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

any news on the tribal guarachero front?

3Ball Mty in NYC for the LAMC conference. I missed their 2 W. DC area gigs

¯\(°_o)/¯

x-post

So Bobby Sanabria has a new big band album coming out next month.

I heard it straight from the horse's mouth.

Will it win a grammy now that that Latin-jazz is back

Ha. I thought of making that joke but I figured I'd leave it to the next guy so thanks for following through

What's this trend of people who normally punctuate their sentences on this thread suddenly not doing so

(Not that I mind)

idgi

Has anyone here seen salsa singer Oscar D'Leon live lately? I can't make it, but a friend was asking as Oscar is gonna be at an obscure Korean restaurant (the Diamond Lounge in Annadale, VA) near W. DC Friday night. I saw him 5 or years ago and thought he and his big band were great that night (albeit, he didn't play much acoustic bass and he is a heart attack survivor) but have missed his fairly frequent DC area gigs since then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/arts/music/calle-13-at-the-latin-alternative-music-conference.html?_r=1&ref=music

Pareles on Calle 13, 3Ball Mty and others at the LAMC in NYC

i spent a while looking through that article for the "parallels" someone was trying to draw between calle 13 + 3ballmty

Jon Pareles may have subliminally drawn some parallels through his choice of LAMC artists to highlight

His name is subliminally designed to make you think of parallels.

Arturo O'Farrill is supposed to be the special guest tonight at Victor Prieto's monthly gig at Terraza. Featuring Vince Cherico on drums.

Sometimes I really like Arturo and other times I think he is just formulaic and stuck in a rut.

3Ball MTV's hit "Inténtalo" is in rotation on Latin radio stations across the US and collaborations with marquee stars like Shakira and Don Omar are in the works

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/latin/lamc-wraps-up-with-big-hopes-for-latin-alternative-1007589152.story#Y7l6PU8WIqRKLI6z.99

He sure sounded great last night.

lol "3Ball MTV"

also, those collabs signal them kind of being over, i hope not though

two things

* i heard inténtalo on the radio yesterday
* ondatrópica will probably (hopefully not) be marketed as latin music for old (and white) people, but it's really good! super tight, varied styles, more energy than you have to keep up with it, a mixture of 60s and 70s tropical rhythms, no fat

My local paper's review of the J. Lo, E. Iglesias, Wisin y Yandel gig only talked about J. Lo.'s butt and nothing else. I guess the ilxor know to some as Ph*l did not get to review the NYC date of the tour.

known

Nope; didn't even know it was happening until a day or two before, and the TV commercial I saw didn't list W&Y on the bill so I didn't bother trying to get tickets.

Timberamayor posted a link to a new (? I think it's new) Kevin Moore article analyzing the integration of a back beat into timba (one of my personal complaints with timba):

http://www.timba.com/encyclopedia_pages/the-clave-and-the-backbeat

This is worth looking at since it provides musicological analysis along with links to samples. I don't share Kevin Moore's taste in music but he is an indefatigable and good-natured timba apologist.

(Some of this 70s Van Van is really gross. . .) (Sorry.)

Honestly, this quickly gets too technical for me, but I still think the part I can comprehend is valuable.

I need to read that again several times.

Speaking of comprehending, but in a different way, I must admit to liking the three most recent Daddy Yankee singles even if he is incorporating some straightforward Ibiza meets Anglo pop friendly club beats that I'd normally dislike, and shamelessly jumping on trends. There's just enough of a Caribbean rhythmic aspect to make 'em work for me. “Lovumbo” fairly recently topped he Latin Songs chart, and “Pasarela” is on the charts now. On “Ven Conmigo,” Yankee has bachata crooner Prince Royce guesting.

"Lovumba" that should say, as in love rumba

I haven't heard the Daddy Yankee songs, but I'll seek them out if they don't come to me first. Javier Vasquez of Grupo Niche and Son de Cali fame has put out a solo album. Not so sure about it, based on the clips that are up, but this song sounds like pure Colombian salsa goodness, if nothing too creative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T48i0EgDfI0

I don't mean to be mean, but when did his voice age so much?

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/latin/jairo-varela-founder-of-colombia-s-grupo-1007784752.story

Billboard Biz

Jairo Varela, Founder of Colombia's Grupo Niche, Dead at 62
August 08, 2012 | By Leila Cobo (@leilacobo), Miami

Jairo Varela, the iconic founder and leader of celebrated Colombian salsa band Grupo Niche, died suddenly of apparent heart failure in his home in Cali, Colombia. He was 62 years old.

Varela created a signature salsa sound characterized by its fast tempos, aggressive trumpets and well crafted lyrics that navigated from feel-good partying to romance and social consciousness. To this day, tracks like Grupo Niche's hit "Cali Pachanguero" and "Una Aventura" are forever associated with Colombian salsa and play in virtually every tropical radio station and club in the world.

Born in Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, a predominantly Afrio-Colombian state in the Pacific Coast, Varela grew up surrounded by music but only began to earnestly pursue it as a career when he moved to Bogotá and began writing his own compositions. In 1978, Varela created Niche, a large salsa band with a big, aggressive sound founded on African rhythms, together with trombonist Alexis Lozano (who would later leave to launch his own band, Guayacán). Niche broke out with its second album, Querer Es Poder on indie label Codiscos, which included the single "Buenaventura y Caney," an homage to the coastal city of Buenaventura.

Niche's popularity was consolidated with 1984's No Hay Quinto Malo, which included the hit "Cali Pachanguero," an homage to Cali, the city best known in Colombia for its salsa music and the place Varela called home for most of his adult life.

