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

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

I have been sick in various ways pretty much all weekend so I am just going to do what I feel like doing, jumping from music to music all day long.

I wonder if they did any cumbia? Their studio tweaked harmonies remind me more of cumbia vocals from around that era than of more Cuban sorts of things (but then again, I haven't listened to a ton of Cuban music from the 60s). Not just posting for novelty value--I think it's pretty good. Their voices are great anyway.

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/30/160324187/guest-dj-pulitzer-prize-winning-author-junot-diaz

He likes bachata, reggaeton, Rita Indiana and more. I need to listen to the Rita one some more. I liked what I heard way back when.

I wish I hadn't bought his book, but I could not get into it. Also, it made me miss a flight! If I had been hanging around the departure gate instead of going to the bookstore in the airport (because there was supposed to be a delay and I wanted reading material!).

So I blame Junot Diaz.

Fortunately, they were able to squeeze me onto a packed flight to Dallas instead of Atlanta.

Ha.

I have his Oscar Wao book but haven't read it yet

it's great

WHOA he propped le1f

i just found out dj blass is playing up the street from me tomorrow. it's otherwise a moombahton show but i'm so up in this

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

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

More on Cuban nueva trova outfit Buena Fe:

http://www.timba.com/artists/buena-fe?lang=en-US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olBrLg6aUR8

The problem with (today's) remakes. Object lesson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHOEHpiyIV8

That project has a lot of great people on it, and it's probably about as good as things get currently, with rare exceptions. But now, compare to what as far as I know is the original:

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

The original has more edge, and way more swing. The vocals feel more inspired. The whole thing feels more urgent.

I'm sure I'd dance to the remake, but I know which one makes me want to dance more.

Maybe I'm just a reactionary.

Nah.

What did they do with all the breaks in the original, that lend it so much of its appeal?

Maybe they need to go back to putting girls in bikinis on the covers of their albums.

I'm sure the remake has some very sophisticated harmonic things going on, but the original is a lot cleaner and crisper.

I was very surprised by how much space is given to salsa in Will Hermes' book Love Goes to Buildings On Fire. Tons of discussion of Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Larry Harlow and particularly Eddie Palmieri. He does a great job of putting their work into the larger context of the New York music scene of 1973-77 (the time period covered by the book).

Have the book but have not read it yet. It's next

x-post - dj blass and Toy Selectah ...

More music to investigate

well blass is more of a yesteryear thing i guess, he was up there with dj nelson on producing a lot of good reggaeton in the late 90's? / 00s before it got ehhhh, and he produced on calle 13 albums. it turns out all of his new stuff is MOOMBAHTON. pass pass passsssssss.

toy selectah used to be in the spanish hip-hop group control machete and is currently djing cumbia + electro cumbia

excerpt from David Byrne interview re his new book

You mention in the book that the best-kept secret in the New York cultural scene is the bounty of fantastic Latin-American music here, which is hard to argue with.

It’s incredible. You know some of the best musicians of that style in the world are all here. But there’s this willful ignorance of all that; we don’t want to hear about that. There’s just this incredible richness of music, great popular stuff and great kind of sophisticated stuff. So I find there’s a kind of boundary there, [and] I crossed that boundary some years ago. And I alienated a lot of fans. But oh, whatever! [Laughs]

I don’t think you’ll find a lot of the bands in Brooklyn talking about [that music]. There might be more awareness of Xenakis and Ligeti and stuff like that.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/music-literature/David-Byrne-Offers-Advice-on-How-to-Enjoy-Music-169355586.html#ixzz26SxHQn1o

a secret, really?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2012/09/21/excuse-me-michael-kaiser/

Did Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser really curse out the Chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts?

This is regarding the "Kennedy Center Honors" and the complaints that virtually no Latinos have been nominated

Saw a subsequent article where Kaiser apologized for telling the guy to "f off." Kaiser wanted credit for K. Ctr booking various Latino Festivals over the years when that was not the issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/arts/music/jose-curbelo-manager-for-leading-latin-music-acts-dies-at-96.html?ref=todayspaper

The New York Times

September 21, 2012
José Curbelo, Manager Behind Latin Music Acts, Dies at 95
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK

José Curbelo, a Cuban-born pianist and bandleader who went on to manage the biggest stars of Latin dance music, died on Friday in Miami. He was 95.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his daughter, Marta, said.

