SALSA; HOT DANCE BANDS ENERGIZE LATIN TRADITION.Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer Hot and getting hotter. No we're not talking about the heat wave but a new generation of Latin-rock bands blending sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. salsa, Afro-Cuban rhythms, rap and funk that has record labels in hot pursuit and crowds burning up the dance floors. L.A.'s Ozomatli, Virginia's Bio Ritmo Bio Ritmo "Salsa Machine" is a salsa band based in Richmond, Virginia. The name Bio Ritmo is a Spanglish word play on the term Biorhythm, the hypothetical description for the rhythm of life. and East L.A.'s Yeska have been packing clubs across the country for more than a year as a young audience tired of alternative rock discovers sizzling horn-driven dance rhythms that hail back to '50s Afro-Cuban great Machito. Ozomatli's self-titled debut for the Almo Sounds/Interscope label, containing deep strains of salsa, samba and reggae, has been a local best seller for weeks. Nationally, the disc reached No. 25 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart for new and developing artists. ``We weren't thinking on a national level the first time we played for an audience, but during the first 10 gigs we started getting this really good response, and we knew it would work,'' said Wil-Dog, Ozomatli's bassist. ``Everybody just got up and danced.'' The eight-member Latin-tinged ska band Yeska, whose debut album, ``Skafrocubanjazz'' (Aztlan), was recently released, has origins in the East Los Angeles East Los Angeles, uninc. city (1990 pop. 126,379), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles, in an industrial area. It has a large Mexican-American population. There is a performing arts center and a cultural center. A junior college is there. music scene and draws huge crowds to such prestigious venues as the House of Blues House of Blues (HOB) is a chain of music halls and restaurants founded in 1992 by Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett and his friend and investor Dan Aykroyd. It is a home for live music and southern-inspired cuisine, whose clubs celebrate African-American culture, specifically , the Universal Amphitheatre, the Viper Room Coordinates: The Viper Room is a nightclub located along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. and the Conga Room. Bio Ritmo, also an octet An eight-bit storage unit. In the international community, octet is often used instead of byte. (jargon, networking) octet - Eight bits. This term is used in networking, in preference to byte, because some systems use the term "byte" for things that are not 8 bits long. , formed in Richmond, Va., after Havana native Rene Herrera defected from Cuba and moved there three years ago. The band's debut, ``Rumba A popular family of PC-to-host connectivity programs from NetManage, Inc., Cupertino, CA (www.netmanage.com). Acquired in 1999 from Wall Data Inc., the RUMBA software gives desktop PC users access to virtually any host across any network. Baby Rumba!'' (Triloka/Mercury), conjures up images of a sweaty Saturday night at New York's Palladium, circa 1958. Rosemead's groove Yeska - the word is Chicano slang for marijuana - started as a casual ensemble that came together for a Rosemead high school talent show. Rooted in Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is a variety of Latin jazz, which was started by Dr. Obdulio Morales in the 1930s,(Cuba). Other well-known variant of Latin jazz is Brazilian jazz. Afro-Cuban jazz was played in the U.S. and Jamaican ska, the band regularly crosses the sounds of Tito Puente Tito Puente, Sr., (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000 or June 1, 2000 according to IMDb), born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., was an influential Latin jazz and mambo musician. with War in a locked-down, relentless reggae-fied groove. ``There's a resurgence of this music in general,'' said Yeska saxophonist David Urquidi, 22. ``Cuban bands are releasing records in the States, and it's growing especially big in L.A. People are starting to catch on to world music and Latin sounds. They're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. something different than guitar-rock. People like to see horns and percussion and feel those Latin rhythms.'' At the well-appointed Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for H. Gaylord Wilshire (1861-1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. salsa club the Conga Room, dancers get down to the hot-hot-hot rhythms each Thursday in a dance contest that runs through the end of next month. Long Beach-based dance instructor Luis Vazquez, a regular visitor to the club, says interest in various forms of Latin dance The term Latin dance has two meanings, depending on whether the context is social or ballroom dance. Dances from Latin America First, dances originating in Latin America. Typically these are Cha cha cha, Rumba, Samba, Salsa, Mambo, Merengue, Bachata, Cumbia, Bolero. has exploded in the past several years while folks come from all over the