this Club Zizek type stuff (at least that I've heard), although some of the Mexican cumbia is too watered down for me (but some of it is okay).

Just streaming the new W&Y now. I generally like the rapping but not the autocruning.

And there's a 50 Cent guest spot I could do without.

I guess they're all still hoping for the big crossover explosion.

Halfway through the new W&Y disc I'm liking it more than the last one but not as much as Pa'l Mundo.

US Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor:

In her 2001 address, she spoke longingly of the “sound of merengue at all our family parties

I'm liking it more than the last one but not as much as Pa'l Mundo.

Same here. I wish they would do a special edition with less of the singing that's bugging me.

On two complete listens, I would unequivocally say that La Revolucion sucks. Yes, it is better than Los Extraterrestres, but since I never ever listen to that album any more, that's not saying much.

I prefer Shiina Ringo's new take on "futuristic" dance (at least in this one single) to W&Y's and Don Omar's. Now I'm not saying this is great, but I kind of like it:

(Yeah, I know that's off-topic but I'm allowed to break my own rules. "I'm the decider.")

eh, i've liked some of ringo's old stuff but that seemed like it was trying hard to be a bjork track

i think timba is pretty funky, as far as this stuff goes. it just sounds like heavier & straightened-out salsa to me.

I've tried repeatedly to get into Shiina Ringo, but it just hasn't happened. For the weirder stuff, I prefer Tujiko Noriko or UA, and for straight-ahead J-pop, I'll take Ayumi Hamasaki every time.

Apologies for even posting that SR and going off-topic. Wednesday was a very weird day for me.

trying hard to be a bjork track

I can see that slant.

unperson, I've seen your comments on her before. I wonder if part of the problem is that she was suggested to you as a certain type of Japanese music you were looking for, but she wasn't really that pure pop thing you wanted in this case. Personally, Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana is a serious candidate for my pick of album of the decade, and part of it is just the way it sounds, the mysteriousness of its overall sound.

i think timba is pretty funky, as far as this stuff goes. it just sounds like heavier & straightened-out salsa to me.

It definitely borrows extensively from funk. For me it feels very different from salsa, so I tend to think of it as separate genre. So do a lot of timba fans, especially outside of Cuba.

Wisin y Yandel, the Latin Grammy award-winning reggaeton duo, is performing live at the Patriot Center on Thursday, October 1 at 8:00 p.m. Touring in support of their latest album, La Revolucion, Wisin y Yandel will highlight some of their popular hits including "Ahora Es", "Siguelo", "Mujeres in the Club" and "Rakata".

Ticket Information: Tickets for Wisin y Yandel at the Patriot Center are $78.50, $58.50 and $38.50 (plus applicable service charges) and go on sale Friday, June 5 at 10:00 a.m..

If I can score press tickets maybe I will go see them again...

i'm surprisingly into the akon + wisin y yandel track "all up 2 you" off the new aventura. expected to hate it but it's a lot more understated than what i'd expect coming from that combo. probably won't last though.

From Ned Sublette's e-mail thing (Ned translated the below):

For immediate release:

At 6:45 a.m. today, June 3 2009, at 60 years of age, Jesús Alfonso Miró, musical director of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, exceptional composer and percussionist, died in his home town of Matanzas, Cuba. The only son of the Alfonso Miró family, he was the father of 8 children, all dedicated to the rumba as musicians or dancers. Two of them have been members of the Muñequitos and at present, Freddy Jesús Alfonso Borges, a practitioner of his father’s art, plays the quinto of the group and has begun to follow as well in his path as the composer of heartfelt rumbas.

As a musician of Los Muñequitos Jesús traveled to almost all the continents.
Wherever he went he left friends and disciples. He shone on every stage he played on, but he never forgot his roots and lived a full life, proud of his lineage as a rumbero, enjoying the flavor of every corner of his barrio, la Marina. Beginning at the age of seven, he participated as a musician and
dancer in the Comparsa La Imaliana, founded by his father and by Félix
Vinagera. For a time he was a member of the Orquesta de Música Moderna of his city and of the Papa Goza group. From 1967 he was musical director and quinto of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, a group which he profoundly loved and to which he dedicated the greatest part of his life.

As a composer he was indispensable to the repertoire of the group, with his works known worldwide. He was the author of “Congo Yambumba,” “La Llave,”
“Chino Guaguao,” “Lengua de Obbara,” “Saludo a Nueva York,” and many others that are now classics of Cuban rumba. Prestigious interpreters including Eddie Palmieri took note of his sabrosura and the popularity of his works, including them on their records and mentioning him as indispensable to the music of our continent.

When Jesús Alfonso was still very young, together with another of the great figures of Los Muñequitos, Ricardo Cané, he went to the mountains of Cuba to teach literacy to the people of the countryside, graduating later as a young revolutionary teacher. For his great contributions to music and to his community, he received the title of Hijo Ilustre (Illustrious Son) of Matanzas.

Jesús Alfonso, member of the Matanzas society Efí Irondó Itá Ibekó and respectful observer of the regla de Osha, will be remembered by all his community and especially by rumberos around the world. His name will never be forgotten. His strong voice and the sound of his hands on the skins will remain in the memory of those who knew him and recognize him as one of the most celebrated musicians of all time, because Jesús was to the rumba as was Cuní or Chapottín to the son. Jesús gave his entire life to the rumba. His name is next to Chano, Tata, Papín, and all the greats of Cuban music.

Viewing will be in the place where Los Muñequitos de Matanzas rehearse every day, at 7906 Matanzas Street, between Contrera and Milanés. After respects are paid, he will be buried in the early hours tomorrow.

To his wife Dulce María Galup, to his children and other family members, to Diosdado Ramos and all his compañeros in the rumba who have so much admired him and are today feeling his loss, we send our heartfelt condolences.

CARY DIEZ

Isn't this the third major old rumbero death this year? I thought someone else from Los Muñequitos died recently, and also someone from Los Papines.

Grammys drop polka album award

but more importantly in the article:
Latin urban album will merge with Latin rock or alternative into a Latin rock, alternative or urban album category

juanes vs tego, how ridiculous

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Listening to some early stuff (circa 1970) I downloaded by Fruko y Sus Tesos. Shit is crazy; if Crypt Records put out salsa, this is what it would sound like.

