Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2020: Reggaeton, Salsa, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Bachata, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

https://remezcla.com/features/music/reggaeton-dancehall-novelty-single-needs-to-end/

Are too many reggaeton songs relying on old 90s reggae dancehall songs . Writer Gary Suarez thinks so

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oJC_EBSDMKk&feature=youtu.be

Mambo in a 1956 Sirk directed movie

Zenon is too improv jazz for me.

Chick Corea won Latin Jazz Grammy. Rosalia from Spain won one too. Angelique Kidjo’s tribute to Celia Cruz won best world music Grammy

Best Latin pop album
“#Eldisco,” Alejandro Sanz
Best Latin rock, urban or alternative album
“El Mal Querer,” Rosalía

Best tropical Latin album
(tie) “Opus,” Marc Anthony and “A Journey Through Cuban Music,” Aymée Nuviola

Grammys

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xtSs-nMUrTI

Bad Bunny new Kobe Bryant tribute 6 Rings

Some discussion of Shakira utiliZing champeta & Congolese rumba / soukous at Super Bowl halftime and her dancing is on Rolling Global thread. Bad Bunny & J Balvin also there.

Thoughts on Lido Pimienta? I don't really love what I've heard so far, the music is just OK (I prefer "No Pude" to "Eso Que Tu Haces") but the visuals are decent: a little folklorico, a little surreal, kinda...post-Rosalía but a little nerdier and less swaggering, maybe descended from Aterciopelados and/or Natalia Lafourcade? I feel like if Tumblr was still as big a thing as it once was arty Latin girls would be gif'ing her all over the place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2azy1D-yyWc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaY5N1g2ZEk

From Colombia I see on Twitter, but I haven’t really listened to Lido yet.

The 1 video of Lido I saw reminded me of Lafourcade and Venegas

Crossposting this from the Rolling Afro (!) thread, from Málaga, Spain (yes, that’s Europe, sorry):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsrW9pUa9FI
Jthyago x Oscar el Ruso x Irrita el Indio x Samueliyo Baby - Vete De Mi Vera

They came to my attention (by way of curmudgeon) through their wonderful cover/interpretation of Rema’s afrojam “Dumebi”. These kids are mad talented.

(If you want to hear Rema’s own part-Spanish remix of “Dumebi” with Becky G, check the Rolling Afro 2020 thread!)

https://www.passionweiss.com/2020/02/18/nino-augustine-is-bringing-the-panameno-flow-with-mientete/

Reading hype for Panamanian Nino Augustine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjyUdh85nqA

“Miéntete” is pretty damn good!

Yes it is.

In a different vein, I just listened to Marc Anthony’s most recent album Opus. It’s a fairly straightforward salsa release with just a bit of a pop tinge. I like it, others seeking newer influences or those partial only to old Fania may not.

Alas, I didn’t splurge for Marc Anthony’s arena show which got a good review from a freelancer for the Washington Post. He had a 16 piece band with 4 percussionists and did songs from his whole career without an emphasis on latest album.

New Bad Bunny album is good but a bit uneven and long, on first listen. Various og reggaeton guests on it

I don’t hear as much bachata on the radio as I once did, but reunited bachata boy band kings Aventura with singer Romeo Santos are doing 2 20,000 seat arena shows in DC. Review of 1st one sounded a bit similar to when I reviewed them back when—

Yes, it’s good! See here: thread of bad bunny

xp

i would like to see romeo santos live someday

Romeo Santos was charismatic when I saw him that time with Aventura. Haven’t gone back to see him solo or now with reunited Aventura. I feel like he’s been to my DC area a few times ( tickets usually pricey)

I've mentioned this before - when I saw Wisin & Yandel at Madison Square Garden some years ago, he made a guest appearance for one song and the instant he walked onstage, the screams from the audience doubled in volume and went up an octave.

Fallon and his peers have increasingly hosted artists who perform exclusively in Spanish: Ozuna, J Balvin and veteran reggaetonero Daddy Yankee, among them. But that increased visibility has not yet translated to “Saturday Night Live,” which arguably has the most prominent performance stage in all of late-night....Only a handful of Spanish-speaking musicians (Lopez, and Carlos Santana with his namesake band, for instance) have performed on “Saturday Night Live,” almost always drawing from their English-language discographies. There are a couple of notable exceptions: J Balvin sang in Spanish when he made a guest appearance alongside musical guest DJ Khaled, singer Jeremih and rappers Meek Mill and Lil Baby during SNL’s Season 44 finale. Shakira, who has been musical guest three times, sang one Spanish song in 2005, tapping Alejandro Sanz to join her on their Spanish-language collaboration “La Tortura.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/03/10/bad-bunny-should-perform-snl/

J Balvin Colores out on Friday

the singles so far don’t indicate this, but I hope there will be a fair share of vibey stuff, like there was on Vibras (what’s in a name).

