Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2017: Salsa, Bomba, Merengue,Reggaeton, Bachata, Latin Jazz, Bolero and more

washburne is an all around cool dude

Have you met him?

yeah, coupla times. very friendly on those occasions and happy to talk details and history. also works with belafonte's social justice project teaching music to prisoners
https://www.sankofa.org/

Cool. Did you tell him about your dad?

heh, yeah i did because he was doing a show about the caribbean roots of ragtime and it seemed pertinent.

Was that for his latest project, Rags and Bones?

yep, i saw him do it with a full band; was one of my better shows of this year tbh

https://www.zohomusic.com/cds_detail.php?cds_id=171

Saw Washburne in visiting bands in DC a few times. Good player.

Unrelated. Caught some of this below linked PBS doc recently, that aired earlier this year. Some great 60s and 70s NY footage in this. Fania era

http://www.pbs.org/video/latin-music-usa-hour-2-the-salsa-revolution/

http://remezcla.com/lists/music/latinx-music-writers/

Mostly pop and reggaeton

N*d S*blette likes his live NY Latin Jazz

Cuban trovador José Aquiles (from Santiago de Cuba) with David Virelles (his son) at the Jazz Gallery on the 20th. I'd definitely go see Harold López-Nussa at the Blue Note (Oct. 23-24), and I'd go to Bobby Sanabria's PR benefit at Le Poisson Rouge (23).

... benefit organized by Miguel Zenón at Jazz Gallery Nov. 1,

. . . and to this one:>#POETSFORPUERTORICO / A Reading for Hurricane Relief / Saturday, November 4, 2017 / 6:00 p.m.
Poets House / 10 River Terrace / Corner Murray & River Terrace / New York, NY

Heard the J. Balvin remix of "Mi Gente" with Beyoncé on Spanish-language pop radio this morning.

i don't understand much spanish. i just learned what the chorus lyrics to becky g's "mayores" mean and O_o

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

yeah, huh.

> Singer orders all white audience members to stand in the back

> White female volunteer refuses

> Volunteer banned for being racist 🙈 pic.twitter.com/kPgHZNTJDL

— The Safest Space (@TheSafestSpace) November 4, 2017

It's okay to be white.

What does that have to do with this thread?

http://uproxx.com/music/karol-g-casi-nada-acoustic-uncharted/

Reggaeton/ r’nb /Trap vocalist Karol G goes acoustic in the link

She's on tour in the US. With rapper Noriel. Karol G is from Colombia.

On a separate unrelated US tour is the current version of salsa band Grupo Niche, from Colombia.

from wiki--
At the age of 62, Varela was found dead in his Cali home on August 8, 2012, apparently from heart failure.[3] Jairo's daughter, Yanila Varela has been the Grupo Niche's owner since her father's death in 2012.

Karol G with reggaeton & "salsa Urbana" producers/performers LaFame. I kinda like this one too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7xZUPI4LwA

RIP percussionist Bobby Matos

Born in the Bronx, moved to Cali in the 80s played with lots of Latino and non-Latino acts (Miriam Makeba, Jim Croche)

http://www.mcny.org/exhibition/rhythm-power

Would like to see this Rhythm and Power: Salsa in NYC exhibit before it closes 11-26. But not sure I will be able to

I was up in NYC this weekend and made it to the Rhythm and Power: Salsa in NYC exhibit! It's small but enjoyable. A great dance video in the hallway that show's the outline of dancers doing various steps, plus a bunch of album covers and other artifacts and audio and photos. Some nice old Palladium ones from the 50s.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/arts/music/latin-grammys-despacito-lin-manuel-miranda.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

Wow, Ruben Blades won album of the year at the Latin Grammys in Vegas.

I was up in NYC this weekend and made it to the Rhythm and Power: Salsa in NYC exhibit! It's small but enjoyable.

Only open at Museum of City of NY through Sunday....

Wow, Ruben Blades won album of the year at the Latin Grammys in Vegas.

The album "Salsa Big Band" credited to Blades and Roberto Delgado & Orquesta does not appear to be on Spotify

I'm back in love with "Imitadora," but definitely despite Romeo Santos' ridiculous shtick.

