New Salsa Music Is...

[salsarhythms]

Well what do you think of the new stuff coming out?

Personally, I feel that all the greats are either dead
or getting older and fading...

I'm not much into the new pop/salsa Marc Anthony
type salsa, or DLC...but what does everyone else
think?

[Sagitta]

I don't really listen that much to the new music as I am new to salsa and there is so much to choose from!! :) If you're talking about the group DLG I think that their music is lacking something. It's simpler just like most of the pop music that comes out these days and that is played on the radio.

[borikensalsero]

Man... Imma get killed for this one.

La India, Marc, Hue, Ceballo, Frankie Negron, Stuart, and just about everyone of those new dudes... They have great voices, but their stuff stinks. To me there is no ifs and butts... Even Victor Manuel Stinks in my book... Now, gilbertito, his stuff is good for what he intended it to be, but you won't find me going out of my way to buy any of his CDs.

Thank god there is thousands of classic salsa titles where I can buy a CD and never have them all, hence, new songs to me. :D :D :D

Hey, there is an example of what happens when you standarize salsa. You get pop salsa, the same bland-feelingless tunes. With different singers who think voice is above the music itself. Hmmm

[salsarhythms]

Good point boriken...

To those that would love to standardize salsa...just listen
to all the new "pop-salsa" being produced....

Nuff said...

[peachexploration]

Well what do you think of the new stuff coming out? Personally, I feel that all the greats are either dead
or getting older and fading......

....or they're just not getting the airplay. To find good Salsa music, you have to really search for it because alot of it is just not seen or heard of unless it fits the music mold. Every once in a while you may get a Spanish Harlem Orchestra or Africando to get some airplay but it is really difficult. I am fairly a newcomer to this music myself also. I've always loved the music I'd hear and see the performers play on PBS when they air a program about different cultures of the world. But what I would hear on the radio or see in the record stores was very different. The thing is it really isn't about the music, it's about the package or what public can handle (or what they can sell to them). It's really starting to lack the passion and purity that makes the music so beautiful in the first place. Check out this link, it has some of the best tunes old, new and mostly unknown artist. At least to me. Enjoy! :D
http://www.mamboston2.com/djnik.htm

[salsarhythms]

Check this link out:

http://www.salsastream.com/

Great selection of salsa and it's all streamed over the
net... Awesome site

[borikensalsero]

Check out this link, it has some of the best tunes old, new and mostly unknown artist. At least to me. Enjoy! :D
http://www.mamboston2.com/djnik.htm

Hey, that DJ dude has some pretty awsome tunes on there. WEPA!!! Sabrosona baila sabroson!!!! WEPAAAAAAA.. chivirico

[borikensalsero]

Do you guys mind when a straight up salsa spot, busts out with Yambus, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Pachangas aside from salsa? Reading the list of the DJ dude, I've come across some boogaloos and pachangas, so I was wondering if anyone minds when they are played...

Oops, am I getting off topic...

[peachexploration]

I don't mind at all boriken....Different aspects of the music intrigues me more. But if I'm out dancing and they play more than one La India/Marc Anthony/Victor Manuelle type song (pop salsa) per hour, I get worried. :roll: Not because I think they're bad (I actually own alot of Marc Anthony music) but because when I'm in dancer mode, I have a hard time "feeling" the music. So when I hear something like "Cuba Te Llama" by Mamborama or a latin jazz tune by Eddie Palmieri, I'm a happy girl! :D

[youngsta]

Somebody has been sifting through my thoughts! :lol: I hate the new generation of salsa singers. There's just no soul in the music. I wonder if it's just a bad time in music period because rock, pop, rnb, and hip-hop are in no better condition. But I believe everything is cyclical so something good is just over the horizon.

