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

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

Check THIS one

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

They have been raiding their parents' music collections!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Rob Base is new again? Really?

At least this has an eastern wind blowing through it:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

US Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

trying hard to be a bjork track

I can see that slant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For immediate release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CARY DIEZ

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

Grammys drop polka album award

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

juanes vs tego, how ridiculous

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

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

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