Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2015 and onward: Salsa, Bomba, Merengue,Reggaeton, Bachata, Latin-Jazz and more

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Yeah, he and Don Omar have been a really good comedy team in at least two of the Fast & Furious movies. I've put in a request for an interview (specifying that it would be in English) but haven't heard anything back yet.

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 5 February 2015 18:23 (nine years ago) link

Never heard of the below singer, but thought I'd pass this on

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin-notas/6458543/celina-gonzalez-dead-85-cuban-country-queen

excerpt:

Cuban Country Queen Celina Gonzalez Dead at 85

By Judy Cantor-Navas | February 05, 2015 10:18 AM EST
Cuban Country Queen Celina Gonzalez Dead at 85

"She was the greatest Cuban voice that U.S. audiences never got to hear," said Qbadisc founder and Cuban music historian Ned Sublette after hearing the news of her death.

Celina Gonzalez, the singer known as Cuban music's country queen, has died. Gonzalez passed away in Havana yesterday (Feb. 4), according to a statement from the Cuban Music Institute. The Latin Grammy-nominated artist was 85 years old.

The powerfully-voiced Gonzalez rose to popularity with her husband, guitarist Reutilio Domínguez. Together they were dedicated to the preservation of guajira music, the Spanish-influenced acoustic Cuban country genre whose poetic lyrics are inspired by rural life. Gonzalez also brought an Afro-Cuban sound to her music, She is probably best known for her song "Santa Barbara" (Also called "Que Viva Chango"), a tribute to the popular Afro-Cuban warrior god of fire and patron of percussion, whose Catholic alter-ego is St. Barbara. The song was later recorded by Celia Cruz.

Gonzalez's version was featured on Que Viva Chango!, a 1993 compilation of music by the artist on the New York label Qbadisc, which brought some attention in the U.S. to the singer, who lived in Cuba her whole life.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 5 February 2015 19:04 (nine years ago) link

Victor Manuelle's Que Suenen los Tambores is joyful stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dP-mkN6QiE

the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 8 February 2015 19:47 (nine years ago) link

admirably nutty "music overcomes all of life's sadness" video too

the plight of y0landa (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 8 February 2015 19:48 (nine years ago) link

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Feb. 16, 2015

Narrowing the 90 Miles
How U.S.-Cuba relations may play out for musicians

By LARRY BLUMENFELD

In late December, 10 days after Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced a path toward normalized relations between the U.S. and Cuba, the dressing-room conversation at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s nightclub, mirrored many on the subject: hope mixed with wait-and-see skepticism.
Drummer Dafnis Prieto, one of four Cuban-born musicians now living in the U.S. in an all-star group billed as “Nuevo Jazz Latino All-Stars,” said, “A truer relationship between the two countries is what many people, especially artists like us, have been longing for. But as artists, we’ve never had power in these decisions.”

Saxophonist Yosvany Terry, once Mr. Prieto’s conservatory classmate and bandmate in Havana, said, “The ideas are exciting, but we don’t yet know how this will be implemented. The devil is in the details.”

Those details are only beginning to take shape. The first steps of an earnest if tentative dance began on Jan. 21, when the U.S. and Cuba opened their highest-level diplomatic talks in nearly 40 years, in Havana. Thus began a process, as President Obama described in his Dec. 17 address, “to move beyond a rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”

Renewed political ties hold special promise for the relations between jazz musicians from the U.S. and their Cuban counterparts, which are rooted in even earlier events. In the audience at Dizzy’s that December night was percussionist Candido Camero, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. He first arrived in New York from Cuba in 1946, just as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (after whom the Jazz at Lincoln Center club is named), along with Cuban musicians such as trumpeter Mario Bauzá, percussionist Chano Pozo and singer-bandleader Frank “Machito” Grillo began blending Cuban and American music in novel ways. These musicians created a new, popular and profoundly influential musical style but also furthered a bond that pianist Jelly Roll Morton recognized as essential to jazz’s origins—one never broken, yet hindered by a half-century of often-forbidding impediments.

