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Current Special Selections:
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Video of the week: Jala Jala. El Gran Combo 1965 con Pellin Rodriguez, Andy Montañez y Roberto Roena
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This issue of the Descarga Review:
• JOSE LUGO Guasábara - CD & DVD
featuring Herman Olivera, Isaac Delgado
Cano Estremera, Victor Manuelle & Gilberto Santa Rosa
• YOKO La Japonesa Salsera
• OMARA PORTUONDO Gracias
• MANOLO MAIRENA Mi Oportunidad
• MONGUITO Punteame Bien El Tres
• ARSENIO RODRIGUEZ 1945-1957
• JUVENTUD, PACHAPO, MONUMENTAL ...and more!
Special Report: El Gran Combo, The Gema Years
Reviews Posted: Peter Watrous & Pablo Yglesias Tell All
...and more! Click here.
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Free Shipping when you order 10 or more items (US & PR)
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The Descarga Journal
The essential online Latin music magazine
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Interview:
Gilberto "Pulpo" Colón: Salsa's Unsung Pianist
by John Child
During the 1970s, pianist, arranger and musical director Gilberto "Pulpo" Colón was at the epicentre of salsa's Golden Age, recording and performing with some of the biggest bands in the business, including Rafi Val's La Diferente, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Kako's All Stars and Pete "El Conde" Rodríguez. In 1975, he received his big break when Fania All Star vocalist Héctor Lavoe invited him to become his pianist and musical director, a position he occupied for 16 years... [read]
Interview:
Lewis Kahn:
The Zen and Art of Violin and Trombone Playing
by John Child
Gifted trombonist and violinist Lewis Kahn has a dream CV, which includes membership in Orchestra Harlow, the Fania All Stars and the Tito Puente orchestra. During the last five decades he has clocked-up a prodigious quantity of recording sessions and live performances, including dates with Eddie Palmieri, Pupi Legarreta, Willie Colón, Mon Rivera, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Rubén Blades, Celia Cruz, Santiago Ceron, Charanga America, Héctor Lavoe, Charlie Palmieri, David Byrne, Marc Anthony, Pucho & his Latin Soul Brothers, Kirsty MacColl and many others. Association with stellar names often creates sizeable egos and a habit of name-dropping, but not in Lewis's case. He is reticent by nature, so it took some perseverance on John Child's part to jog his memory and encourage Lewis to speak about his career. However, the effort paid off and the resulting interview reveals a fascinating and deeply spiritual individual. The piece is followed by a selected discography of the albums on which Lewis has performed.
Continues here.
Interview:
Conversing with Cachao, Part 1
by Abel Delgado
Cachao leaves behind a legacy few can touch... Not only was he literally part of the beginnings of modern Cuban dance music, he played a huge role in its ongoing creation... In 2006 I conducted a wide-ranging interview with Cachao (by the way, this is not his nickname, it’s actually the last name of his mother), covering his life and career from the beginnings. What follows is the first part, in which he discusses not only the first band he played in, but also his years with Arcaño and what the mambo actually is, in musical terms. He also offers fascinating insights into lesser-known Afro-Cuban musical subgenres, such as the rhythms played on the yuka and mula drums. Overall, the venerable bassist clearly indicates that he was not only a witness to remarkable developments in Cuban cultural history, he played a role in them. More to come later, covering not only his legendary descarga sessions in the 1950s, but also his career in the United States, with a number of revelations along the way about Latin music history.
Continues here.
Also...
Obituary & discographic profile:
Israel "Cachao"López,
1918 - 2008
by John Child
Virtuoso bassist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer and bandleader Cachao (1918-2008) was one of the most influential of all Latin musicians, closely associated with the genesis of the mambo and a master proponent of descarga. In tribute, John Child offers a revised and updated version of a discographic profile first published in 1998. Continues here.
Obituary:
Laba Sosseh,
1943-2007
Master of Salsa Africana
by John Child
In tribute to the recently deceased Laba Sosseh, John Child offers this discographic profile of the Gambian-born singer and composer who was an early pioneer of the tradition of Africans journeying to New York to record with Latin musicians. "This monument of African music was amongst the first Africans to make an incursion into the international stage," said the Gambian newspaper The Point. Continues here.
Obituary:
Carlos "Patato" Valdés,
1926-2007
by John Child
Master conguero, percussionist and composer Carlos "Patato" Valdés died in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, December 4, 2007. In tribute, John Child offers a revised and updated version of a discographic profile first published in 1998...
Carlos "Patato" Valdés (b 4 Nov. '26, Los Sitios district, Havana, Cuba; d 4 Dec. '07, Cleveland, Ohio)
Master conguero, percussionist, composer. Father played tres guitar with son group Los Apaches; initially learnt marímbula (African-derived bass instrument: wooden box with metal prongs sounding different bass notes when plucked); graduated to playing cajones (wooden box drums typical to rumba) at age 12; played conga in parading comparsa carnival groups. Joined La Sonora Matancera '46 for a brief stint; switched to influential Conjunto Kubavana de Alberto Ruiz '47; Kubavana recordings featuring Patato ...continues here.
Recent postings:
Nicky Marrero
Rhythm Travels A Thousand Ways With Ample Assumptions
Sergio George
We Will Never Return To The Horse And Buggy
Tito Gómez 1948 - 2007
Mario Grillo and The Machito Orchestra: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow
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