Afro-Latin Music Thread 2011: danzon, son, bolero, plena, vallenato, candombe, mambo de calle, tribal guarachero, etc.

I don't actually plan on talking about danzon very much, and I know next to nothing about candombe, but if others want to run with those, this the place to do it.

ok

last night was my first non-school related salsa social (it only took ~3 years to get up the nerve to do this), jimmy anton's in nyc. think i'm hooked, going to check out taj lounge mondays in midtown tonight - willy's nyc salsa project is the house band and henry knowles is the dj, he was mentioned a few times in last year's thread. vanessa williams "can't live without" this place.

afterwards may check out MUNCHI as he's in town. does moombahton get a spot in this thread? not that i really have anything to say on the subject.

last night was my first non-school related salsa social (it only took ~3 years to get up the nerve to do this)

Wow, I assumed you were out doing this sort of thing regularly. I guess if I had started dancing in NYC I would have been that much more nervous about it, given the high standards there. And to be honest, I started salsa classes in late 1997 and didn't start going to clubs regularly until 2000 (after I had a few months of private lessons under my belt).

Unfortunately, I announced my return to dancing a little prematurely. I haven't been doing it, mostly for my usual health reasons. (Also, partly because of not having a car, but that's about to change, though it will probably take three years before I feel comfortable driving.)

Feel free to talk about moombhahton all you want on this thread. I can't take it entirely seriously.

Incidentally, the reason I've never commented on those dance clips you've posted is that I never clicked on them; and the reason I never clicked on them is that it's too frustrating to watch that sort of thing when I'm not getting to go out dancing.

Frequent lurker speaks up to offer support in non-dancing frustration. I have yet to work up the nerve to go dancing in Chicago because I don't have anyone to go with and going alone just seems like a bad idea. I wonder if the pressure is different for men and women? I have never taken lessons, but I can follow pretty much anyone. Can't lead though!

Maybe you just have to courageously go it alone and take lessons.

As I once said upthread, the problem for me is that to become a decent dancer I would have to do it multiple times a week, and between parenting and freelance writing and work and other interests I can't seem to do that.

i guess dancing has just moved back on my list of things to do, maybe it can wait til summer.

La Lechera, are you male or female? (Obviously the user name suggests the latter.) If you are female and that confident in your following, I see no reason not to get out there and give it a try. How about taking a group class and using it to try to meet other women (if you are a woman) to go dancing with as a group?

i am female! honestly, i could do that, but it would take a lot of socializing effort. i'm not sure i'm up for that, tbh. i work in an environment that is full of people from all over latinoamérica -- people should just invite me to more parties/weddings. clearly that is the solution.

i've been taking a lot of classes for the the past year or two, around eight hours a week not including five hours of rehearsal since joining the company - but i've been a "professional student" only going to school-related functions until now. i'd actually forgotten that being able to social dance and come up with my own turn patterns thinking on my feet was the entire point of getting into all of this.

i don't think anyone has to worry about going to salsa events alone - assuming it's really a dancing spot, from everything i've seen and heard they tend to be very open and friendly and not a meat market. most people don't stick to dancing with a single person or the people they came with, it's all about switching it up and dancing with different dancers at different levels and speeds to add variety to your own dancing - and to just meet people, it's fun. girls ask guys to dance and vice versa, and no one turns anyone down unless they're taking a break. no socializing involved, walk up or a person walks up to you, hands extend, and head to the floor.

this was the spot i went to on sunday, jimmy anton's - it turns 17 years old in february. the guy in this video is coincidentally on my team. the first follower, magna is "salsa famous" or whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPdUaFWBhe8

dang

i don't think anyone has to worry about going to salsa events alone - assuming it's really a dancing spot, from everything i've seen and heard they tend to be very open and friendly and not a meat market. most people don't stick to dancing with a single person or the people they came with, it's all about switching it up and dancing with different dancers at different levels and speeds to add variety to your own dancing

I wouldn't say this was true at salsa clubs in Philadelphia. At other types of salsa events, maybe, but at clubs I often saw people mostly sticking together. It varied though. It wasn't hopeless, but if you hit a bad night, it could be hard finding dances. I suppose Fridays and Saturdays tended to be worse because they were more standard date nights, whereas Wednesday was generally the best night for dancing (at least at the particular club I went to the most).

Not to be discouraging or anything.

Are you both male? I imagine the dynamics are pretty different depending on gender.

Yes, both male, unless fauxmarc has assumed a false identity.

i don't think i have. i don't think.

last night was fun but i think someone was subbing in for knowles dj'ing.

really into this cumbia blog http://cumbiapoder.blogspot.com/

the latest post is a really well-produced interview with chucho ponce of los daddys de chinantla. in spanish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qym76YaV1UQ

a club mix i put together. now realize i don't own much bachata or merengue.

zion y lennox - yo voy colegiala feat. daddy yankee [dj melo blend]
la excelencia - unidad
bachata heightz - me puedo matar (feat. hector acosta)
calle 13 - baile de los pobres
fuego - ya te olvide
negrito cuarto bate - pa' santo domingo
kastrofobia - entrando a la disco
the 13th tribe - african connections feat. ajk + safa [plastic rat mix]
disquedj - romance de nalguita
stewie griffin - bang dat shit
dj galgo lazer - brigitón [seiji vs vico c vs tego calderon]
speedy - sientelo feat. lumidee [melo's moombahton edit]
los rakas - como entran los rakas [deluxemaniac rmx]
orquesta souvenir - el cantante y la orquesta
mu gen - fizzdom (munchi remix)
daddy yankee - le gusta a la mujer (feat. yaga & mackie)
zonora point - white trash [douster mix]
los daddys de chinantla - solo por ti
dj soso - toque pa' que choque
antipop consortium - capricorn one [mixter pan cumbia edit]
guajiros del puerto - bomba
daniel haaksman feat. seguindo sonhos - hands up (erick rincon remix)

What Omega Fuerte releases do people recommend? Was looking at Amazon and was a bit confused- saw a 2010 dvd, some prior releases with su Mambo Violente, etc.

i've only had omega y el mambo violeno - el fuerte (2009) which i guess is most hits + a remix or two.

feel i should check out this one

Can it really be. . . ? A new Son de Cali song worth listening to? Yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjCATQ3YdrA

They're going deep into Afro-Colombian music here.

(Okay, not that I really know much about Afro-Colombian music, but this is at least one layer down from the more familiar cumbia or even champeta.)

Although truthfully their vocals are the least enjoyable part of this for me (and generally their vocals are a big part of why I like some of their salsa songs). Mostly I'm just enjoying it for the relative novelty of this particular strand of folkloric music, and the maybe not so folkloric addition of a horn section. I'm not even sure what this style is called.

me neither but i'm into it

enjoying dj dice out of chicago, lots of cumbia + moombah + guarachero stuff

x-post

This is a decent collection with other music in the same style (or closely related ones):

http://www.amazon.com/Pacifico-Colombiano-Music-Adventures-Afro-Colombia/dp/B001EMW47A/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1294765091&sr=1-1

It's probably currulao.

It sounds like some tracks on this might be pretty good:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24178.10

I'm not too keen on English-language salsa, or half-assed seeming throwbacks to Willie Colon gangsta salsa mumbo-jumbo, but still, there seems to be some good stuff here.

Incidentally, I downloaded the DJ Dice mix, but haven't gotten to listen yet.

Oh, here's a muspace page for Sonido Criminal:
http://www.myspace.com/sonidocriminal

Actually, no, I downloaded your mix. Just checking out DJ Dice now. I like this "Cumbiason Guarachero" so far.

i feel the original that it draws from is a cumbia i hear out all the time but i don't know what it is or who does it.

I am experimenting with the listeningroom site forksclovetofu started a thread about. I tried adding a whole bunch of tracks at once but that appeared to crash things. I am picking from my abortive most recent attempts at my "salsa y mas" mixes:

http://listeningroom.fettig.net/room/Rumba%20Room/

This thing has a lot of bugs as pointed out already by others. I guess this isn't going to work out for now.

On the other hand, I'm thinking maybe I will post these things at some point, because I do still like these tracks. Some of this is from 2006, which seems really long ago, I guess partly because I've moved since then.

I hope you people are planning on voting in ILM's 2010 poll.

I'm listening to an Orquesta Versalles album from 1983 (what sounds like a crude vinyl rip of it). Never heard of them before, but so far it's totally hitting the spot. Yet another reminder of how much good-to-great back catalog salsa there is.

& how much things suck now.

And this Orquesta Versalles is charanga no less, not my favorite stuff generally. (Granted, it's a very New York/Fania sort of charanga, not exactly on the pure end of the charanga spectrum.)

Of course the only song from this album that seems to be on youtube is an English language cover, "Lady"--yes, that one.

im in puerto escondido in mexico and the club next to my hostel is playing this music thats kinda like rave but with sped-up salsa beats like horses galloping. what is it?

Is it tribal (their tribal)? That doesn't sound like salsa beats to me though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IoXKOKFjsE

Not sure what else it would be. I don't know of anything rave-y but with salsa beats, though that could be interesting. I do think this tribal guarachero sounds a bit like horses galloping.

http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2010/08/what-it-tribal-guarachero

i cant listen to any of the sound files on the page above but that sounds about right. maybe im thinking its salsa beats because im thinking everything here MUST have a salsa beat. its the first music ive heard here that i dig to be honest although i like the bassy chugging strain of salsa that you can hear pumping out of clubs here, so theres hope for me yet.

I don't think salsa is big in Oaxaca, actually, or most of Mexico for that matter. (There could be pockets of salsa enthusiasm I don't know about though, and it could also be something for tourists.) Is it possible it's merengue or cumbia or banda (the stuff that sounds like salsa, I mean, not this other more electronic stuff)?

possibly, its all new to me. i thought merengue and cumbia were strains of the salsa beat, no?

Some people use salsa in that broad sense, but I consider salsa something separate. I normally use it in a narrower sense which requires that it is in son clave (3/2 or 2/3, though there are heated arguments about whether there really are two distinct directions like that). Sorry, I'm sure this is sounding very pedantic, but on a practical level it makes perfect sense for someone to say to me: "You know I hate merengue, wait until the next salsa song comes on and ask me to dance then" (something I've heard, give or take the exact wording, on more than one occasion). Salsa's basic rhythmic foundation is Cuban. Merengue is Dominican. Cumbia is Colombian.

But anyway, tribal guarachero is quite new to me, but I like almost everything I've heard, and I don't generally like electronic dance music, so it's kind of a nice bridge for me. Or if not a bridge exactly, it's nice to be able to like something that has some of those sounds but also rhythms and sounds closer to what I typically like.

i'd think it's more likely to just be cumbia if the difference isn't known? although i wouldn't deny anyone a spontaneous public hearing of tribal.

Lol:

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/albums/2010/TXVuZGlhbA==/

I'm pleased that Kogan has discovered this album. But only two votes? For shame.

0 votes for Fuego's, which seems a bit extreme.

hadn't realized fuego just came out this year it seems like ages, but i guess the singles have been around

Yeah, some of those tracks had been around as singles for a while, though I hadn't heard them in some cases (as far as I can remember).

2 members of a band in mexico killed for refusing to encore

the daily news is reporting the band involved to be local salseros "la excelencia" when it was a different band, "banda la excelencia"

A few forthcoming CDs that interest me:

Tito "El Bambino" - Invencible
Alexis & Fido - Perreologia
Amarfis Y La Banda De Atakke - King Of New York

Yea those do look interesting.

More jazz than Latin department (but wonderful when they stayed rhythmic): Saw Eddie Palmieri with great Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, trumpeter Brian Lynch, and Russian bassist Boris Kaslov in DC earlier tonight.

Cool. It's Kozlov, btw.

Oops. And I see the 2 of them played with Palmieri and Lynch on Simpatico, their last release in 2006. They did a new song last night and said they are recording.

interesting blogpost:

http://unfashionablylate.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/there-is-no-cumbia-on-puerto-rican-radio/

What doesn’t make it over here, or at least to the Latin radio dominated by Central American tastes in the DC area, is reggaeton’s current throwback phase, exemplified by two of the best songs on PR radio. The first recalls the teched-out DJ Blass stuff that knocked me head-over-heels back in ’04, but with some of-the-moment (at least in Latin pop) autotunage. In PR, they don’t stop at the club, they tear the beach up too. And you’re in the right place if you can’t tell the difference between the two.

i never really considered it gone - that's actually what i consider to "be" reggaeton and in old-man-yelling-at-cloud-fashion have been considering the last ~7 years a phase. i want warped samples and panning and dirtyness not sing-songy autotune ballads. i'm so glad blass has been livestreaming lately.

gonna check jowell y randy's tengan paciencia: the mixtape after realizing this track is on it, hopeful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPNGtY1wj78

also, i support the powerpoint music video trend

oh, apparently they didn't release the tape because they thought it was subpar and only had six new tracks? but it ended up leaking or something. in anycase it's out there.

I just got my internets connection back last night. I love "Tapu Tapu" immediately. Dopey powerpoint videos can't be any worse than the usual videos that get released, though maybe they could cut back and forth between powerpoint and real girls in bikinis, for variety. Do you know how long this has been out fauxmarc?

Also, curmudgeon thanks for that blog link. Good post, I will have to look at the blog some more. I'm going even more notational than usual here since I feel like I'm rushing to catch up.

have been considering the last ~7 years a phase.

Seven years?! I didn't even really get to like reggaeton until 2005 or 2006 (although that included some things from slightly earlier than that, but probably not going back as far as you're talking). I like the direction it took when it went for a bigger audience last decade, but haven't liked a lot of what's been happening since 2007ish. Now that I've listened for a while I can kind of go back and enjoy some of the earlier things (like old Playero mixes) but I don't think I'm ever going to love most of that stuff.

tapu tapu's only been around for a year or two i guess - after tha mixtape got canned they released the el momento album half a year later in may 2010

(haven't heard el momento yet either, maybe it'll surprise me)

bought a merengue CD in a market in Toluca ("Merengue Cliente"). is merenge just a mix of different styles and cumbia is like more frantic, rhythmic sort of stuff? theres a great cumbia version of "dont worry be happy" on the CD btw

Merengue is primarily identifiable as a distinctive rhythm. No I wouldn't call it just a mix of different styles at all, though it does get mixed with other things sometimes, sure, or other things get mixed in. It can range from extremely slow to extremely fast. Cumbia again is mostly identifiable for a distinctive rhythm. (There are also typical orchestrations for these genres, but they have changed over the years.) But cumbia, if anything, tend to be on the slower side, I would say.

fauxmarc, I like parts of El Momento a lot, but it's definitely not a return to old school reggaeton, except on a track or two.

Anyone with a decent collection of recordings of both could probably get you to hear the distinction pretty quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3H4WwmeRF0

a'ight guacharacas dogg!

Michael Stuart improvising and hanging out with the audience during a cover of "La Cura":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R0c97gZh0E

I think I might have heard "Tapu Tapu" before, but it must have caught me at a bad moment if so.

Haha, just checking out that cumbia intro. now.

While I wasn't paying attention, Monchy started collaborating with a certain Nathalia. I think I like her voice, not so sure about the song, though I didn't start dancing in my chair about two minutes in, so it's probably okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L95w6fIMmOA

though I didn't start dancing in my chair about two minutes in, so it's probably okay

I meant did obviously. Where'd everybody go?

Just watched more of that video and it's kind of scary.

i didn't click to me that it was monchy y alexandra monchy until now, i'd heard he'd gotten a new partner.

Ah, didn't make that connection either.