Since the U.S. embargo of Cuba began, the ability of Cuban and U.S. musicians to travel back and forth has shifted with political winds. The late 1970s saw a brief but notable loosening of tensions. By 1985, a hard line restricted cultural exchange. In the late 1990s, even as the Helms-Burton Act tightened many sanctions against the Cuban government, some doors opened, particularly for artists, through an official U.S. effort to encourage “people-to-people exchange.” Trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s Grammy award-winning 1997 album, “Habana,” featuring stellar Cuban musicians such as pianist Chucho Valdés, was one reflection of vibrant cross-cultural collaborations at the Havana International Jazz Festival, then under the musical direction of Mr. Valdés.

The unexpected commercial success of the 1997 album, “Buena Vista Social Club”—produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder, recorded at Havana’s Egrem studio, and showcasing a collective of musicians then mostly unknown to U.S. listeners—generated a fresh U.S. wave of popular fascination with Cuban music. Still, the 1998 Carnegie Hall concert captured in Wim Wender’s Oscar-nominated documentary about that recording would have been impossible to produce by 2004, owing to harsh U.S. travel restrictions regarding Cuba. Singer Ibrahim Ferrer, a Buena Vista member, could not accept his 2004 Grammy award for a subsequent album onstage; he was denied a visa to attend the ceremony. In fact, following a memorable December 2003 engagement by Mr. Valdés at Manhattan’s Village Vanguard, no other musician living in Cuba played in the U.S. until 2009, when the Obama administration began loosening travel restrictions.

The present shift in policy is more formal and holds more lasting promise. Already, rule changes should bring more American musicians and listeners in direct contact with Cuba. As of Jan. 16, U.S. citizens can travel to Cuba for one of a dozen approved purposes (including public performances) without prior written license from the U.S. Treasury Department, a time-consuming process that has intimidated promoters, producers and American travelers. Out-and-out tourism will not be permitted, but visitors from the U.S. will be allowed to spend more, use credit cards, and even bring home up to $100 in Cuban cigars.

The removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, as is currently under review, would presumably end the State Department security checks and visa denials that have led to last-minute cancellations of U.S. tours by Cuban groups. Though President Obama’s call for an end to the embargo is unlikely to gain congressional support, a less broad easing of commercial restrictions might permit American presenters to pay fees to Cuban artists, who are now allowed only per diem and travel reimbursements. Such changes might enable longer artistic residencies and collaboration on a grander scale, perhaps even an orchestra or institution based in both the U.S. and Cuba.

The past and present of American jazz and Cuban music intertwine in obvious ways. New York’s current jazz scene cannot be adequately described without highlighting the contributions of Messrs. Prieto and Terry, the sudden ubiquity of percussionists Román Díaz and Pedrito Martinez, and the innovations of some half-dozen other Cuban musicians, all now living in the U.S.

Likewise, musicians from the U.S. have long marked the Cuban scene. When I interviewed Mr. Valdés in his Havana home in 2010, one wall of his study was dotted with photos of storied Cuban musicians, including his father, the pianist Bebo Valdés, who died in 2013, and who played with American stars like Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan during his decadelong tenure as pianist and arranger at Havana’s famed Tropicana nightclub. “Cuban music and American jazz, that’s what we lived and breathed in my house,” Chucho told me. “I learned to play Jelly Roll Morton by listening to my father play.”

Some fear, reasonably, that an influx of tourism from the U.S. to Cuba may encourage the packaged nostalgia that often accompanies increased commercialism. Yet a freer exchange between musicians from both countries could rekindle energy akin to what Chucho Valdés grew up around.

And it may foster something yet deeper.

Pianist and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill learned of the current diplomatic breakthrough while in Havana, where he recorded an album combining his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with Cuban musicians, titled “The Conversation Continued.” Mr. O’Farrill, who was born in Mexico and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is the son of the Cuban composer, arranger and bandleader Chico O’Farrill. Arturo’s immersion in Cuban music began with a personal search for identity but now reflects a broader aesthetic mission that he sees as enabled by renewed relations.

“Now we can begin in earnest to have a healthy relationship in which Afro-Cuban music is not so exoticized,” Mr. O’Farrill said, “one in which we look at each other as inheritors of a common legacy, and as true partners.”

It remains to be seen whether diplomatic relations will, as President Obama announced, “begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas.” But the policy changes already in motion may help turn such a page for the best jazz musicians of this hemisphere.

Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz for the Journal. He also blogs at blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes.

* * *

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:38 (nine years ago) link

I am kinda interested in the above, but recognize what an insular little Cuban and NYC Latin-Jazz world he is referring too. No mention of timba or rap, or how this impacts other parts of the Latin Caribbean and Americas, but Blumenfeld is a jazz critic so maybe its wrong of me to expect more, and he only has so much space.

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link

This show sold out the Garden

Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Plan B will headline The Best Latino Urbano concert at Madison Square Garden. Appearances by Daddy Yankee, J Alvarez, Arcangel, Tony Dize, Alexis y Fido, and Dominican artists El Mayor, Secreto and El Alfa have also been announced for the Feb. 6 all-ages show.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 19 February 2015 16:08 (nine years ago) link

But Subl*tte's excited about the Latin-jazzers coming to the 92nd St Y in NYC (plus his upcoming trip to Cuba)

http://brianlynchjazz.com/2015/02/latin-on-lex-a-latin-jazz-festival-in-nyc-with-bl-at-the-helm/

Latin on Lex: A Latin Jazz Festival at the 92nd Street Y
Brian Lynch, artistic director

curmudgeon, Friday, 27 February 2015 17:02 (nine years ago) link

Wow, a 2015 version of the Buena Vista Social Club is touring the US this summer with Pedrito Martinez' group opening. Coming in late August to Wolf Trap Farm Park outside DC

curmudgeon, Thursday, 5 March 2015 17:23 (nine years ago) link

Eugenia Leon's name does not turn up in the ilx search engine. Trying to get a grasp on the music of this Mexican singer--sometimes she sounds operatic, her roots are in nueva cancion folk I read, she's done a bossa album, sounds cabaret theatric jazzy too

curmudgeon, Thursday, 5 March 2015 17:25 (nine years ago) link

I listened to Spotify and checked out some Youtubes. Her bossa album is ok, and she's done various other styles. Mostly diva-esque slow tempos although the bossa album is a bit more bubbly.

curmudgeon, Friday, 6 March 2015 15:40 (nine years ago) link

x-post- those Brian Lynch hosted 92 St Y gigs in NY include E. Palmieri on March 12th and the younger Cubans on the 13th

Yosvany Terry, alto sax & shekere
 Gregory Tardy – tenor sax
, Manuel Valera – piano,
 Pedrito Martinez – percussion
, Hans Glawischnig, bass, 
Obed Calvaire – drums

 And Brian Lynch, host and trumpet

curmudgeon, Friday, 6 March 2015 15:43 (nine years ago) link

While the Cuban jazz dudes in NYC get most of the media attention, I am still liking this Cuban timba & salsa singer who moved to NYC

GERARDO CONTINO Y LOS HABANEROS

A lawyer by day, Contino, or “El Abogado de la Salsa,” as he is affectionately referred to by fans, is singer and songwriter who is best recognized as the former lead singer of renowned Cuban salsa and jazz orchestra NG La Banda. Upon moving to New York City from Cuba, he formed Gerardo Contino y Los Habaneros, a group known for its refreshing take on salsa and timba tunes, its impressive rhythm section and interactive call-and-response performances led by Contino. The talented lineup includes Grammy winning bassist John Benitez,pianist Axel Tosca Laugart and percussionist Luisito Quintero.
The group released its debut album, Somos Latinos, in 2013 to critical acclaim, with Timba.com describing the record as a “treasure trove of state-of-the-art bass, piano and percussion work laid down by some the very best instrumentalists in the genre.”

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 16:41 (nine years ago) link

Plus the Colombian salsa choque/ salsa choke that Rudiph mentioned earlier above

http://www.salomefm.com/events/festival-salsa-choke-15-de-febrero-2015/

curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 March 2015 15:18 (nine years ago) link

Eddie Palmieri tonight in NYC, but I'm down farther south in the US of A

curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 March 2015 15:19 (nine years ago) link

Gonna try to dance to Gerardo Contino tonight as he & his band are appearing near me (not that the wife and I know how to really do so)

curmudgeon, Friday, 13 March 2015 15:01 (nine years ago) link

If John Benitez is on the gig, tell him you are my friend. He doesn't know me by name but I see him all the time. Oh wait, you could describe me. Oh wait, we've never met in person. You figure it out.

