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!
This 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”.
While 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!
Good morning, afternoon or evening, fellow Salsa dancers. This is Dany Joshua with another mini-editorial.
Salsa dancers are very picky when it comes to attending events. This statement is especially true in New York City. Having said that, Salsa dancers are the most loyal people once they have become in love with an event. Just ask Jimmy Anton.
So the questions is: How do you keep and please Salsa dancers? La Vieja Guardia seems to have found the secret. Bring some good dancers and play good music for them. That’s it. The following video of Joel Dominguez dancing with Kim Torrence while DJ Antonio LaConga plays his best Salsa (from vinyl records) captures the spirit of La Vieja Guardia Social, which has become very quickly one of the most soulful socials in New York City. And THAT is saying something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OYPusW9QCk
Saying that DJ Antonio LaConga plays good music is an understatement. And he plays Salsa from vinyl records!!! La Vieja Guardia Social takes place on a Sunday, usually once a month. The next social will be on Sunday December 28th. FYI, the LVG social and yours truly (moi) were featured in a New York Times article last August).
Actually, it takes more than good music to please Salsa dancers, but great Salsa music is absolutely necessary to host a great Salsa social. If you are looking to promote Salsa dancing in your local area or in your city, stay tuned because soon I will write an article about how to organize a successful and banging Salsa social.
In the meanwhile, I want to invite all the readers to leave a comment with thoughts on what makes a good Salsa social.
I have mentioned some of my favorite places for listening and finding new salsa music (ex. Pandora). A new online music store has just propped up called Lala.com. While I tend to buy my music on the iTunes Store or Amazon, this new website improves the immersion of being able to listen to full length songs and playlists of your choosing (unlimited times*) while you browse for others. One of the more interesting things about Lala is the fact that there is a distinction between a Web-Song (a song that lives on lala.com/internet for $0.10) and the actual downloadable MP3 (for $0.89). While I always prefer to download my music for my iPod, the price for a web song is great for experimenting or going through musical salsa phases.
While they are lacking a few general salsa albums that I’d like to see, they tend to have a better selection of salsa, Latin, cha-cha and bachata music than other stores. I even found out about a new genre called ‘Bachata-Rap‘!!??! If you are picky about choosing what music to buy, especially when you are doubtful of the artist, this store is a great place to listen to the full track before adding it permanently to your latin music playlist.
Musical tastes and personality are closely linked, according to a recent study by the Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.
We have always known the fact that what you wear, eat and listen is linked to your personality (whether for good or bad). Finally, there has been some research done by the Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University. In a study of more than 36,000 people from six countries, they provide some type of detail on what types of personalities are tied to people’s taste in music. Here is a snippet from the article:
You are what you listen to
Jazz fans tend to be creative and outgoing, with high self-esteem, in keeping with the innovative and sociable nature of the music.
Country western fans were found to be hard-working, but introverted, fitting with the blue-collar image of country music.
The research concluded soul music lovers are a well-rounded bunch — creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease with themselves and with high self-esteem.
Rap fans are outgoing and far from gentle, while indie music lovers lack both self-esteem and the work ethic.
While Latin music (or specifically Salsa/Cha-Cha/Bachata) weren’t included in the article, I’m trying to see if it was included in the published research (trying to find the publication). I’m sure salseros(as) would at a minimum fall under ’sociable’ and ‘outgoing’. But I’d like to hear your opinion. What do you think Latin music expresses about our personality? (your comments below).
You can read and see the entire music genres studied using the links below.
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!
Bloch is carried here as well,...
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