Rolling Afro-Latin Music All Stars - Tribute to Afro-Latin Music Thread 2014 (DVD incl.)

x-post --Still liking that Jorge Drexler. It's more than just standard cliched Alt-latino pop, although it has some of those attributes.

Which oldtimers show to choose:

7-18- KESTAFEST: GRUPO NICHE, JORGE CELEDON, EL GRAN COMBO, ORQUESTA GUAYACAN at Patriot Center (salsa)

7-18-Daddy Yankee at Echostage (reggaeton)

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6077182/juan-formell-of-los-van-van-dead-at-71

A joke known in Havana and in Miami’s Cuban community may start making the rounds again, tinged with sadness this time, as fans and fellow artists mourn the loss of Juan Formell, the founder of Cuba’s 45-year-old dance band Los Van Van. The story goes that years from now, Fidel Castro comes back from the dead in search of his legacy. He finds the entry for his name in an encyclopedia: “Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuban politician in the era of Los Van Van.”

― curmudgeon, Friday, May 2, 2014 11:56 AM (0 seconds ago) Book

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/07/310154191/juan-formell-remembering-cubas-musical-nonconformist

Ned Sublette, author of Cuba and its Music, posted a bunch of Juan Formell rememberances, most en Espanol. He is/was a big deal for Cubans.

I have been listening to Formell's onetime pianist in Los Van Van, the nearly 70 year old guy known as Pupy. He and his big band Los Que Son Son are coming to my neck of the woods July 25th. They were a lot of fun the last time I saw them.

Come back Rudiph, come back, this thread needs you

Hey, if any of you New Yorkers spend the bucks to see this gig at Lincoln Center (there may be 2 shows actually, Friday night & Saturday night), please come back here and tell us if its more than just standard Latin-jazz...Ok, thx

Nuevo Jazz Latino — convened under the auspices of Jazz at Lincoln Center's new A Side, B Side Series — presents an all-star ensemble of a decidedly Afro-Cuban orientation, whose members have written new works specifically for this freshly-assembled collaboration. Songwriters include Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra bassist Carlos Henriquez, a Bronx native, and four brilliant Cubans: pianist Elio Villafranca, saxophonist Yosvany Terry, drummer (and MacArthur Award winner) Dafnis Prieto, and conguero-vocalist Pedrito Martinez.

I guess no one splurged for that

I still need to check out this tune N*d S*bl*tte highlighted a little while ago:

#1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs this week is "Bailando," a flamenco-reggaetón (!) number by Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno and Alamar's own Gente de Zona. The success of the track would appear to owe much to the not-cheap videoclip, by Cuban director Alejandro Pérez, shot on the street in Santo Domingo and Havana, with the lovely Cuban flamenco-ballet dance troupe Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba (Lizt Alfonso is a person, and she choreographed).

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

Looks kinda like a musical, in a good way.

I'm not an Enrique Iglesias fan, but this isn't as bad as it could have been

#1 on the Latin hot 100 I believe

new Bio Ritmo album is out. Need to listen to this salsa group's latest effort some more

http://blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes/2014/05/dancing-with-eleggua-weekly-at-mintons-in-harlem/

Tuesday night Cuban music and jazz series in Harlem

Ruben Blades has a tango album coming out next month - includes reworkings of "Pablo Pueblo" and "Pedro Navaja" and probably more old songs, too.

Ruben Blades going tango seems like a commentary on the state of Latin music; or on the other hand, he's always been diverse in his music taste, and he's no youngster anymore

But its a bachata world these days. Seems like every former member of Aventura is touring now-- Romeo Santos and more...

NY Times is covering Cuban jazz though--

new Yosvany Terry & Afro-Cuban Roots album is out.

They're busy gigging in NY

There's a free salsa and more Central Park Summerstage gig Saturday

with Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound. Also on the bill is NYC band La Mecánica Popular and a set by Little Louie Vega.