I should get some Fruko as I like the Joe Arroyo solo cd I have.

http://latinjazzoteca.blogspot.com/ is a good source

Slate's Jody Rosen has a huge feature on bachata band Aventura in the Sunday NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/arts/music/07rose.html

What is the definitive 21st-century New York musical act? A pop critic would probably point to one of the city’s arty indie-rock standard bearers, like TV On the Radio or Animal Collective, or to a rapper like Jay-Z. But pose the question to Latin music fans — or to hit radio listeners in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe — and the answer will likely be Aventura, whose blend of bachata with R&B, hip-hop and big-city attitude has created a swaggering, distinctly New York style.

I liked 'em when I reviewed them live awhile back.

dc - the annual salsa congress is coming up june 19th - 21st at the crystal city hilton

http://www.capitalcongress.com/

And Tego Calderon's show has apparently been moved from East Coast in Woodbridge on June 12th to Sunday June 14th at Fur in DC.

Jim Byers' old-school mambo programming last night (Sunday 6 to 8) on WPFW 89.3 was great. I think they also stream their programming online.

Listening to some early stuff (circa 1970) I downloaded by Fruko y Sus Tesos

Yeah, they are as classic as a lot of Fania material. I wish their back catalog were available in a more orderly fashion (not that I have money to buy it now). Also, solo Joe Arroyo.

This is a good collection, though the sound quality has not been cleaned up. I'm not sure what era(s) the songs come from, but some of it seems old:

http://salsabrava.foroes.net/salsa-en-vivo-f1/fruko-y-sus-estrellas-en-mexico-2001-t155.htm

(Odd title.)

el gran combo in the bronx this weekend - sold out

Getting old but they still got it

I started listening to the new Aventura album, and I like the overall sound, but I couldn't get past the sixth track or so, because I got sick of hearing their stupid: "So nasty" and other comments in English, other touogh-guy wimp stuff (which maybe I should like since it sorts of suits my character, but nope). I think my positive feelings about Aventura in the past have been based on the fact that I originally heard their songs while out dancing in clubs, rather than while sitting down and listening to a whole album straight through. Maybe I'll get through the rest of the album eventually. (Are there any tracks where they don't say stupid things in English?) The real hardcore haters will be happy that this album is called The Last, and reading between the lines, it sounds like this really is supposed to be their last album (and it's not just some apocalyptic sci fi concept title, though that would be in keeping with the latest reggaeton trends).

LOL@ RS and Aventura
Do you notice all the shouts in other songs? I think every merengue,reggaeton and bachata group has their little tag and they say it at least once in the song. Do they not bother you, or do they just not stand out because they arent in English?

I dont actually mind their little "so nasty" or "the kings" and dont really notice it.This is prolly just a case of not being the target audience. Being monolingual spanish or english means those little parts stand out more, either because suddenly you DO understand or suddenly you dont. Since I understand all of it, there is no interruption in the flow and it just sounds like part of the lyrics to me.

OTOH, I cant remember the last time I listened to an album by anyone, I listen to songs I like, but never albums.

I'm going out on Friday to see some new group called Navegante. They're playing a lot at this club uptown called Camaradas del Barrio, which is where I'm going to see them. The album is hip-hop with some singing and whatnot, somewhat progressive lyrically and slightly boho-ish. It's not bad at all. myspace.com/navegantemusic

Do they not bother you, or do they just not stand out because they arent in English?

"So nasty" bothers me because I can understand it and because they sound so idiotic saying it.

unperson, are you reviewing this somewhere?

Some of the shouting out in Spanish gets on my nerves sometimes too. I could do with a little less of that, in general, in Afro-Latin music, but mostly it doesn't bother me, and sometimes I think it fits in perfectly, or sometimes I find it amusing (like when they spell out people's names).

I cant remember the last time I listened to an album by anyone, I listen to songs I like, but never albums.

Yeah but one way to hear songs that you might like that you haven't heard before is to listen to albums. I haven't been going out to clubs, don't have access to radio or TV that plays this kind of music, don't have helpful DJ friends, etc. So sometimes I listen to albums to discover songs I might like. (Not that I don't also have certain ways I evaluate albums as albums, but I'm also quite content to take the songs I like and run.)

unperson, are you reviewing this somewhere?

Yeah, the Voice.

(Nina, there has traditionally been a segment of ILM which makes a virtue out of choosing tracks over albums, or at least certainly has looked like it was doing that at times, which is why I am responding as though you are doing so--that and the mood mentioned elsewhere.)

i generally use itunes or my ipod to listen to music, so even when i have full albums i tend to listen track by track. i may select randomly to ensure i hear tracks i have never played(i have a playlist of unheard songs only).but i find that there are few albums i care to hear in their entirety

Choco Orta has some songs from her new album up on her myspace now. I like her, but the accompaniment sounds pretty rote. It's not overly sweet or soft as one might fear from Gilberto Santa Rosa's involvement, but I think she would benefit from a harder sounding orchestra behind her. I don't think it sounds bad, but it sounds kind of average.

Sorry, I wish I could say wonderful things were coming out left and right, but it doesn't seem that way to me.

"Tigy Tigy" (the Don Omar/Hakim collab.) is going on a new Hakim album:

http://www.maqam.com/tigytigy_hakim.html#Samples

These samples sound okay. I know I've poo-pooed Hakim in the past, for whatever reason (I think I just basically didn't like what I had heard by him that much and preferred the older Ahmed Adawaia for this same style), but I might check this one out.

Ah ha, and there's another reggaeton tinged track, "Ma'dar Ala Bo'doh."

This is kind of on the margin of this thread's purview, but fuck it: Spanish singer-songwriter Bebe, whose first album Pafuera Telarañas was one of my favorite discs a few years back, has a new one coming out on Tuesday, called Y (named in tribute to the Pop Group? I kinda doubt it but you never know). I just heard about it today, and Googling more info is close to impossible obviously (try searching "bebe y" and see what you get). I'm gonna buy the download from iTunes as soon as it's available.

just heard of her for the first time the other day, i think she + calle 13 are replacing los fabulosos cadillacs for some concert in central park something or another.

more about Bebe and the July 11 show here: http://www.ny.remezcla.com/re/blog.jsp?a=1056

Other blog stuff-Wayne Marshall responded on his Wayne and Wax blog to someone else's "reggaeton is kinda dead" posting. Though the person then seemed to take back part of their claims.

sort of weird to see the link to willie colon's opinion on it, he seems so far out of the demographic. old man simpson shaking his fist at the clouds, etc.