I miss Alexandra. What is she doing?

the cumbia diaspora - from cumbia to the world at afropop worldwide, sweet

(dunno what alexandra's doing, i just recall the breakup being on bad terms)

The cold weather is making my sinuses feel better (indirectly, by knocking out pollen in the air) and I got out of work early, so I was thinking of for once going to Thursday night's downtown salsa night here, only to find that it is no longer running. Just great.

Funny thing is the Salsa Baby studio opened up in more or less the same building as the club that used to have that salsa night, and now that night is gone. I think there was supposed to be some sort of coordination going on between the two. Another Latin night bites the dust. There's also a downtown salsa night on Wednesdays that's still going, but that's a bad night for me (and the venue is a bit seedy, but that's not the main thing stopping me).

Salsa-themed hotel in Cali:

http://www.posadasalsa.com/

It looks like Henry Fiol has a new album out available on his website for free download. The last one, De Cachete was well worth checking out.

I mean, his freebies are easily better than the vast majority of current salsa albums I hear. I suspect they'd get more attention if they were "properly" released.

Home, checking out this new Henry Fiol. It's really hard for me to get excited by his very Cuban guajiro sort of sound.

I am incapable of getting into this right now. I do think his limited voice is a stumbling block, too. I'm sure his lyrics are probably pretty witty and that his music subtly reflects an advanced knowledge of Cuban music, but man, I cannot click with this stuff.

Speaking of Cuban, here's a second Thursday of the month DC Cuban event I did not know about:

In throwing his monthly parties at Sutra Lounge in Washington, DC his goal is to celebrate the culture of Afro-Cubans "through music, documentary films, and personal interactions." On Thursday February 10 DJ Asho, as Ariel is known, will host a special edition of AFROCUBA! to celebrate its 1st year anniversary in DC

"playing the best of salsa, timba, rumba y Yoruba"

http://afrofusionlounge.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/1st-year-anniversary-celebration-of-afrocuba/#more-1782

Then the following Thursday:

THURSDAY, Feb. 17--7:00-9:00 PM-Africa: The Roots of Salsa. Join us in the Artisphere Dome for a multi media presentation chronicling the development of salsa from its beginnings. Afro Latino artists, Arsenio Rodriguez, Beny Moré, Chano Pozo, Antonio Machin, Mario Bauzá, Machito, and Perez Prado are some of the musicians that will be covered. Full circle and back to Africa-- artists like Laba Sosseh, Ricardo Lemvo and Africando will be highlighted. Eileen’s presentation is punctuated with vintage film and music clips

Sounds like that could be really good if done right.

Eileen Torres usually does a good job, although this in part feels like a forced African-American History month thing (I think there's even e reference to that which I did not cut and paste).

know this is old but this was the jam of last weekend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZAeclloEo&feature=player_embedded

I can't say I'm really into that, but it's okay.

Grupo Fantasma are playing tonight about two blocks from where I live, but it's the work week, I'm tired, and my sinuses are aching. I'm not going to do it. But damn, it does gnaw at me that they are so close by and I am missing them.

A big Cuban arts festival is coming to NYC. Here's the music:

http://sicuba.org/en/events//genre/1

Rapper Telmary Diaz, Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Quimbombo,Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñero and others (some based outside of Cuba I think, and some from Cuba )

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/arts/09festival.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

im digging banda. i love those brash, boisterous horn sections!

it's not new-new and you guys are probably really over reissue labels, but i'm really psyched about the cartagena comp on soundway records about to come out
i loooved the lucho bermúdez song on the discos fuentes comp, and this is like that x20 <3

http://soundcloud.com/soundway-records/sets/cartagena-curro-fuentes-the-big-band-cumbia-and-descarga-sound-of-colombia-1962-1972

Actually La Lechera, I still am not all that familiar with cumbia, and I generally like a Lucho Bermúdez type of sound, so I am interested.

Banda falls outside of the scope of this thread, but there are these threads:

Banda music - Mexico
OK, I'LL start it: Rolling Banda/Duranguense/Narcocorrido/Flashy Matching Suits Regional Mexican Thread 2009

I shouldn't really say that since they do play bolero and (probably very watered down) cumbia, but most of what I hear is pretty oompa-ish.

But still, banda grows out of a pretty different sensibility than the music to which this thread is dedicated.

Thank god there are no tubas in salsa.

(I'm sure there may be a few exceptions, but overall. . .)

I don't think we've talked about it yet, but I guess there is where salsa recordings, especially reissues, are headed:

http://www.elwatusi.com/

I am still not thrilled with buying recordings as downloads. I don't like having to worry about the fate of recordings downloaded to a hard drive or an iPod (not that I have one) or whatever. If that were all really super secure and nearly permanent, okay, I'd be more into it; but these things can crash. However, it looks like I'm not going to have much choice in the matter at some point. Check out all the La Lupe recordings alone that are now for sale as downloads, but not otherwise.

This is the song in the background of one of the dance videos I posted (last year I guess), but I've been listening to it on its own since I found out this was the song:

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

I've heard relatively little Mario Ortiz, but he's obviously someone I need to get to.

Gonna see old bluesmen Honeyboy Edwards and Hubert Sumlin tonight and miss Africa: The Roots of Salsa at Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia

didn't catch los premios

lots of good salsa + merengue sets up by dj easy calderon

I've been listening to all sorts of stuff today (most of it not Latin music), but Willie Rosario's Campanero Rumbero, which I listened to for the first time today, stands out. I think I still prefer the sound he developed just a little after this 1978 album, but I need to listen to it some more. (Ah, just googled and this apparently is a compilation. I had been led to believe it was an album. That actually makes more sense.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/arts/music/22esparza.html?ref=music

His renditions of “Dolor y Perdón,” “Wanda” and “Químbara” conjured the spirits of Benny Moré and Celia Cruz.

Mr. Esparza’s interpretations of songs by Stephen Sondheim were revealing in the way they gave the work of this most cerebral composer a shot of adrenaline. “Marry Me a Little,” “What Can You Lose?” (from “Dick Tracy”) and “Goodbye for Now” (from “Reds”) took on an extra edge of immediacy. A Jobim song, “Yo Se Que Te Amaré,” shape-shifted from a silky bossa nova into salsa. As the show continued, Mr. Esparza began dancing while he sang.

Anyone know this Miami-raised Cuban-American Broadway singer?

THURSDAY, March. 10--7:00-9:00 PM-15 Women in Salsa. Join us in the Artisphere Dome next Thursday for a multi media presentation featuring 15 women that broke the gender barrier in salsa. Anacaona-10 Cuban sisters; Myrta Silva, lead singer for Sonora Matancera; La Lupe, Celia Cruz, Yolanda Rivera and La India are a few that will be featured. This is session two of a three session block

Missed Eileen's last such session, maybe I can make this one

discovered a music shop 3 blocks from me, "nuevo rincon sonidero" - has an entire section for just duranguense, and another for cumbia with tribal stuff mixed in - lots of cdrs, they guys that work there also happen to play and record sets from this queens spot "7 train theater" where a lot of bands come through to play. Los daddys' memorabilia and whatnot. Picked up some dvds + cdrs - I ripped this one, surfin! audio! - tribal prehispanic 2009, can't find anything about the surfin audio group, need to go back and ask guy about it. Coincindentally it's the same place I'd heard of that teaches cumbia and other dances, synchronicity.

Glad you are discovering new things (Latin musically speaking), because I certainly haven't been.

Is this tour coming to everyone's neck of the woods (I just want to offer Rudiph another chance to grumble about Manuelle!)

Fri. Mar. 25

Elvis Crespo , Victor Manuelle (salsa singer) , Voltio, Bachata Heightz, Our Latin Thing, Zone D"Tambora, Ivan La Voz, y Jason Cerda at Galaxy Night Club, 2031 University Blvd Hyattsville, MD

Shows like that basically don't tour in my area. I don't feel like complaining about VM today.

fauxmarc, these mixes really do re-shuffle familiar things, don't they? I could do without the repeated words, whatever they are, that pop up every once in a while, but I guess this is okay. Haven't made it all the way through yet.

This mix gets better as it goes on, imo. Maybe it just gets into less familiar (to me) territory as it goes on.

these mixes really do re-shuffle familiar things, don't they

definitely, it's one of the main reasons it's so popular in the global ghettotech / tropical bass / whatever circles - it's a lot of appropriating tradtional sounds, sampling classic tracks and putting them into a whole new context - the same sampling of which is going to result in the repeated words. i can see people not being into the repetition but it's a part of the tribal vibe too.

Chicago salsa collection!

http://www.numerogroup.com/catalog_detail.php?uid=01227

Exclamation point because I've never seen anything like that before, and one does wonder what all those Chicago boricuas are up to.

Those Numero Group reissues are always so nicely put together

!! omg excited !!

It looks like the Amarfis CD is a compilation, which might be all that is needed for sweaty summer evenings (which no longer exist for me, since my life is evidently ruined).

New Los Van Van song, apparently laying their political cards on the table:

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

I don't like the sound, typical Van Van.

Even just those opening chords bother me in a way I can't put my finger on.

I generally keep my distance from salsa super-groups covering old school classics, but going by the audio clips, this sounds really hot:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24222.10?RDRohvNP;;423

Maybe I should go back and check out that Mario Oritz Jr. album from a couple years back (which featured a similar lineup I think).

Wait, is this a compilation of earlier recordings?

In further recognition of my slowly growing realization of Willie Rosario's stature, I just want to say: isn't Anuncio Clasificado/Damelo amazing?

I made it out tonight, after a horrible day (health-wise) yesterday. I heard this, which I don't think I've ever heard before, a Kumbia Kings cover of an old Eddie Palmieri song (which I enjoyed for its novelty value anyway):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joRxOGXN5IQ

Hey salsa DJs, if you insist on mixing salsa, you best be able to beat-match.

Actually I think I just plain enjoy it.

Energy is eternal delight.

Coughing, in clave.

Moderately interesting article on the UK salsa scene(s):

http://candelalive.co.uk/arts-culture/dance/did-salsa-dancers-kill-salsa-music

I especially like: From the World Music perspective, a lot of Latin Music, especially Salsa, sounds too slick and commercial. Rootsy, rustic and organic are the preferred production values of World Music fans over say, the romantic Salsa of Luis Enrique or, or the slick melodrama of Marc Anthony. They would surely never see through the shoulder padded suits to appreciate the genius of Frankie Ruiz - all too idiocyncratically Latin for Worldy music types, however ‘open minded’ they think they are.

It definitely doesn't help that nothing much is happening in salsa music at the moment. I realize that is basically a subjective judgment, but I am no less confident of it. As far as the live band thing goes, I've said it before, but I'll take even a mediocre DJ over a mediocre live band.

"Me Acostumbre" making me almost tear up, as it almost always does. . .

I don't think I've ever looked through (or even noticed) this salsaforums thread before:

http://www.salsaforums.com/showthread.php?t=10742

Inspiring.

Oh, I guess I should say what it is: it's links to people's favorite social dancing video clips.

nice, will check it once i take a minute for a login. also, the dc/md/va arean's nuevotec productions records performances and socials non-stop.

Actually, I saw one of their clips on that thread.

There's some interesting footage of Frank (Frankie? I forget) Martinez, shot from above. I think I appreciated that more than what you posted, since I could see what his feet were doing.

It's frustrating to stay stuck at more or less the same level, thanks to inactivity. With a half year of regular classes and dancing, I could probably improve dramatically. On the other hand, considering how little I have danced over the last seven years, it's gratifying that I have retained as much as I have.

the company thing has been really frustrating, learning ~3 routines at once is daunting, i just need to remember to stick to it.

our pro team members will be performing for the knicks half-time show at madison square garden in a couple of weeks which is pretty cool.

I've been checking some Dancing With the Stars "salsa" clips out on youtube, since everyone always mentions that when I bring up salsa. That shit is pretty repulsive.

I am guessing I know why you think it is repulsive, but could you clarify anyway? Is it too 'over-the-top' melodramatic or too rigid or what?

I don't like the fact that they frequently don't play salsa for the salsa dancing (i.e., they do salsa steps to other types of music, which is a very ballroom sort of thing to do). The dancing doesn't seem expressive to me. It doesn't look like anyone is feeling anything. Maybe they are, but it doesn't come across. And yes, I guess you could say it's too over-the-top melodramatic and too rigid. I don't generally like the way the dancers move (at least in the clips I watched--which was enough of a sample for me). I don't even generally enjoy watching regular salsa performances though, so I wouldn't expect to like this. I feel like I'm coming back around (if I ever really abandoned the perspective) to feeling that gaudy Vegas-style bad taste really is in bad taste. Kind of tired of the whole "aren't we so gauche and glitzy and campy?" thing. Hopefully that doesn't condemn me to embracing an indie rock sort of style.

I don't like the fact that for a lot of people, this show will be their image of salsa dancing.

^^^ plus the dancers do not appear to be having the sort of natural fun that one should be having while salsa dancing
if it's not fun, you're doing it wrong

even before i started dancing i'd frequently hear dancers complain about salsa routines in things like stars + sytycd - they're generally pretty terrible (and usually on1 but whatever), reduced to a bunch of shoulder shakes and "hot" poses but on the other hand i can't imagine getting any sort of natural rhythm for it down in the time they're allotted to learn these things

still have that cartagena comp in heavy rotation -- i wonder if i should spring for the michi sarmiento record too? i seem to have a real appetite for that bouncy sort of jazzy coastal horn sound. did not appreciate it when local npr station used the opening part of "hong kong" for their pledge drive transition music, though!! over and over and over again for like a week.

lol, all things considered is doing moombahton today, 4-6pm.

(and usually on1 but whatever)

No on1 bashing! ;_;

(Though I guess it's fair-play for my mild bashing of salsa performances.)

but on the other hand i can't imagine getting any sort of natural rhythm for it down in the time they're allotted to learn these things

True. That's one thing I feel I have going for me: I am far from being a really high-level dancer, but I feel extremely comfortable with the music at this point, which I think gives my dancing a more natural feel (at least once I'm warmed up).

moombahton, go figure. I think tribal guarachero is more significant actually.

I'm mostly trying not to buy any CDs until I have save up money to move into a casita rental (which could take half a year or so at this point, since I just bought a car and ended up spending more than I'd originally intended to, of course). So far, I am interested in getting that Cartagena comp., the Chicago boricua comp., and the Puerto Rican All Stars CD (which I think is also a compilation?). Not too much new and exciting though, that I'm aware of. I assume some things should start dropping in May.

not bashing, just disappointed there still isn't much exposure for the rest of the world to realize on2 even exists

I'm sure they'd mangle it if they were to dance on2.

But I see your point.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-02-23/music/nyc-pianist-arturo-o-farrill-heads-to-cuba-finds-himself-and-brings-his-father-home/

Just read this long February article about Arturo O'Farrill's trip to Cuba with his big band/orchestra. Interesting observations about Arturo's Dad Chico and more (Cuban politics stuff etc) although I haven't heard any of the recent Latin-jazz efforts of Arturo or colleagues connected with him. I wonder if these recent releases bring a new vitality to this genre.

The first in North America they say!(see language below).

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Italian bachata?

I think the person teaching that workshop (assuming it's just one man with a partner) was in Albuquerque this fall. I took some workshops with someone from DC back in the fall. The bachazouk is a give away, since that is his own special blend. I didn't care for the teacher personally. Some of the more basic stuff was useful, but some of it was a little too over-the-top. Specifically, there was a move he was teaching which involved a partner bending backward and holding their own weight up, but I almost fell over trying to hold up someone who was not actually able to balance well and hold her own weight. I felt the teacher was careless about jumping into advanced material.

Sadly, I have not retained any of the more basic things I learned in the workshop. I am thinking of some day taking some private lessons to just work on my bachata basic, since it's not where I want to be--and pretty much all I have is the basic. Also, I'd like to reserve bachata as the dance that I learn by focusing more on just the movement, rather than going for lots of patterns, since it's still relatively new in U.S. Latin dance clubs and lots of people still just dance it fairly simply.

