Afro-Latin Music Thread 2010: La Resurrección (salsa, merengue, bachata, reggaeton, cumbia, etc.)

More on Los Van Van in Miami

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/v-print/story/1456425.html

Posted on Sun, Jan. 31, 2010
More fans than foes come for Van Van
BY CHRISTINA VEIGA AND JORDAN LEVIN
cve✧✧✧@MiamiHer✧✧✧.c✧✧

Popular Cuban dance band Los Van Van returned to Miami on
Sunday, greeted by enthusiastic fans and angry protesters.

The last time Los Van Van performed in Miami in 1999, protesters
outnumbered concertgoers, and rocks and bottles flew.

This time, 350 to 400 showed up to demonstrate, and almost 4,000
showed up for the show at the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami. The
only things hurled were a few insults. There were no arrests, Miami police
said.
Protesters, who associate the band with the Castro regime,
crammed together on the sidewalks, waving flags, holding signs and screaming
into megaphones as cars full of concertgoers streamed past.

``We're hurt, so we cry out,'' said Juan Antunez, 66, of
Kendall, who said he came to Florida in 1961 and served in the U.S. Army
during the Cuban Missile Crisis the next year.

``If these were Jewish people, they would be outraged if someone
from the Nazi regime came here to do art,'' he said. ``There is no art in a
communist regime.''

Concertgoers opened their car windows, smiling mockingly and
shouting at the demonstrators. Some blasted Los Van Van music from their car
stereos.

Outside, Ivan Sanchez, 68, held up a white poster board with a
message condemning local officials for allowing Los Van Van to perform at
the Knight Center, which is a public venue. He made a case against the
argument that the performance would facilitate cultural exchange.
``They say it's a cultural exchange, but who's going to Cuba?''
asked Sanchez, who lives in Miami. ``It's a one-sided exchange.''

Magda Miranda, who came to Miami from Cuba five years ago,
strode past the signs declaring her a ``traitor'' and ``communist.'' As she
headed toward the concert hall, she pumped her fists in the air.

``I'm for Van Van,'' she said. ``I don't care about Fidel. I
don't care about anyone. ``Viva Van Van.''

Inside the Knight Center, the close to 4,000 concertgoers were
as excited as music-lovers at any other show.

Mike Barry, 33, a Cuban émigré who also attended the 1999 show,
shrugged at the difference between then and now. ``It's not like last
time.'' he said. ``I think the community has changed a lot.''

His friend Joe Rose, 44, a U.S.-born Cuban American, said he was
purely a fan of Van Van's music.

``It's great music,'' he said. ``I respect the way [the
protesters] think, but they've got to respect the way I think, too. I bet
the people out there have Van Van CDs, too. Their music is that good.''
Debbie Ohanian, who produced the 1999 Van Van concert, said she
was not disturbed by the sight of the 350 to 400 protesters this time, as
opposed to 3,000 at the first show. ``In 10 years there'll be 30
protesters,'' she said.

Just the same, police maintained a vigilant presence outside the
Knight Center. It took concertgoers about 15 minutes to make their way
through security.

The band took the stage at 7:30 p.m. They made no speeches, and
launched directly into their first song, their latest hit, Arrazando.

Los Van Van was to return to Cuba from Miami after its two-show
Florida tour; they played in Key West on Thursday. A more-extensive U.S.
tour is planned for this spring.

Salsa band Sonora Carruseles are coming to DC (Maryland actually-El Boqueron II in Rockville), opening for a vallenato singer Felipe Pelaez. Any of you folks know more about these folks than I do (I read Wiki entries and stuff)? If Wiki is to be believed, Sonora is a Columbian band now based in Miami.

They are a very well-know Colombian salsa band. Kind of uneven, probably worth going to see. I have never seen them live myself, but I'd be interested in checking them out. I'd bet they put on a good show. I'm sure you've heard some of their songs. Like you may recognize this Pete Rodriguez cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7gb5KiRl8Y

Or "Ave Maria Lola" (click on play button at top of search results):

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=ave+maria+lola+sonora+carruseles&aq=0&aqi=g1&oq=ave+maria+lola+sono&fp=bf9afa9aa437c51f

I didn't know they were in Miami.

