Archive for the 'music' Category

Page 2 of 5

Jason Mraz “I’m Yours” Salsafied by NOTA

NOTA The Sing-Off Jason Mraz I'm YoursIf you didn’t catch the new NBC show called “The Sing-Off“, you missed something pretty cool. The Sing-Off is a competition which mixes the aspects of a capella singing, show choir (similar to the TV show “Glee”) and American Idol. Keeping up with American cover songs remixed into Salsa-like rhythmz, a group from my hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, called NOTA. NOTA is the term for a musical note in Spanish. They sang a salsafied version Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” in a capella that I think you are sure to enjoy. I think they mixed the song styles very well, even including a nice big symbal-ish clave as a transition point. I’ll be waiting for their album if they keep it up!

Salsa Music Mondays : More Latin Cover Song Remixes

Salsa Cover Song Remixes - Beyonce and Duran Duran“It’s the end of 2009, do you know where your salsa shoes have been?” If you’ve been a fan of the addicted2salsa audio shows, you’ll remember that was the intro line for our Latin Dance Cover Songs pt 1 show which aired ~3 years ago this day. Given the popularity of some of the songs featured, one of our addicted2salsa fans from Southport, England (UK), DJ Ivan Yokhna, sent us a few new Latin cover song remixes that he created. I have posted them below so that everyone can start helping build the Part 2 version of the episode.

Given the number of times we’ve been asked about the Lenny Kravitz salsa version of “Thinking of You” that was featured in Salsa Music Episode #22 , here is a present for all of you.

Which cover songs would you like to hear Salsa or Latin remixed versions of? Let us know in the comments!

Create Salsa Music for Free with Garageband! [Salsa Music Contest]

Salsa Music in GaragebandNow that everyone is becoming more experienced with computers, I wanted to give everyone a creative holiday salsa project! About a year ago I created a few salsa music tracks that became very popular with some of our fans and we received several emails asking how any salsero (with a Mac) could make their own. The process is very simple! Garageband, a free application that comes with every Mac computer, allows you to do this with just a few clicks of the mouse. When you start a new project in Garageband, you can select ‘New’ from the menu and select ‘Magic Garageband‘. From there all you have to do is select the instruments you like and you are done! You can also add your own clave in Garageband to give it a more salsa feel!

Here are the salsa music instrument tracks I made previously with Garageband that are available on our salsa feed (feel free to download and distribute, however, not for commercial use):

Here is a video of how you can easily change the different instruments in Magic Garageband to get the right feel for your musical style.

Salsa Holiday Contest Time!

Salsa Music Holiday Album - Navidad SalsaGiven how easy it is to create fun salsa music tracks, we’d like to listen to your creativity! Come up with a few salsa music tracks of your own! Send your track as an email attachment, with your name and location to contact@addicted2salsa.com (we’ll post them on our website at a later time). Submit as many tracks as you’d like for the contest.

The TOP 5 contestants, selected by us, will receive my favorite iTunes album for the Salsa Dancing Holidays: “Feliz Navidad” by Hector Lavoe and Daniel. Please note you need to have a valid iTunes account to receive the prize. Contest ends January 15th, 2009The best track will be danced by us during the intro of a future Addicted2Salsa video episode (how cool is that!).

New FANIA Records Website : Salsa Music Remastered!

New FANIA Records Website!For a few months now, the FANIA Records salsa music website had been down with a ‘Coming Soon in Fall of 2009′ text. Today, a brand new website has flourished to show salsa music in all of its glory! Given everything we have learn from the history of FANIA Records from the PBS Special: Latin Music USA, it is great to see they are back showcasing all the great salsa music from the era plus more! Now you can purchase individual salsa songs, categorized by era, read salsa artist bios, and subscribe to a salsa music podcast on their website. In addition, they let also have a 24-hour FANIA salsa music radio station!

Hopefully someday they’ll be happy enough to sponsor our salsa podcast!

[more via FANIA]

Roof-Top Dancing in America : West Side Story

West Side Story : AmericaThis weekend I took some time to revisit the great musical called “West Side Story“. For those who have not seen the play or movie, its plot is very similar to “Romeo and Juliet” except placed in the era of the mid-1950s during which time there was a period of migration from Puerto Rico to New York. The two lovers in the film are not only separated by race, but also by the gang violence between two feuding groups: The Sharks and The Jets. Given the popular social discussion of foreigners and immigration nowadays, I find this particular musical performance interesting as it highlights the fact that history always repeats itself and is often expressed through great art forms! For those who watch “So You Think You Can Dance“, you will notice that this was the choreography used in the audition process during what is called “Vegas Week”.

Bollywood “Salsa Dancing” as seen in Dhoom2

dhoom2While we may have a long ways to go, salsa is definitely becoming more mainstream in India. A few months back I ended up experimenting with my life by renting my first full bollywood film. While not the best film to be encompassing of the bollywood experience, I thought it was a good start. While the plot won’t win any “Oscars” like Slumdog Millionaire, the soundtrack and music video production was spectacular. It features an amazing music fusion of Bhangra music (I believe), with other genres like Spanish, Latin and Hip-Hop. As Latin sounds fused with ‘Bollywood’ is becoming more popular, I thought I’d give our viewers at taste of the catchy beat that made me buy the whole soundtrack. The clip below is from the movie (they play music videos between specific scenes in the movie). The song name is called “Touch Me, Don’t Touch Me”. You should notice that they sing all three languages in the song: English, Spanish and Hindi. (how cool is that?)

You can see most of the dancers perform salsa-like moves in the very beginning of the video. As for the music, pay attention to the rhythm section of the song. Enjoy!

Continue reading ‘Bollywood “Salsa Dancing” as seen in Dhoom2′