Piel Canela Dance Company doing the Knicks v Magic half-time show tonight at Madison Square Garden, game starts at 8 on ESPN + ESPN3. Includes company founder + director Joe Burgos and the main people that've mentored me here, the youngest just turned 21. Excited to see them do their thing with such huge exposure.

cool

buut apparently they don't broadcast half-time shows? i know nothing about sports media.

did monchy + alexandra do the original dos locos? i don't really like when bachata covers things but am fine with duranguense covering anything. los horoscopos de durango is coming and found this

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

x-post- Correct, they do not broadcast basketball halftime shows and the only football one that is broadcast is the Super Bowl. I guess you could try to buy a ticket from a scalper outside the Garden or try Craigslist (as the Magic are a good team and the Knicks are doing well for them this season).

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/03/23/why-juan-de-marcos-gonzalez-wont-make-you-pachanguear-till-youre-ready/

My quick q and a interview with Juan De Marcos of Afro-Cuban All Stars (and Buena Vista and Sierra Maestra) fame. They're at Strathmore outside DC tonight. He lives in Mexico City these days

Just downloaded a few random (what-I-could-find) cumbia villera mixes. So far, so good. I think I have somehow never gotten around to attempting to search under that label until now.

Nice q&a. I would have mentioned timba in the question about using current styles. For that matter, they already have done things with a timba feel and sound.

Especially recommended: DJ Lachin Cumbia Villera Mix

I think what I like about cumbia villera is that it sounds contemporary (with borrowings from other things happening in the musical world) without losing the essential cumbia feeling.

Back home, and this cumbia villera is all sounding good.

I know I'm being boring, but one thing that's very striking is that I'm enjoying this stuff a lot without knowing anything about it and without having anything much to say about it. Not that that really comes as a surprise to me, far from it actually.

Love how that same Psychic-TV-sample-like-shout-sample (well it does sound like that) that runs through so much reggaeton appears in this stuff as well. God only know where it's from originally. (God and Wayne Marshall.)

Nice mix of this stuff here:

http://soundgoods.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/la-villa-cumbiera-mixtape/

Thanks. Will check it out later.

I'm not going to that Victor Manuelle/Elvis Crespo and others show tonight in the Maryland suburbs of DC at Galaxy, although I'm curious about one of the many opening acts listed-- "Our Latin Thing" --is that Fania people, and are they relegated to the bottom of this bill?

I think Our Latin Thing is just a Fania cover band of sorts:

http://www.examiner.com/latin-culture-in-new-york/our-latin-thing-re-lives-the-magic-of-legendary-salsa-band-fania-all-stars

Thanks

I'm sifting through a ton of cumbia (and other things picked up along the way) and this is terrific:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9aP69iRlWA

I think I like it in particular because of the heavy emphasis on guitar and also the horns in the outro, which sounds more salsa-like (at least in terms of orchestration). A lot of what I'm checking out is bands mentioned on the cumbia thread, most of which I somehow haven't made any effort to look into until now.

don't discount our latin thing as just a cover band though, it's a really talented group of musicians - the lead singer of la excelencia left to work with them i think.

i haven't heard this mentioned anywhere but just noticed that nyc's big latin station mega 97.9 is broadcasting from el morocco in harlem tonight for the first time - it's only significant in that sunday's are their big "escandalo" glbt parties. in the most recent ratings i could find 2008, mega's the largest spanish station and 3rd largest overall in the city. kind of awesome.

New Jose Alberto CD. I'd love for it to be good, but his voice has been sounding extremely hoarse in recent years, unless that's changed.

New Yorkers: Author Ned Sublette will be on a panel this Saturday April 2nd at 1:30 at the CUNY Grad Center with Arturo O'Farrill, James Early, and Michael Mossman

The only way Latin music can get mentioned on NPR is when a non-Latin hipster record label releases something. Better than no coverage at all though. Here's Oliver Wang (whose blog and writing I like) on Chicago salsa:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/134980252/the-secret-history-of-chicago-salsa

Slight exaggeration there, and I'm no NPR-lover obviously. Also, talking about salsa in Chicago really is a bit out of the ordinary.

My god, Olive Wang sounds just like an NPR announcer.

In New York, they drew heavily on Cuban styles such as the guaguanco and son montuno, but in Chicago, the local community turned to Puerto Rican influences, especially folkloric dance rhythms like the plena.

I didn't notice in going over clips from this compilation that it seemed like there were a lot of songs working off distinctively Puerto Rican rhythms, but it's misleading to act as though NYC salseros didn't also borrow from plena and bomba; and likewise, some of this Chicago salsa is working off the usual Cuban foundations.

Good point

My god, Olive Wang sounds just like an NPR announcer.
Worst porn name ever?
(I know it was a typo, it just made me lol for real)

Haha, whoops. I missed that typo completely.

Cuban sonero/timbero Pepito (most notable for his work with Cesar Pupy Pedroso) has collaborated with José Lugo (who you might remember from this ho-hum project, with lots of big names on it, from a couple years back). I have liked Pepito off and on (with a few of his performances with Pupy remaining favorites over time), so I was pretty interested in hearing this, but I find the results disappointing. I don't like the heavy drum-beats that break up the overall rhythm and I don't like the smooth jazziness of much of the song. But you can get to it from here:

http://www.timba.com/blog_posts/cuba-puerto-rico

That new Soneros All Stars song that comes after it on the timba.com jukebox is worth checking out as well. I think that if the timbre of the lead vocals weren't so grating (rumba style) I might like it a lot more. The timba style piano is definitely the best part for me (along with the tres).

Also, this is beyond the purview of this thread, and maybe my interest in it means I'm turning (back?) into a hipster-whirled guy who sneaks NPR on the side (too lazy to come up with a better description than that), but this sounds AMAZING:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSbZOJlO5Yg

(Actually I wouldn't mind people talking about rumba flamenca on this thread anyhow. Not sure this stuff qualifies as rumba flamenca per se though.)

Acid Rumba. (So this turns up in the search engine.)

I think I hear a demonstration going on in the distance, as it should be in 2011.

This compilation is only going to be on vinyl? What nonsense. I guess I won't be buying it after all. Will be on the look-out for illicit vinyl rips of it, however.

There's a vinyl rip of an entire Morena y Clara (one of the acts included on the Acid Rumba compilation) out in the ether.

http://www.saocodc.com/reyna_interview.cfm

Fauxmarc, ever heard of a DC timba dj named Reyna "La Farandulera" Morales? I had not but I see she will be dj'ing at Artisphere Tues. April 26th.

i haven't, when i lived there i was just getting into latin music so was mostly just learning classics and radio material, hadn't gotten into the local scene before i moved, don't know much of it

Surprisingly great little (old) Colombian music collection:

http://captainentropy.tumblr.com/post/4301866620/el-disco-del-ano-some-great-latin-music-para-toda

Ha. I borrowed my dad's truck and he had the Tego Calderon cd I burnt for him like 4 years ago in the player.

Tell me more about tribal guarachero. This video has me intrigued:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEiMA3QtYWc

Speaking of older people and their listening habits, I think I just found a new, non-threateningly young and hip barber shop. I think I just heard part of Gil Scott-Heron's album from last year, and I liked it.

fauxmarc is the thread "expert" on tribal guarachero. These are a good start:

http://www.discobelle.net/2010/08/10/3ball-mty-ep/
http://gainesindamix.blogspot.com/2010/11/dj-crabbe-demolition-tape-8.html
http://soundgoods.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/tribalismo-tropical-mixtape/
http://nrmal.net/podcast/adi-s-gilipollas-vol-2/1/

Thinking of going to another one of those well-publicized salsa dance fund-raiser events tonight. So far I've seen nothing in the weekly or daily paper about it, and today is the first time I've seen it announced on the sign outside the venue (and I've been looking). But it's ridiculously close to my apartment, so if it ends up being dead I can walk home.

I hope I don't have to wear those boots if I want to dance to tribal.

Weird. I would not have imagined such a scenario. Interesting that Erick Rincon says there is a bigger tribal scene in the US than in Mexico. I wonder if there's anything going on here in New Mexico.

Thanks, Rudi!

i found out about that video from some mexican (living in mexico) heads into digital cumbia and tribal, if i recall their comments at the time made me think the boots were actually a joke made up for the video, i dunno

(outdoing dominican pointy shoes maybe?)

Yeah, I started to wonder if that was an April Fool's Day video a little after watching it. I think it might be a hoax.

Does Vice do that sort of thing?

didn't even notice it was uploaded on april fools. not beyond vice at all.

I didn't notice exactly either but then I started noticing most blog entries about it were from the beginning of April. It did have me for a while and I was more on the fence about it than convinced it was a fake until you said something.

It looks like the pointy thing might be based on reality though.

http://www.holamun2.com/shows/reventon/chismex/el-desmadre/xavier-glowing-at-the-club?sort=2

I dunno. I still need to drive around town with this stuff playing on my car stereo. See what kind of reactions I get.

This stuff is real and it's pretty crazy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4HQwpJRA4

Some pretty long boots here (along with a link to that video):

http://hypescience.com/moda-bizarra-as-botas-guarachero/

Hmmmmm, lots of long pointy boots here, maybe not quite at the extreme shown in that video, but on the way: http://www.chuntaritos.com/

I think the joke is on us, this shit is real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poulaine

Ha, I didn't notice the connections to either Vice or April Fool's Day.

I assume the music's all real tho.

The music is real, unless it's a very long-running prank, in which case maybe reggaeton isn't real either, or anything else really. I think the boot thing is real too. I ultimately found photos on chuntaritos site that showed people in boots as long as the ones in the video.

From the Wikipedia article linked to above:

At the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, French Crusaders were forced to cut off the tips of their poulaines in order to be able to run away.

Time for me to catch up on the stuff you guys have been highlighting. I have been overdosing on Puerto Rican bomba and jazz trombonist, conga, piano player and teacher
William Cepeda. He lives in NYC now.

Louise Ernst’s 2002 documentary “El Trombone de Bomba, William Cepeda’s Jazz” about him is going to show Monday the 18th for free at 7 at the Library of Congress' 64 seat Pickford Theatre in Washington DC and I am writing a preview. The doc includes fascinating footage of Cepeda with energetic dancers and conga players in a parade, a town square, a packed living room and on the beach in his island home town of Loiza. I love the speedy African-rooted bomba sound and its fun watching the interaction between the bomba dancers and players.

Cool blog with some tribal remixes: http://401.mx/

nice, looks like a good music blog in general for tropical + future bass, currently mentions dutty artz + dubbel dutch up front

I don't even know what most of that means, so I guess that's how cool it is.

amazing pointy boots have been a mainstay for fans of finnish rock-n-roll for many years now

http://s11.allstarpics.net/images/orig/n/5/n5dt7oe1e85ff51.jpg

Lol, sorry to ignore your more on-topic post about Cepeda, curmudgeon, but I have nothing to say about him that I haven't said before.

x-post

Well, look at that.

No problem. While the Cepeda movie is relevant in that it is showing next week in DC, its old news in that the movie is old and Cepeda is just off doing his own thing these days with little impact. I still love bomba and plena and am curious if there are younger Puerto Ricans keeping the genre and its dancing alive.

I saw that Finnish movie with the band wearing those pointy shoes and the hair like that-- I forgot what it was called.

Coming up in a few weeks:

Enrique Iglesias, Luis Fonsi, Christian Castro, Jencarlos Canela and Gloria Trevi have been added to the roster of stars performing later this month at the 2011 Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami Beach.

The singers join the recently announced performances by Maná, Pitbull, Camila, Don Omar and Banda El Recodo - internationally recognized artists who will perform on Premios Billboard, April 28, at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central at the BankUnited Center, airlng live on Telemundo.

I saw that Finnish movie with the band wearing those pointy shoes and the hair like that-- I forgot what it was called.

real band (sort of .. ) : leningrad cowboys
first film : leningrad cowboys go to america
but i believe that they released records prior to the film.

I saw the Leningrad Cowboys live a couple of years after the movie. They were very much a live band. And to tie things to this thread, they sang an extremely torrid love ballad in Spanish mid-set.

I can't remember if it was just Marco Marcos who dislikes Choco Orta, or if it was fauxmarc as well, but she has a new album out and I'm interested, even though I have to admit I don't go back to her last one. This one has Willie Sotelo at the realm, which seems more promising than having Gilberto Santa Rosa in charge, but the audio clips don't sound that different from what the last album sounded like: http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24263.10?PEbaJ6be;;382

hadn't heard of choco orta

am really into this recent adolescentes doing persona ideal (me tengo que ir) - nice to see without usual screaming crowds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCzTCwCXW1E

there's a chance we might be performing at the new jersey salsa congress, the invite came really late (it's a week away) and dunno if we're ready yet.

Good luck.

The Kickstarter fundraising campaign for a movie doc on Puerto Rican plena is getting close

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/864319395/a-story-of-plena-a-film-about-music-and-identity

A work-in-progress screening will occur April 30th before the Bio Ritmo gig at U St. Music Hall in W. DC

Sorry dawg, no money here.

Oh, wait, this is not the bus stop?

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/15/buena_vista_auto_club

I found this great 70s cumbia track on an old annual hits collection from Colombia (that I found from one of the blogs I linked to above--actually I linked to a similar compilation on that blog earlier on this thread):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RBPycoX2nM

As I expected, I'm finding that cumbia is good music for driving around (though salsa still has the best effect on me in terms of calming my new-driver nerves).

That Adolescentes clip is okay, but I don't really understand why anyone would want to copy the El Gran Combo dance routine sort of thing for their singers any more. I love El Gran Combo, but that schtick is a bit corny, and too stiff. I can accept it from them, but why anyone would be imitating it now I don't really get.

I'm also driving around El Burque bumpin' the tribal guarachero.

Middle-aged Anglo hipster scum.

Is there really no Luisito Carrion best of type compilation in print? What is wrong with this world?

i love this, guy doing lorna's papi chulo in erm, arabic style or whatever (what exactly are those drums called?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw2a0DDmMXc

I'm not even familiar with the original (listening to it now).

I think an Arabic tambourine is called a riq. I wasn't familiar with Lorna's version or this guy's and I like 'em both. I think I like his better.

oh, lorna's is a reggaeton classic (only female one i can think of barring something from ivy)

You've never heard 'papi chulo' Rudi? That one is ubiquitious probably one of the top 5 most popular reggaeton songs ever. I remember there was a time where I even heard it on an airport in the middle of Russia.

It sounds sort of familiar, but it's not like something that's ever registered with me.

FauxMarc and others

Would you go see Calle 13 at a late Thursday night gig in a semi-obscure location

Calle 13 Thursday May 5th at
Galaxy Night Club
2031 University Blvd East
Hyattsville MD

sure - i don't know if it's applicable now but be warned that when i saw them at the 930 club it was mostly teenagers, i felt old. that was years ago though and otherwise the set was a good time.

I would totally go, but I'm sure I would feel old. Still, I bet it's a fun show!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/arts/music/ofarrill-legacy-of-afro-cuban-jazz.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28

NY Times article on the now 3 generations of Ofarrill Cuban-jazz players. They will be participating in the 3 month Si Cuba Fest that starts in May in NYC (and has angered a few diehard Castro-haters)

thanks for reminder to check out the si, cuba! site - i've seen flyers around the city but they didn't really give any insight into what kind of events are going on (turns out there's a lot!)

can i talk about cumbia here? there some strange cumbia tracks ive heard lately. especially one cumbia track with some odd Enigma-style gregorian chanting in the background. anyone any clue what this is? id love to get a copy of it.

