Rolling like tumble weed Afro-Latin music thread 2012 (salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, tribal guarachero, etc.)

Hey guys, sorry if this is shilling too much, but my friend is trying to do the whole kickstarter/indiegogo thing on a book about music from Colombia, including bits of Cumbia, of course, and I thought some of you might be interested in it:

http://www.soundsandcolours.com/news/sounds-and-colours-in-print-help-make-it-happen/

i'm glad someone's paying attention to vallenato. diomedes diaz's birthday is this weekend (5/26) iirc. (it's the same day as three of my bffs, that's why i remember)

I like the little I have heard of vallenato on disc and what I heard live (at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC one year)

It's pretty sentimental and corny if you listen too closely, but I like the instrumentation a lot.

x-post-- N*d S*bl*tte says that big timba show in NYC is postponed to a June date tba.

He is also excited about: on Wednesday (23rd) there's a rare NYC show by Don Perignon y la Orquesta Puertorriqueña at the Crystal Ballroom of Taino Towers (DJ at 7, band at 8, 240 e. 123rd st.)

An email from local DC area club The Salsa Room promoting their Memorial Day weekend events calls this "the summer of bachata"

Don Perignon y la Orquesta Puertorriqueña would be worth checking out. Actually I missed them once when they were in the Philadelphia area and I guess I could have seen them. Not sure why I let it slip by since I was still trying to get out to things back then. (Maybe it was at the Camden Aquarium? That would explain it, since getting back from there at night always seemed dubious, though probably with the PATCO high speed line it would have been fine. I missed lots of stellar bands at the Camden Aquarium, notably a bunch of Willie Rosario shows.)

This is the summer of still having sinus and allergy problems, putting on more weight, discovering more restaurants, and trying once again to read Critique of Pure Reason. Oh, but that's just me. Actually, I am going to try once again to take a salsa class, starting some time next month. Also going to try to start going to the gym on my lunch breaks (on some days anyway) since by the end of the day I am rarely good for anything.

I missed Tego Calderon's late-night gig at Ibiza in DC last night. It does not appear NPR Music decided to stream it, or the Washington Post decided to review it. Well, he doesn't have a new album out, does he, or even a mixtape?

But Juanes was clearly looking to the “Unplugged” session for something more than just another hit, an intention he signaled by turning to the singer-songwriters Juan Luis Guerra, 54, and Joaquín Sabina, 63, as collaborators. Not coincidentally, the older men are in a position to provide Juanes with advice: both enjoyed great critical and commercial success early in their careers, withdrew for several years and then came back, recharged and as popular as ever.

From the NY Times. Not sure that these collaborators will be enough to win over folks here

Yeah, fuck Juanes and fuck Juan Luis Guerra too.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2012/05/30/ruben-blades-cheo-feliciano-release-salsa-cd/

They sing each others songs

A year after the Grammy Awards cut 31 categories, sparking protests and a lawsuit by Latin jazz musicians, the music organization has made more changes by adding three awards, including the reinstatement of best Latin jazz album

From an AP article. Bobby Sanabria is elated. Everyone else yawns.

Bobby Sanabria is elated. Everyone else yawns.

This is what happens when Latin jazz is played, too...

Ha. It is formulaic these days.

Latin Alternative Music Conference in NYC

2 promising free shows:

Friday July 13
6:00pm – 10:30pm:
LAMC/Celebrate Brooklyn Show
@ Prospect Park Bandshell

Enjoy the outdoors under the stars in Brooklyn with LAMC and Celebrate Brooklyn featuring performances by Calle 13, Ana Tijoux and
Ritmo Machine.
This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, July 14th:

3:00pm –7:00pm:
LAMC/Central Park Summerstage Show
@ Rumsey Playfield
Presented by Voto Latino and U.S. Army

Performances by Kinky, Los Autenticos Decadentes, 3BallMTY and DJ Raff
This event is free and open to the public.

apparently venus x is opening for calle 13 and 3ballmty at a single show but i don't know what/where that is, assuming nyc

That big Cuban timba gig (previously postponed) is tonight Saturday in NYC at the Copacabana

MEGA TIMBA CONCERT JUNE 16TH LIVE IN NEW YORK!

** PEDRITO CALVO MAYITO RIVERA PUPY PEDROSO MANOLITO SIMONET BAMBOLEO NG LA BANDA TANIA PANTOJA VANIA BORJES ** MUSIC BY DJ MELAO!!

new tego "original gallo del pais" mixtape

http://itunes.apple.com/ar/preorder/original-gallo-del-pais-o.g./id536283027?l=en

finally

Hey fauxmarc, 3Ball MTY are doing another suburban DC gig in addition to the El Zol Fest in Maryland on Sunday. On July 1 they're gonna be down at the Palace in Woodbridge, VA. None of these are exactly subway or bus accessible

might actually check out the el zol, somethin to do

I'd like too but I have a family ting happening

Gonna go see Buika tonight

where at?