Definitely planning to check out that Calle/Bebe show. More amped to see her than him, in fact.

To really go off-topic, since I already brought it up once and then said it didn't seem to promising (based on the singles I had heard so far), the new Shiina Ringo album is actually pretty good (definitely not like the last CD she put out under her own name or the last Tokyo Jihen CD, which were both not things I really wanted to advertise to non-fans), and definitely more pop than avant. Very heavy on sometimes retro jazz/swing/R&B though, not exactly typical pop (or typical American pop anyway). I'll try to make that my last comment on it.

So of course you can mention Bebe.

Incidentally, I hope people don't take the "reggaeton is dead" in my thread title too seriously. I never meant it very definitively, and it sort of just functioned to make it easier for me to say "salsa is dead" (and for me, salsa can't really be dead anyway).

I found a couple Choco Orta videos on youtube that show a side of her I really didn't know about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p89zFsh_8hA&feature=PlayList&p=AF60663AFEC6AFCF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EI_-p5ZQn4&feature=PlayList&p=AF60663AFEC6AFCF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=9

Reggaeton isn't dead, but it has definitely mutated. If you listen to Don Omar's tracks from the Mas Flow era, you would never have been able to predict iDon. (That's a good thing.)

Salsa isn't dead, it's just alive in old videos posted to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZ2NxDARR0&videos=gddDwXz0sOo&playnext=2&playnext_from=TL

I'm drowning in cheese: not only did I review the new Paulina Rubio for AMG and enjoy it, but I just got the second Los Super Reyes (now billed as Cruz Martinez y Los Super Reyes) album in the mail.

To abuse this thread a little more than I already have: if anyone happens to know anybody in the Albuquerque area who might be interested in hiring a librarian (whether or not for library work), now would not nt too soon to send me an e-mail!

Sorry but no connections for any Albuquerque library jobs.

I just saw a bunch of live latin music over the last 2 days. On the 4th I saw Willie Colon and band for free at noon at Wilson plaza at the Reagan bldg in DC. Wow, when he chose to play trombone along with the other 2 trombonists and his sax player it was fire! He's pushing his first new cd in years (also available via download as he mentioned several times) and did some songs from that as well as old ones. A small crowd (poor marketing plus folks not wanting to be downtown so early in the day with fireworks much later at night)--maybe 200, but some impressive dancers.
Later I made it over to the Smithsonian Folklife festival where I was again today. Impressive free traditional sounds that also attracted great dancers. Ecos de Borinquen played great Puerto Rican jibaro music while Grupo Cimarron offered fascinating Colombian Jaropo from the plains sounds--maracas, jazzy stand-up bass, strummed cuatro, Peruvian like box drum that a guy sat on and patted with his hands, a male singer who sang sorta dramtically like a Mariachi, and a female singer. She, also danced with various band members, two of whom also did flamenco meets Central American meets NYC tap dancing.

Today I saw the African-rooted drumming of Las Cantadoras del Pacifico, a bit of Nati Cano's Mariachis, Cimarron again, and the impressive El Salvadorian cumbia and more of Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo, and the speedy accordian and conga led dance music of Las Estrellas del Vallenato.

I need to take salsa dance lessons again and then practice practice. Those folks doing it well at Willie Colon looked so cool. That Colombian tap/flamenco dancing was pretty sharp too, but I think I will leave that to the experts.

I always seem to miss Ivy Queen when she's in town. She's gonna be at dance club Ibiza in DC Thursday.

Thanks for keeping things going a little here. I'm probably not going to be posting for a while, since I need to find a job almost immediately. (I do have an interview tomorrow.) Kicking myself for not establishing at least a part-time income as soon as I got here. Anyway, more later.

I think what the Smithsonian and Folkways records have done in recent years with these various strains of traditional (and danceable) Spanish-language sounds from the Caribbean and the Americas is deserving of respect and more attention. Some zydeco dancing enthusiasts on a e-mail listserv I am on were raving about the Dominican Republic's La India Canela, a merengue accordionist and singer who with her band was at the Folklife Fest last week and released a cd last year on Folkways. Some of these groups feature young musicians by the way, this is not just senior citizens keeping traditions alive.

An American (of Colombian heritage) professor on the Colombian music at the Smithsonian Folklife Fest-

http://mac650.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-colombian-music-2009-folklife.html

You'll be happy to know that zydeco bands appear in Albuquerque fairly frequently, and it seems to be somewhat popular here (relatively speaking, you know, not huge).

I was going to mention a Kako compilation that was listed on Descarga.com, but it's already disappeared.

The Afropop radio show (available online also I think?) this week:

On air this week is “Afropop Vignettes: Puerto Rico.” We'll hear roots styles such as bomba and plena, salsa maestro Tito Puente, and today’s reggaeton artists. (Next week we visit San Juan to dive into the reggaeton scene.)

CUNY TV's series "Nueva York" is running an episode on the afro-latin dance group Abakuá started by Frankie Martinez, one of the world's most famous students of the originator of New York breaking on 2 style salsa, Eddie Torres. I'm actually starting classes with Martinez this weekend on recommendations from my old studio in DC.

available online here, in spanish with english subs.

x-post. Oh (said sheepishly) this is who Kako is:

www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Profile34

From a press release:

first re-issue, MAZELTOV MIS AMIGOS (to be released August 11th) interprets classics from the Yiddish theater through the leading Latin dance styles of the 50s and 60s.

