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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Hey DJ, Play me a ZouKizomba!

April Playlist Highlights

Song

iTunes

Artist

Category

Origin

La Moda Cubana Angel Yos Timba Cuba
Adios Que Te Vaya Bien Trombograna Salsa Spain
Tiempo Pa Matar Willie Colón Salsa USA
Te Perdiste Mi Amor Thalía Ft Prince Royce Bachata USA
A Donde Va el Amor? Daniel Santacruz Bachata USA
Tu y Yo Los Matatanes Merengue USA
Zouk La Se Sel Medikaman Nou Ni Kassav Zouk Béton French Antillies
Flamme Slaï Zouk-Love France
Avec toi Marysa Zouk-Love Cape Verde
E No Easy P-Square Semba (Modern) Nigeria
Baila Morena Danny L Kizomba Angola
Não Me Tocas Anselmo Ralph Kizomba Angola

 

ZouKizomba?

There is a bit (or a lot) of confusion out there in regards to what is kizomba and what is zouk. Are these really the same music known by different names or are there genuine differences between the two? It’s a fair question especially if you are new to either genre. To add to the confusion, the names kizomba and zouk are sometimes used interchangeably to describe the same song. The fact of the matter is that kizomba and zouk are different musical genres with very different origins. However, the modern/popular versions of these genres, especially in Europe and North America, have a tendency to sound the very similar. So what is the difference?

Zouk is considered to be of French Antilles origin, specifically the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and is a musical style that is often sung in French Creole and draws heavily from Antilles cadence-calypso as well as other rhythms from within the region. That said, the first zouk music was not created in the French Antilles but in Paris in the late 70’s by band made up of Guadeloupe and Martinique musicians. The band was called Kassav and they are attributed with creating a fast tempo carnal style of music which came to be known as zouk or zouk-béton. One of the bands original zouk-béton hits “zouk-la se sel medikaman nou ni” is included in this month’s playlist. This early zouk become popular in many French speaking countries but sounds very little like modern zouk. Over time the genre has been influenced by such musical styles as haitian compas and North American R & B and has taken on a new sensual feel. This modern style of zouk is sometimes referred to as zouk-love or zouk-R&B. It is this style that has really brought international popularity to zouk music in recent years.

Kizomba on the other hand, has its origins in Angola and was originally based on Angolan semba and kilapanda music. It is predominately sung in Portuguese although some songs are sung in Kimbundu. Much like zouk, kizomba music appeared in the early 80’s, was up tempo, and sounded different from it’s current day form. Over time kizomba has evolved and appears to have been influenced by zouk music to become what it is today. Some people will also argue that as the international popularity of both genres has grown zouk and kizomba have influenced each other. Regardless, it’s this cross influence that has resulted in two musical styles with quite different origins evolving to sound very similar. That said, there seems to have been an odd connection between zouk and kizomba for a long time. The words themselves has similar meaning. In Antilles creole ‘zouk’ means party and in Kimbundu (a language from Angola) a party is known as a ‘kizombada’.

I suspect the confusion between the two genres will continue for some time and you will continue to find that what one person considers to be zouk someone else will consider to be kizomba. Adding to this confusion are the ongoing debates about the origins and merits of the dances associated with each musical style. Suffice to say that modern zouk and kizomba sound very similar and are often confused. If you need a quick and dirty way to distinguish between the two, find out what language a song is sung in. If the language is French Creole or French the music is probably zouk, if it’s Portuguese or Kimbundu it is probably kizomba. If the language is English or Spanish (see Baila Morena in this months play list) my suggestion is to find the song on a compilation album. If you’re lucky, the song will appear on either on a zouk or a kizomba compilation. If you’re not so lucky it will appear in both.

That’s it for this month. Questions, comments, requests?Send me an email and mark your calendars, Salsaddiction is have a Salsa and Bachata (and zoukizomba) dance party Saturday April 20th. Tickets are available here.

Hasta la próxima

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