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 Youngsters
are keeping the tradition alive!
Recently a group of young musicians from the East Coast of Puerto Rico
began playing at local activities produced by their school. The School
of Fine Arts in Humacao provided these youngsters with the stage and
forum, allowing them to have maximum exposure on a small scale. The
youngsters were anxious and driven to expose their fresh classic salsa
sound to the general public. Their type of salsa can best be described
as a classic salsa sound with a young feel.
READ MORE
The Peas Brothers unite for a pic and evaluation.
 ¿Wassa
Salsa?
Salsa refers to a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the
Caribbean (especially in Cuba and Puerto Rico), Latin and North America.
The dance originated through the mixture of Mambo, Danzón, Guaguancó,
Cuban Son, and other typical Cuban dance forms. Salsa is danced to Salsa
music. There is a strong African influence in the music as well as the
dance.
Salsa is usually a partner dance, although there are recognized solo
steps and some forms are danced in groups of couples, with frequent
exchanges of partner (Rueda de Casino). Improvisation and social dancing
are important elements of Salsa but it appears as a performance dance
too.
The name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American
Spanish) a spicy flavor[1]. The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and
sensuous than its ancestor, Cuban Son. Salsa also suggests a "mixture"
of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the
term's origin.
More on
this fabulous and delicious concept later
Mambo Master Cachao Dead at 89
 Israel
Cachao López — the legendary Cuban composer, songwriter and bassist
known simply as “Cachao” — died last March at age 89 in Coral Gables,
Florida. Cachao is revered as the pioneer of the mambo, the genre
created in the late 1930s that became the bedrock of modern Cuban music,
salsa, and the Latin-influenced genres of rock and r&b.
Born in 1918, Cachao’s 80-year career began in the silent movie era as
he accompanied pianists in movie theaters in his native Havana. At 13,
he became the bassist of the Havana Philharmonic, a position he held for
30 years. Simultaneously, with his brother Orestes, he played in a
succession of dance orchestras and smaller ensembles as the duo wrote
thousands of songs in the traditional Cuban styles...
READ MORE
Timbales, Conga y Bongó|
A Short Historical Primer
 By
Bobby Sanabria
The Timbales
The timbales were developed as a portable replacement for the "timbal
criollo" (creole timpani) in Cuba's Danzónera Bands. The design of the
timbal criollo was based on the European timpani but was slightly
smaller. The European timpani was introduced to Cuba by an Italian Opera
orchestra that toured the island in the mid 1870's. The Danzóneras were
brass bands that played the elegant danzón - a style of music based on
the French contradanse but with clave driven rhythm propelling it. By
the mid 1930's a small cowbell was added to interpret son based music.
Son is the folk root of the music we today call Salsa which is an urban
contemporary interpretation of the son. The smaller timbalitos were
developed
READ MORE
 Don Jibaro,
the Man Behind Jibaros.com Talks To Salsaricans
—Interview by By Les Rivera
"Eccentricity is necessarily defined
relatively. For the purposes of this interview, an eccentric is someone whose
behavior, beliefs and hobbies deviate in a significant way from the accepted
norms of their society, but otherwise can function largely as normal in that
society. He or she may be regarded as strange, odd or at least unconventional,
irregular and exotic. Other people may regard the eccentric with apprehension
but also with amusement...
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One Truly Boricua... Bomba & Plena
 Courtesy
of The Smithsonian Institute
Bomba and plena are percussion-driven musical traditions from Puerto
Rico that move people to dance. Often mentioned together as though they
were a single musical style, both reflect the African heritage of Puerto
Rico, but there are basic distinctions between them in rhythm,
instrumentation, and lyrics. You can hear the difference in these songs.
In "Baila, Julia Loíza" the drums or barriles are lower pitched and form
a different rhythmic accompaniment than the pandereta drums in the plena
example, "Báilala hasta las dos."
READ MORE
 The
One Queen of Salsa:
Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz (October 21, 1925 – July 15, 2003) was an
Afro-Cuban-American salsa singer who spent most of her career living in
New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American
countries. Cruz was one of the most successful Cuban performers of the
20th century, with twenty-three gold albums to her name and has earned
the moniker "La guarachera de Cuba".
Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the
best-known and most influential female figure in the history of
Afro-Cuban music." Cruz once said in an interview "If I had a chance I
wouldn't have been singing and dancing, I would be a teacher just like
my dad wanted me to be".
Read
More
 Tito
Rodríguez, The Other Mambo King
When I was in High School in Bayamón, PR we had dances, but the main ingredient
in the record player was not Tito Puente, as one might have thought... it was
Tito Rodriguez... the other Mambo King.
Tito Rodriguez's romantic inflections into his singing, made him a favorite with
the "conservas" trying to score... The girls liked him! Even fast songs sounded
"sexy" due to the breathing technique that Rodriguez employed while crooning. It
worked, and the high schools were his to rule... and that he did, until... BAM!
...Dead at age fifty!
Read More
 WASSAMAMBO?
Mambo. So what is it? Well, Mambo is a fully featured content
management system (CMS) that can be used to build and maintain a web site. It’s
a user friendly software that allows both novices and experts alike to
efficiently and easily manage online content.
WAIT!!! Wrong mambo!! Our mambo is a Latin American dance form greatly
revered in dance circles. Though music similar to the now recognizable style of
the mambo existed as far back as the mid-19th century, the dance itself was not
invented until the 1940s. Perez Prado is credited with the invention of the
mambo dance, as well as with marketing his style of music as...
Read
More
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