It does have another collabo with Eazi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgW74VYbSYo

J. Balvin ft. Mr Eazi • Arcoíris

The J Balvin album is solid but safe. No vibey surprises.
Opening track “Amarillo” is undeniable tho, thanks to that beat by Dutch producer duo Afro Bros (who also did Nicky Jam and Balvin’s “X”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHAgoT4FZbc

I need to listen to it more

Other musical lineages haven’t made such headway in the UK. The Latin sounds of cumbia, tribal, and reggaeton have remained marginal compared to their impact on US club music. African styles from Francophone countries, like coupé décalé from Ivory Coast, have had more impact on the Parisian underground than the club scene over the Channel. Colonial history continues to shape our inheritance.

https://djmag.com/longreads/uk-club-music-evolving-how

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eyhdOW81LQ

My Dad loves this. Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca at a special streaming show recorded in NYC at Joe's Pub. I like him at times-- when he sounds old-school or goes timba or even European classical, but not crazy about the fusiony songs

that DJ Mag piece belongs on whatever the most relevant UK (deconstructed) club scene thread/s is/are as well!

xp

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/832007472/bassist-andy-gonzalez-dies-at-69

Andy and his late brother Jerry , who sadly died young as well , both played salsa and Latin Jazz with passion.

Afro Latin Jazz Alliance live now https://www.facebook.com/afrolatinjazzalliance/videos/256157795776818/
This is awesome!

The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, to be more precise.

Nice --

sad Covid-19 news

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/nyregion/jose-torres-dead-coronavirus.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

José Torres, 73, Restaurateur Beloved of Salsa Stars, Dies

Salsa musicians had a post-gig ritual in the Bronx. When the music stopped, off they’d go to Joe’s Place, a Puerto Rican restaurant, where the owner and chef José Torres would lay out a free spread. Perhaps it was their enthusiasm for his home-style food that prompted one musician not long ago to announce to a concert audience at Lehman College in the Bronx, “We’re off to Joe’s!”

“It was for the musicians, but whoever wanted to come by, they certainly did,” said Eddie Palmieri, the Latin jazz pianist, who performed at that concert. “Everything in the buffet was on him. Talk about jam-packed! But that was him. He did things like that.”

Mr. Torres died on April 12 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. He was 73. The cause was Covid-19, his sister Aida Torres said....Mr. Torres didn’t just feed musicians at his restaurant. He was their friend. For years, Mr. Palmieri would stop in every Wednesday to conduct business or catch up with musician friends like the guitarist Nelson Gonzalez or the archivist and producer Rene Lopez.

Mr. Torres opened Joe’s Place, an unassuming establishment on Westchester Avenue under the elevated tracks of the No. 6 subway line near the Parkchester neighborhood, in 1998. He turned it into a must-visit destination for music stars, a source of a free meal or a loan for out-of-work musicians, a favorite spot for family get-togethers, and even a place to mourn the loss of other musicians who were waked at one of the many nearby funeral homes.

Were character counts so tight in that piece that they had to say "who were waked" instead of "whose wakes were held"?

Virtual Birdland in about an hour.

oh man, missed it again. Probably archived on Facebook.

Behind on my listening to Latin Jazz, reggaeton, and other stuff like Lido Pimienta that I want to hear

I need to hear the new collaboration single between iLe & Natalia Lafourcade too

https://www.forbes.com/sites/garysuarez/2020/04/28/juice-wrld-logs-his-first-billboard-latin-chart-hit/

All about collaborations on Billboard Latin charts

At Virtual Birdland again.

If you look in the feed seems about half the comments are from the band themselves.

That's too bad.

More indie-pop I guess but gonna mention here anyway the new Helado Negro with Xenia Rubinos collaboration "I Fell in Love"

I like it

i love Xenia a lot but that track's not doing it for me.

