Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2023: Reggaeton, Salsa,Bachata, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

Mexican reggaeton status

https://remezcla.com/features/music/meet-charly-gynn-tempvs-music-the-future-of-mexican-reggaeton/

Celia Cruz will be on the quarter in 2024.

Wow! ¡Azúcar!

Wait how? She passed away 20 years ago.

Lol sorry my bad I thought the US Quarter was a venue.

Ha. Pretty cool she will be so honored in 2024

Lol sorry my bad I thought the US Quarter was a venue.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/arts/music/karol-g-manana-sera-bonito.html

Interview with Karol G re her new album

Still haven’t listened to new Karol G yet but intend to do so

Ha, Karol G album isn’t streaming yet. NY Times interview up early

Meandering, awkward long article about Cuba to Florida musician Willy Chirino who is subject of an exhibit in History Miami Museum.

Should I read the whole thing? I skimmed part of it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/01/willy-chirino-miami-museum-florida/

Ned S likes to keep these Thursday zoom events on the down low

Pablo Herrera + Alexis El D'Boys: Afro-Cuban Rare Groove Sessions #1.
We listen to and talk about selected cuts of digitized vinyl referencing Afro-Cuban and African American popular music connections by Los Zafiros, Orq. de Música Moderna de Las Villas, Wilson & His Combo and more, drawing on Alexis's vast collection of Cuban 33s and especially 45s.

Gonna have to miss this one sadly

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latin-grammys-spain-first-time-not-in-us-rcna71762

Latin Grammys to be held in Spain! First time . Hmmm

For New Yorkers next week

friends & colleagues in NYC! a reminder that I'll be coming to town next Monday to talk dembow / habanera at NYU alongside @ReggaetonXGata (!!). our 6-8pm panel is open to the public with RSVP. hope to see some of you there!https://t.co/Gon9ivVbhW pic.twitter.com/1Mq9Mzh4px

— wayne&wax (@wayneandwax) February 22, 2023

https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/2023-premio-lo-nuestro-winners-1235259132/

lots of award winners

I missed Afro-Cuban Allstars latest dc area gig this past Friday but saw some nice video clips on Facebook. Have enjoyed them in the past

This is an old song but my wife just showed it to me because she heard it in Matar a Jesús, a movie by the Colombian director Laura Mora Ortega that she really liked. It's by a salsa group from Medellín called Sonora 8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_bf5tfkttc

Nice classic salsa there and a fun street scape video

New York French Canadian Bernard Labadie conducts Orchestra of St Luke’s “Viajes y Raices” (Journeys and Roots) string quartets by composers with Cuban and Andean roots, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León, inti figgis-vizueta, and Keyla Orozco; at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx on Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 7pm. Free with registration

I am 5 hours or so south of NYC by car but can’t make This Thursday free event in the Bronx

That Karol G album is finally streaming and it has some songs on it that have already been on radio and streaming for a bit, plus some I haven't heard. I like her voice a lot. Some of this sounds great, some is formulaic Latin pop, some tries to do other things. I need to listen to it more.

Another Diaspora Playdate organized by @MotenSpeaks of the Go-Go Museum. “Go-Go Salsa”
I spoke on a panel w/ two dope Afro-Latino musicians. Watching the musicians jam was just 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾. Sponsored by @OLADCGov #BHM pic.twitter.com/hqsDDTyoz1

— Dr. Go-Go (@NatHopkinson) February 25, 2023

DC go-go band Sirius Company with DC salsa band Verny Varela group ( Varela is from Columbia originally)

Video clip in tweet

talking to a bunch of journalists from an earlier generation for an upcoming project has really highlighted to me how we're having the same debates about reggaeton's origins 30+ years after its inception

— Isabelia Herrera (@jabladoraaa) March 10, 2023

RIP NY dj Polito Vega

In an obituary in Billboard magazine, Leila Cobo, the author of “Decoding ‘Despacito’: An Oral History of Latin Music” (2020), wrote: “Vega’s importance to Latin music cannot be overstated. He was the most influential tastemaker in the country’s top market, dating back to when tropical music first became popular in the city in the 1960s and 1970s and stretching all the way to the 21st century.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/arts/music/polito-vega-dead.html

New York Times obit quotes from earlier NY Times article plus Billboard one

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/arts/music/27vega.html

In the mid-1960s Mr. Vega was one of the first radio personalities to identify and ally himself with the commercial potential of the musical style that came to be known as salsa. From the beginning of his career, he said, he was bothered by the difference between the powerful, driving music he heard in clubs and the tepid recordings that came his way.