Maybe Rudiph or FauxMarc know.

Here's a link to my quick e-mail interview with a folklorist whose work-in-progess movie doc on Puerto Rican plena music is showing Saturday night at U St. Music Hall in W. DC

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/04/29/rhythm-of-the-pleneros-paulina-guerreros-plena-doc-at-u-street-music-hall/

especially one cumbia track with some odd Enigma-style gregorian chanting in the background. anyone any clue what this is?

No idea. I don't have a very in-depth knowledge of cumbia.

i can't identify much of any cumbia

sort of thread related but not: lol at tego + don omar in fast five, this was fun

I'm going to see Calle 13 the next night, in NYC. Really looking forward to it. Their albums are so sonically diverse, I'm wondering how much the arrangements are going to change when it's a full live band.

I've managed to miss all of their W. DC appearances over the years(now defunct H2O; 930 club; elsewhere?), so I want to go Thursday even if I have to get up early for work the next morning and it's a bit of a drive to get there and stuff.

i forgot about the Billboard Latin Music Awards the other night (maybe the live performances are online somewhere)

Leading the fray with nine honors was Iglesias, while Shakira followed with six Billboard Latin Music Awards. Newcomer Prince Royce, who continued the Aventura tradition of blending danceable bachata with urban sensibility, won four trophies, including Latin Artist of the Year, while Aventura themselves, along with Camila, Daddy Yankee and Juan Luis Guerra received three awards. The 2011 edition of the Billboard Latin Music Awards, presented by State Farm, was broadcast live on the Telemundo Network from the BankUnited Center in Miami and also seen in more than 35 countries.

I think I might dislike Camila more than some of you dislike Juan Luis Guerra

I only know old fashioned cumbia, like "la pollera colora" etc -- nothing new. I'm of no help, basically.

x-post

Prince Royce, the young singer who gained attention with his bilingual cover of "Stand By Me," took home Latin Artist of the Year New, as well as Tropical Airplay Artist of the Year Solo and Tropical Album of the Year for his self-titled debut.

Aventura, the group responsible for the mass popularity of urban bachata, won for Tropical Albums Artist of the Year Duo or Group while their song "El Malo" won Tropical Airplay Song of the Year.

Prince Royce, the young singer who gained attention with his bilingual cover of "Stand By Me," took home Latin Artist of the Year New, as well as Tropical Airplay Artist of the Year Solo and Tropical Album of the Year for his self-titled debut.

lol this makes me angry

Too predictable crossover you mean? I only know his version of that song.

I even heard it played at my son's high school baseball game the other night.

surprised anyone's never heard the original, 40 years old. i was never particularly into it and the bachata cover just rubs me the wrong way, doesn't help that it's so ubiquitous

oh, 50 years old i guess

surprised anyone's never heard the original

I think he meant the only thing by Prince Royce that he knows is his version of that song, though at first I read it the way you did.

I don't hate Camila, but man are they boring and ignorable. And Prince Royce is fucking awful.

Oops. I know the Ben E. King original and the movie version etc. (and I saw the 2 of them duit on the song on an award show last year) I meant that I have never heard any other Prince Royce songs.

I don't mind that Prince Royce cover. Camila strike me as schlocky slick mainstream pop-rock, a genre I dislike more than bachata covers of pop-soul.

duet

I think this is a pretty awful moment for mainstream Latin music (in the genres that interest me). Of course, I can't point to underground things I'm excited about either. It already seems like that Prince Royce song has been around forever.

ok i can hate on it less actually, i hadn't thought about him past the stand by me cover. didn't realize he did carazon sin cara also, may check the album.

Hi All

Long time no speak, work and stuff, I'll try and check back here more frequently.

Someone ^ mentioned Choca Otra and her new CD, I haven't heard it but a friend told me it has an anti-male sentiment running all the way through it lol. She has a good low budget video made by an old internet aquaintence of mine up on youtube at the moment to promote the album.

Has anyone heard the Sonido Criminal CD yet? His voice isn't great over the whole thing but when he hits his groove like on Boriquen it's hot. He is a young guy who had a really hard upbringing and has tried to turn his life around, he wrote, arranged and played most of everything on the CD himself. Pretty fantastic effort if you ask me.

CD of the year so far for me is Jose Raul "Lips" Morales - Tumbaito Y Trompeta. A great recording with a real grity feel, almost Libre like, great arrangements and choice of material, stellar vocals too. Herman Olivera has a guest spot, he was over in London last month and I shot a couple of crappy vids on my phone, the sound is actually OK if you turn up the bass.

http://tinyurl.com/6828jye

I'm also listening to two tracks on the Fuego Futuro CD from last year, it's standard genre stuff but for some reason A Mi Manera and Mi Prisionera are lodged in my brain.

Los Adolesentes are too under-rated in my view, they put on a great show and drop some real salsa dura bombs amongst the pop stuff most people associate them with.

Have you lot heard all the furore about the changes made to the Grammys?

The Grammys decided to cut back on the number of awards and lump some stuff together. Not good for artists in non-pop genres

Calle 13 to record in English next:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/be-specific-calle-13s-residente-talks-about-singing-in-english-for-the-first-time/2011/05/04/AFompPnF_blog.html

oh! that is so interesting. i cannot WAIT to make my students write about this. sorry i know this is extremely dorky but i can't help it.

could turn out clunky but i love the intentions

Past reviewers have compared you to Eminem

ew, really?

also: By Allison Stewart

is this mtv's?

nah http://www.npr.org/people/5568578/allison-l-stewart

I know -- nothing at all like Eminem lyrically or otherwise. Like, maybe RATM or something, I dunno.
It could be really fun to watch his lyrics develop as a language learner -- I love how frank he is about learning and language ego. Love that guy!

On the first Calle 13 cd I think he rapped in a whiny, exaggerated tone that I guess could vaguelly be likened to Eminem (although not lyrically and he sounds less like that now). As for the gig at Galaxy outside W. DC in Hyattsville, MD last night--

One of my fears about last night's gig came true. The show was at an out-of-the-way club--Galaxy on University Boulevard in Hyattsville. Instead of starting at 10ish like we were told, it started at 12:50 am and ended at 2:20 am. By the time I dropped off my friend in DC and got home and went to sleep it was 3:10 am. As I live close to work but still move slow in the morning, I set my alarm for 7:30. I had some coffee this morning and need more. Never again on a weekday will I go to that place. The sound was terrible and there were around 400 or 500 or so 20-something Hispanics (my guess on the demographics) there at $40 a ticket in advance ($60 at the door) plus us. Everyone got patted down twice by different security people before entry-- we had to hold our keys and change and phones and wallet and such in our hands while a tougher than an airport patdown occured. As for Calle 13, as you know they are ambitious--while Residente rapped, and a guest woman vocalist rapped and sang, the other member Visitante was playing a theramin, accordion, melodica, guitar and his laptop at different points in the gig; they had a 3 person horn section; a guy using 2 big marching band drums; a conga player; bassist; guitarist and trap drummer. Not generic Puerto Rican rap/programmed club dance music at all (sometimes that's good, sometimes not so depending on the song). I just wish the bass, trap drum, and programmed low note sounds from a laptop were not so dominant in the mix at the expense of the other instruments and the vocals. The horns sounded ska-like at times (which I did not mind but I think some of you do).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/in-concert-calle-13-at-galaxy-sports-bar-and-grill/2011/05/06/AF1g3O9F_blog.html#pagebreak

Oh, when they showed Visitante's homepage on the screen behind him there was an icon labeled "Tego project". Will this Calderon effort ever reach the public?

Good review! It helps me make up my mind that maybe I do not want to go to the show here if not only because I'm not really psyched about a show that starts at 1am. (Well, I want to go, but I'm not going to.) Tickets in Chicago are $18!

Maybe the Chicago gig will start earlier and have a better sound system. The Jenk*ns review in the W. Post is a tad more negative than I would be, and I think club-thumping Calle 13 beats are different than the stuff the dj played beforehand(remix of Usher/BEP "Oh My Gosh" or whatever its called; other crossover hits like that; plus bachata;"Stand by Me"; commercial rock en espanol) although the Calle 13 beats did lose some of their differences in the murky Galaxy sound.

It is at the historic Congress theater! I don't have high hopes for it starting early.

I'm going tonight and the publicist told me the show starts at 9. I hope they're not fucking with me.

Irving Plaza in NYC usually starts gigs early enough I think.

Yeah, NYC stagehands' unions are no fuckin' joke, and it's a Live Nation venue. I predict they'll be offstage by 11:30 at the drop dead latest. I hope so, 'cause I've gotta file copy (and photos) to the Voice by noon the next day.

I see that Cubans Los Munequitos de Matanzas are in NYC Friday and Saturday night

Fri, May 6 at 8 pm
Sat, May 7 at 8 pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre

a guest woman vocalist rapped and sang

their sister, pg-13? part of the group

Yep (I did not realize that till I read Mark's review). On the latest cd they had a number of guest vocalists

Well, Calle 13 killed it last night. They came on 45 minutes after advertised set-time, but the band is absolutely ferocious and Residente and PG-13 are a great onstage team.

I heard they did 3 encores in NY and Chicago (but none in the DC area gig because it started so late)

Calle 13 Entren los Que Quieran Tour Schedule UPDATED

May 5 Galaxy Sports, Washington, D.C.
May 6 Irving Plaza, New York City, NY
May 7 Congress Theatre, Chicago, IL
May 8 Edinburg Baseball Stadium, Edinburgh, TX-CANCELLED
May 9 House of Blues, Dallas, TX
May 11 Venue TBA, San Diego, CANCELLED
May 12 Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
May 13 Crest Theatre, Fresno, CA
May 14 The Factory, San Francisco, CANCELLED
May 15 Venue TBA, Sacramento, CA CANCELLED
May 27 Venue TBA, Miami, FL CANCELLED
May 29 Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV

According to the Rogers & Cowan agency, all canceled dates, including Miami, are being rebooked

They're gonna be on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show May 10th

Not three encores so much as a three-song encore. My review.

Nice review (although I think his onstage manner is pretty typical rap-like)

Could be; I haven't been to a live hip-hop show in about 20 years. But he did remind me of Fela the way he strutted around and interacted with the band.

A little of both.

So neither the NY Times nor any Chicago daily paper apparently covered this Calle 13 tour.

I didn't see any writers or photographers from English-language outlets at the show, no. That kinda bummed me out.

Yeah, that's super lame. I expect that to change within a few years.

I once thought that but now I'm skeptical. I wonder if any of the Chicago headquarters Pitchfork folks went to the gig there?

I wonder if any of the Chicago headquarters Pitchfork folks went to the gig there?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. If you can point me to a single shred of evidence that anyone Pitchfork-affiliated has even heard of Calle 13, I'll be shocked.

Google's not really showing anything and while Pitchfork has run monthly columns on obscure Brit genres, they have not had one involving non-English language genres. They even dropped the reggae/dancehall one they used to have. My alt-weekly now mostly wants just interviews and cd reviews but not concert reviews, so I sadly did not write about Calle 13 (was too busy with other stuff before the tour in order to do an interview).

The NY Times has covered them in the past. Pete Margasak wrote a preview in the Chicago Reader, but I didn't see any links to Chicago daily papers. If Calle 13 can't get crossover attention that doesn't offer much hope for Latino artists that are less "artsy" and "political".

They don't have a crossover hit like "Hips Don't Lie" yet though...once they do, I think it'll be on.

maybe on that next English-language project...but only if its pop-friendly enough as defined by the powers that be. Shakira's latest I read had a hit in Europe but not in the US

I'm actually genuinely surprised Jon Caramanica didn't review it for the Times. I guess he was too busy monitoring the comments on his Tyler, the Creator story.

calle 13's meager crossover attention came and left a long time ago, i'm thinking around the mtv 3 launch

-- barring the alluded-to-future-diplo collab that would make them all blog-worthy again and then i guess re-crossing

I guess you're right.

i'm not sure that blogworthy is the sort of fame i'm talking about -- i mean mainstream pitbull-style fame, not arcade fire fame.

I think Residente could easily start challenging Pitbull for the guest-rapper-on-fuckin-everything crown, once/if he turns out to be decent in English. The trouble is, Calle 13 really haven't forged any powerful alliances the way Pitbull has in terms of hooking up first with Lil Jon and then later with DJ Khaled (and by extension Rick Ross). Calle 13 need someone in mainstream American hip-hop to "adopt" them.

i wasn't saying blogworthyness itself would be the fame, but if they got a good push there (specifically at diplo-collab hype levels) combined with the bit of mainstream success they've already had i could easily see the mainstream media jumping back on them, if not due to legimate interest then at least in an attempt for relevance. that collab is purely vaporware at this point anyway (they hung out in cuba with switch and were all "we'd love to work together one day" and that was it i think), just saying.

Calle 13 need someone in mainstream American hip-hop to "adopt" them.

no way, i'd be seriously disappointed if they went that route, they've got a good vibe of creativity, positivity, social consciousness, etc in their music that stateside mainstream hip-hop has an appalling lack of. it's over if i have to start hearing residente talk about nothing but his stacks of bills, how much drinking and what girls he's doing in the club. i like that they're a good mix of things, not just hip-hop (and especially not what passes for hip-hop in the states today)

I think Residente could easily start challenging Pitbull for the guest-rapper-on-fuckin-everything crown, once/if he turns out to be decent in English.
totally agree! that's why i can't wait to hear him speak english. i also have this ridiculous grandiose idea that someday c13 will perform at my school (where i work...as an english teacher)

guys now that i am living a long way from latin america, somehow something in my brain has clicked into place and i found myself buying the new Michi Sarmiento album sight unseen (i think based on something La Lechera wrote) and the more i listen to it, the more i hear in it. i just wanted to say that. and that i wish i could fucking dance to it properly.

nice! it's fierce, right? great dance music. if you don't have the Colombia! discos fuentes comp you should get it immediately.
this one
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm105908422/colombia-golden-age-discos-fuentes-various-artists-cd-cover-art.jpg

Don't have that one, but that label does a nice job of packaging old stuff. Will have to look into it

I forgot to tape Calle 13 on Jimmy Kimmel last night. Maybe it's online somewhere. Google is not showing any new "news" articles about them or "blog" posts as their tour heads into the western US.

you have to watch a commercial first, but http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live/video-detail/featured/calle-13-baile-de-los-pobres-dance-of-the-poor/pl_PL5520977/vd_VD55126176

Sort of amazing he got away with wearing that T-shirt on network television. And what pipeline is he protesting (he had "no gasoducto" written on his chest, and I missed what was written on his back)?

I was wondering the same thing. Know what? They should cover a Fugazi song.

good performance

They were better in NYC.

Going to see Bomba Estereo tomorrow. Pretty psyched. Will report back if anyone cares.

Maybe you can change my mind. I come to knee-jerk judgments regarding some goups based on how they are marketed and only a little bit of listening to the groups. It's not a good approach I know.

I think this review of Tito Puente Jr and Jon Secada with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center is kinda funny(or sad)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/05/13/jon-secada-and-tito-puente-jr-at-the-kennedy-center-reviewed/

nice, i've known mike for a while now, funny guy - over the past year he's been primarily writing ballet/orchestra reviews for the city paper i think but hope he gets to cover other things, he's got a great range of interests in music and otherwise. he does a punk/hardcore show on one of the local radio stations.

Ah, that explains why he did a Wilson Center (location of dc punk) history piece

Los Tigres Del Norte con Residente de Calle 13 (for 1 song)!

