Salsa music

Colombian salsa music By Peter Murphy, vipimurphy at btopenworld.com 2002-04-12
Hi there,My name is Peter from Kent in England and I love Salsa Music.Some of the best Colombian sounds I have heard are by Fruko,Joe Arroyo,Grupo Niche and the latest which I found in Mr Bongo's music shop in London,Sonora Carruseles.
This really is something else.In fact in London there are many Latin Discos and all the big bands come here.Last year I went to a free Oscar DeLeon concert down the Old Kent Road.It was packed with people from Cali 50000 in fact I was told.You say that you are from Belgium.Well my job takes me there and there is a great Poli Poli concert in Gent.It is well supported and Yuri Bueneventura was there.
Did you know that the guy that won last years Wieler Klassiker Gent Wevelgem George Hincapie was from Colombia and also Fred Rodriguiz who was second this year lives in Brugge.Another top cycling guy from Colombia was living near Brakel.He is Marlon Perez.Its not normal for Colombian guys to do so well in the flat northern races but these guys are certainly doing well.Here in London we have radio spectrum 558 a.m. every day.Two hours of news from Colombia and lots of music.They call it impacto latino.Also there are two good latin bars in Gent right next to each other so when I am in town I check out the music.By the way its a great site.Salutekes tot de volgende keer Peter

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Champeta By Luisa Fernanda, luisaf7 at hotmail.com 2002-06-13
I heard "champeta" was becoming very popular among the younger people. A different style of music. Seen as somewhat tacky, but lots of fun.

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Salsa rythm By Billy 2002-09-06
I have many friends from Colombia and am going to spend the next year there. You are right about the rythm of the wooden thingeys being the key. My friend Bibi who is from Bogotá was teaching me to salsa and she told me to listen for them because thats where the rythm comes from. She also told me to "Feel the music" just like you said. I plan to dance almost everynight while I'm there at Los Andes University. I took a couple of other friends from Bogotá to Yellowstone National Park and we really enjoyed the looks of the tourists as they passed us, Aleja teaching me salsa and me teaching her swing dance while we cooked our lunch on a camp stove on the sidewalk that led to a geyser basin...Carlos Vives blareing from the car stereo!!!!!!

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Serious salsa dancing By Jason Spellberg, jspellberg at yahoo.com, www.thedancecollective.com 2002-10-27 I recently spent 2 weeks in Colombia, and one of the main purposes of my trip was to dance salsa with the lovely Colombian ladies I've heard so much about. I am a pretty serious salsa dancer from the United States, I even teach rueda de casino in Denver, Colorado. While I had a wonderful time in Colombia overall, anyone travelling there principally to dance salsa should be aware of a few things.

First, salsa music is just about everywhere in Colombia, on many street corners, in lots of bars and clubs, even in the supermarkets. But because salsa music is so engrained in the culture there, it is regarded by many Colombians as "low class" music. I didn't hear anyone actually use this term, however, as an example, it was clear that salsa is not as popular with the chic students in the Candelaria district of Bogota as is English and Spanish rock music. This is also the case in Cali and Cartagena, where the more "up-scale" clubs, restaurants, and bars tend not to play much salsa, if any at all. The reasons for this, I think, are that salsa is not "exotic" to Colombians, and that it is harder to dance to than is rock music. The second disappointment about salsa dancing in Colombia is that very few Colombians really know how to dance to it. This may seem like a silly thing for a gringo to say, but salsa dancing is global, and the vast majority of Colombians seem to be unaware that the world has established certain conventions for how to dance salsa. For example, very few Colombian women can hold the 1-2-3, 5-6-7 pattern without losing their feet after a few measures, and even fewer can follow a cross-body lead. Forget about doing any intricate turns--most Colombian women will politely ask you to stop leading turns if you try any. It's not that they don't hear the music, they do very well, it's just that they are accustomed to dancing cumbia-like steps to salsa. Just something to keep in mind. Finally, you should also be aware that Colombia is not the easiest place to find women to dance with. In Cali especially, the clubs tend to be filled with large groups of friends. Calenos go out salsa dancing just like folks in my home town of Denver go bar-hopping in Lo-Do--it's a social activity first and foremost. Be aware that it's usually not practical to expect that the women in these groups will be approachable. Also be aware that most Colombians are primarily concerned with earning a living--as such, clubs rarely stay open past 2 am, even on weekends.

Now, after all this rambling, I must also say that there are exceptions; there are plenty of clubs in Bogota and Cali which are more up-scale that play mostly salsa music. There are plenty of great Colombian dancers who can follow cross-body leads and complex turns. Some suggestions: in Bogota, check out the dancers at the small club "Sandunguera;" in Cartagena, go to "Quiebra Canto" for a schooling in great Colombian, Cuban, and old-school salsa music; in Cali, go to the Rucafe dance school to meet people who dance rueda de casino as well as anyone in Miami or Havana. So, in Colombia, there is plenty of opportunity for the serious salsero to enjoy himself, it's just that you have to work harder than you would in Paris, New York, or most other cities. And, if you can let go and forget about trying to tear up the dance floor with turns and lifts, you will have more time to appreciate the fact that the women of Colombia are some of the most beautiful on earth, and tend to be much more friendly and approachable than women of northern latitudes. So my advice is to go and have a great time, just don't expect to find advanced dancers as easily as you would in a place like Cuba.