MAZELTOV MIS AMIGOS, digitally remastered for the first time by Fantasy Studio engineer Joe Tarintino, opens a time capsule to one of New York musical history’s great lost stories, the story of the Jewish Latin craze. When the entire country caught Mambo-mania in 1948, Jews religiously became the genre’s earliest adopters. Humorist Harry Golden once said that the history of Jews in America is the history of “sha sha”(Yiddish for hush hush) becoming “cha cha.” And he was onto something. This album comes on the heels of comic Irving Kaufman unleashing “Moe the Schmo Takes a Rhumba Lesson,” Irving Fields attacking with his “Havana Nagila,” bawdy balladeer Ruth Wallis declaring “It’s A Scream How Levine Does The Rhumba,” and Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente capturing the Jewish musical imagination at the Palladium, Grossingers and the Concord.

MAZELTOV MIS AMIGOS is the latest production from The Idelsohn Society, a team of 21st century music fiends turned musical archeologists, dedicated to digging up forgotten American Jewish pop. According to co-founder, Courtney Holt, "the track “O Momme” sounds like a a comparsa conga band setting out on a parade that turns into a Jewish wedding march."

Among the other startling revelations on MAZELTOV MIS AMIGOS is “Papirossen,” Herman Yablokoff’s classic Yiddish Theater ode to an orphaned cigarette peddler, done here in pure dance floor frolic as a blazing, quick-step mambo. Says Idelsohn co-founder Josh Kun, “It’s a dramatic example of how Jewish and Latin musical traditions spoke to each other in the mix-up of American culture. This is the sound of the secret musical history that shows that the boundaries between communities we think are so rigid are actually porous.”

It's all part of The Idelsohn Society mission. Founded by a quartet of academics and music industry veterans, the label's goal is to incite a new conversation about the present by listening anew to the past. They do it by unearthing lost classics from the archive, sounds that are languishing in thrift-store crates across the nation, as well as by building an archive of the stories and musicians that accompany them, and producing a series of sold-out concerts across the nation featuring the original performers, many now in their eighties and nineties.

The relationship with Riverside will allow this mission to grow exponentially. According to co-founder David Katznelson, who brokered the deal with Riverside, “The ability to rescue a certain strain of releases from the label that brought us Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane is immense for us and highlights our overall mission. I am so thankful that we have found these recordings and the folks at Riverside/Concord (Concord owns the catalog) have been so generous to let us bring them to the public’s eye.”

MAZELTOV MIS AMIGOS is set for release August 11th (distributed by Nail and Ioda) it features 11 tracks, accompanied by Josh Kun’s extensive liner notes and a gallery of images from archives across the country which have to be seen to be believed.

The entire album will be replayed in in its entirety for ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Lincoln Center this summer, with an eclectic line-up including Arturo O'Farrill and His Afro-Cuban Sextet, Larry Harlow, The Antibalas Horns and others.

Liner Notes By Josh Kun

This 1961 Riverside Records album by Juan Calle and His Latin Lantzmen, Mazel Tov Mis Amigos, is one of the greatest ruses of 20th Century American pop music, a forgotten masterpiece of cross-cultural disguise and masquerade.

So let’s get the reveal out of the way. Neither Juan Calle nor his Latin Lantzmen were actually Lantzmen, and only some of them were actually Latin. Juan Calle was John Cali, an Italian-American banjo picker and radio veteran best known for his work with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra and a string of solo banjo outings. His Latin Lantzmen included some of the biggest names in 50s and 60s Latin music-- conguero Ray Barretto, timbales guru Wilie Rodriguez, pianist Charlie Palmieri-- playing alongside African-American jazz greats Clark Terry, Doc Cheatham, Lou Oles, and Wendell Marshall. The sole Lantzmen were Yiddish vocalist Ed Powell, who appeared in the 1957 Ziegfield Follies but whose credits mostly seem to point to steady work as Riverside’s in-house engineer, and reed multi-tasker Shelley Russell, such a Lantzmen that, as the original liner notes told it, his background included “playing at many a Jewish wedding.”

It's become something of a truism that the history of Jews in American popular music is a history of masquerade. From Leiber and Stoller writing songs as if they were black men and women to Bob Dylan’s Woody Guthrie and born-again-Christian masks, from black-face minstresly to gentile- face minstresly, from Milton Mesirow becoming Mezz Mezzrow to Alfred Levy becoming Alfredito, from Irving Berlin and George Gershwin dreaming up plantation fantasies of a mythical South or urban romance on Catfish Row, passing and disguise have long been key aesthetic weapons of the Jewish musical arsenal. It’s safe to be like the others,” Woody Allen’s big screen uber-chameleon Leonard Zelig famously said on his therapist’s couch, “I want to be liked.” Without Jews playing non-Jewish music, without Jews assimilating into the sound cultures of Latino and African American life, without Jews becoming musical Zeligs, it's hard to imagine what American pop would sound like.

Which is why Mazel Tov Mis Amigos is such an anomaly. On this session, it was African-Americans and Latinos masquerading as Jews, coming together at New York’s Plaza Sound Studios in the name of an only-in-America brand of Yiddish fusion, eleven “Yiddish favorites in Latin tempo.” If you believe the original liner notes, the impetus was purely economic, the Yiddish-Latin fusion album as guaranteed hit-maker:
....

....

So, amigo, whether you be a lover of Latin rhythms or Jewish melodies or merely partial to unusual and irresistibly danceable music, may we say: mazel tov-and happy listening.

bebe schiested from the latin alternative music conference last week, claiming her visa was denied

Too bad. Did you go to that Bobbito dj'd tribute to Fania Sunday night in NYC? That looked like fun.

the thing at santos' party house - considered it but nah.

yea

Anybody who doesn't like this (old) Joe Arroyo song, please never post to this thread again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsgcaGzcHJw&videos=1jXLaWbqZK4&playnext=2&playnext_from=TL

Just kidding, obviously, but. . .

yep

I love the way the song is introduced, it's not a long intro, but it's extremely effective, and then you are immediately moving in quasi-timelessness. It's completely sure-footed. And I like the way it's like it's rotating around between his lead vocals and the coro. It doesn't feel like it's going back and forth, it feels like it's rotating. Although I do have another version on CD I like slightly better, where his "quequequeque. . ." comes in at a different spot and kind of messes with the rhythm in a funny way (although that would actually makes it harder to dance to). It may reverse clave or something forbidden like that, in that other version.