Tr3s: MTV, Musica y Mas announces the premiere of the highly- anticipated, star-studded "MTV Unplugged: Los Tigres del Norte & Friends" on Sunday, May 22 at 8:00pm ET. Taped at the Hollywood Palladium earlier this year, the legends of Regional Mexican music took the stage for a larger-than-life performance alongside superstars Juanes, Calle 13's Residente, Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine/One Day as a Lion), Paulina Rubio, Diego Torres, and Andres Calamaro. The "MTV Unplugged: Los Tigres del Norte & Friends" album and DVD hits stores May 24 and will also travel abroad with premieres on MTV and VH1 Latin America and MTV Spain.

"There are no words that can convey just how proud we are of this very special recording. We were honored to be the first group to bring Regional Mexican Music to the MTV Unplugged stage, and we are flattered to be joined by these extremely talented artists that we are blessed to also call our friends," commented Los Tigres. "Their wonderful performances helped us craft powerful new interpretations of many of our favorite songs - creating an album that captures one of the most memorable nights of our career," they added.
...Zack de la Rocha tapped into his Mexican roots for a heartfelt and candid performance of "Somos Mas Americanos," while Juanes and his guitar took center stage for a roaring rendition of "La Jaula de Oro." Argentine pop icon Diego Torres delivered a stellar vocal performance of "Mi Buena Suerte," and fellow compatriot Andres Calamaro added his unique sound to "La Mesa del Rincon." Mexico's "Golden Girl" Paulina Rubio joined the group for "Golpes en el Corazon," and held her own as the only female onstage. The show culminated with a powerful performance of "America" featuring Rene from Calle 13, an appropriate ending to a musical extravaganza of heritage and camaraderie.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tr3s-mtv-musica-y-mas-presents-first-ever-regional-mexican-unplugged-with-the-premier-of-mtv-unplugged-los-tigres-del-norte--friends-on-sunday-may-22-at-800pm-et-121627678.html

Further re Calle 13 on Jimmy Kimmel:

http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2011/05/calle-13-vs-fortuno-and-hidroaysen.html

Calle 13's west coast gigs got little to no online coverage.

On a different subject, it seems everytime I turn on radio station EL Zol 99.1 I hear bachata. Eh, some of its ok but much does not wow me.

from Afropop Worldwide e-mail:

For New Yorkers: my special picks are La Excellencia, Que Bajo!? tonight at Tobacco Warehouse and Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars on the 21st. Also Danza Contemporanea de Cuba (the Contemporary Dance Group of Cuba” (see “Si Cuba” program) on May 20-21.

On Sunday, May 22nd at 1 pm, world-renowned artists, celebrities, writers, activists and members of the media will gather at the world-famous Nuyorican Poets’ Café, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to voice their opposition to the recent announcement by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), to eliminate Latin Jazz from Grammy consideration, as well as many other styles of music, representative of the diversity of the American musical landscape.
Sunday, May 22, 2011 -- 1 PM
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 East 3rd Street
between Avenues B & C
New York City
(212) 780.9386

Panelists and guests will deliver brief remarks in support of the reinstatement of the eliminated fields. A Q&A will follow. Some of the distinguished panelists and guests from the various music communities affected by this decision who will participate are:

Eddie Palmieri - Legendary pianist, 8-time Grammy winner and former NARAS Board of
Governors member, responsible for getting Latin jazz recognized as a category;
Larry Harlow - Legendary Salsa pianist/bandleader, former NARAS Board of Governors member, responsible for getting Salsa recognized as a category, 3-time Grammy nominee;
David Amram -World-renowned composer of the film score for the Manchurian Candidate, multi-instrumentalist, first composer in residence of the NY Philharmonic;
Arturo O'Farrill - Grammy winner, pianist, bandleader, educator
Bobby Sanabria – Drummer, percussionist, bandleader, educator, 4-time Grammy nominee,
May 22nd press-conference moderator;
René Lopez – Grammy-winning producer, Latin-music historian, advisor to Jazz at Lincoln Center;
Cándido Camero - Legendary conguero, NEA Jazz Master;
Ned Sublette - N.Y. Times bestselling author of Cuba and Its Music: From The First Drums
to the Mambo and New Orleans: After The Flood; President, QBA Disc Records;
Ricky Gordon – World-renowned Cajun, Zydeco, Jazz and World musician;
T.J. English - N.Y.Times bestselling author of The Westies, Havana Nocturne, The Savage City;
Chris Washburne - Trombonist, Professor of Ethnomusicology at Columbia University,
Director of Jazz Studies;
Ramón Ponce – Director, Mariachi Academy of New York;
Jochem Becher - President of ZOHO Records;
Ivan Acosta – Award-winning film maker, President of Latin Jazz U.S.A.,
NARAS Committee Member Latin Music;
Randy Klein - President of Jazzheads Records, pianist, composer, 4-time EMMY winner;
Jackie Harris – Executive Director, Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp, New Orleans, Louisiana;
Mercedes Ellington – Executive Director, Essentially Ellington Festival;
Jimmy Sturr – 18-time Polka Music Grammy winner;
Brian Lynch - Grammy-winning trumpeter, educator;
Rachel Z – Multiple-Grammy-winning pianist, educator;
Brenda Feliciano – Critically acclaimed classical vocalist;
Pat and Ettore Phillips – Stratta Phillips Classical Music Productions,
And More….


THE PRESS CONFERENCE IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
NO RSVP NEEDED

The ill-advised April 6th announcement by NARAS to cut thirty-one categories from the celebrated Grammy awards has been met with shock and loud protests nationally and internationally. Latin Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Cajun, Zydeco, Hawaiian, Polka, Traditional World, and certain Gospel, Blues, R&B, and Mexican categories, among others, have all been unceremoniously erased.
At various regional chapter meetings, NARAS has defended the cuts as being fair and well thought out, although they were made behind closed doors with no input from the membership nor the respective boards of governors of the regional chapters. This action clearly caters to the established pop and commercial styles that have always dominated the Awards and the controversial annual TV show.
As the grassroots movement from the public sector is going viral, and the unrest and distrust from within the NARAS membership has skyrocketed from coast to coast, NARAS’ stock responses have done little to quell the groundswell of questions about their motives.
The May 22nd press conference In NYC comes on the heels of the May 9th press event at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA, where considerable opposition to this unprecedented decision, considered culturally insensitive and non-supportive of musical diversity by all present, was shown by leading musicians including 5X Grammy nominee John Santos; Grammy-nominated vocalist Sandy Cressman; members of the Carlos Santana band; Grammy-nominated trombonist Wayne Wallace; Randall Kline, head of the SF Jazz Fest; Peter Williams of Yoshi's and many more.

latin jazz artists need to do more than getting the Grammy award back to get attention for their genre

Will they also complain about their lesser role than pop acts on the separate "Latin Grammys" show or are they resigned to that?

Although I agree with whoever said that giving out Latin jazz awards in addition to jazz does not necessarily hurt the jazz category (or the pop ones which are more likely to get tv exposure).

Anybody read Joe Conzo's book on touring and stuff with Tito Puente?

Eleven years after Mr. Puente's death, his colorful spirit—chanting, strutting, pounding his familiar timbales—looms larger than ever. This month Mr. Conzo is hosting a series of talks on Mr. Puente's life and music at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, the last two of which will take place on May 24 and May 31. And the percussionist, educator and conductor Bobby Sanabria, who played with Mr. Puente on many occasions, has released a new album, "Tito Puente Masterworks Live," some of which will be performed in a concert at the Apollo Theater on June 18 marking the centennial of "Cubop" pioneer Mario Bauza (with whom Mr. Puente played in the early part of his career).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704904604576335804017853690.html

The Salsa Room will be giving away 5 Golden Tickets to the Victor Manuelle concert July 31st, 2011.

The All Inclusive VIP Golden Ticket will include ticket to the concert, access to owners VIP Lounge, backstage access, access to exclusive VIP area directly in front of the stage to watch the concert and a meet & greet with Victor Manuelle himself.

Huge new Fruko compilation: http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24322.10?EI8Avo8D;;386

Of course, this might be from a later version of Fruko y Sus Tesos than some of you are interested in. (I think they have put out some good material even since 2000.)

Omg LOVE Fruko. Will have to check this out.

Do you have anything more to say about that Michi Sarmiento compilation? I just heard some more clips from it, and I think I am more interested than I initially thought. (Was unfamiliar with his name.) It continues to look as though just about the only CDs I might possibly buy this year are going to be compilations of reissues.

Musically, I don't have the best vocabulary for describing what I like about it, but it sounds very costeño, very organic and not highly processed. It swings, but really tightly. There's no fat there. There's always something to listen to and it all sounds like it's being played by humans.

Apparently Fruko was sent to la costa to see Michi and it's pretty easy to hear how that went. I fell in love with salsa via "El Preso" and I took a long detour through Fania and diaspora salsa, but this stuff is what I love the most. It's fast, tight, and clear.

If you like early or mid 60s Cuban music, you're likely to enjoy this too.

"There's no fat there. There's always something to listen to and it all sounds like it's being played by humans."

otm. I'd also say that to me it sounds pretty hot and sweaty. Everything is in service of the beat and of the dance. They all sound like they're having a hell of a time. My favorites are -

"Mirame San Miguel" - Blistering horns, absolutely frantic piano and percussion.

"Vaca Nueva" - Guitar, bass and piano burble along like a cheerful brook. Practically sounds like High Life! Singing is probably my favorite on the whole record, just searing and beautiful. There's some great "get up and dance" encouragement from the horns. You can see the crowd shake the weariness off their bones and join in for one last dance.

"Hong Kong" - Absolutely irresistible spy-jazz salsa with beautiful, winsome singing

"Caprichosa" - Everything that's great about this record condensed into one song - gorgeous singing, blazing horns, impatient and insistent percussion, a hand clappin breakdown; there's also a funny little electric guitar solo that I have taken very kindly to

"Suena Ahora" - Jubilant song with possibly the most mental piano solo I have ever heard, leading to a very strange and unexpected vamp

"El Negro Y Ray" - A fiddle here! This song is one loooong vamp and everybody gives it their best shot. Total jam.

La costa is nothing if not blisteringly hot and sweaty!! I've never been as hot as I was in Barrancabermeja.

Thanks for the comments, both of you. La Lechera, is "El Preso" (great song) a Fruko original, or is that one of their covers? I should know this, and probably did at one point, but if I did I don't remember.

To change gears, I was driving (this is still a novel thing for me) with Lavoe's "El Todopoderoso" and "Bandolera" playing, and I am thinking it might not be safe to play those songs when I'm driving, because they put me in a slightly altered state in which I was maybe a little too fearless. (And I've never even seen Carlito's Way which apparently makes use of the first song in a chase scene.)

And speaking of crazed piano solos, try the one in "Bandolera," if you've never heard it, Tracer--but you probably have.

It's an original as far as I know -- at the very least it's widely associated with Fruko. It's such a depressing song, too. I love the cognitive dissonance of dancing while this guy sings "condenado para siempre en este horrible celda, donde no llega el cariño, ni la voz de nadie/aqui me pasó los dias y la noche entera/ solo vivo de recuerdo eterno de mi MAAAAAADREEEEEEE " and then he just wishes death would take him away. I mean, that's intense.

For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c78DyuAc4k

It's not safe for me to play a lot of songs while driving because I get kind of easily distracted. Usually the radio is all I can handle unless it's a long highway drive.

Rudipherous I am a total newbie with all this so no, I'm falling on all your references like a starving person!

OK I've listened to that piano solo and it is epic and great but - it does not suggest the piano player may be actually in the process of losing his marbles (as "Suena Ahora" does). I had heard of Lavoe before but I just read his wikipedia entry and damn it is some depressing reading.

Okay, I'm going to have to hear that track. And yes, there's no escaping depressing performer biographies even in salsa.

Here (for nobody in particular) is one of the last Fruko y Sus Tesos tracks I actually liked a lot. I think this may have come out in 2004, unless the album Soy Como Soy is yet another compilation. The sound obviously has fewer edges than they had in the 70s, but it still works for me. I like smooth as long as the rhythmic side of things is strong enough. (Putumayo album covers, good lord.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp5r_Dl6yTk

Their nasal coros are always great. And Gabino Pampini (on lead vocals here, I believe) has a nice sound.

Hmmmm. Former Pupy vocalist, Pepito shows up on this odd project. I wonder if it's too timba for me:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24318.10?ELRg3VTn;;705

Lots of Pepito on it, it appears.

This rapping (in English): uh, no way. Guess I definitely won't be getting this after all. (It's a poorly done imitation of the stuff that kind of annoys me even when it's done skillfully.)

Again, there just never seems to be anything new (in this general musical neighborhood) to get excited about.

"COLOMBIA: The Nature of Culture" is one of the themes for this summer's Smithsonian Folklife Fest in Washington DC and the following groups are coming to play for free on the mall:

Don Abundio y sus Traviesos ; Aires del Campo ;Grupo Cabrestero;
El Pueblo Canta; Chirimía la Contundencia; Salsa de Cali; Grupo
Cimarrón (I have seen them and like 'em--folkloric but fun);
Tango de Medellín; Ayombe

http://sobsnyc.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/charanga-habanera-rock-sobs-with-the-first-of-two-shows/

Cuban group David Calzado and Charanga Habanera who were in NYC were listed elsewhere as having a to be announced gig in Washington DC June 11th but I haven't seen anything advertised or mentioned anywhere

More kinda old now Cuban groups in NYC

NG La Banda @ SOB's - Thurs. June 16th

Are there new young timba groups?

Of course there are.

There's lots of information at timba.com and here, for anyone actually interested:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/timba_geeks/

(I mean, information on timba in general, not necessarily specific answers to your questions.)

thanks

More old-schoolers live...Ned Sublette on El Gran Combo live in NYC

El Gran Combo, now in their 49th year, was typically wonderful last night at Lehman College in the Bronx. Same front line from when I first saw the group at the Village Gate, when it was only a little over twenty years old -- Jerry Rivas, Charlie Aponte, and Papo Rosario, singing and dancing up a storm. It's too easy to take them for granted, because they're utterly predictable, but tears come to my eyes just seeing them all together. Of course they sound great, and their mission is still to get everyone dancing on the ceiling. Rafael Ithier no longer plays, but he's on stage directing, and he's still a live-wire presence at the age of -- can it be? -- 84.

That's just an excerpt, he wrote more

recent radio and Billboard charts:

http://latinbeatmagazine.com/hit_parades.html

http://www.billboard.com/charts/latin-songs#/charts/latin-songs

New timba mega-compilation. The genre I love to hate (but do keep trying now and again):

http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Timba/dp/B004VLZUZY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1308063408&sr=1-1

Off-topic. Disturbing wave of anti-gay/LGBT violence in Puerto Rico:

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/06/puerto_rico_lgbt_murders.html

Obama's gonna briefly visit Puerto Rico I read somewhere.

Too bad he hasn't been impeached yet.

I may not be happy with some of what he has done, but I am not with you on that. He was in Puerto Rico today. The first president there since Kennedy in 61. He said he would support whatever the Puerto Rican people want re commonwealth status, statehood, independence...

Starting an unconstitutional war: no big deal. Well before Libya, Dave Lindorff had already come up with this:

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04022010.html

Of course, nobody takes the constitution or international law seriously.

Ask your Congressperson.

Sunday outside W. DC at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds- the Zol 99.1 Latin Fest

The headliner is Prince Royce. The rest of the bill includes Puerto Rican Tito El Bambino; Puerto Rican merengue singer Olga Tañón ; Jerry Rivera—from yes, Puerto Rico and El Salvadorian vets
Los Hermanos Flores

Alas, I did not make it. I read online that local DC salsa band Orchesta La Romana backed Jerry Rivera.

My commercial latin radio station, Zol 99.1, plays so much bachata these days (much of which does not wow me)

It's not necessary to keep this thread active at all costs.