It is happening again. They got a new mixing engineering recently, I heard.

nice version of "Iko Iko"

This X Alfonso album by a Cuban guy into hiphop and more that’s in the bottom of the NPR top 50 album list looks intriguing

loving the Natalia Lafourcade

on Bad Bunny being the world's most streamed artist and how the UK didn't see it coming:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/04/how-did-bad-bunny-become-the-worlds-biggest-pop-star

(reminded me of that cursed ILM thread about the "reggaeton-lite fad" supposedly being the "the 'Shit Trend' in pop music right now")

it's funny to see the anglo side of the american industry try to cross maluma over (via "hawái," perfunctorily remixed w/ the weeknd) when "dákiti" is right there, handily outperforming the vast majority of anglo hits week after week without even trying

i gave bad bunny's album a listen... honestly, it could stand to be quite a bit shorter. but the stretch from "dákiti" to the end is strong

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9495004/bad-bunny-el-ultimo-tour-del-mundo-billboard-200-number-one

I still haven’t listened to latest Bad Bunny. Earlier one this year has made some critics poll lists

“Si veo a tu mama” has crept up to be one of his biggest songs this year which was weird for me at first since it’s an unusual casiotoned beat for him (think “hotline bling” or “cha cha”) but I guess it makes sense in a world without parties to dance to Dakiti, Vete or Ignorantes which are also huge but expectedly so.

today I overheard a norteño version blasting out of a car of “si veo a tu mama”; I don’t know what to make of it but I love that it exists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CjWs1Cpb4o

Despite the “girl from ipanema” reference it actually sounds a lot like 50s/60s rock n roll songs... a case has been made by mashing up with Ramon Ayala’s cover of Despeinada by Los Hooligans.

Here’s the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCBSI5m8fY

Here’s the Ramon Ayala cover v Bad Bunny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN7R6rFSsI8

It’s a bit forced but I can definitely hear what the person who did the mashup heard first.

Los Angeles has long had ( so I have read) a radio program that plays 50s rock and doo wop music that is aimed to a Latin audience. That may be the case elsewhere too. Bachata has also drawn from 50s sounds, and there are likely Latin pioneers who deserve props. So all of the above makes sense. Thanks Moka.

Kali Uchis draws from the old school Cuban Los Zafiros doo wop and 50s style Sleepwalk guitar a bit on her latest.

I don’t turn to Ann Powers at NPR generally for Latin picks, she is mostly into Americana & some r’n’b these days, but I am curious about Gabriel Garzon-Montano album Aquita that she included in her top 10 and she says has some reggaeton aspect to it

X-post - Norteno & reggaeton together at last

If you want to hear reggaeton in a different context, check out that Rita Indiana album I stanned for upthread.
Re the 50s, this album is fun---here's my 2007 Columbus OH show preview:
Los Straitjackets
Thursday @Little Brother’s

Mexican-wrestling-masked Los Straitjackets specialize in mad-to-mellow surfabilly instrumentals, but their new Rock En Espaňol, Volume One sports several vivacious guest vocalists on reborn 60s Spanish-language radio hit versions of contemporaneous Top 40 hits, dance pop all the way. Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas gets “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” into (and out of) “El Microscopico Bikini”; Little Willie G., of East L.A. mainstays Thee Midnighters, lilts and tilts “Dame Una Sena”(“Gimme Little Sign”); and “Calor” (AKA “Slow Down”) is cool-rocked by Big Sandy, special guest on Los Straitjackets’ current tour.

Well, 60s, yeah, but continuing from the 50s, like "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Slow Down" were Larry Williams records in the 50s, covered by the Beatles etc.

Good radio interview: Tracks include "De Dia y de Noche" ("All Day and All Night"), popularized by the Kinks, "La Hiedra Venenosa" ("Poison Ivy"), made famous by the Coasters, and many more. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10936204

A couple of years later, they came back:
Los Straitjackets
Launched via surf and desert twang, masked instrumental combo Los Straitjackets embody giddy light years of rock ‘n’ roll history, including its recurring Latin inflections. “My Heart Will Go On” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” are also welcomed to the pulp jungle. Their latest album, The Further Adventures, channels z-movie soundtracks, garage punk and other radical radiation into LS originals. Guitarist Daddy O Grande is currently unable to tour, but his cousin Gregorio has stepped up.
09/11 @ The Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St.
9 p.m.

Los Straightjackets are good , but are coming at it from a different cultural perspective- white guys into rockabilly, surf, Mexican wrestling masks and more.

At least I think they’re all Anglo.

But you’re right that via their Rock En Espanol effort what they’re doing is related.

All of the records and live sets that I've heard tend to go toward what John Storm Roberts called the Spanish tinge of American pop-rock continuity, in the time frame they draw from----I mean for inst, in the surfabilly stuff, Dick Dale was not shy about crediting the influence of his Middle Eastern background, but that of course also goes around the Med to Spain, Mexico, California, surfacing also in their Spaghetti Western themes and so on---they're not deep, or trying to be, but it's fun and they know what they're doing.

