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47th. Annual
Grammy Awards: On February 13, 2005, The Spanish Harlem Orchestra (SHO) won the Grammys in the
“Best Salsa/Merengue Album” category for their Across 110th. Street
CD. Congratulations to Maestro Oscar Hernandez for a
well-deserved award! Pictures below: From SHO’s
performance with Cachao, at the Tito Puente Amphitheatre, San
Juan, P.R. on February 11, 2005 (pictures courtesy of Victor
Rodriguez):
 
A
NEW HOT CD WORTH LOOKING INTO:
Chino Nunez & Friends, It's SHOtime, Strictly Hardcore On 1 or 2, A Tribute to
Dancers”.
This production includes
special guest appearances by a collective group of the best musicians on the
East Coast. Artists featured are giants such as Jimmy Bosch, George Delgado,
Bobby Allende, Marc Quinones, Ralph Irizarry, Ricky Gonzalez, Ray Sepulveda,
Frankie Vasquez, and many more. The CD also includes a Reggaeton tune and a five
minute segment entitled “Learn How to Dance”. The CD is available at
rinconmusical.com.
Latin Entertainment
an attractive fundraiser for needy causes!
The May 13th concert in Pasadena, CA was presented under the
Estrada-Rivera Productions label (an LLC, ran by Sammy
Estrada and Les “Salsarican” Rivera), dedicated to helping
out non-profit causes. Latin entertainment, including salsa,
is always an attractive solution to help raise money for
worthy causes. The concert was benefiting the John Muir High
School, which is in need to raise money for repairs of its
auditorium. The likes of Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore and
Dizzy Gillespie have previously performed in this grand old
auditorium.
This concert featured the Banda Brothers Latin Jazz Band,
with guest soloist and xylophonist Ruben Estrada. The
performance displayed a spectacular show of rhythmic, funky
and groovy sounds. Each performer took his turn in an
awesome solo performance, progressively leading up to a
tremendous conga display by the great conguero De Leon,
answered by timbalero Ramon Banda.
At the time Ruben Estrada closed the show with a xylophone
performance in a special tribute to the late Cal Tjader the
audience was up on their feet in a never ending storm of
applause and whistles.
Present from Canto Tropical Radio was no other than DJ
Armando Nila "El Caballero Salsero", who truly enjoyed the
world class performance. Previous concerts in this series
had previously featured Susie Hansen Latin band (salsa) and
Valarie King (jazz).
SALSA
ARTIST TRIVIA:
Where is New
York’s Salsa Dura megastar, bandleader and trombonist Jimmy Bosch
originally from?
Answer choices: Germany, Puerto Rico, New York, Fargo, New Jersey,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, or Miami?
SALSA
CLASICA/SALSA DURA LYRICS TRIVIA:
The lyrics of
salsa songs often incorporate typical Puerto Rican Spanish
expressions, applied to the excitement, beat, and happiness of the
content of the songs: Which of the following two choices would best
translate the meaning of the word “WEPA”?
Answer choices: A call to change your salsa dancing style from “On-1” to
“On-2”? Or, to express excitement and enthusiasm, such as in
Yeah!!! You can find the trivia answers
HERE!
Salseras & Salseros!
Here are some fellow salsa people who are salsarican
visitors, who submitted their pictures for publishing.
Thanks guys!
Puerto Rican
Constitution Day Festival!
 By Lauretta Rivera
On the beautiful and
sunny Southern California day of July 25, 2004 festival attendees
enjoyed a variety of good entertainment, salsa dancing, foods and
hard to find souvenir items in Signal Hill. To the great enjoyment
of the audience, varied Latin music, ranging from Salsa to Latin
Jazz to Puerto Rican/Cuban Folk Music to Latin Hip Hop was on the
menu. Master of Ceremonies was the well known DJ Pedrito Swing from
radio station Canto Tropical. On the photo, Don Jibaro's Trio
performs.
click to see photo 0
 Alvin Medina’s Salsa
Jibara!
