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

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

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

Merengue MAMBO??

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

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

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

I kinda take it personally.

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

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

I never can resist this song-

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

I love this song

Tulile

Guilty Pleasure

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

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

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

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

white-ish people etc.

Get your hate speech off my thread!

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

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

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

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

(I almost posted that to the Leucocyte thread.)

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

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

http://www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter2009

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

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

nice

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

Nina, where might I find your blog?

I especially like that second Tulile song.

x-post: Nina's blog:

http://lamusicalatina.wordpress.com/

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

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

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

i wish i didnt listen to this song ever

"pa ponerte, pa ponerte bien bellaca"

I like the 2nd part of this video best:

Ole School Perreo

Arcangel has turned into Prince

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

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

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

Joe Cuba and Reggaeton and so forth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Bachata

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

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

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

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

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

MUCHOS TRATAN - BIG MATO FT. AMPERAJE & REYCHESTA

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

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

HAHA!!

i'll out ghetto you yet

x-post:

:( embedding disabled. . .

on those first two.

Oh, I'm sure you can outghetto me.

:) i have to work hard at it
:)

RS, you can doubleclick through those youtube links

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

that episode of thirteen makes my day, thanks

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

RS, you can doubleclick through those youtube links

I should have know try that that, thnx.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really those comments are beyond parody.

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

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