Got the new Fania Joe Cuba compilation last night. Two CDs, 34 tracks, really beautifully remastered.

x-post

I like their "En Buenaventura" a lot as well.

That sounds good. I doubt I need a complete collection of Joe Cuba albums, so that might work for me, although I want pretty much anything Cheo Feliciano sang on.

I like their "En Buenaventura" a lot as well

which is not the usual light boogaloo stuff they do and has a sound closer to classic (but late) Fruko y Sus Tesos or Joe Arroyo, I would say.

I can't really emphasize how ubiquitous "Micaela" and "Ave Maria Lola" were in clubs and maybe even more so in dance classes (or free lessons in clubs).

in the late 90s and maybe the first couple years of the last decade

That Joe Cuba comp might work for me. Meanwhile in the pop world Aventura is still on top of the Latin singles chart:

http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/latin-songs

I'm torn between "I should really obviously get this" since it looks like it could be the archival salsa release of the year (on the hand) and "I should really obviously not be spending any money on CDs since I'm kind of on the broke side and the economy is about as unstable as its ever been in my lifetime (not to mention that I have eight CDs on the way alredy)."

However, let's at least eyeball this:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23559.10?oAS4EmQN;;463

Another consideration in favor of buying it is how ridiculously the Fania catalog is now going in and out of easy availability. I never expended copies of all those remasters to dry up so quickly at major sites like cduniverse.

I don't remember hearing Ismael Quintana (who is probably best known for his work with Eddie Palmieri, especially on the original La Perfecta recordings*) with the Fania All Stars, but maybe I've just missed it.

*I know this will not be news to some of you. Just throwing it out for those who don't know or who have forgotten.

Yeah, I'll second that recommendation. That disc is pretty hot.

BTW, physical CDs may be hard to come by, but a huge proportion of the Fania catalog is available digitally from Fania.com.

The San Juan concert is a great recording, one of the highlights is the heavy 3 minute percussion work out at the start of Ponte Duro (a track which is strangely missing from the Descarga write up).

There's another new young band making a stir out of Spain hot on the heels of La Sucrusal SA. Bloque 53's CD La Ruta De La Salsa is very tasty, it has a New Swing Sextet feel to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWwPBbJFiG4

BTW, physical CDs may be hard to come by, but a huge proportion of the Fania catalog is available digitally from Fania.com.

I just have a mental block about paying for downloads. It still bugs me, in principle, that I have to provide my own physical storage if I do that.

Bloque 53 sounds okay (I did check their myspace as well). I still wish that more of these bands were doing something a bit newer sounding. I think I'm just fussier these days because I haven't been going out dancing, so simply having some new music that is good enough to dance to isn't enough to satisfy me.

Ned Sublette has written about a March event New Yorkers may be interested in:

you can also play in a charanga in the music department at UNC Chapel Hill. After singing my brains out at Regulator, I got to have a beer with David García, who leads the aforementioned charanga (something all music departments should have) and is the author of Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music. Somebody should have done a biography of Arsenio long ago, but it’s not too late to praise the guy who finally did it, so I got to toast David’s achievement on the occasion of our first-ever meeting. He'll be in New York to participate in a panel attached to what should be a splendid concert: "Arsenio Rodríguez in the Bronx," by the re-energized Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino, March 20 at Hostos Community College.

And in DC Saturday Feb. 27th:

WPFW dj Jim Byers leads a panel discussion with music from 2 to 4 at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum on the history of DC Latin music clubs and the interaction between African-American and Hispanic musicians –they will retrace the history of diversity in Latin dance nightlife in Washington, from WUST Radio Music Hall and The Casbah — D.C.'s home of the mambo on U Street — to the Zanzibar on the Waterfront. The band Verny Varela Project performs.

Can we include cumbia in this thread ?
There is quite a revival that has been happening at least over here in sf/la...
This band is excellent.

http://www.myspace.com/buyepongo

Meanwhile Miguel Zenon is melding latin-jazz with Puerto Rican Plena. There are some youtube videos and here's a recent interview. I like plena, have not made up my mind on Zenon's version

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/02/miguel_zenon_on_perfecting_a_m.html

Can we include cumbia in this thread ?

