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

Greg Tate-musician and critic in a public FB and IG post

A giant of African cultural scholarship no longer walks among us but along what Sun Ra called The Celestial Road. Professor Robert Farris Thompson’s lectures and books impact on C. Daniel Dawson,David Hammons. Jean Michel Basquiat, Kelly Jones, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Louis Gates, Judith Wilson, Sanford Biggers, and Arthur Jafa was immense, especially Flash of the Spirit which we essayed upon in Flyboy In The Buttermilk under the title ‘Guerilla Scholar On The Loose’. Peace go witcha Professor RFT.

Another book to add to the list...

Bobby Sanabria said about Farris Thompson:

Professor of Mambo, Cool, and the Multiverse. I was honored to have him write the liner notes to our first Grammy nominated album, Afro-Cuban Dream: Live & In Clave!!! way back in 2000. His books are essential reading. His final book on Mambo will be forthcoming.

His tango book looking good to me.

7.
Rauw Alejandro
"Todo de Ti

NPR top song list

Pareles listed some alt Latino stuff in NY Times - Bomba Estereo and others

Pareles best 2021 album list in NY Times has Bomba Estereo, Mon Laferte, & Mdou Moctar in his top albums plus in his 15 more deserving albums -Arooj Aftab, “Vulture Prince”

Khaira Arby, “New York Live” and Cuban pianist Omar Sosa- East African Journeys

Jon Caramanica has reggaeton on his list including Rauw Alejandro

This C Tangana album that made Rolling Stone top 10 ( as did Rauw A ) is pretty good. He’s from Spain and used to write w/ Rosalia ( and they were together). He’s got rumba , flamenco, bachata, folk and rapping and singing on his 2021 album.

Still have yet to listen to Michele Rosewoman but she always seems to have a great band.

C Tangana is my most listened to album of the year according to my Spotify unwrapped. For a dabbler like me it's a nice dip into the various genres. My favourite is Ingobernable with the Gypsy Kings. NPR also has it at as their no.5 album. I had not paid any attention to him before this year and but then I realised most of the Rosalia's El Mal Querer album was co-written by him.

I really like the way C Tangana utilizes multiple genres and does so in a way that doesn't seem forced.

A decade old, but I just came across this whilst checking up on Kirk Lightsey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR5ezSoPCuw

Jerry Gonzalez has been gone 3 years now. His brother for a bit too. I liked their attitudes and their playing. Does Lightsey's 2021 Coltrane revisited have a Latin jazz feel to it?

Don't know, will check it out. I never even knew Lightsey and Gonzalez were so tight.

Did Greg Tate ever write about Latin jazz or salsa?

Not that I am aware of but it is certainly possible.

Feel like probably not much though.

He was a big fan of Robert Farris Thompson (an advocate for African and Latin), but Tate seems to just to have been into African music more than Latin (in addition to African-American)

2. Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo, El Funky, ‘Patria y Vida’

Jon Pareles #2 song on his 2021 song list in NY Times

He has a C Tangana song too plus a few others that might interest folks on this thread

12. Jorge Drexler and C. Tangana, ‘Tocarte’

A Camilo song and a Yendry song too on Pareles list too

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/arts/music/best-songs.html

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-spanish-language-albums-2021-1269982/

Something for everyone--35 albums. reggaeton, pop, salsa, rock, folk . Well maybe not Latin jazz

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/22/arts/music/reggaeton-electronic-fusions.html

Reggaeton & edm hybrid songs plus some Reggaeton & r’n’b or house hybrids

Jazz Critics poll 2021 has a separate category for Latin Jazz

Latin

1) Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo, El Arte Del Bolero (Miel Music) 23
2) Arturo O’Farrill, . . . Dreaming in Lions . . . (Blue Note) 21
3) Eliane Elias, Mirror Mirror (Candid) 8
4) (tie) Carlos Henriquez, The South Bronx Story (Tiger Turn) 7
4) (tie) Ches Smith & We All Break, Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic) 7
6) (tie) Rubén Blades y Roberto Delgado & Orquesta, Salswing! (Rubén Blades Productions) 4
6) (tie) Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Virtual Birdland (Zoho) 4

Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2022: Reggaeton, Salsa, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Bachata, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

new 2022 thread