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

The musicians from other genres don't come off sounding so bad, generally, but the rockers seem like a bunch of assholes.

I don't care about most of those bands anyway.

I'm checking out the Billboard charts this morning--Romeo Santos and other bachata and merengue performers are dominating the tropical album chart (a Ruben Blades live album/dvd is there too; although its old I think); and the top Latin song is "Algo me gusta de ti" by Wisin y Yandel with Chris Brown and T-Pain. Nothing too surprising

Is there any reggaeton left that is not Euro-dance club influenced?

I heard this bachata cover on the radio:

Be My Baby by Lala Rodriguez

She and others will probably re-do the whole Phil Spector Christmas album bachata-style next

I heard that on the radio recently too and wondered who was singing -- is that the same person who did "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"?

I think Leslie Grace did the bachata version of "Will You Stll Love Me Tomorrow" (if my google search is correct)

Saw old-timers El Gran Combo near W. DC. many years ago and thought they were great, and they're back there tonight at Cococabana. They're busy touring the East coast, were in North carolina last night and are gonna be back in DC itself at the Howard Theatre in a few months.

I think they have a Christmas album coming out. I wish they'd just put out a regular album, it's too easy to hide behind Christmas album conventions and muddle through. There has been a small flurry of big name releases for the end of the year. Gilberto Santa Rosa has a new album out, and going by the no-nonsense cover I was hoping it might be a mostly salsa dura recording, but no such luck, at least from what I heard of it last night. (It's already on Spotify.) Ismael Miranda and Victor Manuelle both have Christmas albums out. Hard not to yawn.

This Sammy Gonzalez reissue looks good, but the audio clips don't make this thing sound that carefully re-mastered:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/24986.10?n3Sr4xmc;;402

I am way overdue to buy a few salsa CDs/downloads so I can stop listening to the same stuff over and over again in the car.

cuba bans vulgar / degrading music from the airwaves

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-04/reggaeton-banned-in-cuba-as-castro-cracks-down-on-music.html

latina.com's 25 greatest afro-latino musicians of all time

i haven't read through because it's an obnoxious paging through for each entry. only went there because i was appalled when i heard los rakas are on it. i mean they're fine or whatever but in the 25 greatest of all time!?

Haven't visited this thread before, as I have very little to contribute. But, as I'm taking salsa lessons (mostly to get out of the house, I'm very decidedly not very good), I was wandering if anyone here is aware of salsa musicians who sound a part of the 21st century. By which I mean retaining the typical salsa rhythms (not 4/4 bangers with salsa horns), but introducing a bit of electronic novelty or production touches to the arrangements.

Can answer more at home. See what you think of Michael Stuart's Back to da Barrio. I could recommend a lot of salsa with some electronics here and there or very audible production goings-on, but it isn't necessarily going to sound 21st century.

How about something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T6BShvK3dk

Or this dubby sort of remix (which is pretty old at this point and you'll probably end up hearing sooner or later if you keep taking salsa classes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeqBKR6a7Ng

There's also some salsa with what I consider 80s sounding touches, but you have to tolerate some schmaltz. This is actually a pretty hot track to dance too despite the iffy synths, mostly because the percussion comes in so strong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7yHpxRsFPE

Or this, older one I like a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Hz6ja2kH0

Again, hardly contemporary sounding, but not completely traditional.

This was good and fairly contemporary sounding to me, but there's been no follow up I know of (though at least some of these guys appeared on Bannakumbi's neglected 2009 debut album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-2jeoR_b6w

Bannakumbi w/ Voltio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYT9cjdLjB0

Having sampled Back to da Barrio I probably should clarify that I'm aware of salsa with digitally crisp production. I was hoping there were unknowns (to me) that remade salsa into their own private soundworld like the late Serbian musician Suba did with bossa nova (Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo, his own São Paulo Confessions).

Okay. I would say BTDB also draws from R&B/pop production in ways beyond being crisp.

I can't think of anything in salsa as electronic as the Suba things you are talking about. Possibly I wouldn't even hear it as salsa at that point, but I can't think of anything that really fits that I've even heard.

I don't think any of those tracks are going to come close to what you want then.

Maybe Sidestepper? I forget what they sound like though.

Didn't some individuals Grupo Fantasma was collaborating with have a very electronic Latin music project of some sort? Help me remember this. Or maybe it included some Grupo Fantasma members. I don't remember how salsa it was, though. Probably not very.

May have included members of Antibalas.

I might be thinking of Ocote Soul Sounds, and in that case it's not what's being asked for either.

This stuff is Maria Hinojosa catnip.

Ha. I don't think my local NPR station carries her current program.

Maybe fauxmarc would be aware of salsa that meets the criteria Sanpaku mentioned above:

By which I mean retaining the typical salsa rhythms (not 4/4 bangers with salsa horns), but introducing a bit of electronic novelty or production touches to the arrangements.

But if what's being looked for is a salsa Suba, that would go well beyond the description you just quoted. That's a lot more than some electronics thrown in here and there as a novelty.