Absolutely. It's in the title, it just doesn't get talked about because I guess nobody contributing here actually knows much about it (or if they do, they don't have much to say about it). But don't be discouraged if I don't respond to postings about nu-cumbia type stuff, because I'm not into what I've heard of it.

(Anyway, the first track on that myspace doesn't sound at all like what I mean by nu-cumbia.

And it's not that I'm against doing something new with cumbia, I just find some of that Club Zizek stuff loses the feel the very feeling that attracts me to cumbia to begin with.)

apparently the communist revolutionary armed forces of columbia paid $150K to artists in the dominican republic and elsewhere to record a professional propaganda cd of merengue

FARC spent http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8335-farc-produce-music-cd-to-allure-supporters.html50,000 recording catchy CD to improve image

EL BAILE DEL GUERRILLERO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COKoE3Kw9xk

fixed link to article

Benefit at Zanzibar in DC tonight for salsa dance instructor and promoter Eileen Torres who badly broke her ankle in December and has lots of medical expenses from surgery and such. Virtually every local DC dj will be doing some spinning tonight and most of the area dance instructors will be hosting.

Because there ain't no other place to talk about it, I'm gonna come in here and mention that the new Maldita Vecindad album, Circular Colectivo (already out in many places, out next month in the U.S.), is awesome and pretty much picks up right where Circo left off. If you are an old fuck like me who loved the first generation of Latin alternative rock/ska/funk/punk/etc., you should get it.

May have to check that out.

I finally saw Richmond, Virginia's Bio Ritmo today. They were part of the free WPFW dj Jim Byers led program at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum on the history of dancing to the mambo in DC--in particular--African-Americans in DC who discovered the sound way back when. Some cool old footage of dancers. I really need to take dance lessons. I tried but it wasn't exactly impressive. Bio Ritmo were excellent. The event was in a small room that only holds around 75 people. As the museum is in the poorest part of DC, and is not right on a Metro, very few uh, palefaced blue-eyed dancers or music fans were there (other than me, my friend and a few others). Their loss.

the new Maldita Vecindad album, Circular Colectivo (already out in many places, out next month in the U.S.), is awesome and pretty much picks up right where Circo left off

I never clicked with the original, though maybe I just heard it at the wrong time.

Bio Ritmo side project Miramar does nice boleros and such on the sampler I got.

van van documentary a hit

http://www.twominutenews.com/2010/world/us-world/baby-rasta-shot-and-seriosly-injured-4316.html

Police further informed that more than one hundred shots were fired since there were countless bullet casings discovered at the scene and the singer reportedly received bullets all over his body i.e. the abdomen, back, right leg and right arm.

So this wasn't just a random mugging or something. . .

New Grupo Fantasma album coming soon. Guests include Larry Harlow and x-Minute Puppets guitarist Curt Kirkwood (together for the first time?):

http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/115597-grupo-fantasma-to-release-el-existential-on-may-11th-2010-a.html

I still think Sonidos Gold was one of the best albums of 2008.

(2010 continues to seem like it's going to end up being an especially good year for music, not particular the music normally discussed on this thread, but music (or at least popular music) in general.)

I didn't really expect Grupo Fantasma to put anything out this year.

e-mail press release I received :

The LOS TRES TOUR features Marco Antonio Solis, Joan Sebastian and Alejandro Fernandez in one of the most exciting couplings of Latin music in years. The three superstars will be featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of People en Español.

Not my thing, I do not think. I know I do not like Solis, do the others do melodramatic ballads as well.

Yeah, none for me, thanks.

The new Grupo Fantasma tracks up on their myspace seem a bit weak. I'm sure they'd be fine in live performance and everything, but I don't hear much in the way of a song underlying them. Plus what happened to the guitar? Did they lose their guitarist, or is he just way back in the mix?