Cartesian Dual in the Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 March 2015 15:03 (nine years ago) link

He is listed as being the likely bass player.

curmudgeon, Friday, 13 March 2015 16:06 (nine years ago) link

I will try to see him on Sunday to close the loop

Cartesian Dual in the Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 March 2015 00:12 (nine years ago) link

Cool. Bass player had a shaved head and singer Contino garbled the intro. I think it was him but am not sure. Did not introduce myself and tell him I know online the intranetz King of the borough of Queens.

Show was kinda uneven, sadly. I love the 2013 album, but Contino live this time was trying so hard to please everyone and got kinda loungey and talked to much in between songs in multiple languages--this is a song for Colombians; this is a Buena Vista Social Club song; "my international people will know this one--"Bailando" (that's the Enrique Englesias huge hit w/ the video I like)-- that it didn't seem that impressive. They did a new song that was kinda bachata, plus another bachata-like cover. But little timba.

curmudgeon, Saturday, 14 March 2015 17:25 (nine years ago) link

Think I know exactly what you mean. Sort of what I don't totally dig about what Pedrito does.

John's hair goes back and forth from dyed blonde to not, from kind of long and curly to super short.

Cartesian Dual in the Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 March 2015 17:34 (nine years ago) link

John is a pretty big guy though, hard to miss.

Cartesian Dual in the Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 March 2015 17:51 (nine years ago) link

Maybe it wasn't him. Also re the gig, Contino's voice lacked the authority and passion of some old-school salsa singers I have seen, and the music lacked the energy of some salsa acts I have seen too--not enough timbale and cowbell.

curmudgeon, Sunday, 15 March 2015 20:53 (nine years ago) link

Timba is different from old school salsa dura.

Where is the Brilliant Friend's Home? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 March 2015 21:45 (nine years ago) link

Have not yet totslly warmed to it myself.

Where is the Brilliant Friend's Home? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 March 2015 21:49 (nine years ago) link

What I mean is live Contino and band did not have the funkyness of timba or the rhythmic clave style and power of athletic and graceful old-school salsa dura, or at least whenever they started to exhibit it, Contino would get loungy in his vocal style, and the music would change and the songs would end too quickly.

Interesting though in the choice of covers and the new songs. Once upon a time such acts would try to do a schlocky syrupy salsa romantica cut but now they do bachata.

curmudgeon, Monday, 16 March 2015 14:05 (nine years ago) link

I have liked the couple of timba gigs I have seen, and this live was not that timba.

curmudgeon, Monday, 16 March 2015 14:06 (nine years ago) link

Natalia Lafourcade's new album Hasta La Raíz comes out today. I'm listening to it on Spotify and it's fucking great; will probably buy it from Amazon MP3 by day's end.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6DWTUm9rifRvl5PTyNMwqV

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 17 March 2015 13:53 (nine years ago) link

Cool. Like her too and will give it a listen. My only concern in advance is that she was a bit uneven live when I saw her perform last year.

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 13:58 (nine years ago) link

It's a very produced record. Not in the sense that it sounds of-the-moment; it's got a classic '60s vibe (strings, heavily reverbed guitars, etc.), with very few concessions to the 21st Century.

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 17 March 2015 14:06 (nine years ago) link

Still need to get to that. On my list

curmudgeon, Saturday, 21 March 2015 15:31 (nine years ago) link

Finally gave Lafourcade a quick listen. I like it too, and like Venegas it has that timeless Latin-American indie-pop feel that they both can do so well. Trying to figure out why they do it more impresively than many folks singing in English---better craft, better melodies...

curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 March 2015 14:17 (nine years ago) link

Ned S*blette's back in Cuba for the first time in a while

A quick music diary . . .