As a bandleader, Varela was an anomaly because he didn't sing or play an instrument. Instead, he composed and arranged, preserving the signature Grupo Niche sound through a series of stellar lead singers that included Alvaro del Castillo, Tito Gómez, Charlie Cardona and Willy García and Javier Vasquez, who later created another group, Son de Cali.

Beyond the music, Varela ran his band with military precision, raising the standards for tropical music and even fining bandmembers for arriving late to practice. Grupo Niche toured the world to a degree previously unheard of for Colombian salsa band, playing Madison Square Garden 17 times and performing over 2,000 shows in the U.S., according to Varela.

At the height of Niche's popularity in the early 1990s, Varela opened a state of the art studio and nightclub in Cali and was arrested for elicit enrichment, accused of having received money for performing private parties for accused drug traffickers, a charge Varela denied.

He would spend nearly three years in a low-security prison, from where he continued to write, and emerged to a hero's welcome in Cali and the relaunch of his musical career. Varela spent several years living in Miami before returning to Cali, where he was actively working with Grupo Niche, which continues to tour worldwide. Last May, the band played a concert celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Varela is survived by his partner, Damaris Dediego, and five children.

Oh man. That's a big, big loss. He wrote so many great songs. They are absolutely one of my favorite bands. Prolific, uneven, but their high points are amazing and uniquely there own. I've been meaning to make a Niche mix for my car.

Although not formally shooled in music, Varela has an innate ear and a definite concept of what he wants, and he demonstrates an uncanny instinct for what will go over well with an audience. Jose Aguirre, Niche's current musical director [2002], explained that Varela often writes things that most composers and arrangers would never think of but that work despite their unusual or illogical twists. (From Lise Waxer's The City of Musical Memory)

I can't think of a more appropriate song than this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97-lYu9iS4c

rip

From another thread, I have this technical explanation from Paul in Santa Cruz, that may help illustrate that quote from Aguirre above:

Paul in Santa Cruz explained it this way (and I hope he will forgive me for quoting from a personal e-mail): "The more 'folkloric' [the term I was using] part in the middle corresponds to a shift from D minor to D major, and an interesting thing around 3:15 is that it shifts back to minor, but now the key is F minor instead of D minor. In music-theory terms, D major to F minor is an instance of the most distant of all possible key relations."

I especially like this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8haVudnHCKo

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/09/158196104/guest-dj-puerto-rican-rap-legend-tego-calderon?sc=nl&cc=mn-20120809

I need to listen to this (I think)

Nice song, with a controversial recent video (from Cuba).

http://premioslucas.com/lucasnometro/7600c67ce32a11e1b7183860774f33e8/

Will they finally reissue the Grupo Niche compilation Brillantes now? Or put one out that doesn't short-change fans from the most popular songs? (I am probably underestimating the popularity of some of their more romantic numbers in Colombia and throughout Latin America, but I don't think I'm wrong about which of their harder tracks should be included and in which version. For instance, you just don't use a shorter version of "Cielo de Tambores.")

Who knows why re how reissues are put together and issued.

I finally made my own 2-disc Grupo Niche for the car, but I was working with mp3s from 64kbps to 300something, so the sound is a bit uneven. (The really bad quality ones are from a friend's laptop. Her CD rips all sounded like they were remastered onto aluminum foil.)

(Note: I do own legit. copies of about half of what I put on the mix, I think.)

Thanks to the stylistic changes, you could easily mistake this mix for three or four different bands, I think; but then they have been around for a while and gone through a number of vocalists.

I haven't listened to Cheo Feliciano in ages but I was just looking at yet another Fania compilation of his work and suddenly need to hear the album Cheo right now, but I can't at the moment.

That is such a great album, although sometimes I have trouble slowing my metabolism down enough to fully appreciate the boleros

RIP. Cuban jazz bassist Charles Flores died from cancer:

http://diariolibre.com.do/revista/2012/08/24/i349198_muere-charles-flores-bajista-michel-camilo.html

http://www.europejazz.net/mus/flores.htm

CHARLES FLORES
electric bass

Charles Flores' career began in Cuba with the Cuban jazz
vocalist/composer Bobby Carcasses. While playing with Carcasses, he was
recruited by pianist Emiliano Salvador, one of the key figures in the
history of Cuban jazz. For the next three years, Charles played and
toured throughout Europe and Latin America with Salvador and his quartet.
...
After his stint with Afro-Cuba, he joined the Isaac Delgado Group toured
internationally. While with Delgado, Charles recorded three CD's
including "Con Ganas", "El Chevere de la Salsa y El Caballero del Son",
and "El Año que Viene".

He recorded with Juan Carlos Formell's on his Grammy-nominated CD "Songs
from a Little Blue House" in 1999.

He performed with Jane Bunnett, J.P. Torres, Brian Lynch, Giovanni
Hidalgo, David Sanchez, BBC Big Band, Dave Valentin and others.

Charles Flores released his debut CD titled "Reminiscence" featuring
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez in the year 2000.

Charles joined the Michel Camilo Trio in the year 2001. He travels and
performs throughout the most important jazz venues of the world.
Recording live at the Blue Note, Charles Flores with Michel Camilo and
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez won a Grammy for the Best Latin Jazz Album
(Live At The Blue Note) of the year 2003.

Got a killer Vampisoul compilation in the mail this morning - Saoco!: The Bomba and Plena Explosion in Puerto Rico 1954-1966. Two discs, tons of Cortijo (feat. Ismael Rivera) and Mon Rivera, but plenty of other folks too. Thick booklet with lots of great old pictures, album covers, and detailed notes. Highly recommended.

I discovered bomba y plena hearing it live at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival way back when. I bet that's a great comp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGX_72WE-g