“It was two different worlds in those early days,” Mr. Vega explained. “At the dance halls and up in the Catskills you would hear the Tito Puente and Machito orchestras tearing things up, but on the radio the kind of thing you heard was romantic trios, unless you were tuning in to Symphony Sid late at night.” ...

“He was part of the whole salsa movement, one of its pillars, really,” said Mr. Pacheco, a founder of Fania. “As we were building the company, he was there with us. I’d bring him the LPs, he’d listen and say, ‘I like this song, I’m going to push it,’ and he’d play the hell out of it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/22/can-you-copyright-a-rhythm-inside-the-reggaeton-lawsuit-that-could-shake-the-pop-world

This deserves its own thread I think- Steely & Clevie are suing superstars including Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, & Bad Bunny and more saying that some of 56 songs took from their 1989 song “Fish Market “. They say the the dembow rhythm comes from their track and that they deserve credit and money

This might have already been discussed on the dancehall thread or elsewhere. Not sure

Kazzabe from Honduras are touring the US . They like to have twerking dancers in most of their videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI2GQtw0hrk

Combo Chimbita have gotten the hipster seal of approval. A gig tonight in a small DC rock club with an electro-hiphop opener and then off to the Big Ears fest

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

X-post - Kazzabe are a Garifuna band playing Punta . They have not been invited to Big Ears alas, not even sure if they’re on the radar of reggaeton fans . Been around for a bit too, so not sure if they have tik tok attention

Charlie Aponte who sang with El Gran Combo for years is now touring and doing a gig in DC area with Orquesta Galvan at the Palace. Salsa gigs are fun at that place

Starting to get into the torchy Chilean pop singer Mon Laferte as a result of my recent explorations of Soda Stereo and Latino karaoke.

I guess she’s a Mexican citizen now.

Focusing first on her 2015 album Mon Laferte Vol. 1.

Now checking out some more recent ones. There are also some slightly bizarre videos of her out there doing battle on a Mexican Idol-type show called Yo Soy against a Peruvian Amy Winehouse imitator named Ana or Ani Rodríguez.

Norma was supposedly recorded in one day in Capitol Studio A with no overdubs. Sounding pretty good upon first listen.

Seems like she got her first big break on a Chilean Idol show called Rojo when she came in third and became part of the Clan Rojo. She was calling herself Monserrat Bustamante at the time. Her full name is Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte. She's got a big voice and it seems she can sing almost anything.

She is holding a big onion on the cover of Norma like she is about to cut it. Wonder if it symbolizes música cebolla, a genre I never heard until I just looked her up a little while ago.

She's won four Latin Grammys so far.

Loving this collabo with iLe from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHe7DSZWFEY

Her Metallica cover is good too. Okay I’ll stop for now.

Maybe I should start a separate thread, but who will read it? Probably as many as read this or the Cerati/Soda Stereo thread.

Unperson mentioned her doing a political protest against Chile on the Latin Grammys some years ago. I noted in 2021 that Jon Pareles of New York Times had her album as one of his faves for the year. I also saw a Washington Post article about her interest in various Mexican traditional regional styles.

Laferte is very dramatic sometimes and theatrical. A powerful voice.

Yes I saw all that in the archives, but useful to have it summarized here. I am starting to relate to some of her material directly instead of just being wowed by the big voice and image which is nice.

Because I think maybe the chops and stylistic diversity can distract from the actual talent that also seems to be there.

Really digging her SoCal LA album, 1940 Carmen. Which has three extremely personal songs in Google Translate English.

“Química Mayor” quotes her favorite Soda Stereo song, or at least I assume it must be, since that’s the one she was doing on the Gracias Totales tour. The overall effect of the album for me as if various David Lynch chanteuses such as The Radiator Girl, Rebekah Del Rio and the Connie Francis ringer(s) all escaped through the Mulholland Drive wormhole and struck out on their own.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/current-trends-in-cuban-music-tickets-596027563487

Current trends in Cuban music panel 6 to 8 pm eastern time tonight Tuesday April 18, live in NYC and online streaming

I missed it unfortunately. Would have been nice to hear the takes of: CHRISTOPHER WASHBURNE is a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Columbia University and the Founder of Columbia’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program.