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By Copete, copete at fas.harvard.edu 2002-11-30
Jason,
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Colombia, but I have to make some observations about your perceptions of the local salsa culture. I think I have a pretty clear idea of the conception of a salsa culture you had before you went there, because I'm quite familiar with some of the salsa/rueda groups found here in Boston, where I live now. But I think there is a big difference in approach between Colombia, where Salsa is deeply embedded into the local culture and people just grow listening to it, and places in Europe in North America, where it's limited to groups of "salsa lovers" who have at some point in their early 20s discovered the rythm, learned it, and then get together to practice and learn new steps and organize "salsa conferences" and stuff like that. Not that this is criticizable; it's just the way it is.

About Colombia, by saying that Colombian people dance salsa by doing a "Cumbia-like step", you're just showing how little you know about Cumbia, which also has its very own place in the local culture and is regarded as a completely different rythm. The key to understanding the difference between your conceptions and those of mainstream Colombians, is recognizing there's just a totally different MENTALITY behind salsa. First and foremost, Colombians regard salsa just as a means of having FUN; they do not do it hoping to become peformers or, even less, make a living out of it. Not that being a performer or doing ballroom dancing or getting paid for dancing is bad (you acknowledge you did find good performers in Colombia); it's just that that's not the idea behind the mainstream Colombian salsa culture. If you tell the average Colombian about your "worldwide conventions" and those technical words you use to describe the steps, people will just laugh on your face. The general attitude towards turns is that they're fine as an innovation every once in a while, but if you're one of those who thinks that the more turns you do, the better you dance, you'll just be making a fool of yourself, at least in Colombia. And from a practical point of view, you usually don't have much room in a club to do all kinds of turns, and most likely you'll just end up bothering the people dancing around you, something some salsa dancers here in Boston don't seem to think about. So, next time you go to Colombia, just go with a more open mind and not with some self-righteous conceptions about salsa, and you'll probably have a better time.

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Salseros By salsera/ex-Varela, English_Pronunciation at hotmail.com 2002-12-01
How could you forget Grupo Niche in your favorites? They take a lot of credit for *decades* of great Colombian salsa... Nearly 25 years!! I know that the most recent lead singers have left; Niche has been through many transitions and band members over the years. Yet many of Jairo Varela's songs are among the salsa CLASSICS.

About DANCING salsa, I have found that Colombians often dance more apretado with less of the LA style showiness. Give me rhythm and passion versus flailing arms and stepped-on toes! (Although a turn or two isn't bad from time-to-time!) Oh, and I agree that Colombian salsa is "cumbia-like", which is to say that the movement is more limited, making it *seem* more side-to-side than back and forth. I think that is probably what Jason observed. However, the movement is, of course, much smoother than cumbia, more sensual... more salsa! (Side note: never look for salsa dancers in Santiago, Chile!!! You WILL find cumbia dancers, and lousy ones at that. I encountered less than a 10 DECENT dancers in 9 months there.)
Just my thoughts...
salsadama

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Cumbia By Copete, copete at fas.harvard.edu 2002-12-01
I have to make a comment about Cumbia: I know there's something they call Cumbia in Mexico and something else they call Cumbia in the southern cone. Colombian Cumbia is nothing like this. And it can be quite sensual; in fact the idea of the dance is one of a man trying to flirt with a woman, although without touching her. I can swear with my hand on a bible that they wouldn't know how to dance this in Chile.

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Salsa Music? What is salsa? Do you mean salsa picante or verde or what? Really, salsa is a americanized music. If you want tradition, do not listen to Salsa. Salsa is to Latin music, as pop is to American music. I mish mash of styles, mostly a brassy cubanistic variety. Salsa is, as far as I can determine, New York Latin.

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la reina nacional Stinky's back from a trip to Cartagena to experience the miss colombia pageant and I must say it was all I had imagined and more. By chance I was able to meet a few of the contestants face to face through an interview I had with RCN(televison station). The week i was there was a constant paranda with colorful people and costumes everyday. The "Banda" was awesome with most of the population in attendence. Wasn't very much sun but the festive atmosphere made up for that. I have a lot of great friends in Cartagena and met a few more this trip. What a great old city... 2 weeks to go until the next trip...chao, Stinky

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You're good! I'm a Colombian, married to an American, living in San Francisco and have tried to explain to my husband for 5 years about Colombian music. You did it in few lines. To him all Latin music is "chiqui, chiqui, chiqui...".

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