Latin Beat Music Update

Latin Beat Magazine, Sept, 2000 by Nelson Rodriguez

Summer 2000 has just become part of history. A new chapter in Latin music history begins with LARA's 1st Annual Latin Grammy September 13 on CBS, live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. There has been some controversy about the categories (Brazilian music has 7 categories while salsa, merengue, and Latin jazz have only one each). The "New Act" category will be highly contested. Does a Latin track from a U.S. pop recording by Cristina Aguilera or Marc Anthony qualify for these Grammy's? Let's see what happens and who wins.

For 5 years, legendary percussionist/bandleader/club DJ Snowboy has been overwhelming crowds at his "Hi-Hat" jazz dance club in the United Kingdom, while recording some fabulous Latin jazz. His recordings have drawn the interest of some of the biggest dance DJs, including Pete Tong, Masters at Work and Francois Kevorkian. His CD Snowboy Presents The Hi Hat- The True Jazz Dance Sessions offers a great range of musical interventions by artists such as Dionne Warwick (doing Caravan), Pete Escovedo, Horace Silver, Jon Lucien, the UK's Negrocan, N.Y. jazz vocalist Vanessa Rubin and Snowboy himself. Check out what the U.K. is into, as well as Snowboy's personal choices. Snowboy got his name from a character in the musical West Side Story and has played with Lisa Stansfield, Basia, Incognito, the acid-jazz act called James Taylor Quartet, and Tex-Mex legend Flaco Jiménez.

Latin Beat's own Vicki Solá and her show "Que Viva La Musica" celebrated the 5th Annual Latin Music Showcase and Dance at La Maganette, in Manhattan, on Sunday, November 12 with the bands of Ralph Irizarry, Willie Amadeo, Ernie Acevedo & Grupo Imagen, Orquesta Típica Novel and Gilberto Colon Jr., along with Ensalada de Pulpo Latin Jazz Ensemble, and the Luisito Rey Orchestra.

I'm also proud to announce that this past June, another radio host and friend, José Massó, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his show "Con Salsa!" on WBUR 90.9 FM in Boston. He began back on June 21, 1975, with a one-hour show on Saturdays, which grew to twelve hours Friday-Sunday nights and is presently transmitted every Saturday night from midnight to 5 a.m. The celebration included concerts throughout Boston with Bamboleo, Rubén Blades and Editus.

Merengue veteran Fernando Villalona has signed with RMM Records.

Salsa Fiesta is a K-Tel compilation done by Don Lewis with a variety of artists, including Johnny Polanco, Orquesta Broadway, Tito Puente, Poncho Sánchez, Frankie Ruiz, Andy Montañez, Cortijo, Mulenze, Oscar D'Leon and Jimmy Bosch among others. A very enjoyable mix of music for dancing and listening. Don also compiled Afro-Cuban Fiesta with a mix of contemporary acts (Maraca, Laito, Cubanismo, Manolín) and old school acts (Mongo Santamaría, Benny Moré, Enrique Jorrin).

Martin Arroyo and Ray Castro have established Rumbero Records, with the latest release being Los Soneros Del Barrio, as part of a catalog that includes all of Conjunto Clásico's releases (and LoMejor catalog).

Thanks to Henry Knowles for the CD Latitudes by Alfredo De La Fé, currently available only in Europe. With this CD, Alfredo returns to his salsa roots with his version of Irakere's Ximora, Típica 73's Que Manera, Palmieri's Muñeca, and a Latin jazz track Ge Ge (Bailalo Si Puedes). One of my favorite artists of all-time, Alfredo De La Fé has a conceptual vision of what salsa was and what it will be in the next decade.

The act I felt should have won last year's Merengue Grammy was Los Toros Band. This band has a little bit of everything with a unique view of what merengue is. Their new CD, Toromanía, continues to create the flavor that has made them one of the best today. The extremely talented vocalist Hector Acosta has played a constantly vital role within the band.

Pianist Mark Levine (who has played/recorded with Mongo Santamaría, Woody Shaw, Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, and Bobby Hutcherson), has formed a group, The Latin Tinge, a quartet who has released the CD Hey, It's Me, on Left Coast Clave Records.

DJ Eddie Arroyo is at it again, mixing and producing Latin dance tracks for such artists as Elvis Crespo, Raulín Rosendo, DLG, Ivy Queen, Gizelle D'Cole, Son By Four and the hot "100%" by the late Big Pun.

Some of the new names being played at the clubs on the East coast are salseros Pete Pagan y La Impresión, Alfredo "Male" Torres & Banda Vega, and Louis George and The Salsa Gang, all on Bandera Records and Noches De Salsa (that has a strange similarity to Noche Caliente from the early '80s), with the Ricardo Montaner hit El Poder De Tu Amor, also coming out as a merengue single by Sin Fronteras.

As soon as I heard the opening tracks of the new CD Peligroso I knew it was vibist Dave Pike who hummed and scat, while playing, a la Eddie Palmieri/Errol Garner. This is Dave Pike's second Antillean jazz CD of his career, the first being Manhattan Latin, recorded in 1964 with Willie Bobo, Patato Valdés, Ray Barretto, Cachao and Hubert Laws. Bobby Matos produced this sure winner on Ubiquity's Cubop label with new versions of two tracks from the '64 LP that I loved (Montuno Orita, -now retitled Cayo Coco- and Sandunga). The classic touch of Back To The Roots alone mesmerized me with memories of the '60s and Cal Tjader.