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

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"

AfroLatinjazzalliance Facebook page.

In other news, Bad Bunny is on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Plus there was controversy where a certain Bad Bunny song was taken off Spotify allegedly due to a foul Spanish language slang verse. I think's back. Also read that young reggaeton fans were recording tiktok challenges with the song, where they would play it for their abuelas and see the reaction.

Bad Bunny with another album already--

He didn’t rest for long. A few weeks after our first conversation, Martínez and Berlingeri recorded a new song in his home: “En Casita,” a twee trap ballad about wanting to visit a lover but needing to stay in quarantine. A month later, Bad Bunny dug deep into his vault of unfinished songs, and finalized an 11th-hour follow-up to YHLQMDLG titled Las Que No Iban a Salir, a collection of 10 tracks scrapped from previous sessions.

Martínez first teased the tracks during an Instagram Live stream, sipping rum and singing whimsically into a wooden spoon. Most of the songs were produced during the Yo Hago sessions, but still lacked Bad Bunny’s swaggering verses. Martínez phoned reggaeton veterans like Nicky Jam and Don Omar, who recorded new guest vocals from their homes; he then headed to his engineer La Paciencia’s house, and finished vocals on the remaining tracks in two days. “There was no real meaning behind it,” he says. “I just thought, ’Damn. What people need is entertainment.'”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bad-bunny-cover-story-lockdown-puerto-rico-new-albums-996871/

To his mother’s great discontent, Martínez quit the church choir at 13 and adopted a new spiritual practice: He’d stay up until dawn, craft beats on his computer, then improvise freestyles for his friends at school. If there were no fresh beats at the ready, he would improvise over salsa music; as he got older, he began regaling neighbors from his balcony with songs by the great Puerto Rican salsero Héctor Lavoe, a critical strand of Bad Bunny’s musical DNA. He describes his musical phases as seasons in his life: There was bachata season, indie-pop season, even Bee Gees season. “There was a time where I would only listen to the Bee Gees,” he admits. “Bee Gees, Bee Gees, Bee Gees. And West Coast rap classics.”

Bad Bunny

enjoying "sigues con él"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRUjdlCynU0

Nice remix with Romeo Santos as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BccyzhMWVmg
Arcangel ft. Sech & Romeo Santos • Sigue Con Él (Remix)

Sigues

Yea, Santos' balladeer style works well with the wispy reggaeton pop

I know it’s not urbano, but NAAFI from CDMX is a very important contribution to underground latinx club/electronic/ experimental music https://naafi.bandcamp.com/

Here's a catch-all neoperreo list assembled by the label of the same name:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4WXOOhvawKi2ISUDzC9Hqv?si=aohU50RRSSCY--U44SCKPA

TECHGRL, El Plvybxy, Tomasa del Real are the most interesting to me.

Oh, Chilean Tomasa del Real was living in Los Angeles in 2019 (maybe still is).

Harold López-Nussa - "Jazzton" feat. Randy Malcom (Official Video) ...Despite the use of "ton", I don't hear any reggaeton in this new track. But it's a fun one with a vocalist and some salsa and Latin jazz; plus dancers in the video leaping off the paper charts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wi_khLhqfc

There's a new double album Annuel reggaeton release with lots of big name reggaeton guests

http://remezcla.com/music/raymix-comes-out-as-gay/

some nice news about raymix

Happy to hear it! I only knew him from his “Fake Lover”, which I’ve been having on medium rotation here, especially the remix with Lalo Ebratt et al:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yAtl7z7kQ
Raymix ft. Lalo Ebratt, Yera, Skinny Happy, Trapical Minds & El Dusty • Fake Lover (Remix)

Listening to some of his stuff today, including smash hit “Oye Mujer”, I’m reminded me that I’ve been neglecting that “Inténtalo”-type Mexican sound for too long.

This is his current hit with Paulina Rubio, “Tú Y Yo”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOp8bFbQBc

Seeing Beyonce holding a Robert Farris Thompson book had me curious what this Yale professor who knows African and Latin music as well as art is up to. Not sure , but here’s a 2019 essay about mambo he wrote

https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2020/03/21/essay-overture-ridding-passing-moments-their-fat/

Farris Thompson appears to be on Facebook but not other social media. Wonder if he’s ever weighed in on reggaeton or more recent Afropop sounds ?

Wayne and wax Marshall says is "Reggaetonera" by Anuel AA has a Kraftwerk sample. I will have to listen again

Kraftwerk sample must be manipulated or subtle. Not that obvious

i couldn't hear it but ?

Meanwhile in Billboard news:

As Ozuna’s “Caramelo” hits No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart (dated Aug. 15), he nabs his 20th leader on the list which launched in 1994. The song hikes 5-1 in its eighth week on the chart (up 41% in audience impressions to 1 million, in the week ending Aug. 9, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data).

The new achievement places him in a tie with Daddy Yankee for the third-most No. 1s among all acts on Latin Airplay, both with 20. Above them are only Enrique Iglesias who continues at the helm with 31 No. 1s and J Balvin with 23

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