Hi all, long time.

Not a great year for new salsa music, I still think NG La Banda are head and shoulders above anything else released this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpg5r3gHjTk

I'd be interested to know what you guys think (I know I cant convince you on the above), has anyone unearthed any gems?

In my opinion the most forward looking salsa project to date was the Andy Montanez from 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aztxa9Jd_Jw

Marco

Sorry, re the Andy Montanez comment I was referring to the post by Chinchilla!Chinchilla!Chinchilla!(Sanpaku)

I was thinking of "Se Le Ve," but I still don't think it's got enough of an electronic dance sensibility for what Sanpaku is looking for. But yeah, I'm not sure why I didn't mention salsaton initially.

I'm afraid I have to concur about the state of salsa music this year (but I'm pretty down it in general at this point, obviously).

I'm not much of a Latin jazz person, but I liked the Elio Villafranca/Arturo Stable album (on Spotify).

Maybe fauxmarc would be aware of salsa that meets the criteria Sanpaku mentioned above:

By which I mean retaining the typical salsa rhythms (not 4/4 bangers with salsa horns), but introducing a bit of electronic novelty or production touches to the arrangements.

yeah i dunno, i got into salsa as sort of an escape from the edm-type stuff i'm into and keep them pretty separate. i can't imagine this happening without it sounding kitschy but wouldn't mind if someone did get away with it.

The Grammys (not the Spanish language Latin Grammys) announced nominees:

44. Best Tropical Latin Album

Cubano Soy by

Raúl Lara Y Sus Soneros
[Spanish Music Records]

Desde Nueva York A Puerto Rico

Eddie Montalvo
[Señor Marcha Records]

Retro

Marlow Rosado Y La Riqueña
[Pink Chaos Productions]
Formula Vol. 1

Romeo Santos
[Sony Music]

I wonder whether 2 of NY Times critic Nate Chinen's fave albums for the year go beyond the sounds that I expect:

6. DAVID VIRELLES “Continuum” (Pi Recordings) It would have been easy for this dexterous young pianist to make a less murky, more approachable synthesis of Afro-Cuban folklore, but here he burrows deep, favoring the stark irresolution of the poet-percussionist Román Díaz and the drummer Andrew Cyrille.

7. YOSVANY TERRY “Today’s Opinion” (Criss Cross) And here’s that more approachable synthesis, an Afro-Cuban postbop album built around recognizable parameters, with crisp, energetic work by Mr. Terry, an alto saxophonist, and others, including the captivating Pedrito Martinez, on congas and vocals.

Afro-Cuban postbop

It's on Spotify, I guess I will give it a listen

I listened to some of the Terry album last night. It's really, really good. Didn't like the Virelles disc very much though.

I listened to it some early this morning. It's not gonna win over folks who do not like Latin-jazz, but it is better than most standard efforts in that genre. It has some vocals. Have not listened to Virelles yet or to some of those Grammy nominees I posted about above.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/arts/music/eddie-palmieri-ties-together-musical-genres.html

It's interesting that something like cumbia has made the leap to electronic music rather painlessly but no one's really attempted it with salsa.

song title from Colombia's Meridian Brothers who are on Soundways:

4. La Gitana Me Ha Dejado (Salsa Electrónica)

http://www.soundwayrecords.com/catalogue/desesperanza.html

typo. Soundway (no extra s)

Meridian Brothers do quirky. The sound of that track isn't really a viable sound for salsa in general, plus the whole project is yet more retro music, even if it's a different sort of retro.

Maybe cumbia has made the leap more easily because it doesn't require as much rhythmic complexity? Or maybe improvisation is more central to salsa, and harder to approximate electronically.

Anyway, I don't think technological progress equates to aesthetic progress. But then aesthetic value is fuzzy and endlessly debatable, so of course it doesn't.

I checked out that Meridian Brothers album a little while back and just found it annoying.

Mostly I hate everything.

I figured that if it was on Soundway it was retro but just posted it because I came across that title

To go full circle (they were discussed on here at the start of the year) Bio Ritmo also do a very creditable attempt at modernising salsa. Despite the hipster label they do really cut it live too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdjn4GRld34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu0i9F89ZR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUyBQtI5Ths

Marco, do you happen to know any good English language online sources for keeping current with (or catching up with!) cumbia? Any good books in English on the topic, especially from a listener/collector perspective (not so much ethnomusicology, though I'm willing to venture into that if necessary).

I saw Bio Ritmo only once, at a really under-attended show in Philadelphia. They were annoyed with me for requesting a merengue (so I could dance with some non-salsera friends), but my friends and I probably made up about a third of the audience. I was still very new to salsa at the time and didn't really understand the politics of requesting a merengue, so to speak. I wouldn't do that today unless I knew for sure the band was into playing merengue.

They were okay but did seem dispirited by the poor turnout.

Live clip above sounds decent.

What is that song in the middle of the clip? Sounds familiar, but the arrangement seems very different. Possibly from Roberto Roena's La 8va Maravilla? Somehow that doesn't sound quite right.