world to learn the elegant yet sensual steps. ``I've been teaching salsa dance for almost six years, and in the last few years people have gotten crazy about it,'' Vazquez, 26, said. ``I started with a few students, and now I have more than 300 students a week. People come all the way from Japan and Germany to take lessons in salsa dance.'' At the same time, the music itself sometimes comes from unlikely places. Take, for example, the origins of traditional salsa combo Bio Ritmo. ``I took one look at Richmond and said I'll never be a musician again,'' said Herrera, recalling the day he arrived in Virginia after defecting from Cuba. ``I had played in an orchestra at home, I was an arranger. That's all I knew. But I found this band and made a couple of changes and began using my arrangements, and that made it sound better.'' Most of Bio Ritmo's songs are sung in Spanish, all use traditional arrangements courtesy of trombonist/band leader Herrera, and most tunes employ a battery of percussion and horn solos. The band's next show is Aug. 4 at the Palace in Hollywood. What do you call it? Terms like alternative-salsa, street salsa, Latin sounds and punk-salsa have been thrown around to describe this increasingly popular new scene, but the bands involved resist typecasting The word typecasting (past participle typecast) can mean more than one thing:
``We're a very broad-based group, we're more than just a ska band or a Latin-rock band,'' Yeska's Urquidi said. ``We feel we can play to very different people with different material each night. We don't want to be cornered in one particular zone.'' For hot multiethnic club band Ozomatli, it all started with a sit-in. These days, though, nobody's sitting down. Ozomatli, which last year opened for Santana in Anaheim for 11,000 people, formed in 1995 out of a protest at the former downtown site of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU ERU Emergency Response Unit (Special Irish Police Unit) ERU Emission Reduction Unit ERU Eskie Rescuers United (Cedar Rapids, IA American Eskimo dog rescue) ERU Energy Research Unit (UK) ), now the Peace and Justice Center. Band founder Wil-Dog (William Abers), who grew up in the Pico-Union district near downtown, was part of a monthlong strike that occurred as a result of a conflict between the youth-jobs-oriented Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Conservation Corps (LACC LACC Los Angeles City College LACC Los Angeles Convention Center LACC Latin American and Caribbean Center (Florida International University) LACC Los Angeles College of Chiropractic LACC Local Aid Coordination Committee ) and the ERU. Wil-Dog, then working for the LACC, staged a sit-in to protest poor working conditions and the firing of a supervisor who encouraged his crew to employ creative tactics to educate inner-city students. ``After the strike, we were given access to this new community center dedicated to youth and art,'' Wil-Dog, 25, said. ``We had to raise money for the building, so I called all these musicians I knew. Ozomatli got together during the first five gigs. It was a jam thing where everyone's musical past came out. We never set out to play this style. It's just what everybody knew.'' Ozomatli - the Indian name for the Aztec god of dance - appears Sept. 3 in a free show at the Santa Monica Pier The Santa Monica Pier is located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent landmark. Attractions The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with a large ferris wheel. . The sprawling, politically inclined group sings in Spanish but raps in English. ``Como Ves,'' the opening track on Ozomatli's album, is a warning to kids that family history isn't necessarily taught in school. Meanwhile, the tune ``Coming War'' is a reminder that, contrary to Gil Scott-Heron's famous phrase, the revolution actually will be televised. Getting authentic But the ethnic sound didn't come naturally to all the bands on the scene. Bio Ritmo percussionist Jim Thomson, for example, educated himself in Latin and Afro-Cuban music by traveling to Washington, D.C., whenever Latin-jazz acts came to town. ``I had to do a lot of my own legwork leg·work n. Informal Work, such as collecting information or doing research in preparation for a project, that involves much walking or traveling about. ,'' Thomson said. ``There wasn't a big Latin community in Richmond. When we got Rene in the band, he helped bring it to another level. This music sounds really difficult when you haven't grown up with it. Environmental factors have a lot to do with the feel. But this is an incredible time for music from all over the world and from other cultures.'' As acceptance grows for Bio Ritmo, Yeska and Ozomatli, at least one musician expresses little surprise. ``This is the greatest music around,'' Herrera says, the Cuban suddenly sounding Jewish. ``What's not to like?'' Where to soak up L.A.'s salsa sounds Los Angeles is packed with clubs where salsa and Latin jazz reigns supreme. Here are a few spots to soak up the music. Cha Cha Cha Encino, 17499 