MUSIC-USA: New Generation Takes on Salsa

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Dec 24 1996 (IPS) - After a marked downturn earlier this decade, the romantic, propulsive groove of Latin salsa music is back, and as popular among U.S. audiences as ever.

Salsa – marked by percussion and a Latin clave beat anchoring often romantic and melodramatic songs – had seemed to lose its following in recent years, as such stars as vocalist Hector Lavoe passed away while young U.S. Latinos turned to Spanish-tinged rock music.

For a while, it seemed as if the top salseros had better careers going for them as politicians than as musicians, as Panama’s Ruben Blades founded the ‘Papa Egoro’ party in his native country while Puerto Rican bandleader Willie Colon ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress earlier this year.

But a new breed of salsa stars, including Puerto Rico’s Jerry Rivera and La India, are bringing everyone from hip-hop fans to older salsa aficionados into the salsa fold.

Both La India – who started out as an English-singing hip-hop star before becoming one of the more powerful, aggressive new salsa vocalists – and Rivera are building on their popularity with new albums that broaden their audiences.

India, given her nickname for her Indian features, has gone back to singing English songs on her new album of pop standards, ‘Jazzin’ (on the TropiJazz label), where she is accompanied by master Cuban-American bandleader and percussionist Tito Puente.

‘Jazzin’ could easily have been a risky failure, wedding India’s rock-tinged singing style to such vintage pop songs as Cole Porter’s ‘Love for Sale’ and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Wave’.

But Puente knows how to keep the Latin groove subtly propelling the songs, while an expert band, featuring Latin stars Hilton Ruiz Jr and Dave Valentin, successfully combine a modern mix of salsa and Afro-Cuban music with a sophisticated 1950s-style big band sound. On several songs, Count Basie’s Orchestra steps in, effortlessly recapturing their own big-band heyday.

But the key ingredient is India herself, revitalising the standards with her cheerful, aggressive singing. On songs like ‘What a Difference a Day Made’, the former hip-hop vocalist takes on the style of jazz divas like Dinah Washington, and makes it her own.

Jerry Rivera, a baby-faced singer noted for his often corny love songs, is more content to stay in the same romantic mood throughout his albums, the latest of which is ‘Fresco’ (on Sony Tropical). But Rivera this time balances his more pedestrian sentiments, from ‘Loco de Amor’ (Love Crazy) to ‘Linda Fantasia’ (Beautiful Fantasy), with revved-up musical arrangments.

Rivera’s punchier sound is most evident on the album’s first hit, ‘Suave’, where the goofy, enthusiastic chorus (in which he tells a girl she is “suave/ como brisa del verano”, or “smooth/ like a summer breeze”) is pounded by a bold horn section and a fast, supple salsa rhythm.

Throughout, the arrangements by Cuto Soto and Ramon Sanchez are just the sort that has brought the young Latino rap fans back to the world of salsa: spare, speedy and a serviceable backdrop to the same type of haunted, lovelorn singing that is salsa’s trademark.

Rivera’s winning personality holds it all together, whether he is portraying himself as a foolish dreamer who believes in true love or proclaims, in the latest round of a trend of songs about young rebels, ‘Si, Soy Un Muchacho Malo’ (Yes, I’m a Bad Kid).

The resurgence of salsa is strong enough that merengue music, an even more propulsive, calypso-style sound coming originally from the Dominican Republic, is taking on some of the new salsa groove. On his latest album ‘Autentico’ (on Merengazo Records), Dominican singer Manny Manuel tips his hat to salsa by singing a few romantic salsa ballads alongside his charging, helter-skelter merengues.

Even if Blades and Colon didn’t succeed in their recent political campaigns, they still have one great career to turn to: the world of the salsero is back in action.