On Friday the 13th old-school salseros Ismael Rivera Jr. and Ommy Cardona (Puerto Rican salsa vets ) are in my neck of the woods, sorta at the Palace, Woodbridge, VA

Saturday the 14th for free is a pre-concert panel discussion about the Fania legacy from 4 to 5:30 p.m., at the Rumsey Playfield Summerstage venue (at "Overlook Hill"). panelists will be Ned Sublette, Joe Conzo, Sr. (author of Mambo Diablo: My Journey with Tito Puente) and Efraín Rozas, the Peruvian-born leader of La Mecánica Popular, who is also a professor at NYU.

Ned S*blette is also interested in another new Latin jazz album,

Caribbean Tinge, the new release by Elio Villafranca's Jass Syncopators

Enrique Iglesias has a competitor for top of the Latin pop chart:

Now that school's out and party season has officially begun, newcomer

J Balvin's morning after anthem "6 a.m.," featuring Farruko, is a serious contender for summer favorite.

from billboard

Larry Harlow performing HOMMY: A Latin Opera on July 23 outdoors at Lincoln Center. http://lcoutofdoors.org/events/larry-harlows-hommy

I saw Harlow once down here, but never doing Hommy. He's very energetic onstage

Watching my Baltimore Orioles on tv beating up on the Yankees in Yankee Stadium I noticed an ad on the wall there: Romeo Santos for 2 nights at Yankee Stadium. Wow, that's 50,000 a night for the bachata heartthrob. I assume there will be more security and the show will end in a more sedate fashion than that '70s Fania salsa gig there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vuYeJ1gSSE

Louis Head in Albuquerque will present a three-hour tribute to the late Juan Formell tomorrow night (Friday) on KUNM, from 9 p.m. to midnight Eastern time

Ned Sublette and others will be guesting on this tribute to the late founder of Los Van Van

http://esquinarumbera.blogspot.com/2006/12/ernesto-gatel-el-gato-maravilloso.html

This Cuban rumba singer and percussionist recently moved to DC and he's gonna be performing Saturday in Anacostia (I will be out of town). I need to listen to him some

So will James Redd & Forks be seeing lary harlow's Hommy tonight Wednesday?

Words and Music by Larry Harlow and Jenaro “Heny” Álvarez

Conducted by Larry Harlow
Featuring vocalists Emo Luciano, Lisett Morales, Herman Olivera, Ray de la Paz, Adonis Puentes, Luisito Rosario, Michael Stuart, and Frankie Vasquez

Narrated by Ismael Carlo
Featuring the Masacote Dance Company
With special guest star Roberto Roena and a full symphony

And Thursday night in Nueva York:

On July 24th, a double-header of alto-playing composers at the Rubenstein Atrium at 7:30 and it's free: Miguel Zenón and Yosvany Terry, each fronting a group, in an event titled "Diálogos de Diáspora :: Diasporic Dialogues—A Conversation in Music and Words Featuring Miguel Zenón and Yosvany Terry."

Zenon tends to be more jazzy than clave

So will James Redd & Forks be seeing lary harlow's Hommy tonight Wednesday?

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/rain-cuts-short-once-in-a-generation-performance-of-hommy/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=arts&_r=0

Rain Cuts Short Once-in-a-Generation Performance of ‘Hommy’
By JON PARELES

One theme of “Hommy: A Latin Opera” — a concept album released in 1973 by Larry Harlow’s group Orchestra Harlow as a salsa rejoinder to the Who’s rock opera “Tommy” — is that what looks like a calamity can be a blessing in disguise. Alas, not so for what was to have been the first performance of “Hommy” in 40 years, produced by Lincoln Center Out of Doors on Wednesday at Damrosch Park. It was a full-scale concert production, complete with orchestral string and horn sections, a core salsa band, a chorus and a procession of vigorous singers. But less than halfway through its one scheduled performance, a deluge and lightning storm shut down the concert.

Saw that. Too bad. Got into something and had forgotten about it, still wish I had gone to see the first half.

crickets making a clave beat here now

Quick, notify Gottfried Toussaint, pronto!

Speaking of crickets, every noticed that Buddy Holly's Heartbeat has kind of a samba clave beat, at least mathematically. The signature guitar lick played by Tommy Allsup at least.

The samba beat did have a bit of crossover popularity in the late 50s & early 60s

Doesn't sound or feel like samba, just mathematically equivalent.

I've never been good at math

(looks up this thread)....No recent appearances here of ilxor Rudiph.... :(

NY-based conguero-vocalist Pedrito Martinez and his band seem to get booked at jazz fests everywhere these days

N*d S*blette's email newsletter highlights all the Latin jazz related stuff. He's got this collaboration coming up too:

the National Jazz Museum in Harlem on an exhibit about Bebo Valdés, which will open Tuesday 16th. In connection with that, I'll be hosting four Tuesday night listening and viewing events about Bebo's music:

Tuesday, September 9, 7 p.m., at the Maysles Cinema at 343 Lenox Avenue / Malcolm X Boulevard / New York, NY, 10027 / (btwn 127th and 128th Streets): a screening of Carlos Carcas's film Old Man Bebo. You can also watch it here on Vimeo, but if you're in town, come on out and see it with us. I'll do a brief intro and we'll have a Q & A after.

Tuesday, September 16, 7 p.m, at the NJMH at 104 East 126th St (btwn Park and Lex): The Strangeness of Bebo's Century. This is the opening night of the exhibit. I'll play music from various eras of Bebo's career, starting with his 1946 recording of "La Rareza del Siglo" with Julio Cueva's band.

Tuesday, September 23, 7 p.m., NJMH: Bebo Con Poco Coco. With special guest René López, we'll listen to Bebo's descargas (jam sessions) and other numbers from his peak years in Cuba.

Tuesday, September 30, 7 p.m., NJMH: Bebo's Greatest Student: Chucho Valdés. I'll play numbers from different phases in Chucho's career, stressing the connection with Bebo.

Tonight in Nueva York...

Tuesday, September 9, 7 p.m., at the Maysles Cinema at 343 Lenox Avenue / Malcolm X Boulevard / New York, NY, 10027 / (btwn 127th and 128th Streets): a screening of Carlos Carcas's film Old Man Bebo. Author/musician Ned Sublette will do a brief intro and lead a Q & A after.

Veteran pianist Bebo Valdes died last year in his 90s.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/jazz-at-lincoln-center-opens-with-cuban-beats-1410746046

Jazz at Lincoln Center Opens Thursday with Wynton working with Bebo's son Chucho Valdes plus everyone in the jazz world's other fave Cuban musician Pedrito Martinez. Per the upthread post, the Bebo historical events are still happening uptown on Tuesdays

Saturday night in the Bronx

Danny Rivera concert Saturday night at Lehman College. Come and relive a night of intense passion with romantic oldies interpreted by the national voice of Puerto Rico, Danny Rivera. Featuring Nelson González, Konrad Adderley, Federico Britos, Andy González, Ricardo Pons, Johnny Rodríguez, Willie Rodríguez, and Juan Wust. OBSESIÓN, Danny Rivera’s new album with Nelson González, marks a new turn in his career as he returns to the repertoire of the great Latin American songbook, singing great songs by iconic composers with a stripped-down cast of the music’s most knowledgeable veterans. Danny Rivera’s magnificent, passionate way of singing is known and loved all over the Spanish-speaking world. With hits such as “Tu Pueblo Es Mi Pueblo,” “Amada Amante,” and “Madrigal,”

Old-school Saturday daytime event in DC

the Smithsonian’s "Metro Mambo" Lecture/Concert series brings back Tito Puente's biographer & archivist Joe Conzo for the Metro Mambo Time Machine hosted by Jim Byers (WPFW 89.3 FM's 'Latin Flavor Classic Edition"), plus a performance by Orquesta La Leyenda for free from 12:30 to 3:30 pm at Dance Place, 3225 Eighth St, NE, 20017, in DC's Brookland neighborhood.

During the first half of the program, rare live ‘50s through ‘70s recordings from Conzo's collection! Then, in the second half, dance live to the music of DC’s own Orquesta La Leyenda

more nostalgia:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/altlatino/2014/07/24/334458617/a-tour-of-spanish-harlem-birthplace-of-boogaloo

afropop.org has something new on bachata, but that's not high on my priority list

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-opens-its-season-at-rose-theater.html?ref=arts

Ben R from NYT on that Wynton, Chucho, Pedrito and band gig mentioned a few posts up. Doesn't sound like Chucho was onstage for very long. Ben loves Petrito