An Alfredo Flores Washington City Paper blog writeup of bands that played Latin Alternative Music Conference events in NYC Including Calle 13)posted July 20 at 4:36

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/blackplasticbag/2009/07/20/latin-alternative-music-conference-wrap-up/#comment-29516

The Beat magazine lives. Less issues and less columnists I think, though. That Brit guy Dave Hucker who loves Cuban sounds highlights Pupy y los Que Son son "Tranquilo Que Yo Controlo" (Egrem); Pupy's former bandmate singer Mandy Cantero "Hay Que Luchar" (Lujuria) and Los Van Van "Arrasando" (Planet)." He's also into the Tito Puente Complete 78s cds, the 3Ds (a NY group he says do Latin pop, reggae rap, bomba, soca and salsa); and others.

Pupy y los Que Son son "Tranquilo Que Yo Controlo"

As I've mentioned over and over, that's one I want. Those two Pupy-involved CDs from last year are high priority.

Live Latin and Brazilian music in NYC

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/arts/music/24latin.html?th&emc=th

i still need to check out an el morocco live night, i've just caught the dj'd nights on last sundays. also, s.o.b.'s since it's so close to me although from what i've read it's got a pretty small floor and is more of the drunk bar-hopping contingent than music fans

http://www.chipboaz.com/blog/2009/07/22/an-open-letter-to-jazztimes-regarding-latin-jazz/

I think I've found the secret to finding good unfamiliar salsa on Youtube: search under the name of someone classic but semi-obscure (outside salsa circles anyway), like Kako or Yolanda Rivera. Select playlists. It will bring up other good stuff on those playlists: Orquesta La Terrifica, Orquesta La Conspiracion, Mon Rivera, Angel Canales, etc.

And since we're doing links and NYC:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/arts/music/24latin.html

Oh wait! That's been done.

x-post. I once wrote a piece on Kip Hanrahan for Jazz Times. He was (still ?) living in suburban Va as his wife was teaching at George Mason U. I also wrote a cd review or 2 for them. I had the feeling that if someone wanted to write features on Latin-Jazz performers for them, and submitted prior samples they would have been excited to run them. That was when Christopher Porter was their editor. But it seems like they need to actively seek out writers rather than waiting for folks to come to them.

And as that NY Times article shows, there's alot more going on in NYC than just Brooklyn rock bands. But how many folks are blogging or writing about the bands in that article?

I know I've said it before, but most Latin jazz utterly bores me. Look how jazzifying plena kills it in this case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_03eKHYPPMs&videos=8KxNZB-yklQ&playnext=9&playnext_from=TL

Maybe your mileage will vary, but for me that's just blahness itself.

curmudgeon, maybe people are blogging about it in Spanish? I don't know.

I'm with RS. As far as I know, even Latin folks are bored by Latin jazz.

Incidentally, I posted that video because it happened to pop up in a plena-oriented playlist I was listening to, and it stood out as kind of dull. I do like some of William Cepeda's more traditional work.

unperson, what did you think of Miguel "Anga" Diaz's Echu Mingua from a few years back (if you heard it)? I did like that, but it was pretty atypical of Latin jazz, more some sort of experimental Latin jazz or just avant-garde music with a great conguero involved. I think what tends to be boring is when they take a Latin dance rhythm (watered down or otherwise) and blow the usual bop sort of stuff overtop.

Okay, here's something new that might be worth checking out (speaking of mixing plena and bomba with jazz, which these folks sometimes do, but it's in more of a salsa context), Truco & Zaperoko:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23706.10?yzTEykPh;;395

I didn't love their last album, but I liked some of it a lot, and overall it deserved to at least be honorable mention.

So I leave Philadelphia (not that I had much choice in the matter) and this? Salsa (and salsaton, no less) lives in Philly! Maybe I am buying into the hype too much, but this does sound like it could pretty good.

Bannakumbi - Un Nuevo Día

Bannakumbi
Un Nuevo Día
CD (Kumbi Music 001), Released 2009;
Editor's Pick:
Whoa! Just in time to turn this summer into the Season of the Party it was meant to be. Here, folks, is Power-Salsa at its maximum. From the timba-fide opening track "Rumbannakumbi" onward, this modern Philly-Rican hybrid seamlessly fuses elements of salsa, timba, reggaeton, r&b with superb instrumentation that satisfies on many levels. The band is led by pianist and singer David Colón, who is joined by singers Anthony Crespo Jr. (also the cuatrista here), Anthony Colón, and a bunch of guests too: Julio Voltio, Pirulo, Sino, Myzta and Mola. This is a highly charged offering of salsa that should be considered must-have material. Listen to the horns weave on "No Te Metas" a track that also features veteran singer Antonio Caban Vale "El Topo." In for the ride is percussionist extraordinaire Luisito Quintero, trombonists Carlos "Cuto" Soto and Gamalier Gonzaléz, bassist Hector "Maximo" Rodriguez, trumpeters Piro Ridriguez, Carlos Soto Jr. and Rolando Alejandro ...many others. Watch out for Bannakumbi. These guys will be big.
A big DJ-Alert. Very Highly Recommended. (BP, 2009-07-28)

It sounds to me as though the timba they are drawing on in that first track is the timba of Cesar Pedroso, which is the right choice to make. (Okay, I'm not really familiar enough with the state of Cuban music to be sure, but seriously, it resembles him more than it resembles the other current Cuban stuff I know--just in that first track, as noted in the decarga.com write up.)

Phillyricans know their salsa. (Just compare David Ortiz's omni-encyclopedic "El Viaje" to the sad salsa programming here on Albuquerque's KUNM.)

And they have a myspace page, how progressive. Actually, what deserves to be mocked is the fact I don't search for a myspace page instead of just linking to the first thing I come across.

Actually, it occurred to me after I posted this that I might have heard a preview of this album I'm excited about on KUNM when there was some sort of Philly connection thing going, so I shouldn't diss them too much. (I'm not sure though, it's just that I'm putting a couple things together.)

Nice NYTimes writeup on Dafnis Prieto, one of the few really interesting Latin jazz musicians I've heard.

Also, there's a second volume of Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba out this week that's fucking amazing. I wrote it up for AMG; that'll probably be online in a few days. The booklet tells amazing stories of censorship and state-owned media.

