Great Salsa Albums Have Musical Variety

Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Hector Aviles in Blog

As I took a vacation road trip to explore Oregon, I had plenty of time to listen to various Latin music albums while driving. Among the salsa albums I listen were the latest releases from Gilberto Santa Rosa, Juan Luis Guerra, and Tito Nieves. All these albums have great music, but as they say in Sesame Street, one of these is different from the others.

Tito Nieves Used the Same Salsa Formula on Every Song

Tito Nieves “Entre Familia” salsa album is a solid one. Tito Nieves voice is as strong as ever, and the band sounds strong and solid (I’ll do a full review of “Entre Familia” in a upcoming blog, after some other albums I have in line). So Tito, sorry for picking on you…”peldona sa’e”.

But as I was driving I noticed that I started to get sleepy after the 3^rd song. Salsa music tends to keep me awake while driving; as I either sing along or follow the music enthusiastically. I was very aware that I had lost interest in the music, and started to look for why that was happening. I found the answer as soon as the mambo of the 4^th song started. All songs followed almost the exact same formula. All songs had the central theme, chorus and soneos, mambo (mostly lead by trombones followed by trumpets) and a bit more chorus and soneos before the end. Almost all songs that I remember followed this formula and had the same rhythm and tempo. All were Tito Nieves signature “salsa romantica”, only varying the message of the lyrics.

Now, let me clarify; if you are in a party and want to dance, this is one great album to dance to. As I said the musical arrangements are solid, and the band sounds strong. Tito Nieves performance is as good as he’s been. I bet in the radio it will sound great, and will have good air time. But I lost interest when listening to the entire album, because of lack of variety in the music.

Gilberto Santa Rosa, Juan Luis Guerra, and El Gran Combo Mix It Up

The two albums I heard before Tito Nieves’ album had plenty of variety. Gilberto Santa Rosa’s “Irrepetible”, and Juan Luis Guerra’s “A Son de Guerra” both have a variety of rhythms and styles. Both are albums you can enjoy listening to. They have salsas, merengues, Juan Luis has bachatas as expected, and even a type of rock song he sings with Colombian star Juanes. These might seem as an unfair comparison as Gilberto and Juan Luis are super starts known for the variety of their music. Ok, I’ll concede that point.

Consider El Gran Combo’s latest release, “Sin Salsa No Hay Paraiso”. El Gran Combo is a hard core Salsa band, and this album is pure salsa. Yet, there are plenty of different types of “son” and “montunos” in this album. The songs and the lyrics vary greatly from one song to another, even when this is a salsa album. The songs simply don’t follow a cookie-cutter formula.

Tito Nieves is not alone in providing little variation in the songs of his album. Tito Rojas tend to do the same, and his best albums, are the ones with more variety. Victor Manuelle is another singer who earlier in his career, and perhaps until recently, had most of his songs sound the same. Victor Manuelle’s latest releases have been adding more variety to the albums repertoire, although most of his salsa’s still follow a cookie-cutter formula. But Victor Manuelle has been adding ballads and in his most recent album “Yo Mismo” has a vallenato song with Colombians Jorge Celedon and Jimmy Zambrano (a returned favor from Jorge Celedon’s duo with Victor Manuelle in his album “Son Para El Mundo”).

Good Sales Possible for Salsa Albums with Repetitive Formula

Lack of musical variety in an album does not mean lack of commercial success. Tito Nieves, Tito Rojas, and Victor Manuelle sell very well and have sizable fan followings, certainly the commercial envy of many more diversified artists. But for us Latin music lovers, these “cookie-cutter” repetitive-formula albums are great for dancing, but become boring for listening.  El Gran Combo has been using a formula where they don’t venture far away from Salsa, and yet, provide a good mixture of rhythms to make the recording memorable and easy to listen to. Gilberto Santa Rosa and Juan Luis Guerra take it further by adding a variety of genres to the album. Either way, musical variety enriches an album, and I believe, it enriches the artists’ art as well.

Related posts:

1. Salsa Music Ups and Downs; Part 3, Salsa Romantica and the Merengue threat
2. Nelly Furtado has a Great Plan

Tags: El Gran Combo, Gilberto Santa Rosa, juan luis guerra, Music Latin, music salsa, Tito Nieves