[Sagitta]

Check out this link, it has some of the best tunes old, new and mostly unknown artist. At least to me. Enjoy! :D
http://www.mamboston2.com/djnik.htm

Thanks!! :)

By the way I enjoy salsastream whenever I'm logged onto DF/while at my computer. So, you know what's playing now!! :)


I don't mind at all boriken....Different aspects of the music intrigues me more. But if I'm out dancing and they play more than one La India/Marc Anthony/Victor Manuelle type song (pop salsa) per hour, I get worried. Not because I think they're bad (I actually own alot of Marc Anthony music) but because when I'm in dancer mode, I have a hard time "feeling" the music. So when I hear something like "Cuba Te Llama" by Mamborama or a latin jazz tune by Eddie Palmieri, I'm a happy girl!

Here, here!! Different music for different purposes. :)

[mrsalsoul]

Man... Imma get killed for this one.

La India, Marc, Hue, Ceballo, Frankie Negron, Stuart, and just about everyone of those new dudes... They have great voices, but their stuff stinks. To me there is no ifs and butts... Even Victor Manuel Stinks in my book... Now, gilbertito, his stuff is good for what he intended it to be, but you won't find me going out of my way to buy any of his CDs.

Thank god there is thousands of classic salsa titles where I can buy a CD and never have them all, hence, new songs to me. :D :D :D

Hey, there is an example of what happens when you standarize salsa. You get pop salsa, the same bland-feelingless tunes. With different singers who think voice is above the music itself. Hmmm

I don’t think so much it’s the new Salsa Artist. As much as it’s the writers putting out this so call New Age Salsa. Also the type of Salsa being produced today just lacks energy. Or should I say they have forgotten about the dancer. There are just not as many banging hot memorable tunes being written today. The Great Song writers have retired or just pass away. Writers like Titi Cuert Alonso, Sonny Bravo just to mention a few. I have to agree with borikensalsero that singers like Victor Manuel and extremely talented singer. Has chosen to put out quantity instead of quality. I have to say that his first CD's was his best work. The rest will let’s just say cookie cutter CD’s all sounding the same. I am not picking on Victor at all it’s an observation of mine and just a personnel comment. Thought I have to say thank God for the Salsa & Mambo of the 60, & 70’s. I truly love this era & history of Salsa. If anyone would like to listen to Salsa I have put together on my Salsa Internet radio site http://www.live365.com/stations/mrsalsoul?play And I’m out of here…. :wink:

[HothouseSalsero]

I don't think contemporary salsa is as bad as people say it is, and beyond that, I find a lot of the material from the last 15 years to actually be easier to dance to than some classic salsa from the 70's. I'd agree that it's gotten harder to find albums that are good from start to finish, but I hear a lot of individual songs that make me want to dance.

It's kind of weird to me that Colombian salsa is largely being overlooked in this discussion, too. Granted, some of it can get pretty formulaic as well, but Colombians do put out some very dance-worthy songs.

I didn't start listening much to any salsa until around 1998, so I didn't grow up with it. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had been listening to it when I was a kid in the 70's.

[brujo]

Of course, you are comparing classic salsa songs that have survived the test of time to the mediocre commercially promoted, 'look at the artist, not the song' style of Miami salsa. By your views, the new Hip-hop sucks because of lil' Bow Wow, discounting groups like Outkast.

How can you say the new salsa sucks when you have bands like Grupo Niche, Fruko y sus Tesos, Africando, Guayacan and Jimmy Bosch? All who came about after the 1970s.

You are also discounting the really interesting experiments like the Cuban timba movement and the stuff coming out of France ( Orishas, Sergent Garcia, p18 ).

[HothouseSalsero]

Victor Manuelle is a difficult case for me. Just about everything he's recorded has serious flaws, and yet, despite the flaws, I think there's more energy in his music than there is in much of what I've heard by, say, Africando, or even better, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, whose first CD never really takes off. I think that this whole business of bands saying: "we are going to show you what real salsa is," and then trying to play salsa classica can be problematic. Even though the form is close to the original salsa classica, often there is a spark that's missing. As far as I'm concerned, Manuelle's best songs has more of a spark than some of these good-for-you salsa. At the same time, I would not want to defend the intros to just about any of his songs, or that bombastic Sergio George piano sound, etc.

The other thing, though this is strictly personal, is that I learned to dance salsa to a lot of these songs, so they remind me of a certain period of time when my teachers were teaching in a club, and I would often go for lessons there. They have a nostalgia value for me, along with a number of other songs I might not otherwise like.

[borikensalsero]

Of course, you are comparing classic salsa songs that have survived the test of time to the mediocre commercially promoted, 'look at the artist, not the song' style of Miami salsa. By your views, the new Hip-hop sucks because of lil' Bow Wow, discounting groups like Outkast.

How can you say the new salsa sucks when you have bands like Grupo Niche, Fruko y sus Tesos, Africando, Guayacan and Jimmy Bosch? All who came about after the 1970s.

You are also discounting the really interesting experiments like the Cuban timba movement and the stuff coming out of France ( Orishas, Sergent Garcia, p18 ).

How? Because Groupo Niche, Fruko, Africando, Guayacan and Jimmy all kept the flavor close to that of the 70s. Most of their stuff is thought of as flavorful, classic-style-like salsa. Just like el Gran Combo called one of their latest releases, New millenium, same flavor. It isn't about when it was recorded but the flavor that is put into a song. Even Jimmy's first ablum (I Think it was his first) says Salsa Dura on the cover. Meaning classic style like. Most of the pop/romantic salsa songs are bland. Lets not mistake the above mentioned bands who purposely add spice to their new recordings with artist who do not.

It is a fact that Colombian groups during the late 80s and the 90s kept alive the flava that rican, and new york salsa began to lack. They kept flavor alive.

[HothouseSalsero]

borikensalsero, I think the Colombian groups you mention have helped to keep salsa dura alive, but they have also, at times, introduced a new spin on salsa (Colombian folkloric elements; experiments with a more contemporary studio-oriented sound, in the case of Niche; other differences I can hear, but can't really describe). Something like "Han Cogida la Cosa" (I hope I spelled that correctly) does not sound like any 70's salsa I've heard before.

To my ears, Jimmy Bosch is going for more of a retro sound though.

[borikensalsero]

borikensalsero, I think the Colombian groups you mention have helped to keep salsa dura alive, but they have also, at times, introduced a new spin on salsa (Colombian folkloric elements; experiments with a more contemporary studio-oriented sound, in the case of Niche; other differences I can hear, but can't really describe). Something like "Han Cogida la Cosa" (I hope I spelled that correctly) does not sound like any 70's salsa I've heard before.

To my ears, Jimmy Bosch is going for more of a retro sound though.

Most defintely, colombian salsa has its own flavor. There is no mistaking a colombian salsa when it comes on. There is just something there that is unique to them. I argue with people all the time that salsa from cuba, puerto rico, colombian and NY city are very distinct and unique. Only salseros agree, the rest of the people tell me there is no difference. There is, I too can't really pinpoint what it is, but they definitely have their own style. I am not very much into colombian salsa, although I like a great number of their tunes, for exmale hermanos lebron stuff.

[Puertorumbian]

This is a topic very close to home. I was raised in a home where my father is Colombian and my mother Puerto Rican. Growing up I listened to all types of music from Gran Combo to Fruko and Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz to Grupo Niche but as a young one I didnt appreciate it and wanted to listen to the "NEW" stuff so I was into Marc Anthony and such. I remember when it all changed for me tho when I saw Grupo Niche, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Fruko LIVE... There was nothing like it not even a Marc Anthony show could compare (which was very good as well) ever since then I only listen to the classics. The only way I can describe the difference is with a comparason with candy Classic Salsa is like a Hershey Bar, you always know what you are getting, new salsa is like Cotton Candy always lacking substance. Your ears are not filled. Perfect example of that is JLo's attempt to salsa on her last album "Cariño" not a horrid song but its not something I would want played at a salsa party. Thats my take on it.

[pygmalion]

Hi Puertorumbian! Welcome! 8) :D

I'm still trying to learn to hear the difference between classic salsa and fluff salsa. I'm hoping you salsa gurus can educate me.

Welcome to the forums. :D

[dragon3085]

I don't know, Adrial y su Orqestra, Spanish Harlem Orquestra, Havana NRG, Salsa Celtica, all new stuff that I don't think of as fluffy. One thing I have noticed in my salsa learning is that Roberto Roena was ahead of time. :-)

[borikensalsero]

I don't know, Adrial y su Orqestra, Spanish Harlem Orquestra, Havana NRG, Salsa Celtica, all new stuff that I don't think of as fluffy. One thing I have noticed in my salsa learning is that Roberto Roena was ahead of time. :-)

I think what pygmalion is hopping to differentiate is romantic/pop/tropical salsa, not really today's few musicians who still expresses their music in terms of dura. Although their music is new, it is by no means categorized under the term "today's salsa" as meaning romantic/pop/tropical.

talking about ahead of time, Barretto, Tipica 73, Los Flamboyan... One of my Fav songs is Mi Desengaño from Roena. :D

[dragon3085]

I wish I could find more song like Que se sepa from Roena. To me that song is just full of engery. Bio ritmo redid it but their version is just ok.. But I think what folks have to realize is just like we grow and change so does music and I think we are endeared to the music we grow up with and don't want it to ever change. However change is a part of life. Like I said in another post, all us former head bangers had to endure that crappy grunge music that came out in the 90's. In a way you really can't blame some of these salsa artists for trying to make the big bucks. I imagine it hard to resist that call of huge amounts money that the so called 'pop' singers make as opposed to less popular music genres.
The good news is that music seems to grew in cycles and old cycles go back around. To the younger generation, Roberta Roena is new, they are surprised to hear that he is from the 70's. This good though because they will try to emulate that style and that will be the next new cycle of music. Clear as mud? good. :twisted:

[borikensalsero]

I wish I could find more song like Que se sepa from Roena. To me that song is just full of engery.

Dragon,
Does the artist matter, or you want more songs like Que Se Sepa by Roena?

[dragon3085]

I wish I could find more song like Que se sepa from Roena. To me that song is just full of engery.

Dragon,
Does the artist matter, or you want more songs like Que Se Sepa by Roena?

I have a lot of his songs already- I would like to know more that are the same style that would cool.

[passion]

I too, like pygmalian, am just starting to get into the actual music more. There are several songs that I have as a favorite, but unfortunately have no knowledge of the title or the artist. That of which I'm trying to learn.

But from what I can see, the older salsa moves me more. I think when music was written a while ago, the focus was on the music and how it made people feel. Now I think the contemporary music is written with a focus towards more mainstream poplularity; which is unfortunate.

Thank god there is thousands of classic salsa titles where I can buy a CD and never have them all, hence, new songs to me.


It's unbelievable how much is out there! Salsa hasn't been that popular in America until more recently, sure it's been around, but not a lot of people have been aware of it; or if they were, didn't choose to try out something new. There is a whole world of music out there, that with some searching, some more truely excellent salsa can be found!

[borikensalsero]

I wish I could find more song like Que se sepa from Roena. To me that song is just full of engery.

Dragon,
Does the artist matter, or you want more songs like Que Se Sepa by Roena?

I have a lot of his songs already- I would like to know more that are the same style that would cool.

I was in and out of meetings today so I didn't have time to put a solid list for you, but here is a little something I thought you could check out. Most of them Tipica 73 since I think they are fairly similar to Que Se Sepa, the Alegre stuff, I would say... is potent :!:

Las Muchachas – Pacheco, Agusese Usted – Alegre All Stars, Y Yo Ganga – Alegre All Stars, Baila Que Baila – Tipica 73, Canuto – Tipica 73, La Candela – Tipica 73 (Beautiful Song), Los Campeones De La Salsa – Tipica 73, Acere Bonco – Tipica 73, Mañoño – Tipica 73, La Loteria – Andy Harlow, Bilongo – Eddie Palmieri, Ajiaco Caliente – Eddie Palmieri, Me Gusta El Son – Monguito (FANIA), Fuego A La Jicotea – Marving Santiago, Que Viva La Musica – Ray Barretto