Frank Kogan asks the question "What male singers over the age of fifty or acts fronted by a male singer over the age of fifty have made great popular music in the last decade?" I suspect some people reading this thread might have answers that nobody on Frank's thread has thought of. (I'm pretty sure that not a single Latin act has been nominated yet.):

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/156151.html

You are right. Well, El Gran Combo comes to mind immediately (though technically speaking they aren't fronted by any one individual vocalist--that duty rotate between two or three individuals). Dance-floor tested hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH_zIAD05Og

Maybe I will have more to say later.

But I'm actually thinking I won't have many to add!

This decade has been a bit grim, for salsa at least, and maybe for some related genres.

Get 'em young:

Baby Loves Salsa

Gotta give it up for Aron Luis Levinson for this one. This looks very well-done. (It's a travelling show apparently.)

Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba

This sounds pretty good, going by audio clips. But now I find out that Grupo Fantasma's "Bacalao Con Pan" is actually a cover, which leaves me wondering how many other songs on their Sonidos Gold album are covers.

I have Nina's imprimatur on that Bannakumbi CD I think should be good:

http://arrozconbeans.com/?p=1685

(It's sort of amazing how much Nina and I agree on salsa, and to some extent Afro-Latin music generally, considering our very different backgrounds. The real reason I respect her opinion so much is that I so often agree with her and vice versa.)

IS THAT ALL I AM GOOD FOR?? TO AGREE WITH YOU? lol

Latin Jazz sucks Ass because Latin Jazz takes the worst of latin and the worst of jazz and mashes it all up.
Latin Jazz sucks ass because it reeks. Now, back in The Day, Latin Jazz didn't suck. Why? Because it was LATIN music played Jazzily. Or it was Jazz played by latins. Manteca etc etc.

Now I was watchin Cuba Feliz and the old dude was walkin down the street and people were playing music and it was latiny and it was jazzy and it was Good. It was like a New Orleans Jazz funeral.

Latin Jazz needs to go back to Dixieland, to New Orleans, go back and get some SWING. But the shit that sounds like Kenny G got bored one day while having an empanadilla when his bus broke down in Spanish Harlem and he had to amuse himself for a few hours listening to salsa and playing his horn? Fuck that.

Here's a weird little bit of unexpected crossover-ism: Wisin y Yandel's "Abusadora" has been nominated for Best Pop Video at the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards. Raise your hand if you've ever seen a Wisin y Yandel video on MTV or MTV2 (not MTV Tres).

IS THAT ALL I AM GOOD FOR?? TO AGREE WITH YOU?

I think I meant to say you are a wise Latina with superior powers of discernment, from whom I am constantly receiving enlightenment.

x-post:

Hmmm. I don't catch much MTV so I'm not a good one to respond.

Trust me, they haven't even played W&Y's video with 50 Cent, let alone this one. I'm sure it's been all over MTV Tres, but I don't get that channel on my cable.

I don't watch tv.But i'm sure the video was lame, they all are.

Seriously, I like most of the songs but the videos are meh. However, that J King and Maximan video was sort of funny.Halfway between crassly sexist and self parodying.

I've heard a couple new 2009 releases worth checking out. One is Cuban, Havana Salsa Team's Encontrando La Fórmula. Now I'm not saying this is great or that I love it, just that one one listen I would say it's worth checking out. I particularly like "Dime" for the odd sounding coro. As the samples on descarga.com suggest, a lot of it sounds like a current Cuban take on salsa romantica, which isn't exactly what I think the world needs right now, but the samples are a little misleading since the songs do tend to pick up as they proceed. There is something almost boybandish of the sound of some of it though.

The other album is Marlow Rosado Y La Riqueña's Salsalsa. I have nothing much to say about this one yet, but the title track (with Andy Montañez) is fairly catchy and I think just good enough to be satisfying.

And finally on full listen, Pupy y Los Que Son Son's Tranquilo Que Yo Controlo is definitely my favorite Cesar Pedroso album, and one of the best things I've heard from last year. It is a bigger dose of timba, even Cesar Pedroso's timba, than I really want at one sitting (14 tracks), and it's got some timba quirks that annoy me, but I still think it's really exceptional, and if we were going to talk about key recent albums in salsa, or close cousins, this would have to be on the list.

Tropical music making commercial comeback.

(Stole that from Nina's blog, not like she gets dibs on Reuters.)

And Reuters syndicated it from Billboard. Wow, Sergio George still a presence on the Latin charts. I haven't listened to any of those newer urban/tropical/bachata bands yet.

Here are some somewhat more thought-out comments on Pupy's album from last year:

Pupy y Los Que Son Son – Tranquilo Que Yo Controlo

The greatest strengths of this album (at least to a listener who can’t understand Spanish) are the powerful massed voices in the coros throughout (typical of Pupy’s work in general), some of the melodies (which are often quite catchy, especially in the coros), and the rhythmic drive (again, pretty typical of Pupy’s output in general).

My biggest objection is to the way the trap drums are used to highlight the one, on too many of these tracks. I don’t understand the Cuban infatuation with trap drums to begin with, when the Afro-Latin percussion arsenal is so rich and varied. But what really annoys me is the way they are being used here to distort the rhythm by accentuating the one so much. I dance on the one, but I don’t feel it the way it’s being expressed here. Why do timberos like to do things that undermine a clave feel? Some will say that’s a matter of being adventurous, but the price in ruining the feel of the music is too high to pay.

I’m also not crazy about a lot of the lead vocals, particularly Tirso Duarte’s, I think. Pepito I traditionally like somewhat, though I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of his sound, which doesn’t vary much. And sorry, but I dont enjoy Omara Portunado’s guest vocals on “Vecina Prestame el Cubo” (though it’s not a bad song, and the funny title wins some points). [Since writing this, I have read in Dave Hucker’s column in The Beat that this was originally an Arsenio Rodriguez song.]

Cesar Pedroso is much too hooked on really awful keyboard/synth sounds, which try hard to ruin “Calla Calla,” but don’t quite succeed. Earlier albums have had even more of these horrible sounds on them. (Mi Timba Cerra starts off with “world music” keyboard piping that makes it hard to get past the first few seconds.) On the other hand, in “Calla Calla,” I find myself for once liking that choral rapping I usually complain about. That’s because it’s more rhythmically fluid in this case.