Ventura Blvd., Encino; (818) 789-3600. Live music Fridays and Saturdays. La Ve Lee, 12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 980-8158. Check listings for Latin or Cuban music. The Conga Room, 5364 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 938-1696. Poncho Sanchez appears Thursday. El Floridita, 1253 N. Vine St., Hollywood; (323) 871-8612. Cuban jam session Mondays and Wednesdays; Cuban sounds from Charanga cha·ran·ga n. A style of popular Cuban dance music characterized by the use of violins and flutes along with percussion instruments, piano, bass, and vocals. on Fridays and Saturdays. Grand Avenue, 1024 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 747-0999. Huge dance floor, live shows Thursdays through Saturdays. Club Bahia, 1130 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 250-4313. House bands and disc jockeys. - Fred Shuster Bands serve up second helpings of classic salsa Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz used to be the province of collectors or well-traveled music lovers. Now, thanks to CD reissues and increased global interest, the music is widely available. Here are some compilations of classic salsa that influenced young groups such as Ozomatli, Yeska and Bio Ritmo, plus a few recommended newer recordings: ``More Than Mambo: The Introduction to Afro-Cuban Jazz'' (Verve) - All the great figures - Mario Bauza, Machito, Chico O'Farrill, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Bobo and Cal Tjader - are represented in this excellent two-CD package. ``The Best of Tito Puente: El Rey del Timbal tim·bal also tym·bal n. A kettledrum. [French timbale, from Old French, alteration (influenced by cymbale, cymbals) of tamballe, alteration (influenced by !'' (Rhino) - The flamboyant king of Latin jazz at his most entertaining. ``The Best of Celia Cruz: Con la Sonora Matancera'' (Rhino) - The elegant salsa queen from her golden period in the '50s with one of Cuba's hottest bands, La Sonora Matancera. ``Sabroso!: The Afro-Latin Groove'' (Rhino) - A well-balanced selection reflecting the many branches of the Latin-jazz tree. The accent is on dance-oriented fare from the orchestras of Mongo Mongo Any of several peoples living in the African equatorial forest. They speak a dialect of a common language, Mongo or Nkundo, which belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Machito, Puente and others. ``Maracas, Marimbas and Mambos: Latin Classics at MGM'' (Rhino) - Hollywood didn't create Latin dance music, but it could have, as evidenced by these great '40s movie musical numbers from Xavier Cugat, Carmen Miranda and Carlos Ramirez. ``Buena Vista Social Club'' (World Circuit/Nonesuch) - Cuba's oldest and funkiest folk ensemble, produced by eclectic guitarist Ry Cooder, who joins the band on several tracks. Considered among the best albums of last year. ``A Toda Cuba le Gusta'' (World Circuit/Nonesuch) - By the Afro-Cuban All Stars Afro-Cuban All-Stars is a Cuban band led by Juan de Marcos González (formerly tres player for Sierra Maestra). Their music is a mix of all the styles of Cuban music, including bolero, chachachá, salsa, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, rumba and abakua. , a gathering of four generations of Cuba's top musicians, including a six-piece horn section, working out on a repertoire of old and new pieces. ``Te Pone See pwn. la Cabeza Mala'' (Metro Blue) - The latest album from Juan Formell and Los Van Van Los Van Van is a Cuban band led by bassist Juan Formell, and is considered to be one of Cuba's major timba acts, while Juan Formell has arguably become the most important figure in contemporary Cuban music. , Havana's top dance band. The group, a huge hit at the Playboy Jazz Festival The Playboy Jazz Festival is an annual event sponsored by Playboy Enterprises to celebrate jazz as well as feature both established and up and coming musicians of the genre. It was founded by Hugh Hefner and was first held in Chicago, Illinois at the Chicago Stadium in 1959. the past two years, is credited with devising the songo beat, a Cuban rhythm combined with jazz and rock. - Fred Shuster CAPTION(S): 7 Photos, 2 Boxes Photo: (1--Cover--Color) SALSA SIZZLES New generation embraces steamy Latin rhythms (2--Color) Salsa dancers command the spotlight in the Thursday night contest at the Conga Room in Los Angeles. (3--Color) Francisco Vasquez and Ely Zeledon pair up at the Conga Room. (4--Color) Young audiences are discovering the horn-driven dance rhythms that came out of the 1950s. (5--Color) Francisco Vasquez, left, Johnny Vasquez and Luis Vazquez stay three abreast in a line dance. (6--Color) Women watch the action on the dance floor. The Conga Room's dance contest runs each Thursday night through the end of next month. (7) Francisco Vasquez twirls partner Ely Zeledon during the Conga Room competition. John Lazar/Special to the Daily News Box: (1) Where to soak up L.A.'s salsa sounds (See Text) (2) Bands serve up second helpings of classic salsa (See Text) |
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