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

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.

Might be Azuquita.

It reminds me of "Cuarto Bate" by Azuquita (at least that's where I've heard the song) but maybe it's just similar.

Richmond, VA Bio Ritmo play DC regularly but I have gone only once (they were fun). I also like their offshoot group Miramar that revives '50s and '60s Puerto Rican boleros. Not very modern, I know.

Not salsa-- Argentine electro-something dj
EL G is the DJ name of Grant C. Dull, label manager of ZZK Records, co-founder of Zizek Club and a 8-year adopted citizen & cultural ambassador of Buenos Aires.

12/28/12 @ Beauty Bar – Chicago, IL [LINK]

12/29/12 @ Eighteenth Street Lounge – Washington DC [LINK]

01/04/12 @ BPM Studios (BomBeat) – Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY [LINK]

01/05/13 @ Fox Haven (Bombon) – Houston, TX [LINK]

01/12/13 @ Elbo Room (Tormenta Tropical) – San Francisco, CA [LINK]

01/16/13 @ Eastside Luv (Subsuelo) – Los Angeles, CA

01/17/13 @ Zanzibar (Afro Funke’) – Santa Monica, CA [LINK]

Death to indie cumbia.

Nah, I don't really care one way or another.

I listened to the beginning of the Future Sounds of Buenos Aires and wasn't into it.

Probably not my thing either. As for other things--I did listen to Mexican indie-rock singer Carla Morrison but her ballad-heavy approach does not interest me in the way that Julieta Venegas does/did. Gonna try and see if another NPR fave, Bomba Estereo, has improved as the NPR folks claim. No salsa, but I've been listening to old mambo on a Sunnday radio show.

Hmmmm, wonder if it is worth $30 to see and dance to salseros Paquito Guzman and Raulin Rosendo at Cuba Libre in DC on Sunday the 23rd?

I think I saw Guzman once and wasn't too pleased, but honestly can't remember. Doesn't he have kind of an overblown melodramatic style? That's something that doesn't tend to survive well as a singer ages, in my view. Not to be obnoxious, but he seems like a performer well past his prime.

Raulin Rosendo not really ringing any bells beyond name recognition.

Me too. He's come to DC a lot over the years but I just know that he's a 50-something Dominican salsa singer.

been very much into el g and a lot of the zzk crew (el remolon, frikstailers, villa diamante) for a few years now, nice to see that they're coming to dc but the line at esl on saturdays is ridiculously long, i guess less so if gotten there earlier, and i'm not too into the crowd. i'd try and brave it but the old school vinyl thing at u hall that night's going to be what's up

OT shot in the dark: does anyone know of any good book-length overviews of Argentina's history? (No need to check amazon or WorldCat, etc. for me. I can do that myself. Just wondering if anyone happens to be able to recommend one off-hand.)

Might be old newsy wewsies, but did you guys see this thing that's out on Analog Africa:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YPSXu18CL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Saw it but haven't checked it out.

haven't heard, but would listen to!!

Listen away...
http://open.spotify.com/album/6EsqKrqreoVsnArRLYg77B

Think I read that disc two is the cumbia one

I recognize a lot of the names on here -- I wish someone would just reissue whole albums by some of these people -- Wganda Kenya, por ejemplo -- I get tired of listening to other people's comps all the time! I don't have the time (or inclination really) to travel to places where I could find these original records, so won't someone bring them to me?

Also it has been ages since I heard the word Valledupar! I still predict that there is a vallenato revival on the horizon.

Actually, that's not true -- I would love to travel, I just wouldn't do it solely to find records that I'm sure I wouldn't find anyway.

I've been enjoying this over the last few days too

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/59/19/591979443-1.jpg

Saw them two months ago. Pretty fun.

Got that Diablos del Ritmo comp in the mail a while back, only listened to bits of Disc 1 so far but it's kinda fun.