Mr. Curbelo rose to prominence as a performer during Latin dance’s heyday, beginning in New York in the early 1940s. He played with the orchestras of Juancito Sanabria and Xavier Cugat before forming his own group in 1942. His music soon progressed from Latin American pop to swinging mambos. The orchestra featured musicians like Tito Rodriguez, Candido and a teenage drummer named Tito Puente, and played in New York ballrooms like the Savoy, Miami hotspots like Ciros, and borscht-belt resorts like Grossinger’s. His notable recordings include a 1947 rendition of “Managua, Nicaragua” for RCA Victor and “Cha Cha Cha in Blue” and “La Familia” on Fiesta.

Mr. Curbelo’s influence on Latin music grew after his orchestra disbanded in 1959 and he founded Alpha Artists, a booking agency for Latin music performers. Until then, bands were paid according to the whims of ballroom owners, who often paid less than musicians’ union scale.

“While the musicians’ union couldn’t stop a promoter from underpaying bands (or not at all), José was able to literally freeze top talent until a promoter made good his debts,” a 1978 article in Latin New York magazine said. “While most people identify the title ‘King of Latin Music’ with Tito Puente, few realize who is the power behind the throne ... the person is José Curbelo.”

In the 1960s Mr. Curbelo represented virtually every important Latin band, including La Playa Sextet and Orquesta Broadway and the orchestras of Tito Puente and Machito Grillo. His tough negotiating style earned the enmity of many nightclub promoters and the gratitude of musicians.

“Curbelo is the type of person you want representing you,” Mr. Grillo said in an article by Max Salazar on Mr. Curbelo in Latin Beat magazine. “He fights like a savage animal until he gets you what you’ve asked him for.”

José Antonio Curbelo was born in Havana on Feb. 18, 1917, to a Cuban mother and a Cuban-American father, a classical violinist. Mr. Curbelo began studying piano and composition under the composer Pedro Menendez when he was just 8. By 15 he graduated from the Molinas Conservatory and began playing with Cuban orchestras.

He was the founding pianist of Orquesta Havana Riverside, which still exists. He moved to New York in 1939.

By the 1980s Mr. Curbelo and his wife, Orchid Rosas, had moved to Miami, where he invested in real estate and booked bands for the yearly Calle Ocho festival.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Curbelo is survived by a son, Rene; a granddaughter; and two great-grandchildren.

Jon Pareles in the NY Times likes Astro:

the self-titled United States debut album by Astro (Nacional), a four-man Chilean band that got started in 2008. “Astro” carries the legacy of smart, whimsical, catchy Latin alternative rock into the new electro-pop era, as if Café Tacvba were reprogrammed by Animal Collective and MGMT.

Hmmmm, not sure if that style of alt-rock is for me.

x-post - background to the Kennedy Center thing

In the Kennedy Center Honors’ 35-year existence, only two Latinos have been selected: Plácido Domingo in 2000 and Chita Rivera in 2002. Last year, the 50th anniversary of the film West Side Story, would have been a perfect opportunity to honor its star, Rita Moreno, who was also an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Golden Globe, Grammy and ALMA award winner. Other Latino artists who inexplicably have been passed over include Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Ruben Blades, Julio Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Cristina Saralegui, Edward James Olmos and Luis Valdez

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/09/20/opinion-once-again-kennedy-center-dishonors-latino-artists/#ixzz27JEdGC7z

Went to the big DC Latin fest on Pennsylvania Avenue for a bit yesterday. Never did find a program listing the names of the performers--watched a group doing bachata and cumbia; a salsa group; a dj spinning tribal electro with a tiny handful of highschoolers dancing plus an older woman happily dancing nicely herself; and saw a Mexican band with a keyboardist handling the sampled norteno/polka horn parts

"7 days in havana" which is guess is playing at the AFI Silver latino film fest in silver spring/dc

http://www.havana-cultura.com/en/int/7-days-in-havana/7-days-in-havana-soundtrack

I confess to not knowing renowned Cuban singer, composer and producer Kelvis Ochoa who is in the movie and apparently was in a group Habana Abierto, that toured in Europe.

Wow, that's showing tonight at 7:20 at the AFI Silver Spring followed by Tropicalia a Brazilian music doc. Aww man, can't make it tonight and SUnday when Tropicalia is showing again I will also be busy.