The percussion and horns are upfront for track "El Consejo" plus that little keyboard riff

It just sounds a bit lackluster to me, and I guess I specifically liked the combination of horns with electric guitar. You would think they would pick the strongest couple tracks from the forthcoming album to put up on their myspace, and if these are the strongest, I'm worried.

Bruce Polin's (I thought it was to l's) son's "fine art prints" that descarga.com is selling are embarrassingly awful: http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23925.00?r3r5JotX;;391

I just noticed my typo: x-Minute Puppets. Haha, good name for an 80s punk revival band.

March 18, 2010 (SOLD OUT)
Gianmarco
The Salsa Room

Did not realize Peruvian Gian Marco was that popular. Not sure if he's someone I wanna hear though (based on his bio), although if someone thinks otherwise let me know.

I don't know him.

Ned Sublette, author of Cuba and Its Music, has these upcoming events (cut and pasted from his e-mail):

March 11-13, Los Angeles: UCLA "Ports of Call -- Cultures of Exchange"
conference. My talk is this Saturday (the 13th) at noon. I'll get to talk
about my longtime favorite subject, the dancing girls of Cádiz, in the
context of postmamboist Braudelianism. Conference schedule at
http://s1.webstarts.com/portsofcall/uploads/Ports_of_Call--Program2_copy.pdf
Looking forward to hanging in L.A. a bit -- it's been a long time.

March 18: I'll be moderating a seminar at Hostos Community College with
panelists David García and René López:
La Gente del Bronx:
Arsenio Rodríguez, a "People's Musician"
Thurs, March 18, 5:30 p.m. | Art Gallery, 450 Grand Concourse

This seminar takes its name and theme from one of Arsenio Rodríguez's most
beloved tunes which is an ode to the community - the South Bronx - where
Arsenio performed in working-class social clubs during the 40's and the 50's
for audience that rarely frequented downtown establishments. It will focus
on the típico and Afro-centric nature of Arsenio's music which contrasted
with the music of such contemporaries as Títo Puente and Títo Rodríguez.

This seminar is related to what promises to be a memorable concert:

March 20: "Yo nací del Africa" -- Grupo Folklórico y Experimental performing
the music of Arsenio Rodríguez.
http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/culturearts/events.html

An e-mail from afropop worldwide:

On air this weekend is “Reggaeton Roundup: New Moves in Latin Youth Music.” We travel to Puerto Rico, the birthplace of reggaeton, and talk to players from the music's early underground scene and then take the pulse of today's pan-Latin phenomenon. Frankly, a lot of people dismiss reaggaeton as boring but this show will give you a fresh listen. The show was produced by Marlon Bishop, who most recently cycled across Central America, recording music along the way, of course. Stay tuned for that audio adventure.

Sabado 20 de Marzo
VICTOR MANUELLE
"YO MISMO"
US TOUR 2010

GALAXY NIGHT CLUB
2031 University Blvd East
Hyatsville, Maryland
301.439.6666

Age(s): 21+
Dress to Impress

It's a rule, whenever he comes to the DC area, I am busy with my son or something. I'd like to see him (and I know or I think Rudipherous has some issues with him)

On first inadequate listen, J Alvarez's El Dueño Del Sistema (Special Edition) is not bad (I like it better than most other stuff I'm hearing along these lines anyway), and seems to continue in the vein of Casa de Leones. I assume it has some of the same people involved and maybe he himself was part of that, though I don't recognize his name.

I see via a Yahoo e-mail thread that one of Cuban singer Pupy's members somehow left for the US last year and he's now gonna do a one-show out in Oakland on March 19th

Pepito
Gómez
Bay Area Return!
Cubadisco
Winner José "Pepito" Gómez former Pupy Y Los Que Son Son Lead Singer with
Guest Musicians fromNYC!

featuring DJ WaltDigz
and Ariacne Trujillo on the piano-now famous in the bay :)
Club Anton is not that big

Wait, so has he defected? I knew he was leaving Pupy y Los Que Son Son. He was the guy I liked the most in the band. Last time I tried to listen to Pupy's last album (which still includes Pepito) I was not into it at all. The many little things which annoyed me originally just came back in force. I don't care for the other main vocalist on it, and not really into Pepito's part either at this point.