Afro-Latin Music 2011 on ILX RIP

How about if some of you go over to the 1950s poll and help get some Latin music on the list of winners? Not that it's the only worthwhile stuff on the list of nominations.

ok

Researching Cuban son band Sierra Maestra who are touring the US this month-

All nine members of Sierra Maestra live in Cuba (eight of them in Havana. Jesus Bello in Santa Clara). Juan d'Marcos Gonzales is their former leader and has not been with the band in 15 years.

Sierra Maestra last toured the United States in 2001.

More research- Don Omar's current tropical hit "Taboo" which has an accordion on it uses a song by the bolivian group Los Kjarkas if my googling is correct

yeah it's sort of a standard, covered a lot. i think jlo covered or sampled it on one of her more recent singles. hate ittt

With mostly syrupy bachata (although there's some I like) replacing salsa romantica as the major pop genre, I keep trying whatever else is on the charts. Otherwise I am just sticking with left-field stuff like retro Cuban bands.

I want to go check out the folkloric Colombia music at the 2nd weekend of the Smithsonian Folklife Fest, including Salsa de Cali and others.

More research- Don Omar's current tropical hit "Taboo" which has an accordion on it uses a song by the bolivian group Los Kjarkas if my googling is correct

I mentioned this before (not nec. naming the Bolivian band. It was also used in Wisin & Yandel's "Pam Pam" but I've heard it in much early reggaeton too. I think it just sort of ricochets around Latin music generally.

I want to go check out the folkloric Colombia music at the 2nd weekend of the Smithsonian Folklife Fest, including Salsa de Cali and others.

salsa calena is crucial, there's a periodic workshops here but i never get the time to check them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEuhOR_Arh8

Thanks. Here's more on salsa calena:

Moncayo will be demonstrating complicated dance moves as well as giving free salsa lessons during the Folklife Festival. Here in Cali, she charges foreigners 30,000 pesos ($18) per hour for such classes.

When she was only 17, the Colombian government named Moncayo a "cultural ambassador" and sent her to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami to show off her dancing skills.

"I was the first Colombian woman invited to Cuba to teach the Cubans how to dance salsa caleña," she noted proudly. "In 10 hours, I can teach any foreigner how to dance salsa. I do everything with lots of amor."

Like the maceta candy-trees made by the Otero clan, salsa music is not only a symbol of Cali. It's actually decreed by law as "national patrimony."

"Even though salsa as such didn't originate in Cali, our style is original," said Moncayo, who gives dance lessons to imprisoned juvenile delinquents in her free time. "But reggaetón and other types of music are replacing salsa here. That's what the young people prefer, reggaetón. So my intention is to preserve our heritage."

http://www.washdiplomat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7906:from-coffee-to-salsa-folklife-festival-spotlights-vibrant-colombian-culture&catid=1475&Itemid=428

Now that I look into it, it seems the Folklife Fest is including Colombian salsa instructors but no Colombian salsa bands (just folkloric ones from other traditions--

http://www.festival.si.edu/2011/colombia/music-dance.aspx

I like this trad percussion and singing and dancing from Colombia's Don Abundio y sus Traviesos with dance group Mompox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Hqf_T49AM&feature=related

Cuban singer Jose "Pepito" Gomez rose to fame as a member of the band Pupy y los que Son Son before leaving Cuba for this country. Now, the noted performer fronts a 10-piece band of his own and has been receiving rave reviews from the media and from salsa dance enthusiasts. Here, immediately prior to Gomez's performance, there will be an included beginners salsa class to help everyone prepare for the evening's main event at 6:30 PM.

Drom
between 5th and 6th
85 Avenue A
NYC

That occurs Friday July 8th for those of you in NYC

So descarga.com is touting a new Tito Rojas salsa cd with guest La India and re: PACHITO ALONSO Y SUS KINI KINI's
Pasarela cd they say "Could be the timba release of the summer of 2011..."

Just got an email from Fania yesterday; they reissued the Fania All-Stars Live in Africa documentary (from when they flew over to Zaire in 1974 to play the huge festival preceding the Ali/Foreman fight) on DVD last month. Gonna pick that up very soon.

I won't touch a new Rojas release, and based on the samples from the Pachito Alonso CD I'm not going to like it either.

I've said it before, but despite obviously not liking most contemporary Cuban music, I'd probably check out Pepito live if given the chance.

Have linked to this before, but--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoX8ODOI23Q

Manuel Galbán born in 1931 (Gibara, Holguín Province Cuba), died Thursday of a heart attack in Havana at 80 years old.

Making his professional debut in 1944, Galbán joined the internationally acclaimed Los Zafiros in 1963, which combined the traditional filín movement with other music styles such as bolero, doo-wop, calypso music, bossa nova and rock. This fusion transformed Los Zafiros into one of the most popular Cuban groups of the time. They group achieved international fame and performed at several venues in Europe including the Paris Olympia, a concert that was even attended by the Beatles. Although Galbán wasn't the first guitarist to perform for Los Zafiros, he did remain with the group for the majority of their careers, becoming one of their key members. He was so important to the group's success that the prominent Cuban pianist Peruchi once said of him: "You'd need two guitarists to replace Galbán".

From 1972 through 1975, Galbán led Cuba's national music ensemble, Dirección Nacional de Música, before forming his own group Batey where he remained for 23 years. With Batey, Galbán toured the world and became one of the key ambassadors of Cuban music. During this period he recorded number of albums documenting popular Cuban music with the prestigious Cuban record label Egrem and the Bulgarian label Balkanton.

Galbán later joined the group Vieja Trova Santiaguera for two years before answering Ry Cooder's call to take part in a project featuring Ibrahim Ferrer which subsequently lead to his long standing membership with the Buena Vista Social Club along with, Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and Cachaito Lopez.

Wim Wenders' film on the BVSC allowed an entire generation of Cuban musicians to experience a new beginning and revived Galbán's recording career. Galbán not only was the guitarist for the other members of the Buena Vista Social Club's recordings such as Ibrahim Ferrer and "Cachaíto" López, but his duet world-wide internationally acclaimed album Mambo Sinuendo with Ry Cooder catapulted him to a household name in world music circles. "Galbán and myself felt that there existed a sound that had yet to be explored, there was scope for a Cuban band with an electric guitar to once again convey that fifties atmosphere in a smooth, simple yet lush manner. Our group has two electric guitarists, two drummers, a conga player and a bassist: a sextet with the potential to sound like a big band and unveil the mysteries of classical melodies. The result is powerful, lyrical and entertaining music", Cooder explains referring to the sessions when the album was concocted. In 2003 Mambo Sinuendo was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY Award, and was recognized by Downbeat magazine for best jazz performance. In 2004 the album received a GRAMMY Award for the Best Pop Instrumental Album.

For more than a decade Manuel Galbán has toured the world performing with the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club Orchestra, and over the past three years preparing his latest album BlueChaCha.

Galbán reworks some of the tracks that he himself has stated formed his musical identity. "Initially we had a list of more than one thousand tunes", he reveals when discussing the album's initial plans. Galbán surrounds himself with some of his long-time colleagues including Omara Portuondo, Rosa Passos, and is joined by Trío Esperança, Eric Bibb, Marcelo Mercadante and Sissoko Ballaké. His daughter Magda Rosa Galbán and Juan Antonio Leyva contributed to the arrangements.

Long-time manager of Manuel and the Buena Vista Social Club Daniel Florestano says, "it is a very sad day for Cuban music and fans of Cuban Music. Galbán's enormous impact world-wide with his unique guitar sound and warm smile will be missed by many."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7hZJ-GVUFA

nyc: the latin alt music conference does summerstage in central park today from 3-7 - chocquibtown, rita indiana, ursula 1000 + the que bajo people

2010, but i've been spending some real quality time with Chico Mann of late. Esp. the tracks which do that three-way kinda fusion of latin/cuban influences, electro and afrobeat, like "Illusion De Ti" and "Ya Yo Se". Really beautiful stuff.

I'm not familiar with Chico Mann. (Really not familiar with him, as in I probably would have guessed he was Latin jazz. Is there a Chico Mann in Latin jazz?) It's pleasant, but not quite my thing. Doesn't really make me want to dance either, although I have a feeling that if I heard something like this after I'd already been dancing for a while, I could get into it.

Sexappeal (of "Meneando la Cola" fame, at least for me) has a new album coming out, which I was kind of excited about, but this title track isn't doing much for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG9_BNnEHmo

Not bad or anything, but more 90s/romantica than I'm into these days.

Herbie Mann was a jazz dude and Chico Mann is the Latin side- project of an Antibalas (Fela worshippers) member I think.

I am curious about Rita Indiana, a merengue performer who did some gigs at that LAMC conference in NYC (but I've never heard her, I don't think)

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2011/07/merengue_visionary_comes_to_to.html

Indiana is working on a screenplay for a movie commissioned by Puerto Rican alternative rappers Calle 13, and planning a collaboration with rapper Tego Calderón. She said she feels relaxed living in Puerto Rico, but can’t escape the reality of her Dominican citizenship. “Every time I travel I have to ask for a visa, and sometimes they won’t give it to me,” she said.

Rita Indiana's album is pretty terrific. Well worth checking out. She kinda reminds me of Bebe.

her lamc summerstange performance was great, lots of energy, varied songs despite it all still being merengue (had not heard rock/metal mergengue before?)

i've been hearing more about her from english speaking global bass circles lately than anything

Thought this revival would be about Facundo Cabral killing this weekend which is a big deal in Latin America

I read about that horrific murder on Ned Sublette's e-mail list but didn't mention it here, as I must confes to not being familiar with him at all as I do not know much about folk singers from anywhere.

I see that Reuters is now saying:

(Reuters) - The murder of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala on Saturday was the work of international gangs targeting his concert promoter, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said late on Monday

I didn't know anything about him either until Sunday night, but lots of Latinos in New York certainly do.

Latinos everywhere--Rene from Calle 13 issued a statement, the guy was hugely popular in Mexico and throughout Central America. This was an ugly planned scary hit job-- The killers were wearing bullet-proof vests and using ak47s

His concert promoter was driving him to the airport.

Speaking of Latino music not usually covered in this thread, I was wowed by Colombian brass band with singers and percussionists, Chirimía La Contundencia, at the Smithsonian Folklife festival.

Below is how the Smithsonian describes them. But they're funkier than that. On Saturday they inspired tons of dancers plus soccer-style chants and Colombian flag waving.

Chirimía La Contundencia, chirimía music group, Quibdó

Leonidas Valencia Valencia, director, musician (saxhorn)
Rick Lludson Montealegre Rodríguez, musician (snare drum)
Tomás Domingo Moreno Córdoba, musician (clarinet)
Abdo Abel Murillo Mosquera, musician (tambora)
Leonidas Valencia Peña, musician (cymbals)
La Contundencia is an ensemble that plays chirimía, a traditional genre of the northern Pacific region played by small brass bands. This genre features European-derived tunes and can be heard during carnival or patron-saint festivities. La Contundencia was part of the wave of musicians that added piano, bass, guitar, conga, and bongo to create a more orchestral style. So while they perform chirimía in its natural, improvised manner, they also emphasize instrumental variety. Today they are considered the most iconic band interpreting traditional Pacifico music.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=74524&source_type=B

I think this is the link to the archived video of their free Kennedy Center Millennium Stage gig. Some of the songs are sedate but some are certainly not.

Ed Morales, who has written for the Village Voice in the past, and wrote the Rita Indiana piece for a Jersey paper that i linked to above, has just written a summary piece for Billboard on the Latin ALternaitve Music Conference. After first mentioning Pitbull, he moves on to other items including:

This year's four-day LAMC fluctuated between being repetitive and innovative; it was buzzing with fresh new faces and at times lagged from disappointing attendance. Explaining the light crowd at Thursday night's Bowery Ballroom performance, LAMC co-founder Josh Norek said, "It seems like more and more corporate types are coming, and even though they show up to the panels, they don't go to the shows as much."

The Bowery Ballroom show featured 2011 "Artist Discovery" winner Napoleon Solo from Spain, Chicago-based heartbreak crooner Diego García, Venezuelan rappers Cuarto Poder, and precocious singer-songwriters Francisca Valenzuela (Chile) and Ximena Sariñana (Mexico). The evening's strongest performers were Cuarto Poder, who put on an eye-popping old-school New York hiphop show delivering frank, compelling messages about Caracas reality, and Valenzuela, alone on stage with an electric keyboard, cut through her own nervous chatter to reveal herself to be a stunningly talented vocalist and instrumentalist.

Cuarto Poder also did an obscure DC show I read about on the Kesta DC concert calendar but never saw a review of.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/latin/new-sounds-new-approaches-old-challenges-1005270852.story

good read

Jowell and Randy are doing an underpublicized gig at Galaxy in Hyattsville, MD tonight. Will probably start way too late at night for me

They're gonna be in Miami next Friday and have a mixtape out this year. Reggaeton survives.

I didn't go and have not noticed any reviews of the gig.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/07/19/sierra-maestra-sticking-with-classic-son/

My interview (done via e-mail with the bassist)feature on Cuban son band Sierra Maestra, who are on their first US tour in 10 years. They will be at Artisphere, outside W. DC tonight

New Issac Delgado song here, along with some other things (some not all that new). I like the sound of the coro at around 2:48 (funny, because that's also where it becomes more timbafied, I'd say):

tinyurl.com/4398s9s

RIP Joe Arroyo

http://www.elheraldo.co/tendencias/falleci-el-gran-joe-arroyo-30963

:(

Definitely a personal favorite. Really did a lot to put Colombia on the map, salsa-wise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aJGkDxP0vo

I hadn't realized he was that young either. His career must have started extremely early, but I guess that's not uncommon for singers.

Actually:

Colombian singer, songwriter and composer Joe Arroyo began his musical journey at the young age of 8, singing in one of his hometown’s most popular music halls.

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/jose-fellicano-alex-lora-linda-ronstadt-others-to-be-honored-with-lifetime-/9192/

did my first public performance to ban ban. rip.

Bunch of obituaries appearing now. This one from Leila Cobo is fascinating:

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/latin/joe-arroyo-colombian-salsa-star-dead-at-1005293392.story

Recognition via Colombian presidents twitter account: some indication of Arroyo's stature.

55. Ow. Just found my concert review of him from 2004. One of my first ones for the Washington Post. Great voice, but sadly he had a hard life health-wise.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16822-2004Jul26.html

Fania finally got around to putting out one of their 2CD compilations on Sonora Ponceña. I just ordered it from Barnes&Noble.com.

Yeah, that looks pretty good, but I think it's still missing some of my favorites. Possibly inevitable. Also, my taste is weighted heavily toward their late 70s/early 80s sound (which to me is the point when they developed a more distinctive sound than they had earlier), and this collection understandably takes a broader view.

This may be one of the rare cases (like with Willie Colón or Eddie Palmieri) where I buy this set and then start picking up individual albums. Most of the time, though (I also have sets by Cheo Feliciano, Ruben Blades, Ray Barretto, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, and Hector Lavoe) the two CDs are all I need.

Got it in today's mail; the whole second disc is all late '70s/early '80s stuff.

3ball mty (erick rincon's outfit) have a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkNB5TCeWiM

Can you hear his Mexican tribal whatever its called dance music in NYC clubs?

there are a handful of semi-regular parties like que bajo, turrbotax, ghetto gothic where it might show up but it's not a known regular thing at all

I freely admit I haven't been into Miguel Zenon's recordings, but I will at least want to hear this new one covering the work of major Puerto Rican popular composers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku0AErTBUho&feature=youtu.be

I haven't watched that tribal video yet. I am moving to a new apartment (alas, I was hoping to find a casita I could afford, but no luck, and it became more and more urgent to get out of my current place), so my PC has been packed for a couple days now. (I haven't actually watched the video I just linked to either.)