“A La Italiano” is too long (the longest track here, at 6:40), self-indulgent and uninteresting. I can understand why Pupy would want to express his gratitude to Italian timba fanatics for all their support, but I wish he had made it a free stand-alone download or something, instead of the third track on what is mostly a pretty good album. The danzon version of “As Time Goes By” doesn’t belong on this album either. Presumably it’s intended to break things up a little, but there should have been a more appropriate way. (Enough with the danzons already, especially when they are covers of old Hollywood songs.)

My favorite tracks: Si Me Quieres Conocer, Se Parece A Aquel, Un Poquito Al Reves (despite serious trap drum issues), Bailalo Hasta Fuera (La Machucadera), Desde Cero (despite trap drums), Calla Calla, and Nadie Puede Contra Eso. No albums he’s released in the past had that many songs I at least basically liked, and the songs I didn’t like on previous albums were more annoying, so I’m happy with the overall direction he’s going on, though I wish he’d drop some of the unpalatable quirks I’ve mentioned.

Overall, this is a really good album. For timba.

Trying to wean myself of writing completely track-by-track descriptions.

As I mention there, I read the write-up of this in Hucker's column in the Beat. I don't think he had anything negative to say about the album at all.

Once you've heard the steamy salsa/hip hop fusion performed by Bannakumbi, you'll be surprised to hear the group is from Philadelphia. Julio Voltio guest stars.

Well yes and no, bro.

I've never seen this site before, but it's a decent-looking list

http://latinmusic.about.com/od/newreleases/tp/REL072809.htm

Oh wait, it's Tijana Ilich, who I tend to disagree with. Well, she's okay here, and I guess I have to take back my "bro."

Even more songs from that Pupy album are growing on me. Definitely recommended, annoying quirks and all. The biggest problem is "A La Italiano" and even that isn't so awful that I always feel the need to fast forward through it. The chorus sounds great throughout the album, and are often the center of the most appealing melodic and harmonic happenings. Also, I don't want to give the impression that the lead vocalists are somehow inadequate. I just don't like some of their stylings.

concha buika is playing for the lincoln center free on thursday in damrosch park, nyc

http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/buika-and-urban-bush-women

I love how some of us cannot manage to praise timba without the standard "for timba" disclaimer. A very good friend of mine just had dinner in a cold nordic nation with one of the main ppl at Timba.com a few days ago. Its funny how we have these horribly heated battles but in the end, usually end up friendly and no one shanks anyone over the whole PR Salsa vs Cuban Salsa/Timba thing.
Pupy is pretty good, most of the hardcore NYC/PR salseros I know like his stuff, which is unusual since that kinda thing tends to make the ears bleed.

Cuba Feliz, btw, is pretty awesome. Imma watch it again then send it to Netflix since it probably would have cost me less to go to Cuba than to rent the flick.

I love how some of us cannot manage to praise timba without the standard "for timba" disclaimer.

It was sort of a joke in this case (partly inspired by your own comments about Dime Nague!). Pupy does seem to be the designated exception, or one of them (I guess you could combine him with Van Van as Van Van & offshoots)--not that I think the exception making is arbitrary, but there are typically those sort of exceptions. (To use an esoteric example, to some extent Charles Bernstein is the designated acceptable language poet. Of course, I hate language poetry more than I hate timba. I don't even like Charles Bernstein's poetry.)

it probably would have cost me less to go to Cuba

Not after the fines from the federal government.

Listening to the clips from this new Grupo Gale CD, it's hard to believe they ever made some of their best songs from the past:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23737.10?9BjMwYxx;;397

Why in the world is Diego Gale trying to imitate so much of the worst of the Sergio George/RMM/salsa monga sound of, say, 1996?

This is the same band that made songs like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw0uYF0T4HQ

(That's live, but the studio version is just as strong.)

Rule of thumb: Colombian salsa songs about specific cities are generally good.

concha buika is playing for the lincoln center free on thursday in damrosch park, nyc

Fauxmarc,

This past Thursday was a busy night for free shows in NYC. I was up there visiting with my son and alas could not persuade him to go see the gig you mentioned or this other gig out in Brighton Beach/Brooklyn near Coney Island sorta:

Salsa by the Sea - Victor Manuelle, Tego Calderon, Arcangel
31st Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series at Asser Levy Park, presented by Borough President Marty Markowitz.
7:30PM
Free.

Asser Levy Park
West 5th Street & Surf Avenue

that's kind of nuts, didn't know it was going on

Sorry, did not have regular access to e-mail and stuff last week to have mentioned it earlier.

Oh, when my son and I were out at Coney Island Saturday night we came across the Coney Island Dancers (who have a website I have not checked out yet) on the boardwalk dancing as couples and solo to Latin-tinged disco. Some nice moves. Plus various others walking by joined in. Interesting.

From Eddie Palmieri's e-mail newsletter:

In October I'll be performing at Lehman College with my salsa orchestra, and I'll have Isaac Delgado as vocalist for the first time ever so we are all looking forward to performing together.

Ambitious PBS Latin Music special coming in October:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/en/about.html

I haven't been too impressed with Isaac Delgado, but I'll be curious to hear what he does with Eddie Palmieri. (I hope they are going to record together, live or otherwise.)

My friend Kaysee will be excited about that, since she loves Isaac and at least likes EP very much.

http://www.negrophonic.com/2009/beto-viene-hoy/

I haven't listened to this yet. DJ Rupture with the Soundways guy who compiled old-school Panamanian sounds, plus old cumbia songs and more

Santero. I heard him on Latino USA. Not bad. Maybe a little too much of the ultra-smooth electronic Latin dance music Latino USA tends to go for.

I was not paid to say the following: the new Nellie Furtado cd features songs co-written with Julieta Venegas, and is available via download through Friday for $3 American money from Amazon

the latin grammys have been announced.

um... congrats 50 cents.