Saturday: Pedro Luis Ferrer
Sunday: Emilio Morales y Los Nuevo Amigos at La Zorra y El Cuervo
Monday: Harold López-Nussa
Tuesday: a triple play: the peña (regularly scheduled gig) of Pancho Amat at the Museo Nacional de la Música; Havana d'Primera at Casa de la Música Miramar; Aldo López-Gavilán
Wednesday: Roberto Carcassés y Interactivo at Bertolt Brecht
Thursday: Pupy Y Los Que Son, Son at Casa de la Música Galeano . . .
Tonight: Van Van at the Capri . . .
Tomorrow: Reguetón .

curmudgeon, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:09 (nine years ago) link

Ned is back from Cuba and preparing an article for Billboard. He is also checking out Cuban music that is not Latin jazz. A recent Sublette email mentions the Enrique Iglesias video for "Bailando" that was filmed in Havana (and is worth watching; it also has a huge # of Youtube views) and a number of other videos. I haven't checked 'em all out yet.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 2 April 2015 18:13 (nine years ago) link

Still haven't

curmudgeon, Friday, 3 April 2015 14:42 (nine years ago) link

Haven't heard the new Omar Sosa album either....been listening to Giberto Gil, Dom la Nena, Richard Bishop, afropop, Danny Gatton, D'angelo, Kendrick lamar and more though

curmudgeon, Friday, 3 April 2015 16:49 (nine years ago) link

This is a quick, quarterly reminder that all available tracks mentioned on this thread (and a few album selections) are being posted as updated to a thread-specific Spotify playlist that I'm maintaining. I just did a quick sweep prior to posting this message and updated as of today with everything that's been added on Spotify since it was first mentioned.

That playlist is currently a bit more than two hours of music and is clickable below. Give it a spin and subscribe if you want to listen along through the year.

Rolling Latin/Afrolatin 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

This is very good, but it takes its time heating up. By the son of Puerto Rican bandleader Don Perignon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDSC183Mk9Q

The rest of the album is worth a listen as well, though that's the standout for me.

Ivy Queen has put out four albums, all entitled Vendetta (some of us are just less forgiving than others), in four different genres, which could probably be melted down to one solid EP. I like these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fljU5MccE9Y

Salsa lite, the way reggaetoneros do it, but kind of nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lLmhkw56h8

(Some back story for that first video: apparently she is pissed off about the way she was treated by music business types while she was pregnant.)

_Rudipherous_, Monday, 6 April 2015 17:35 (nine years ago) link

I like the Ivy Queen. Also like this El paso de la Bailerina - Alexander Abreu & Havana D' Primera - Original Version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIOihbD-CFY#t=44

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 04:41 (nine years ago) link

That's one Ned Sublette linked to. Here's another: La Charanga Habanera y David Calzado "LA PEGADERA" - (Official Video) Salsa Cubana 2015

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

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 04:45 (nine years ago) link

Three of Cuba's great young pianists: Aldo López-Gavilán, Jorge Luis Pacheco Campos (who plays with his quartet at Dizzy's April 23), and Harold López-Nussa---says Ned

Writer Ned Sublette who was just in Cuba likes these three Cuban jazz pianists. They have been at the Kennedy Center in DC and their shows were video-streamed and archived

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M6251&type=A

Pacheco and Gavilan live at the Kennedy Center

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M6040

Lopez-Nussa trio at the Kennedy Center

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 04:58 (nine years ago) link

The jazz concert videos are long btw.

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 14:19 (nine years ago) link

at the risk of spamming the board, here's a list of pertinent shows scheduled for this season at NYC's SummerStage:

FREE SHOWS featuring (in alphabetical order) BABY DO BRASIL, CANO ESTREMERA, CESÁRIA ÉVORA ORCHESTRA, COMPASS, DIEGO GARCIA, FELIX HERNANDEZ RHYTHM REVUE, GERARDO CONTINO Y LOS HABENEROS, HELADO NEGRO, ISMAEL MIRANDA, JORGE DREXLER, JOSE PEÑA SUAZO, JUDY TORRES, MAYRA ANDRADE, MISTER G, NAÇĀO ZUMBI, NATION BEAT, NO TE VA GUSTAR, OQUES GRASSES, OUR LATIN THING, SYSTEMA SOLAR, TITO NIEVES, TKA, TONY TOUCH, VICENTICO, XIMENA SARIÑANA, and many more
***
• Wednesday June 24 - Crotona Park, BX - 7pm - Judy Torres + Tony Touch
• Sunday June 28 - Central Park - 3pm - Catalan Sounds On Tour with Oques Grasses + La Iaia + Silvia Perez Cruz + DJ Guillamino
• Tuesday July 7 - St. Mary’s Park, BX - 7pm - LAMC presents Our Latin Thing + DJ Afro
• Wednesday July 8 - Central Park - 6pm - LAMC presents Systema Solar + Compass + Helado Negro
• Wednesday July 8 – St. Mary’s Park, BX – 7pm – Ismael Miranda
• Thursday July 9 - St. Mary’s Park, BX - 7pm - Cano Estremera
• Saturday July 11 - Central Park - 3pm - LAMC presents Vicentico + Ximena Sariñana + No Te Va Gustar
• Sunday July 12 - Central Park - 3pm - Cesária Évora Orchestra + Mayra Andrade + Dino D'Santiago
• Sunday July 12 - St. Mary’s Park, BX - 4pm - Mister G + Soul Street Dance + DJ ASHO
• Sunday July 12 - St. Mary’s Park, BX - 7pm - Gerardo Contino y Los Habeneros + Film Screening: Celia - The Queen (2008)
• Sunday July 19 - Central Park - 7pm - Jorge Drexler + Diego Garcia + Danay Suarez
• Saturday July 25 - Highbridge Park, MN - 7pm - Jose Peña Suazo y La Banda Gorda
• Saturday August 1 - Clove Lakes Park, SI - 7pm - TKA + Tony Touch
• Sunday August 2 - Central Park - 3pm - Brasil Summerfest with Nação Zumbi + Nation Beat’s Carnival Caravan with Cha Wa + DJ Vinil Pompéia
• Sunday August 2 - Clove Lakes Park, SI - 7pm - The Felix Hernandez Rhythm Revue + Film Screening: Get On Up (2014)
• Tuesday August 4 - East River Park, MN - 7pm - Tito Nieves
• Sunday August 9 - East River Park, MN - 7pm - The Felix Hernandez Rhythm Revue + Film Screening: Our Latin Thing (1972)
• Saturday August 15 - Central Park - 7pm - Brazilian Film Festival of NY featuring Baby Do Brasil + Film Screening: Samba & Jazz (2014)

Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 8 April 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link

http://www.hffny.com/2015/we-the-music-3/

April 9 to 17th Havana Film Fest NYC

Wish I could make it up there for some of the music ones including:

BLUECHACHA

Ernesto Daranas | Cuba | 2012 | Documentary | 35min

Promotional documentary featuring the last album of the famous Cuban guitarist, composer and director Manuel Galbán, founder of the famous quartet Los Zafiros. Before his death at age 80, Galbán managed to finish his latest project, a delightful album titled “Bluechacha” that he recorded in collaboration with his daughter, the composer Magda Rosa Galbán, who handled musical production and arrangements along with her husband, musician Juan Antonio Leyva

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 8 April 2015 16:34 (nine years ago) link

My take on movie Ciudad Delirio that's showing at Filmfest DC

A doctor from Spain named Javier (Julián Villagrán) goes to Cali, Colombia for a medical conference and meets a salsa dance instructor, a single mother named Angie (Carolina Ramírez). She struggles to afford costumes for her working-class dance company, the Cali Stars, who are determined to win a competition. The plot of Ciudad Delirio is formulaic, and positioning the doctor as a stiff, nice white guy who can’t dance and Angie’s ex (her child’s father) as an irresponsible, flashy black dancer doesn’t help. But if you’re a sucker for corny romance tales, the drum-and-horn pulse of classic salsa, and Latin choreography glitzed up with Vegas-style sequins and spectacle, you might be able to overlook director and co-screenwriter Chus Gutiérrez’s reliance on stereotypes and clichés.

