Tag Archives: Latin

Dude was a frisky 95: Compay Segundo, the salty Cuban singer and guitarist who rose to global fame in his 90’s as the eldest of the elder musical statesmen featured on the album and film “Buena Vista Social Club,” died on Sunday at his home in Havana, an official at …

Eric Olsen laments the loss of Salsa Queen Celia Cruz

Is it me, or is the Michelina’s TV ad the creepiest to air nationally in some time? First, a third-rate Ted Knight imitator newscaster (a bad imitation of a parody) comes on with breaking news about Michelina’s, then in a befuddling disjunction, a breeder-hipped woman on a treadmill in a …

Israel “Cachao” Lopez, 84 year old Cuban bass player who co-created the mambo over 60 years ago, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: [Cachao] received the walk’s 2,219th star Friday in front of the King King nightclub, where a Cuban band performed in his honor after the …

If I had to pick a single collection as an introduction to the glories of American jazz, I would have to go with Ken Burns’s Jazz collection, a remarkable greatest hits of jazz that functions as an Official History. But an exemplary Alternative History, especially of the period from the …

On Monday I told you about the freaking amazing concert Dawn (by the way, read this beautiful post, she rules) and I went to last weekend: Cordero and Los Lobos. The Cordero review is here but I wanted to take some time to think about Los Lobos and let the …

While I am not a crazy-go-nuts fan of the Indigo Girls, I sure am wild about Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s Daemon Records label. Her not-for-profit concern is as diverse as it is packed with quality. Ray’s own punk, indie-noise CD Stag is an eye-opener, and I also particularly enjoy the …

Great popularizer of Latin jazz and polyrhythms was 85: He was best known for his 1963 recording of Herbie Hancock’s song “Watermelon Man,” which became his first Top 10 hit. In 1959, Santamaria penned “Afro Blue,” which quickly became a jazz standard covered by stars such as Count Basie and …

Scathing report on payola in the American Latin music biz from the Miami Herald: Edgar Alvarez quit being a promoter in Spanish-language radio two years ago. But on this afternoon, he is making some calls from the South Miami offices of his recently opened talent agency to show how his …

I don’t mean to gush overly, but I love the new remastered CD version of Chralie Byrd’s classic Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros, originally recorded in 1962-63, at the very apex of the American bossa nova explosion. There is a freshness and a subtle excitement (bossa nova is always subtle) to …