Calle 13 takes the lead with five nominations. Ivan Lins & The Metropole Orchestra, Jose Lugo, Jorge Luis Piloto, Ivete Sangalo, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Caetano Veloso, and Wisin y Yandel are Among the artists who have three nominations each; Ricardo Arjona, Babasonicos, Baby, Cafe Tacvba, Andrew Cepeda, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Luis Enrique, Luis Fonsi, Sergio George, Saul Hernandez (Jaguares), Laura Pausini, Luz Rios, Marco Antonio Solis, Mercedes Sosa, and Tito "El Bambino" are among the nominees who receive two nominations each. And a mix of established artists and new - including Alexander Acha, Vicente Amigo, David Bisbal, Ruben Blades, Beto Cuevas, Franco De Vita, Cucu Diamantes, Shaila Durcal, Jose Feliciano, Vicente Fernandez, 50 Cent, Jaguars, Kinky, Sebastian Krys, Natalia Lafourcade, Alejandro Lerner, Los Amigos Invisibles, Gian Marco, Fito Paez, Omara Portuondo, Reik, Aleks Syntek, Nestor Torres, Bebo Valdes, Chucho Valdes, Carlos Vives, and Bernie Williams - also were nominated.

comprehendable list finally up here

I wonder how Arcangel was at Ibiza last night? Thursday nights don't work for me for seeing music.

I've missed him twice this year.

x-post --Latim Grammy Nominee

Mujeres In The Club – 50 Cent, Ernesto F. Padilla “Nesty La Mente Maestra”, Wisin & Yandel

Um, Latin

Discovered after the fact that the controversial Juanes and more concert was on Univision today. They had 1.2 million (!) in attendance there according to ABC tv news. The Obama administration let Juanes bring in sound equipment and stuff from the US for the show. Some of the Cuban community in Miami are of course aggravated with Juanes for doing this.

Fifteen artists from six different countries have confirmed their participation in the second “Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras” (Peace Without Borders Concert), which will take place in Havana, Cuba on Sunday September 20th to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Peace.

The participants include Amaruy Perez (Cuba), Danny Rivera (Puerto Rico), Juan Fernando Velasco (Ecuador), Jovanotti (Italy), Juanes (Colombia), Luis Eduardo Aute (Spain), Miguel Bosé (Spain), Olga Tañón (Puerto Rico), Orishas (Cuba), Silvio Rodríguez (Cuba), Los Van Van (Cuba), Carlos Varela (Cuba), Víctor Manuel (Spain), CuCu Diamantes & Yerba Buena (U.S.A/Cuba) and X Alfonso (Cuba).

Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras will take place at the Jose Marti Revolution Plaza between 2PM and 6PM local time. The Paz Sin Fronteras stage will be located at the same spot where Pope John Paul II held his historic mass in January of 1998. Admission is free and open to the public.

Wonder if I can find any of the performances on youtube?

Here's part of the encore with everyone (I always loved this song):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TMRSpzjvY

Ned Sublette posted more links and commentary in his subscription e-mail.

Part of Los Van Van's set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz68ulHYeiU&feature=related

Ned seems surprised by the lack of English-language media attention. That does not surprise me

As usual for those of us who follow events in Latin America, there was a bizarre disconnect between what we saw and what was reported in English.
This concert has been front-page news for weeks in the hispanic world.
Nobody hadn't heard about it. Even Barack Obama had to comment on it when asked by Univisión. Today it was the top item everywhere i looked: en El País of Madrid, La Vanguardia of Barcelona, El Tiempo of Bogotá, the Miami Herald. Reporters raced to file their copy as soon as the concert wrapped.
More than a million people showed up in person for an event watched in real time everywhere people speak Spanish, but I don't see any substantial write-up in the English-language papers.

Not gonna post that Olga Tanon power-ballad I just watched. Maybe if I understood the lyrics I'd like it better.

He doesn't sound surprised when he writes "As usual. . ."

I haven't been online so much lately, not for leisure anyway, but that's because I finally found a job. A good job, with very problematic hours.

Congrats on the job, sorry about the hours. Yea, I guess you're right about Ned Sublette's "As Usual."

There's a new book out on Benny More:

http://blogs.nyu.edu/blogs/eln205/alumni/2009/08/wildman_of_rhythm_the_life_and.html

Looks nice. I'm still reading Sublette's Cuba book though.

This new "Latin Music USA" mini-series on PBS looks pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJN5WH2vaZo

Some album covers from (DJ) David Ortiz's record collection:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidortiz_radiodj_lp_collection/

A lot of this stuff is really obscure (to me anyway).

Latin Music USA starts on PBS Monday night

Episode One: Traces the rise of Latin jazz and the explosion of the mambo and the cha cha ch� as they sweep the US from East to West. Latin Music infiltrates R&B and rock and roll through the 1960s.
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> � Episode Two: Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in New York reinvent the Cuban son and the Puerto Rican plena, adding elements from soul and jazz to create salsa, which becomes a defining rhythm for Latinos the world over.
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> � Episode Three: Mexican-Americans in CA, TX and across the Southwest create their own distinct musical voices during the second half of the 20th century. Their music would play an important role in the struggle for Chicano civil rights and ultimately propel them from the barrio to the national stage.
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> � Episode Four: Focuses on the Latin pop explosion of the turn of the century and the success of artists like Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan and Shakira in the English-language market. As studios concentrate on star-driven pop, Latino youth gravitate toward urban fusions � Spanish rap and reggaet�n, as well as rock en Espa�ol.
>

yeah, wayne marshall's in it

I'm definitely gonna watch the documentary (first two parts are on tonight; second two parts are on next Monday night). Not so excited about this, though:

On Tuesday afternoon, the President will meet with Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain at the White House. In the evening, the White House will continue its music series celebrating the arts by hosting “In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina,” a concert celebrating Hispanic musical heritage on the South Lawn. The President and the First Lady will attend the concert. It will be televised on October 15th on public broadcasting stations nationwide as part of WETA Washington, D.C.'s “In Performance at the White House” series, and will also be broadcast on Telemundo on October 18th and on V-me, the national Spanish language network partnered with public television, on December 25th. Participants include Marc Anthony, Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, George Lopez, Thalía, Tito “El Bambino”, the Bachata music group Aventura, and the Chicano rock band Los Lobos, with Sheila E. leading the house band. This event will be pooled press and streamed live on www.WhiteHouse.gov.