Sat. April 18, 9:15 p.m.; Wed. April 22, 6:30 p.m., AMC Mazza Gallerie

curmudgeon, Thursday, 16 April 2015 13:48 (nine years ago) link

The International Bachata Day Music & Dance Festival May 28, 2015 - June 1st, 2015 in Republica Dominicana

Even if I liked bachata more, not sure I can make it.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 23 April 2015 15:19 (nine years ago) link

Speaking of bachata, Romeo Santos is on the cover of Billboard

“With a high-profile cameo in 'Furious 7' and co-signs from Usher and Drake, the bachata star may finally be crossing over -- but strictly on his own terms… Romeo Santos has more #1 chart hits than any other Latin Music artist this decade… ‘Propuesta Indecente’ is one of the biggest songs in Latin music for most of the last two years. The track has spent a record-setting 89 weeks in the top five of Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart… he is the leading finalist at the Billboard Latin Music Awards with 21 nods in 16 categories, a record in the show’s 26-year history… with a sound rooted in the swagger of contemporary R&B and hip-hop, Santos has revolutionized Bachata …it’s now both a Pan-Latin and global style -- something you can hear from the Dominican Republic to Colombia to Italy -- largely due to Santos. ..on Formula Vol. 2, he stuck to Spanish, and let his guest stars cross over to the bachata side. ‘Odio,’ his single with Drake, became the highest Billboard Hot 100 debut for a Spanish-language track in the chart’s history”

He was impressive and charismatic when I saw him live years back as the lead singer of Aventura. But I have never been wowed by the albums

curmudgeon, Sunday, 26 April 2015 14:57 (nine years ago) link

Never seen him headline, but he came out as a guest when I saw Wisin & Yandel at Madison Square Garden and the minute he stepped onstage, the screaming doubled in volume and went up an octave. It was crazy. Nothing's ever gonna make me like bachata, though.

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Sunday, 26 April 2015 17:27 (nine years ago) link

I want to hear this---

On air this week is “Music in a Changing Cuba.” Veteran Hip Deep producer Ned Sublette drops by our studio in Brooklyn to share music and stories from his recent trip to Cuba for a reporting trip for Billboard magazine. Reggaeton has become the youth music of choice in Havana but timba big bands still command loyal followings. We’ll hear hot sets of both. Plus Ned talks about what is changing in Cuba and what is not changing.

http://www.afropop.org/22599/music-in-a-changing-cuba/

What’s up in Havana besides tourism? Ned Sublette, who recently
traveled to Cuba for Billboard magazine, talks with Sean Barlow about
the present moment in the fast-changing music capital. Timba from
Havana D’Primera, jazz/son by Pancho and Daniel Amat, and
a mastermix of reguetón by Chacal y Yakarta, El Micha, and others.

curmudgeon, Monday, 27 April 2015 14:56 (nine years ago) link

Reggaeton lives!

EL ZOL 107.9

PRESENTA:


SABADO 23 DE MAYO


"LATIN EXPLOSION 2015"


YANDEL / ALEXIS Y FIDO / ANDY ANDY /
IVY QUEEN /J. ALVAREZ / ZION & LENNOX

DE LA GHETTO / KHRIZ & ANGEL / JOWELL & RANDY /

MESSIAH / JORY BOY / EL CHEVO / SAHARA

at the 10,000 seat Patriot Center Arena

curmudgeon, Monday, 27 April 2015 20:49 (nine years ago) link

Sure, how do we get a mod to do that...?

curmudgeon, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:10 (eight years ago) link

Go to Mod Request Borad and ask, including link to this thread.

Green Dolphin Street Hassle (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link

If it's causing confusion maybe there should be a distinct 2016 thread. (Sorry, starting to change my mind about that.) I personally don't feel like I am interested enough in current Afro-Latin music (at least the part of it I find out about) to try to keep a thread like this alive any more, but this thread did get a fair number of posts last year.

_Rudipherous_, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:20 (eight years ago) link

I haven't watched this, but Wayne Marshall seems good for reggaeton orientation. Maybe more academic than you're asking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOXfSQ5Zao

_Rudipherous_, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link

But anyway, 240+ posts might be respectable enough to keep doing this as an annual thing.

_Rudipherous_, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:33 (eight years ago) link

IMHO, for the purposes of searching for information, unique threads is really the way to go. It's not a question of "not enough posts", it's for indexing reasons.

But whatever's clever

Chocolate was responsible for many great trumpet solos.

_Rudipherous_, Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:41 (eight years ago) link

Thanks, _Rudipherous_! I definitely need something academic, but I also v much need some help sifting through the heap of wearying dross to find the nuggets of gold.

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:50 (eight years ago) link

I'm also in favour of a new thread btw.

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 7 January 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link

Nice!

human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 7 January 2016 18:04 (eight years ago) link


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