New Omega album coming out, as well.

Also Issac Delgado has a new album coming out (or did I say that when I linked to the Issac song earlier?). And one of these days he's got to put out something I really like, right? Maybe not.

I would dance to that 3ball mty track.

x-post -Ha, it's impressive watching you strain and stretch re most current Cuban performers (rather than just ignoring them). With Delgado based here in the US now for quite awhile I guess it is possible he could come up with something you like. Although you like Cuba based pianist Pupy Pedroso. Gotta get him to give the others lessons.

I would dance to that 3ball mty track.

I would dance to this stuff too, not necessarily well.

Yeah, curmudgeon, I like Pupy to a degree, but mostly for individual tracks. Issac does a lot of straight salsa stuff, I'm just not that into his singing, though I recognize he has a "good" voice.

Finally watched that 3ball Mty track. Nice...

https://acbia.wordpress.com/

Afro-Colombia music blog

Was reading a comment on the yahoo group salsa e-mail re the latin jazz guys who have filed a lawsuit against the Grammys. The letter accurately pointed out how NARAS and the Grammys have never really cared about salsa, and therefore most salsa acts don't care about the lawsuit. The letter also referenced Latin jazz acts who are not part of the lawsuit.

So Jose Reyes, NY Mets baseball star, has put out a reggaeton song on youtube

“No hay amigo” — in English, “There Is No Friend” —

It's a remix of an older song according to the NY Times

The video was the first in which Reyes has appeared and features several performers — Julio Voltio, Vakero and Big Mato

He has apparently started his own label

In May, “Bate roto,” Spanish for broken bat, featuring Voltio and Echeverria, made its debut.

fauxmarc, are there DC area equivalents to dance parties que bajo, and turrbotax?

I don't know who exactly is involved but recently http://maracuyeah.com/ has been throwing que bajo-ish tropical things. I know dj bent is friends with them and she's recently part of the dutty artz crew. Also I've never been but I'm assuming the moombahtom massive thing at u music hall.

In terms of turrbotax less-tropical-more-uk-bass type things I can't think of any parties specifically about it but the loda party by the 88 dc crew seems to be shifting from mostly house + d+b to that direction

http://eightyeightdc.com/index.php/events/loda.html

So is the 3Ball MTY song just some kind of promo theme song for them, or is it, so to speak, a real song that they hope gets played on the radio or something? I'm not sure what to make of adding lyrics to the music. The results aren't terrible, but don't feel entirely cohesive. Or maybe it just doesn't quite feel like a song.

That Miguel Zenon stuff sounds like a real snooze just from the EPK posted above. Way to suck the oomph out of great material.

i think it's a legit video, i agree with it not feeling entirely on point as a sort of pop song - i think some of it comes from ricon at least still being pretty young

New Omega album coming out, as well.

hmmm i can't find any info this

This is where I saw it:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8565510

which doesn't tell you a whole lot.

oh, nah that's just the "deluxe edition" or reissue of it or whatever, el dueno del flow v2 is already out http://www.amazon.com/El-Due%C3%B1o-del-Flow-Vol/dp/B005BWP0K2

Oops, I thought there was only a volume one.

yeah 2 was mostly just 1 with some extra tracks thrown in to the point that i don't really distinguish them apart

So should I google this and learn who this is?:

For the old school romantics out there...this Sunday August 14th at 8pm one of the most famous artist out of Uruguay and actually all South America "LOS IRACUNDOS" will be performing at TSR.

I don't know about this either:

Regarded as one of the best young choreographers in Cuba, Roclan Gonzalez Chavez brings his hot new show, “Kings of Salsa," to two venues in the greater Washington, D.C. area this fall. Highlighting the very best of Havana’s cool street salsa and hip-hop scene, “Kings of Salsa” seamlessly unites Afro-Caribbean moves, contemporary dance and such classic Latin dances as the mambo, rumba and cha-cha-cha. With the dazzling nine-piece brass band Cuba Ashire providing stirring Latin rhythms and stratospheric brass arrangements, “Kings of Salsa” offers a glimpse of hip contemporary Cuba never before seen on stage.

“Kings of Salsa” appears at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011 at 8 p.m. and the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011 at 4 p.m.

haven't heard of either but kings of salsa looks fun

This Eddie Palmieri album is soooooooo good:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41M03BEMNEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Not news or anything, but I thought I'd mention it since I'm listening to it.

It is probably better than the the new dvd he is hawking:

on August 16th, 2011 @ 5pm at the BEST BUY store located at 1 Union Square. Palmieri will be celebrating the launch of his first official DVD celebrating 50 years in the industry and the event will feature an autograph signing session, as well as a Q&A discussion panel that will only be available to the first 200 persons who arrive on a first come first serve basis and receive a special wristband allowing them entry to the panel. Moderated by Erica Gonzalez of EL DIARIO LA PRENSA. Later on that night, Eddie Palmieri and his Orchestra will continue the celebration at the NEW Copacabana nightclub on W. 47th and 8th ave.

la excelencia doing a track off the upcoming album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9fnVwGyzw

I don't know why they settle for such a weak sounding coro. The coro is not just an irrelevant extra and the sound of their voices here does not have enough kick.

I'm talking about coro as the actual "choir," not as a musical part. Is there a way to disambiguate in Spanish?

Otherwise, it's okay, but it stills feels like something is missing.

There are some clips up for the new Issac Delgado:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24481.10?U5T4aoeZ;;391

Why is Cuban rapping almost always inferior to decent Puerto Rican rapping? Also, why La India? I probably won't by this right off the bat, if at all. But if enough of the songs get club play and I like them, I may pick it up.

It still seems like it could be one of the best salsa albums to come out this year. I'm willing to consider this salsa, even though it's pretty timba.

I was going to say: maybe salsa fans with knee-jerk reactions to everything (meaning me) are killing salsa.

Also, I dismissed this one pretty quickly based on just a couple audio clips, but it seems at least promising:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24478.10?U5T4aoeZ;;400

(which is probably another way of saying that if I bought it, I'd say it's boring after a few months, if not sooner, but. . .)

I have to question the wisdom of covering a masterpiece like "Usted Abuso," and yes I know the "original" by Celia Cruz and Willie Colon is itself a cover, but it's a cover by Willie Colon and Celia Cruz.

For those who are still not convinced to check out La Perfecta era Eddie Palmieri:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVEneo2JeqA

especially around 1:30. Phew.

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

http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news03.php?nt_id=60853&ct_id=1&ct_name=1

Gran Combo reworks classic to inspire
By CB Online Staff
cbn✧✧✧@caribbeanbusines✧✧✧.c✧✧

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico has launched a reworked version of one its best-known songs, “Y no hago más na,” as a call for Puerto Ricans to work for a better future for the island.

The island’s most celebrated salsa orchestra drew on its own efforts and hard work over the past 50 years to get generations of fans moving on dance floors around the world.

“In 1962, a group of friends got together to bring happiness to the towns through our music,” said bandleader Rafael Ithier.

The reworked version of the Spanish-language song premiered on various outlets on Tuesday.

“How good it is to live like this, with a willingness to work. How good it is to live a life moving forward, never back,” El Gran Combo’s singers say in the new version.

The original version held: “How good it is to live like this, eating and not working.”

The song was accompanied by a message from band members at a time when issues including the economy, crime and education are weighing on Puerto Rico.

“We are rewriting one of our best-known songs and we want absolutely everyone to sing,” Ithier said.

Players and singers pointed to the triumph from their hard work, even in tough times.

“Today we are still fighting against the adversity that life presents every day. The battle is not lost,” the band said.

“Our Puerto Rico has no shortage of hope. We’re moving forward. We’re going to dream. We’re going to think big,” El Gran Combo said. “That’s how we did it then and that’s how we’ll do it now. We must be positive. Don’t wait for anyone to do it for you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axsZRHN3viA

For those who are still not convinced to check out La Perfecta era Eddie Palmieri

But hey, curmudgeon, I guess if you didn't listen to Alfredo de la Fe, you aren't going to listen to me either.

Huh?

So talking to De La Fe was really cool. A real nice guy. I wish I knew more and could have asked better questions. He kept talking about his mentor "Pupi." Later through googling I think he was referring to Felix Pupi Legarreta. And now he has me wanting to get every old Eddie Palmieri album there is.

Rolling reggaeton, salsa, merengue, bachata, and cumbia thread 2008

So which of the 1961 through 1968 La Perfecta albums do you like best? I've been liking individual songs I have seen and heard here and there, but you're right I have not bought a download or album from that era yet.

Story on Fania's 71' Our Latin Thing and other other Fania projects

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/arts/music/fania-all-stars-return-in-our-latin-thing-dvd.html?ref=music

So which of the 1961 through 1968 La Perfecta albums do you like best? In approximate rank order:

Lo Que Traigo es Sabro
Azucar Pa' Ti
Molasses
Mozambique

allmusic.com says Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso was much more of a subdued outing than Palmieri's previous La Perfecta LP --. Wiki lists the discography as :

La Perfecta, 1962
El Molestoso, 1963
Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso, 1964
Echando Pa'lante (Straight Ahead), 1964
Azucar Pa'ti (Sugar for You), 1965
Mozambique, 1965
El Sonido Nuevo: The New Soul Sound, 1966 (with Cal Tjader)
Bamboleate, 1967 (with Cal Tjader)
Molasses, 1967
Champagne, 1968

I just listened to Lo Que on Spotify

Would like to see that movie. Is the DJ Joaquin "Joe" Claussell mentioned in the article related to the percussionist Jose Claussell? Yes, I see it is his brother.

Gotta listen to the La Perfecta albums that I have again. Maybe someone should start a poll.

More subdued? Maybe in some sense, but there's a lot of really heavy jamming in some of the song on Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso. It may take a little more time to sink in. Honestly, I don't remember too much about the original La Perfecta album, except that I didn't like it as much as most of the others. The flute and trombone interaction of Lo Que Traigo is particularly intense to me.

http://www.1000recordings.com/music/la-perfecta/

This person says the original La Perfecta album is the must-hear

My dad ordered the 50th anniversary Palmieri dvd from Eddie's website and just got it, along with a short, signed thank you from Eddie!

car racing and reggaeton, pop and salsa:

Entrepreneur, actor and multi-platinum recording artist Don Omar in conjunction with Fans & Company will host this week a one-of-a-kind event that will bring together the world of car racing with the universal language of music. DRAGMANIA 2011 will take place on August 27 and 28 at the acclaimed Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. The event will not only feature some of the fastest cars of their kind as recognized by the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association), but will bring at least 20 teams from cities throughout the US, Puerto Rico and the Dominican republic to compete in six categories. In conjunction to the racing competition, a series of musical performances will be held throughout both days of the competition. Among the artists that are confirmed to perform are Don Omar, Victor Manuelle, Sergio Vargas, Hermanos Rosario and Tito Rojas among others

that sounds kind of amazing

minimal guarachero?

http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2011/08/korak-matt-shadetek-3ball-nyc-re

switching from triple to duple meter gets me every time.

x-post

here's the link to the Don Omar and car racing event

http://www.dragmania2011.com/

Jordan, thanks, I needed something new and rhythm-oriented to listen to right at this moment.

Listening to Lo Que Traigo Es Sabroso right now because of this thread, thanks

I need to see which 1960s Palmieri albums my Dad has. I think he mostly has ones from the 70s to the present.

I was listening to a press copy of Sergent Garcia last night. This Frenchman and his group mix salsa, rap, funk, reggaeton and more together. They're gonna be at DC indie-rock club Black Cat Sept. 8th. I can't quite put my finger on it but something bugs me about them--their sound is meant to be danceable but there's something artificial and unoriginal about it.

kinda feeling this heavy salsa black sabbath cover by some milwaukee dudes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJXkfb6bUE

Due to Hurricane Irene, organizers for the one-of-a-kind racing and music event DRAGMANIA 2011 informed this afternoon that the event will be re-scheduled for next Saturday, September 3, 2011 and will be consolidated to a one day event. In the event of bad weather next Saturday, the event will then be held on Sunday, September 4th. Tickets and VIP passes purchased for this weekend's event will be honored.

x-post -my Pops has only Palmieri cds from the 70s on. He likes him without vocals and more Latin-Jazz than Latin so to speak. I downloaded La Perfecta and listened to it once. Need to give it more attention.

The Yahoo Cuban Music group is touting this Cuban timba singer's NYC appearance this weekend:

Pepito Gomez is preparing a serious show for SOB's August 26th, Don't miss it! There will be some new songs and he'sbringing back 2 of my all time Pupy favorites El Vecino Se Mudo and ELBUENAGENTE!! Sets at 8pm and 10pm.

El Buenagente is my favorite Pupy song.

& now that I check, El Vecino Se Mudo is my second favorite!

For a Cuban singer who hasn't defected, Pepito spends a lot of time in NYC. (Or has he defected? I don't think so.)

Ben Ratliff in the NY Times says he defected

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/arts/music/04pepi.html

Mr. Gómez, now in his mid-30s, defected from Cuba about a year ago and lives in New Jersey.

He defected that long ago? I missed that, I guess. Or forgot. Tangent: New Jersey is so underrated. I think I would have ended up moving there if my mold allergy hadn't been an issue. Access to the ocean and to Philadelphia and New York, plus plenty of things happening there that I'd be interested in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smh3wECD4Z4

Looks like the way I might dress on a bad day. Where is his sense of style?

Actually I never wear plaid.

Was reading about Carlos Santana supporting the lawsuit against the Grammys for dropping categories including latin-Jazz, and then a day or 2 later read about the still existing upcoming Latin Grammys. Separate but equal?

Speaking of Latin-Jazz, I remain curious about Jerry Gonzalez' albums he has made over the last 10 years while living in Spain. I wonder what he sounds like with flamenco musicians and singers. I missed his recent weekend of gigs in DC with his brother and his Fort Apache band but featuring Cuban Dafnis Prieto on drums. Descarga just mentioned a recent (new?) Jerry in Spain album.

I've heard a couple Jerry Gonzalez albums and wasn't really into them, but that's part for the course when it comes to Latin jazz. I think I liked them better than most Latin jazz, but then, I can't remember much about what they sounded like, so in the end they don't stand out.

I left Ocho y Mas early. They were a professional New York salsa COVER band, but lacking that certain something. However, any judgment I make tonight is unfair. I didn't do any dancing? And why didn't I do any dancing? Any nervousness about asking someone to dance was amplified by the fact that I smashed my left little toe against one of the yet-to-be-unpacked boxes in my apartment. It was all purple on one side when I looked at it earlier. When I got home, the purple was still there, with like a red line running through it down nearly the length of my toe. So maybe it's good I didn't do any dancing, and maybe it's bad that I went out at all. I'm sure I've done worse things to my toes, however. It hasn't hurt that much and if I had seen someone I felt comfortable asking to dance, I probably would have danced on it. But I didn't really want to get out on the dance floor with someone I didn't know and start half-limping around or botch my turns, or the like. Highlights of the evening: one arrepa and one empanada.

Local Albuquerque band En-Joy was pretty good, but there songs went on too long, and after a while the Cubanisms started to grind on me, but I still liked them more than expected and would probably give them another chance.

The DJ played more Cuban music than I would have preferred and too much (Cuban?) salsaton.

(I guess I never mentioned that I won a ticket to see them at Albuquerque's modest Latin Dance Festival.)

En-Joy (most of what they play is more "modern" sounding than this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4X1vE9fjsY

Sucky remake (sortof) of "Suavemente" that I learned about on the rolling pop thread (but I hate Pitbull anyway, and don't like this kind of club sound so no surprise):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGoJ_V5F2Q

La Excelencia coming to Albuquerque this month for Globalquerque (our small world music festival) so I might make it out to that. I'd like to see them live. Think how much more I could be dismissive of them if I don't like them live. On the other hand, think of how much I could talk about changing my mind about them if I saw them and liked them.

