LIve Salsa

[Jack]

Here In Orlando where I live there is a lack of live Salsa it seems , all DJ"S for the most part, whats up with this?

[MadamSamba]

Hey, Jack...welcome to DF! When you say a lack of live salsa, do you mean a lack of live bands playing salsa music?

[Jack]

Yes lack of live Salsa Bands, Madam Samba *

[MadamSamba]

Well, I'm from a little way away from Florida, so I don't know the scene or how big it is, but generally when an dancing need isn't being serviced, it's due to the size of the crowd.

Is Florida's salsa scene too small to sustain one or more permanent salsa bands? Here in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) the salsa scene isn't huge, but we've got LOTS of purely salsa band.

[peachexploration]

Well Orlando is definitely not as hot as Miami but it's getting better. The salsa scene is relatively new from what I see. In the last couple of years they have gotten much better with bringing live salsa to the area. There are quite few events throughout the year, usually at Sea World, City of Orlando and Old Towne at Kissimmee does a few and there are a couple of good radio stations. Concert wise, and until most recently, only the most popular bands or artist will appear in Orlando such as Victor Manuelle, Tito Nieves (he lives in the Orlando area), Grupo Mania, Fulanito just to name a few. But now it's changing. We get artist like Jose "El Canario" Alberto, Sonora Carruseles, El Gran Combo, Ismael Miranda & Cheo Feliciano. I sent an email about 6-months ago inquiring as to when or if Spanish Harlem Orquestra had plans to come our way and the response was "hopefully in the near future". So, Orlando is getting there, the better the promoters, the more variety we will have. As for local bands, I only know of La Sonora de Orlando. I've seen them twice and they were pretty good. :D