His devoted fans like it, I guess

http://remezcla.com/lists/music/best-latin-songs-of-2017/

#2. "Tú y Yo" - La Favi

#3"Mi Gente" - J Balvin, Willy William

#4 "Soy Peor" - Bad Bunny

Those Armada Fania remixes mentioned upthread are fire btw

Cuban jazz pianist David Virelles is on Ben Ratliff ‘s best of album list in Esquire

NY Times jazz critic also has David Virelles on his album list for 2017.

NY Times critic Jon Caramanica has Ozuna on his album list and I think 3 or so Latin trap or reggaeton cuts on his single list.

Not seeing Ruben Blades (not on Spotify) Salsa Big Band album on any list (it won at the Latin Grammys though)

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Latin and Afro-Latin Thread Spotify Playlist

NPR album list for the year has Latin Jazz like Miguel Zenon

Almost everything I've heard by him has been utterly snooze-inducing. There, I didn't want to disappoint you by not making a predictable comment.

Miguel Zzzzzzzzzzzzz-on.

If Zenon were not constantly foregrounding his puertorriquenidad (and not even in musical ways, or musically interesting ways, a lot of the time), I wonder if he would attract so much attention. But then, I don't listen to much jazz and frequently don't get what it is that jazz lovers love about the jazz they love.

He's never impressed me either. I haven't listened yet to the other Latin jazz fave of critics for this year-Cuban jazz pianist David Virelles .

New Pete Perignon album. He has the advantage of being from a PR salsa family dynasty. I haven't heard it all yet, but I doubt it's going to set the world on fire. Not bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT83bqrN9hI

If one is hard up for a reasonable facsimile of a new salsa album in 2017.

Should have gone for the title track, which has a bit more swing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk-QyN8e8eM

Probably could be easily convinced to dance to a bunch of these tracks. This one pulls together all three soneros who appear on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBig7d_qxHY

A nice change from hoarse past masters taking turns on yet another tribute to past greatness album.

I like that title track. Dude has only gotten like 780 views since that was posted in October alas.

I'm usually not big on Latin music with English lyrics, but this whole album is not usual (yes, that's a recommendation, but the album in general doesn't fall under the Latin category):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZu-PzIoZs

I'm not sure why but somehow her phrasing fits the rhythms better than sung English typically does to my ears.

So do we do a 2018 thread?

X-post—Yes to Dos Santos ‘ phrasing.

I don't know. It's gotten pretty dead. You're welcome to start one. We could just have a generic Latin music thread, but I still think, as I always have, that it doesn't make much sense to lump salsa in with most rock en español, Latin alternative, Latin pop, etc. I think the genres that developed in Latin America and have a clearly African-derived rhythmic (generally some variety of clave, not necessarily the familiar son clave) framework belong together. At the same time, I don't have enough interest in the current Afro-Latin music I'm hearing to want to try to keep a thread going.

And I periodically check out new timba and almost never like it.

x-post

I think she's very good. That sort of track could easily just be funny pastiche, but I think she breathes genuine life into it. You'd probably like the rest of the album.

I also have less idea of what's going on because: I still haven't made it back to dancing (health); descarga.com is gone; I haven't been involved in any private online discussions of Latin music for a long time; I haven't been involved in any under the table Latin music file exchanging for an even longer time; I almost never listen to the radio (I could stream WRTI's salsa show at least); I am no longer in touch with any "salsa friends," etc. I've also tried a lot of Latin music by now, and I have a clearer sense of what I like and don't like, and there are simply large areas of it that aren't going to do much for me (like timba, or most charanga, or most bachata, etc.).

I've also finally gotten to like a lot more electronic dance music, too, particularly house. So I've got some sort of rhythmic fix from a different direction.

Timba continues to make hardly a dent with Latin music audiences in the United States. I guess I shouldn't gloat, since salsa itself is so niche. But timba is micro-niche in the U.S. anyway. There are a lot of disaffected salsa fans out there, like me, but most of them do not seem to be gravitating toward timba.