October Playlist

 

Colombians are passionate about their salsa, both the music and the dance, so it should come as no surprise that Colombia is a hotbed of excellent, high energy salsa music and home to a large number of internationally renowned salsa groups.  It also should not be too surprising that the international capital of salsa, Cali, is found in Colombia.  One of the most well-known groups to call this city home is Grupo Niche.  This band set the stage for what defines Colombian salsa today and has spawned a number of spin-off groups and copycats.  If you are interested in getting into Colombian salsa Grupo Niche is definitely the place to start.

Grupo Niche

Founded in 1978 by the late Jairo Varela and Alexis Lozano Grupo Niche was originally based in Colombia’s capital, Bogota.  However, after a couple of albums and some limited success the group relocated to Cali in 1982.  The fortunes of the band definitely improved after the move and it was in 1984 that they released their most well-known song Cali Pachanguero.  The group’s success continued over the years as they set a trend for making well-orchestrated music that was infectious to listen to and excellent for dancing and with over 30 years of success behind them they have quite the collection of 40 some albums and compilations to prove it.  The band is still going today though they haven’t released any new material for a year or more.  The rate at which they have been producing music has slowed down in recent years and the fact that Varela passed away in August of this year will likely cause that trend to continue.  I have included a couple of their songs in this month’s play list; Cali Pachanguero and one of their more recent offerings, Aprieta.

Orquesta Guayacan

Alexis Lozano founded Grupo Niche with Jairo Varela and together they released the group’s first 4 albums.  However, the two had some differences on matters of business and music and Lozano left the group and went on to form Orquesta Guayacan in 1986.  Grupo Niche was becoming the dominant salsa band in Colombia at the time and it wasn’t until the early 90’s that Qrquesta Guayacan’s unique salsa sound started to give Grupo Niche a run for its money.  Like Grupo Niche, Orquesta Guayacan’s salsa is definitely Colombian but their sound has been described as ‘rootsier’ with more influence coming from Cuban guaguanco and montuno.  Almost as prolific as Grupo Niche the band has put out over 20 albums to date.  I have included a couple of their songs in this month’s play list.  One of their classic tracks, Cada Día Que Pasa from the album Sentimental De Punta a Punta (1991) and one from the recent release Bueno y Más (2009) called El Más Rico Beso.

Son de Cali

Another Grupo Niche spin-off was Son de Cali.  The band was founded in 2002 by Willy Gracia and Javier Vásquez who after having spent several years with Grupo Niche decided to break out on their own.  The musical creativity for the group came predominantly from Gracia who did much of the writing as well as some of the vocals.  Son de Cali released 4 albums over the 9 years they were together but it appears that as of 2011 both artists have gone their separate ways (though the Son de Cali web site is still up and running).  Gracia released a solo album called Sigo Presente at the end of 2011 and Vásquez released his own solo album, Aquí Estoy this year.  I have included a couple of Son de Cali’s songs in this month’s playlist; one from their first album Estilo Propio called Son De Cali and one off a more recent album Cambiando la Historia called No Quiero Dormir.

That’s it for this month.  Questions, comments, requests?  Send me an email

Hasta la próxima