La Salsa

From Esteban Hernandez, San Francisco.
Oooo, now that Bach really seems appropriate, verdad? Before I back this up, we need a definition of terms. This gets very tricky because of all that's out there these days. We have salsa gorda (salsa dura), which has a harder edge and is more traditional. We have timba, which describes what are mostly songo variants being played by bands in Cuba and the Caribbean. Then there's the salsa romántica, the commercial version we hear on the airwaves sung by pretty boys and girls. It's what the robotic dancers move to with no concept of clave in the clubs, what the radios blare out at the beach, the majority of what you see in the stores.

"Social dancers believe that we can save our criticisms for people who are doing true harm in the world, not for a dancers whose passions merely differ from our own."

And then there's music from the pre-salsa era, like Buena Vista Social Club, often called Afro-Cuban or Afro-Latin. So which one is the vampire here? Well, first let me say that I see this music existing on a continuum that stretches from 1920s Cuba to New York, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. In other words, this all pretty much the same music. Names are just for convenience. The rhythms used in the '20s are still being used today. So is the structure and instrumentation. Granted, lots of innovations have taken place since the Sexteto Habanero started their first rehearsals, but you can hear the basic similarities between DLG, Bamboleo, Palmieri and Beny Moré

"Moliendo Cafe" por Azucar Moreno

WE WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU TO JOIN THE FUN!

Received from Maile Yagi

When I say salsa is dead, I'm referring to the dominant form of this music today, what is known as salsa romántica. It's what most people think of when they hear the term "salsa." This means DLG, Jerry Rivera, Corrine, and all the rest of the vacuous pretenders. But when I jump on the continuum in my argument, I'm going to use the term Afro-Latin music to describe this music in general, and that is meant to encompass the evolving traditional music from Cuba and Puerto Rico that moved to New York, Latin America and the rest of the world. It's not the best definition because it excludes other forms of Afro-Latin music like merengue, cumbia, samba, etc. But I can't sit here all day coming up with definitions to make everybody happy because it will give me (and you) a headache.

Pub's Side Note;?? You can get similar articles on the Internet. I don't think Salsa is dead but it has definitely peaked in this century??