Howard Theatre for 2 shows (can't imagine she's popular enough for 2 shows but we'll see)

I guess opening for Nicki Minaj really paid off for her.

(Just kidding.)

The Fania Al-Stars' Live in Africa has been reissued as a CD/DVD set (album and movie, with extra footage). Gonna buy it next week.

Fairly big crowd for Buika's first set. I think her appearance singing in the Almodovar movie and the fact that she hasn't toured since 2010 brought folks in the door. She's a free spirit and maybe could give Nicki Minaj a run in that category.

Oh, I missed Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the same time as Buika at the upscale new DC club the Hamilton, and El Canario on Saturday in Baltimore and 3Ball MTY on Sunday. Saw Jose Alberto El Canrio a long time ago, wished I could have seen 3Ball MTY but family event took priority. FauxMarc did you go?

nope, ended up endlessly brunching

Salsa dancing still diffusing in China:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-06/25/content_15520975.htm

Think of all the potential partners!

N'Klabe has released an album of covers including: Quitate Tu (really? they went there?), Lluvia, Persona Ideal, A Puro Dolor (!), etc. Just what the world was waitng for. Salsa is dead: stick a fork in it.

Who are the geniuses coming up with these projects?

I just found out Marlow Rosado is performing here this Friday. Whatever happened to the art of publicity?

This was a good effort:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPnjtJ-NKtw

(Previous comment about the state of salsa music should not be taken as an indication that I've lost my love for salsa dancing and for salsa music at its best. It's just difficult to see how the music can recover much of its oomph at this point, unless it comes from some left field source where salsa dancing boils over so much that people start making the music and somehow breathe life into it. Like Chongqing. Doubtful though.

I still perk up when a solid Puerto Rican or Colombian salsa band comes to town.

cuz lord knows someone needs to show Cheo Feliciano how he should have sung Anacaona.

Who Will Be Playing Yomo Toro In The Soon-To-Be-Released Hector Lavoe Biopic El Cantante?

RIP cuatro player Yomo Toro

Oh no!

DC: Poirier & Boogat (DJ & MC)with Empresarios, Alma Tropicália, Maracuyeah, Fort Knox Five vs. Thunderball, Jay Clue at u hall tonight

Did not get the most exciting quotes from Poirier & Boogat when I talked on the phone to them for my W. CP blogpost that's up today. Eh, its ok. Not included in the short piece---Boogat is listening to old Fania stuff and new Schlachthofbronx from Munich; Poirier is listening to lots of dancehall. Phone connection was not the best--Boogat mentioned some other stuff I could not figure out despite asking him to repeat it.

9-10:15 - Maracuyeah (cumbia dj'ing and more)
10:15 - 11:15 - Alma Tropicalia (live band Brazilian tropicalia covers)
11:15 - 11:30 - Maracuyeah (band change-over)
11:30 - 12:30 - Empresarios (Latin funk)
12:30 - 2:00 - Poirier & Boogat
2:00 - 4:00 - fort knox five, thunderball, jayclue

Tried listening to the new Wisin y Yandel disc on Spotify. It's basically the next step down the path from pop-reggaeton to straight Euro-trance-pop, like their last three albums, but this one has a song with Chris Brown and T-Pain, and another song with Jennifer Lopez, so unlike their previous work, I won't be buying this one.

I'm glad you draw the line somewhere.

I continue to think Tito Ortos is a good role model for the sort of mixed style I dance, with lots of cross body leads, but often in a more circular form. I get annoyed when people get dogmatic about the strict linear slot thing (though I try to stick to that if that's what I'm surrounded by on a crowded dance floor, or maybe even just if I am on a crowded dance floor, since it does seem to conserve space better).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHR7s6gtwto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze4AamA-GE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qBjjDQZmOM

funny, i was mentally dogging some people for not being the slot last night during empresarios (but it was crowded and they were really all over)

You are the enemy! Haha. I do absolutely think dancers need to be considerate and adapt to existing dance-floor conditions. A couple of my favorite semi-advanced circular moves involve fling my follower out into a free spin (and then moving with her to eventually catch her back and probably go into a CBL), not ideal for crowded floor conditions.

I still haven't even been going out, just taking classes, but hopefully I'll make it to see Marlow Rosado this Friday and maybe some other salsa nights throughout the summer. As I keep repeating, it's frustrating that the scene here is live band oriented, but particularly because so many of the bands are heavily timba influenced (and so many of the others are pretty mediocre). I probably need to watch how I say this since everybody really knows everybody else here. There is .5 degrees of separation. Word travels.

I was dancing with a beginner in class this week to "Quiero Salsa" and I swear it felt like she was dancing half time. I felt like saying: what they hell are you dancing to? Of course I would never say that. Plus she was young and cute and Latina. Not sure why teachers choose such a fast song when there are lots of beginners learning relatively complicated moves (it was a low intermediate class, but a lot of the followers were borrowed from the beginner class).

Because of being so familiar with that song, I tend to dive right in even more than usual. Maybe I should have started with a few more basics or something.