Wow. jk

x-post- yep that formulaic brand of club beats doesn't do much for me either

ugh terrible suavemente, latin, pop or otherwise. randomly picked the original maxi single up from a bargin bin in eighth grade.

Just thinking of something, and this is mostly directed to fauxmarc. Doesn't it seem like this would be an obvious time for a merenhouse revival? And have you heard anything that joins merenhouse with a mambo de la calle sort of sound?

dunno, i like house + latin music but don't like latin house much

A two volume compilation of Orquesta Mulenze, a band with a class Puerto Rican sound. They started as a backing band (I think for major vocalists coming to Puerto Rico to perform, or something like that), but eventually became an independent band, frequently with Pedro Brull as sonero. Some of the more recent stuff is iffy, but most of this stuff sounds good. Weirdly, my favorite Mulenze track ("A Mi Me Huele") is missing:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24506.10?rhNTHQdh;;426
http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24507.10?rhNTHQdh;;429

For those in the DC area, here's a little-publicized event. Santa Rosa is also going to be at the Salsa Room later this month. He's making the rounds (and playing smaller venues then he did a few years ago). I know Santa Rosa does not have a lot of support here though.
Gilberto Santa Rosa TONIGHT at Convention Center

A special concert to benefit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute takes place tonight at the Convention Center- Take Metro to the Mount Vernon Sq/7th Street Convention Center station. Make a $40 donation to CHCI to gain access to the party

Who's left in Los Van Van these days?

Thursday, September 22nd>Los Van Van & Juan Formell: The Rolling Stones of Salsa> Doors: 7:30pm>Show: 9pm>Admission: $55 Advance, $60 Day Of>Juan Formell and Los Van Van are finally here after many adventures. The super band hits SOBs for their New York show as part of a short run that includes San Francisco, Kentucky & Miami

Kentucky but no other big East Coast state cities?

that's funny because when i was in louisville for a wedding there was a latin festival going on which i'd just never identified with, kentucky

I just saw a poster saying Los Van Van was playing at La Boom in Queens on Wednesday. Which is not in a different city from SOBs and still does not answer your question.

Not that I ever knew every member of Los Van Van, but it seems that Formell lost Pupe and that singer mentioned upthread who lives in NYC now. Maybe he has lots of good young bandmembers. I wonder if Rudi ever liked them?

http://www.timba.com/tours/los-van-van

This lists both the Queens and Manhattan shows, plus Los Angeles,Miami and Louisville.

not really news but just discovered this guy i met was in the 1990 version of menudo and i don't know how to bring this up in a calm rational manner.

Ha

Dafnis Prieto, 37, a jazz percussionist and composer in New York City;

Cuban born drummer now playing with Eddie Palmieri and others just won a MacArthur Genius grant($500,000 in separate yearly $100,000 payments). He was impressive when I saw him with Palmieri a little while ago

Guy is definitely well-respected by Latin Jazz musicians and by drummers. When I saw him at the Jazz Standard there were a
few drummers in the audience, including chops monster Jojo
Mayer

NEW MICHAEL STUART COMING IN OCTOBER:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8605286

This one might actually be good. Having him cover Louie Ramirez material seems pretty smart. Hopefully it won't emphasize the romantica stuff (although some of those songs are pretty darn good themselves).

Also Louie Ramirez hasn't been as overly homaged to as some figures.

Though I'd hardly call him esoteric or anything like that.

This is one of my favorite Louie Ramirez tracks and one of my favorite Azuquita performances. This was originally a bolero:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPKRf9Erxs

One very effective thing happening in this track is that the timbales take forever to come in, so when they finally do, everything jumps up a notch.

Other really good stuff from the same album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywhm11Jyqgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eqbCURSaVc

This one has Adalberto Santiago on vocals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-KEejoxQw

And here's one salsa romantica track I kind of like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhtLnby15t0

Sorry to youtube bomb my thread.

Why is that last youtube clip nine minutes long? They must have tacked silence on at the end or something; I highly doubt there is a nine minute studio version of this song.

That last video has more drop-outs than a Northern New Mexico high school.

ha.

From forthcoming Michael Stuart:

http://soundcloud.com/dj-walter-b-nice/michael-stuart-estar-enamorado

Appropriately drinking a Goya ginger beer at work while checking this out on very low volume.

I'm not blown away by the Michael Stuart song, but it's definitely pretty decent. It sounds a little too current NYC salsa-ish to me (would be nice if I could really describe this in musical terms), maybe too unremittingly bright*, but it also sounds a lot better than average. I'm optimistic about this new album.

*This probably seems ridiculous, since salsa is such festive music, but it seems to me that a lot of it has a bittersweet element, and I've come around to thinking that classic salsa has greater emotional range than contemporary salsa.

Saw this in an e-mail re afropop.org weekly radio show/podcast this week:

This Week
The Golden Age of Cuban Music

Afropop savors the sounds from pre-Revolutionary golden age of Cuban music that set the scene for the international success of Cuban music.

I also want to listen to Colombian musician/dj/producer Pernett who is going to be at the Napolean Lounge in W. DC October 6th. I wonder if I will like his stuff

I missed this. Juliana and Milly Quezada have done a song together. Would dance to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-kPNgrC_-s

Too bad the chorus at 3:55 doesn't run through more of the song, it sounds great.

never heard of pernett but i guess he's big, did/doing some stuff with the que bajo people recently

I checked out Youtubes of Pernett over the weekend and the little I could find elsewhere online, and was impressed. He sometimes just uses turntables and mixes, and sings some overtop and other times uses a band. He incorporates folkloric Colombian styles(including funky coastal Afro sounds) with programmed beats.

Here's the Maracuyeah promoters' hype for the show:

Special live solo performance by Colombian tropical artist Pernett. He is the heir to Joe Arroyo. Creating innovative cumbia rhythms, Pernett brings to DC a new wave of Colombian music for our ears

They're also having djs that night on 2 floors:

First Floor: Pan-Latin To the Future & Into Outer Space--> Cumbia Intergalactica, Salsa Psychodelica, ElectroChampeta, Merengue Marciano, Rock de otra Dimension, y Remezclas Forever, including your favorite 80s synth projections to the future, like Technocumbia, Latin House + Reggaeton Pre y Post Moderno

Second Floor: Pollada/Parranda de Casa (Second floor)- Latin Patio Intergenerational Fiesta Jam- Enjoy the songs you danced with your grandma- Vallenatos Deliciosos, Cumbias Caribenas, Exitos Andinos, Las Chicas del Can, Salsa Picantes, Tamoboras para Reventar, Joyas de Dancehall.

http://hpernett.net/biography-contacts/

He's much more cumbia than salsa

yeah i remember reading the "heir to joe arroyo" line and being confused

Sounds cool. I've never heard of him. Arroyo did put his own (maybe innovative?) spin on cumbia, and his later years he was apparently working more and more outside of salsa and with various Colombian rhythms.

Of course the line about JA could also be pure unadulterated marketing hype, capitalizing the comparatively large degree of name recognition for Joe Arroyo.

haha Maracuyeah is a great name
sounds like a hell of a dance party though

One of the two age 20-something Maracuyeah dj/promoters is Colombian and in an interview with her that I read she mentioned how she grew up dancing to Joe Arroyo at family parties (when she was not going out and exploring more alternative contemporary Latin sounds)

Pernett's gonna do shows in NY and Philly also

and Miami

The forthcoming Michael Stuart album sounds like it will at least be decent:

http://www.amazon.com/Tributo-Louie-Ramirez-Amanece-Caliente/dp/B005MHG70I

Cuban timba band Maykel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor (I do not know them) are doing their first US show(s)(?) . They're gonna be at SOBs in NYC Saturday.

Huge timba act. Not my cup of tea.

This MS "Estar Enamorado" is growing on me, and I strongly suspect it will work well on the dance floor.

i'd been ignoring it but someone played it the other day and i'm not all that mad at the new gloria estefan

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

it just needs less of her up front and all of that wepa and it's a cute little merengue house track which isn't usually my thing

See I told you a merenhouse revival was in the works. (As if this proves that.)

Not really into it though. I suppose that means ILM will go crazy over it.

Google search on "merenhouse revival":

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22merenhouse+revival%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

My finger always squarely on the pulse of Latin music trends.

Seem to be a few good tracks on the new Edgar Joel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SBR8CiexLs

I might buy them piece-meal, since some of the others sound pretty awful from the audio clips. Hmmm. And hopefully that won't freeze up for you as much as it is for me.

last night came across this amazing doc on netflix instant from 1977, "beats of the heart: salsa - latin pop music", on salsa from pr to nyc a lot of great intimate interviews and performances with the palmieris (charlie teaching a class of little kids in the bronx is so great), cruz, blades... the blades stuff is especially great he was like the punk of salsa, goes on about wanting to put the real lives of the people back into lyrics and whatnot. actually you can't tell from the trailer but most of the doc comes at it from a great lost perspective on the class divides and social issues that caused people to get together under the music in the first place. really want to check out the other clips in the beats of the heart series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72_UP8jFFq0

oooh totally adding that to queue
thanks!

Wow, I've never even heard of that. Thanks.

I know my thread is the wrong place for this, but there's a new Maria Rita album coming out shortly.

x-post--I think I recall seeing an out-of-print overstock Beats of the Heart book associated with the movie doc

Romeo Santos To Star In ABC-TV Comedy Produced By Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/tv-film/romeo-santos-to-star-in-abc-tv-comedy-produced-1005405662.story

Wow, and I thought Mr. Aventura was just gonna push his solo career

can't hurt getting his face out to the rest of america that don't know yet

So nasty.

I've got that Michael Stuart CD on order. This one by Conjunto La Perla De Ponce looks tempting:

Just what the doctor ordered. No-nonsense salsa dura con inteligencia, fuerza y mucho swing. Led by composer and bongocero Francisco "Chalina" Alvarado, Conjunto La Perla de Ponce was formed in 1976 in, where else?, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Chalina was a member of the original Sonora Ponceña and, in fact, played on their legendary debut album Hacheros Pa' Un Palo. He also composed the hit "Moreno Soy" ("I Am Brown"), a statement regarding Puerto Rico's racial melting pot. Chalina, composer of over 200 songs, also worked with Impacto Crea and many royal figures in salsa.

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24551.10?WoXDG96X;;396

Not sure what to make of all these dodgy Rareza reissues. They sure don't sound very well re-mastered, probably just taking things from vinyl. People have complain that the label is illegitimate and that by putting these out now in half-assed remasters, the label is making it less likely this material will ever be properly reissued. Could be. But I am greedy to hear this music. A best of by La Muralla has been added to their list. Fania reissued a La Muralla album shortly before all the recent changes in ownership, and it was pretty good, though lo-fi. This sounds possibly even more lo-fi. The coros on some songs on this Rubby Haddock (never heard of him) sound like heaven to me:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24549.10?WoXDG96X;;417

Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor sounds like maybe it should be interesting, but the clips aren't doing much for me.

Hot track from the new Michael Stuart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BqHmXXP9Fg

I don't even recognize most of these songs, so I guess I hardly know Louie Ramirez's output at all. IMO, this is about as good as it gets in current salsa. (And of course, these are covers.) MS really needs to record more. I wish he could hook up with some good living songwriters (though I have no idea who they might be).

Interesting credits (oops, interesting formatting):

Michael Stuart Primary Artist, Leader, Vocals, Coros
Alfredo de la Fe Violin, Cello, Viola
Luisito Carrion Coros
Raul Agraz Trumpet
Luis Quintero Percussion, Timbales
Alex Lopez Coros
Alfredo Naranjo Vibes
Yomar "Caballo" Méndez Percussion, Quinto
Alberto Crespo Piano
Hector "Maximo" Rodriguez Bass
Jesús "Menudo" Moreno Piano
Luis Ruíz Trumpet
Johan Escalante Trombone
Carlos García Rivera Coros
Frank Haslam Baritone Saxophone
William "Willie" Melo Piano

Three different pianists? That's different. Luisito Carrion in the coro: that's a good sign. And of course, Alfredo de la Fe on violin and Luisito (I assume that's who "Luis" is) Quintero on percussion.

(Oh, the formatting came out okay after all.)

de La Fe won me over bigtime when I reviewed him many years back now, at a tiny suburban club. Nice guy and impressive musician

http://www.transcarib.org/?page_id=124

Halloween night in NYC talk titled Canga Mundele: Tracing the Secret of Bomba from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans to Puerto Rico

with author Ned Sublette and bomba researcher Alexander LaSalle and live drumming as part of the City Seeds lecture series Trans-Caribbean Reflections, at 25 Broadway

x-post- FauxMarc, Romeo Santos' brother (fellow Aventura member)Henry Santos is gonna be at the Cocacabana in Hyattsville, Maryland Friday.

It's a post-Aventura bachata world I guess

Haha. Romeo Santos feat. Usher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3XyWhrZnqE

It's not going to be a post-Aventura-bachata-sound world.

I wonder how much crossover attention the Usher collaboration will bring. How profile is Usher at the moment? I don't have much of a clue.

I have to say, for my purposes (not nec. for the purposes of this thread), the second half of the year has been a lot more satisfying for new music than the first half.

I have to admit, I like saying: "It's your boy, Romeo."

i don't think usher has anything going on, lol if anything this helps him out instead of romeo

Apparently Pitbull and Lil Wayne appear on this as well, so the rest of ILM may end up talking about this more than I do. I really can't stand Pitbull in particular. Mala Rodriguez is on it as well.

This video with all the lyrics written out cracks me up for some reason, especially the Yoooooooooooooooooooooooou part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBFnQ7uNZ9k

I'm also surprised by how much more of it I can understand with the words written out.

No, more like YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

"the king stays king"

Also his toothpick

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/teen-dj-ciudad-juarez-bizarro-reality.html

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d195/richhunt35/panamacalypsovolume3.jpg

This Panama thing is the BOMB. Volume 3 especially has some heaviosity.

i need to get 2 and 3 -- thank you for reminding me
1 is aaaawesome

Just noticed that singer Victor Manuelle is gonna be back in my part of the country again at El Boqueron II (Rockville or Gaithersburg?) on November 11th. Seems like he was just here a few months back. Some musicians just love touring (or they need the money made from touring)

speaking of salsa, michael stuart piece en espanol

http://www.primerahora.com/michaelstuartregresaconnuevodiscoyrevelaquetieneplanesdeboda-573726.html

Plus, I see elsewhere that he just had his album release party in Miami October 20th. I wonder if he will/can tour?

Oscar Hernandez is whining again:

http://www.salsaforums.com/showthread.php?t=18519

VM has a new album coming out. MS will/can tour, I think. I haven't gotten the new CD yet because I accidentally left my old address up. Have you ever seen Stuart live? That has the potential to be really good, although the second time I saw him at a small, free outdoor concert in Philadelphia, the performance wasn't on the same level as when I first saw him (at a bigger concert, with lots of Historical Salseros on the bill).

I have never seen Stuart live. Haven't read the whole thing but that Hernandez thing sounds like the old jazz musician's complaint--our music gets more respect in Russia and Japan than it does at home.

All of this is related in a way---salsa musicians having to deal with their style no longer being the pop, cutting edge Latin genre

They should be used to it by now.

Not particularly into the styles he works in, but he's got chops galore, and he's fun to watch perform:

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

Nobody gave a damn about this song the last time I was talking it up, but I think if anything it sounds better than when I first heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqcsDXm9oT0

Sounds awesome when I'm driving.