By Les Rivera
The Puerto Rican
cuatro is a popular instrument increasingly being utilized as a tool
in the new style of salsa now appearing in many places. Traditional
Jibaro music has always been as much of a trademark to Puerto Rico
as the Son music has been to Cuba. Most salsa fans and dancers who
can relate to the salsa heydays of New York’s 1970’s would remember
how the cuatro was often utilized in a salsa band. Famous cuatro
player Yomo Toro was a frequent band member in the Hector Lavoe
Band, among others.
Today young cuatro players are sometimes
emerging into the salsa scene in a different capacity. Transform the
Jibaro beat into Salsa beat and the cuatro is perfectly suited as
the main instrument of the Salsa Jibara band! One cuatro
player now entering the Salsa Jibara style is no other than the
young and accomplished Alvin Medina. Following a recent Chicago
performance Alvin was approached by several people who expressed a
great liking to his Salsa Jibara music. Comments of comparisons to
his music ranged from Hector Lavoe to Tito Puente… cuatro style, and
the dancers loved the beat!
Alvin Medina was born and raised
in Philadelphia on October 15, 1975. He began playing the Puerto
Rican cuatro at the age of six. Currently living in Florida, Alvin
is working on his first Salsa Jibara recording. His wife New Jersey
born Elissa is the lead singer in the band where Alvin is the group
leader. Alvin Medina has performed with cuatro players such as Yomo
Toro, Edwin Colon Zayas, prodigio Claudio, Christian Nieves, Modesto
Nieves, Pedro Guzman. He has also performed with the bands of, or
such personalities as Tito Nieves, El Canario, Larry Harlow, Paquito
D’Rivera, Andy Gonzales, Frankie Negron, marvin Santiago, Andy
Montanez, Johnny Pacheco, Anthony Cruz, Raymond Torres, Manny
Oquendo, Johnny Alvino and others. Alvin can be contacted at
aemedina702@aol.com.
 Puerto Rican Salsa Festivities in Toledo, Ohio!
By Roberto Colon for SalsaRican.com
Club
Taino held their Puerto Rican Flag Raising and Constitution Day
Celebration on July 24, filled with salsa music & dance fanfare.
The entertainment included Sammy DeLeon y su Orchesta. In charge of
the free of charge festivities were left to right: Maria Gonzalez,
Carmen Vega, Gladys Flores, and Roberto Colon, President.
 Cachao’s latest
CD/DVD!
By Les Rivera
Now
available: Andy Garcia presents… ¡Ahora Si! (Now
Yes!). The Founder of the Cuban Mambo/Descarga, Israel Cachao
Lopez, was hard at work on his latest Masterpiece at L.A.’s Capitol
Records building last year. We can now enjoy the results.
The CD has 9 great new music tracks, plus one track devoted
to introducing the first song, Mambo Cambio de Swing. The CD Band,
called the Cineson All-Stars, consists of an impressive array of
world class Cuban and Puerto Rican artist power names, such as:
Cachao, Andy Garcia, Alfredo Valdes, Jr., Orestes Vilato, Nelson
Gonzalez, Jimmy Bosch, and Lead Singer Lazaro Galarraga.
The
CD is accompanied by a riveting 55 minute DVD, taking the viewer
into many great scenes of the CD’s recording. You can check out some
pictures of the action filled days of Andy Garcias superb
production... •
HERE • I
would like to thank Andy Garcia for allowing salsarican.com to
witness this very important addition to CubanMambo/Descarga history
in the making! Univision Records.
Janeen Puente - the Tito
Puente Legacy!
 By
Ylda Nunez
Janeen Puente is a vibrant new artist on the
cutting edge of dance and pop music. Janeen was raised in
Yonkers, New York. The granddaughter of Latin music icon Tito
Puente, Janeen has had the great privilege of performing on stage
with him on many occasions.
Her debut single,
“Move in Time,” was an instant club hit last summer with its classic
dance beat sparked with infectious Latin rhythms. Janeen has
also worked with various hip producers on both sides of the Atlantic
including DJ Agostino (“I’ll Fly with You”) and Franklyn Grant
(J.Lo; Mariah Carey). She has also performed in many clubs
throughout New York City from “The Bitter End” to Chelsea’s “Excel”.
Never to be satisfied, Janeen rounds out her triple threat status as
singer, dancer and actress also having appeared in some commercials,
music videos and TV specials. For more information, please call
(914) 263-3120.
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