BENJAMIN LAPIDUS is a Professor of Music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center of the City of New York (CUNY).

I wonder if either have been to Cuba lately

My wife played this song for me the other day and now I want to hear the whole album. It's from 1975, and apparently the only album this group ever made, ironically called Reincarnation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgqURgit0m8

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1477688-Orquesta-Narvaez

Wasn't familiar with Orquesta Narvaez, but yeah in that song they have that great mid-1970s NYC rooted salsa horns and percussion danceable sound

Ha, you rang? Meant to post earlier that I didn’t even know Bobby Sanabria had a new record out recent.

Actually I think Arturo O’Farrill “Fandango at the Wall “ has gotten more attention now that I think about it

I gotta study the Rolling Stone top 50 Spanish language albums of 2023 list when I get a chance

Happy 87th birthday Eddie Palmieri! WPFW dj Jim Byers played some great songs from his first solo album Sunday night on Byers radio show

x-post

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-50-best-spanish-language-albums-of-2023-1234922548/

From Tainy’s mind-bending opus Data to Diego Raposo’s brash reinventions on YO NO ERA ASÍ PERO DE AHORA EN ADELANTE, SÍ, some of the most interesting sounds this year embraced innovation head-on. Música mexicana continued to reach global heights with artists like Peso Pluma, Junior H, and Carin Leon plotting new paths. And other acts, among them Francisca Valenzuela, Grupo Frontera, and Karol G found magic by embracing a sense of honesty and intimacy.

Grupo Niche - Sinfonica is the one salsa album on the list

Critic Geoff Himes has Pierrick Pedron and Gonzalo Rubacalba album “Pedron Rubacalba” on top of his jazz album best of list. Maybe it has some Latin tinge ( haven’t heard it)

Pedron Rubacalba is a nice jazz effort but I don’t hear any mambo, salsa, son, Norteno, reggaeton, Latin trap, etc

I need to dig more into that Rolling Stone 2023 list .

The one salsa album on it by Grupo Niche is a good one

Listened to Tainy album Data. It’s instrumental programmed music . Doesn’t wow me, it’s ok

Ha. Dumb me....Data is out both as an instrumental version and one with vocals. Near the end of the one with vocals is Bad Bunny rapping over 80s synths on one cut. This is a little more interesting to me.

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-music-latin-spanish-artists-2023/

Kiko el Crazy y more

Ned S8blette showed the "Omara" film doc tonight that has just been at movie festivals. It's a doc on Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, who came to fame for many via her role in the Buena Vista Social Club. After the screening on Vimeo, Ned had a Q&A with filmmaker Hugo Perez. A knowledgeable interesting guy. Great doc w/ archival footage, plus recent tour footage of her in NY, NJ, Cuba, Mexico City, South Korea . I didn't know she was the daughter of a white Cuban mother and a black Cuban father. Her mother got excommunicated from her well-to-do White family in 1927 for marrying her Dad. Dad was a baseball player and sang at home with Mom and the kids.

Perez has been a consultant on the off-broadway Buena Vista Social Club onstage theatrical musical show in NYC (despite admitting he didn't love the album or tour-- he felt the big large band's playing overwhelmed Omara's singing). He says it may get on Broadway next fall.

RIP Afro-Colombian champeta & cumbia singer accordionist Lisandro Meza who did an awesome take on Fela's song Shakara called "Shacalao"

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

https://www.time.com/6548823/best-latin-songs-albums-2023/

Time Magazine critic lists fave Latin pop, dance, and rock

Listened to Mon Laferte again -- like some but not all. She has a range of influences which is good.

Also listened again to Rosalia & ex-fiance Rauw Alejandro ep .

Yeah, I kind of feel the same about Mon Laferte, but what I do like, I really like.

Just saw elsewhere 2 best of 2023 references to Piconema: East African Hits on the Colombian Coast . I haven’t heard it yet and haven’t seen references to it elsewhere here on ILM

It's 2024, time for a new thread

Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2024: Reggaeton, Dembow, Latin Pop, Salsa,Bachata, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx