Latin Music reads for the Weekend

Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Blog

One of the things I like most about participating in social networking sites and in the blogosphere is that the reader, in this case you, is the beneficiary of our “friendly competition” to publish content. The Latin music aficionado, as well as the profesional, has increasingly more sources of good information about your favorite music, than ever before. The “weekend reads” is an idea I picked up from someone else in the blogosphere (honestly I don’t remember from what blog) which I adopted at LatinoWebCafe to share with you the most interesting content I’ve found recently in the web. Lets get right to it…

Latin Music content in English:

The Latin Jazz Corner has a couple of interesting blog series; one regarding what Chip Boaz calls the “Blurry Line Between Salsa and Jazz”, which touches some interesting points for us who love both genres. Chip mentions musicians like Eddie Palmieri who is constantly playing at both sides of the “fence”, and explores the likes and differences of these two forms of Latin music. You can find links to the articles HERE and HERE (and make sure you keep an eye for other site internal links while there).

Poncho Sanchez

Latin Jazz Conversations with Poncho Sanchez is a 4-part interview with the great conguero who spent the early part of his career playing in Cal Tjader’s group. Chip explores in detail the evolution of this Latin Music great in this interesting interview which you can find HERE.

November must be Conguero’s month (I must have missed the announcement) because Latin Beat Magazine Online features this month Rudy Mangual’s interview with Puerto Rican conguero extraordiaire Richie Flores. You can read that interview HERE.

Alex Cuba

Moving to the Pop side of the Latin music spectrum, National Public Radio (NPR) received the visit of Cuban singer-songwriter Alex Cuba in their studio. They captured a 10-minute piece which includes his live performance with his guitar of 3 of the songs included in his newest album “Agua del Pozo” (well water) interlaced with parts of his interview. You can find the blog with the link to the audio streamming or download HERE.

Latin Music content in Spanish:

Ruben Blades

Ruben Blades just did his “Todos Vuelven” tour concert in Argentina, and Peruvian radio personality and Radio El Salsero blogger Eduardo Livia happened to be there to capture the details. Eduardo swears this was not planned, and that it was pure luck that his rare business trip to Argentina happened to coincide with Blades’ concert in Buenos Aires. At least that’s his story, and he’s sticking with it.  Eduardo shared his concert comments, photos, and pre-post concert interactions with some of the Seis del Solar musicians. You can read his interesting blogs HERE and HERE.

The great Salsa pianist and bandleader Richie Ray detailed everything from his musical education and upbringing, his association with Bobby Cruz, the bar they owned in Puerto Rico, and many other interesting stories in an interview with Herencia Latina, which you can read HERE.

Finally, MSN Latino published a couple of articles on Reggaeton, which I suggest you do a quick read on them even if you are not a Reggaeton fan. I invite you to read these articles because they get to the birth of the genre, and even if you don’t like the music, I think it’s worth the time to learn where this very popular Latin music genre came from. You can find “Nacimiento del Reggeaton” HERE, and and interview with Vico C. (the “father of Reggaeton”) HERE.

Have a great weekend!

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1. Latin Music reads for the weekend
2. Latin Music reads for the weekend

Tags: Alex Cuba, Bobby Cruz, Cal Tjader, latin jazz, Poncho Sanchez, Richie Flores, Richie Ray, ruben blades, salsa