(Although I'm no doubt subject to the power of suggestion as well.)

Via author/musician Ned Sublette's newsletter: Israel Berriel González died of a heart attack in Jovellanos, Cuba Dec 18. A top Cuban rumba & ritual singer/composer of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, & previously w/Afro Cuba de Matanzas, Berriel was born on Sept 21, 1937

Burning Ambulances (unperson) tweeted:

@burn_amb
Watched the first episode of the Netflix series ROMPAN TODO - a 6 part documentary about Latin American rock - and it's pretty great, going all the way back to the late '50s and ending in about 1970-71. Reviews suggest later episodes are patchier, but I'm liking it so far.
retweet w comment:
@owlred 7m
Also check for inst Caifanes, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Soda Stereo, 60s bands like Traffic Sound.

burning ambulance (NOW A RECORD LABEL!)
@burn_amb
· 17h
The Latin rock of the 1990s and early 2000s really was something. Café Tacvba played one of the best live shows I've ever seen, and even on a latter-day reunion tour, Maldita Vecindad were amazing.
Show this thread

X-post — I wrote up Los Munequitos back in 2002 when they came to DC. Was a good show as I recall. Traditional Cuban rumba with great percussion that was danceable

Got turned onto the Ranil compilation via Bandcamp's year-end list, it's sweet.

https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/album/ranil-y-su-conjunto-tropical-limited-dance-edition

https://theundefeated.com/features/jazz-musicians-see-signs-of-hope-despite-repeated-questions-about-its-popularity/

I enjoyed this the few times I watched. Am guessing James Redd watched em even more. From the Undefeated article:

Arturo O’Farrill, for instance, launched a weekly Virtual Birdland Concert Series as he led the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, a labor-intensive effort that involved 18 musicians filming and recording their individual parts before turning their work over to a sound engineer and video editor who worked 40-hour weeks to put on a concert.

The series, an extension of the orchestra’s normal Sunday night gig at New York’s Birdland club, was launched to raise money for an emergency musicians fund organized by O’Farrill, a four-time Grammy winner, and his nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance.

“We had musicians giving of themselves when they themselves were hurting, all in order to help their colleagues,” O’Farrill said. “We’ve had episodes with musicians in five different countries participating — a percussionist in Kuwait, a singer in Paris, a trumpet player in London, and a guitar player in Abu Dhabi, and musicians here — all performing one piece at the same time in a way that you couldn’t do except by amassing a huge debt in airplane tickets.

“Initially we didn’t think this would live in the confines of a computer,” O’Farrill said. “But it has reached people who could never afford in a thousand years to come to New York to the real Birdland. This has truly been one of the very best things I’ve ever experienced.”

x-post- ooh , will give a listen to Ranil,70s era Peruvian cumbia w/ influences from Brazil and Colombia

You guessed right, although I took a break for a while.

Seems like there is a special Xmas one starting right now.

Cuban salsa and timba lives:

HIT PARADE (LISTA DE ÉXITOS) DE SALSA Y TIMBA, OCTUBRE 2020
1.DEJA LA MAGIA (Pupy y los que son) 2.- ME DA LA GANA, Barbaro Y MAYIMBE 3.- RAZA – @HavanaDePrimera 4.- SUFRIENDO TU AMOR- @elnino_laverdad 5.- LABIO DE MIEL , Leo Vera 6.- CALLAITOS . @PauloFGoficial pic.twitter.com/BqJmjLKq7x

— SALSA Y TIMBA OFICIAL (@salsaytimbaperu) October 31, 2020

I saw Cuban timba group Pupy y Los Que Son years ago and they were great. I think Pupy was once in Los Van Van

only found out about this banger just now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCufThTuB3M
El Alfa ft. Chael Produciendo • Singapur

because of this remix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3niVHCdB1wA
El Alfa ft. Chencho Corleone, Myke Towers & Justin Quiles (& Farruko) • Singapur (Remix)

¡¡¡Singapurrrrrr!!!

(note to self: this happens when you only pay very casual attention to reggaeton)

Vocal is a little to squeaky for me

Bad Bunny finished at 128 in album poll on Facebook called Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-off Poll. Too many folks voting there just into US and UK pop and rock and crossover rap ( Run the Jewels) that critics like ( Fiona Apple, Waxahatchee)

Gonna start a new thread

Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2021: Reggaeton, Salsa, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Bachata, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

2021 thread