Bachata – Live in Edmonton!

Latin Tracks for October

Song (iTunes)

Artist

Category

Origin

Ya Comenzó – Jukebox Luis Enrique Salsa Nicaragua
La Rutina Del Mujeriego Grupo Arcano Salsa USA
La Música Es Mi Vida – Noche De Salsa Dura Herman Olivera Salsa Puerto Rico
Rumbero de Corazon – Rumbero de Corazon – Single Dorance Lorza, Sexteto Cafe Salsa England
Un Beso y una Flor – Bailar Con Tacones Azúcar Negra Timba Cuba
El Que la Hace la Paga – El Que la Hace la Paga – EP Havana C Timba Cuba
Mi Lluvia De Amor – Mi Lluvia De Amor – Single Ephrem J Bachata Curazao
Contra El Mundo Bachata Heightz Bachata USA
Estranha Remix by LBeatz Mika Mendes feat P. Lowe Kiomba France / USA
O Teu Toque – Kizomba Mix Mona Nicastro Kizomba  Angola

 

Introducing Son Bachata

Son Bachata was formed only few months ago but don’t let that lead you to believe that these guys are new to the Latin music scene. The 7 talented musicians who make up the band have over 20 years experience playing Latin music both in Edmonton and internationally and it definitely shows in the music they make. Add to this the fact that the they all have Latin American roots and the result is a band that brings an authentic and polished sound to their live performances.

With a name like Son Bachata it goes without saying that this group has a repertoire that features Cuban son and bachata and in fact they are the only Edmonton based Latin band to focus on Bachata. The reason for the name, as bandleader Rene Abaunza explained it, is that son is a very traditional style of music that has influenced a number of Latin genres that are popular today. As such, Son Bachata wanted to communicate the fact that though they specialize in bachata their music is also inspired by other musical traditions including those from Cuba and across Latin America. This is demonstrated in the variety of music that the band is able to perform. On top of the two musical styles after which the band is named, Son Bachata also covers a diverse range of Latin genres including merengue, cumbia and vallenato among others.

Son Bachata’s first gig was in Saskatoon on June 4, 2014 and since then they have performed at various venues and events around Alberta including a number of performances in both Edmonton and Calgary. Over the summer the band was invited to share the stage with a couple of Salsa’s biggest artists, Puerto Rican Power and Victor Manuelle in Calgary. The crowd loved what they heard and it’s not just the covers of popular songs that they enjoy. It’s also Son Bachata’s original material that often has the greatest impact on the audience. This is a band that is not only talented but also ambitious and we are definitely looking forward to seeing and hearing more from them in the future.

Son Bachata is made up of

  • Rene Abaunza
  • Frankie Hidalgo
  • Manuel Vealencia
  • Freddy Ruiz
  • From Cuba
  • Daniel Pena
  • Isaias Lamarou
  • Alex Cruz
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Where’s The Music At?

September Playlist Highlights

Song (iTunes)

Artist

Category

Origin

Un Loco Con Una Moto

Ralph Irizarry & Los Viejos De La Salsa

Salsa

USA

La Clave

Ralph Irizarry & Los Viejos De La Salsa

Salsa

USA

Rumba en Mi Barrio

Grupo Arcano

Salsa

USA

Lluvia Viene

Grupo Arcano

Salsa

USA

La Ambicion

Pacific Mambo Orchestra

Salsa

USA

Latin Soul Stew

Spanglish Fly

Boogaloo

USA

Adonde Va el Amor?

Daniel Santacruz

Bachata

Dominican Rep.

Sacudete Nena (Merengue Mix)

Zacarias Ferreira

Merengue

Dominican Rep.

Angolanamente Sensual

Don Kikas

Kizomba

Angola

Ça ne te convient pas

Slaï

Zouk

France

Where did you get that song from?

A question dj’s get asked all the time is “where do you get your music?”. I too have asked other dj’s the same question and the answer I get and the answer I give is “wherever I can find it”. As much as that answer is true it’s not very useful to whoever was asking the question. The fact of the matter is that dj’s can be secretive about where they get their music because on some level the value of a dj is his or her ability to find really good music that others don’t know about. If everyone went to the same places for their music the whole ‘crate digging’ aspect of dj’ing would be lost. However, on the flip side dj’s can often be quite willing to share the source of their music with you. To them it’s important that you are familiar with the music and thus more likely to dance to it. Also, besides playing music dj’s also act as music promoters especially for lesser known artists whose great music gets little media attention. As that is one of the main purposes of this blog I am going to share with you one of my favourite sources for great music by relatively unknown artists.

Up until recently, it was really hard for small independent groups to expand their fan base by getting their music to markets outside of their hometown. However, the recent explosion of social media and crowd funding has enabled small bands to raise awareness about and money to support their music and musical projects. One of the most popular places to do this is a website called Kickstarter.com. This website and those that are similar to it are a god-send for small, independent artists who want to breakaway from being funded and controlled by record labels.

Not only do relatively unknown bands turn to crowd funding to raise money but so do well established artists.  One of the amazing projects I found on Kickstarter was called Los Viejos de la Salsa created by the timbales player from Ruben Blades’ band Seis de Solar, Ralph Irizarry.  It should come as no surprise that the music on the Viejos del La Salsa album is top notch (there are a couple of their songs in this months playlist).  Another really cool music project I found was set up by Brooklyn based George Vélez Jr.   According to the promo video associated with the project he and his father really enjoyed making salsa music for fun and decided to take that hobby and passion and turn their music into an album.  The result is a killer disk called Desde El Otro Lado Del East River.   And yet another group that caught my attention was a project by the self-proclaimed premier Latin big-band in the San Francisco Bay area called Pacific Mambo Orchestra.  This is one of those cases where an amazing band has a huge following locally but just hasn’t been able to raise the money or awareness to prompt and distribute their music outside of their hometown.  Apparently, the band is a local favourite packing dance halls with their unique blend of salsa, cha cha cha, mambo and latin jazz.  Like the other two projects we just mentioned, the Pacific Mambo Orchestra’s project managed to raise the money it needed via Kickstart to enable them to release their first album.

Those are just a small sample of the great music projects you can find on Kickstart and there are a bunch more  (like the Motown tribute to Nickleback) but I will let you discover those on your own.

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

Hasta la próxima

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