Salsa Recording at the Studio with Eddie Palmieri

Ever wonder how they record those awesome salsa tracks? Well, I got just the video for you. I found this neat video on YouTube which is basically Eddie Palmieri (a great salsa musician) recording one of his hits in the studio. I think its amazing to see how every different piece of a song (the drummer, the trumpeter , and the pianist) are all placed in different locations, with separate soundtracks (in headphones) and yet somehow, everything comes together (or maybe the headphones are for another reason – I'm no up and coming artist.. ).

Instrumentation solos upclose – Larry Harlow

Now, I know some of you are probably still working on what are great salsa musicians (so that you can know what to buy). Well, here is another great classic artist that has carved his name in the salsa annals. This is the famous Larry Harlow (known as "EL Judio Maravilloso" or the "Jewish Marvel"). The main reason I like this video is that it gives you a different perspective on instrumentation solos. The videographer got real upclose to every instrument performing a solo. One of my favorite ones is seeing Larry Harlow's hands on that keyboard. Its amazing how he makes playing those rhythmz and keys so effortless.

Another great precussion solo : Mongo Santamaria

Well, Orion from the forums posted this video of Mongo Santamaria doing a precussion solo – and I just had to put it on the frontpage. Another great vintage video. The end part of the video talks about the african tribes, and how a new chief would would ask his expert craftsman to make an great instrument whose excellence would recognize the new Chief's greatness. Another interesting fact noted in the video (according to it), Elephant ears were used  as the covering of the drum.

Body movement to music – Fogarate Style

So, browsing through videos, I found this old Juan Matos and the Fogarate Dance Company performance at the UK Salsa Congress in 2004. Even if its an old routine, its just amazing to watch how there is hardly any partnerwork, yet its amazing to see all the footwork, styling and the DETAILED body movement that is put into every step. Well, enough talk – just watch the details in the movements to the music. They may be minute in some places, but sometimes, less is more… The song is good to start the weekend! 

Houston (Texas) Salsa Congress 2007

So, a lot of my salsa friends… (hmm.. do I have any friends that don't salsa?) went to the Houston Salsa Congress this year (2007). I heard it got great reviews, and I got pointed to some of the videos they took of the occasion. Now, I tried to see if I could download the videos and fix the brightness, but I couldn't – regardless, I'll post them here anyways. This one is of this pair of people dancing at the congress night event. One of them (the female) is  the famous Jamaica from San Diego, CA (she's with Son y Pasos) and the male dancer is from Dallas, TX (director of Enfuego Danz).

Now, I also found this awesome pattern taught by one of my favorite instructors – Mario B. Mario B has some simple/smooth yet complicated patterns, that are just fun to watch (when executed cleanly).

Addicted2Salsa back up…

Sorry guys. So I guess my hosting provider has had some trouble this morning (and afternoon) with their database servers (so if you came to the website before that is why you kept seeing those errors). Everything is fine for now. They have told me there will be a scheduled maintenance of the systems starting TONIGHT FOR 6 HOURS – so, no addicted2salsa.com starting at 22:00 PDT.

Salsa Fashion – What I wear for a night at the club…

Its an age-old question… what should we wear for salsa? Well, compared to ballroom dancers (where for some reason the trend has been to wear mostly black – as in a funeral), Salsa is more casual. You can pretty much wear anything. With that said, I have been asked this question various times – on what do I wear to go out salsa dancing. We've talked about shoes, we've talked about body-spray… well, lets talk about some fashion.

Now, back in the day I used to be a little more formal than now. I used to wear short-sleeved shirts with khakis. Times have changed, and I've learned lessons about design, comfort and color.

In general, my new style is basically wearing long-sleeved shirts (fitted) and jeans (denim). I usually let the shirt be tucked out, and I roll-up the sleeves. The jeans are usually washed (as in color, not only in the laundry context) – to add a little depth.

Now, lets talk about the shirt. In the picture I'm wearing my favorite types of shirts which come from Express for Men. Now, I know some of you (or most) will probably be like (I can get the same thing from Target or Walmart). Well, not technically – the same reason why most people in the US (sorry, had to be specific) prefer iPods over any other MP3 player – applies to clothing as well – its about design. Unlike most dress shirts on the market today, which have a flaired bottom section that make them look like dresses when untucked, Express' 1MX shirts are actually tapered below, contouring to your natural figure. Therefore, they fit nicely to your form, which makes them extremely comfortable. Because they fit so well, they are very easy to dance in. You won't get that effect where if you raise your arm with regular shirts, your entire midsection shows. They are also made with higher quality materials – which makes the feel (and the look) a lot better – which richer colors that will last longer than most shirts and survive multiple washes. It is like thread-count on bed sheets. You might be sleeping on a 200-thread-count cotton sheet. However, if you feel a 600-thread-count sheet (nice Hotel Sheets) – you would prefer it (there is a huge difference). And of course, if you realize you'd want to wear comfortable clothing, and you are willing to pay for comfort (for something you'll get a lot of use out of) – there is no shame in paying a premium.

With that said, in some special occasions I'd wear a t-shirt and jacket for dancing salsa. However, this depends on the club. If the club is not very well ventilated, or I plan on dancing a lot – wearing a jacket is a little hard due to the amount of sweat it can produce. Additionally, adding a jacket to my attire for the evening will reduce the patterns I would be doing (but most likely I can use the jacket as part of my styling if you become innovative).

Now, my two favorite colors are white and red (not together though). I've been told that the color red and the color white look good on me. I currently have white dance shoes from Ballo, and therefore I end up wearing more white than red. But in the cases where i'm wearing black Aldos shoes for dancing that night – I like my red. (However, its harder to tell how much sweat you have when its a white shirt).

As far as the jeans (I don't wear khakis anymore for dancing) – I usually buy them from GAP, Express for Men or A|X. I usually go for darker colors (since I have darker clothing as well). I like them either straight or boot fit. For those, fashion un-savvy: straight fit is well, straight (they fit basically like a glove – but are still comfortable – no need to wear a belt) and boot fit is where it kind of opens up (a little more loose) at the bottom.  I'm not a big fan of the loose or relaxed fit because it makes me look 'bigger' than I actually am. I also liked wash-colored jeans (as seen in the picutre) because it makes the jeans look more interesting (instead of plain old jean color). Also, because of design, having the lighter parts highlighted as shown, it provides a better sense of depth (so it looks better).

Anyways, with that all said (so you know now what I wear to go dancing)… What do you wear to go dancing? It would be good to see what people's interests are in attire….

 

 

 

Pedro Navaja – Ruben Blades (Live)

I found another great classic on YouTube. (I love YouTube). This is the famous song by Ruben Blades, called 'Pedro Navaja', which I can bet you've heard at some point in your salsa lifetime. .  Now, first of all – this is an OLD video (because Ruben Blades is so young in it). Second, if you don't know – Pedro Navaja means 'Peter Knife' (or some 'Mack the Knife'). Its the story of a day in the neighborhood. The song is about a person named Peter, who tries to rob a prostitute because its been a 'slow' day. What happens is that the prostitute ends up having a gun – and well, they both die. Yep – that's the whole story. Yet, it sounds like a happy song! But trust me, one of the main reasons this song is famous (at least why I like it) its because the lyrics really just describe a scene of a day in life of 'back in the old days'. Actually it reminds me a lot of my youth in Puerto Rico in the old towns (actually where my mom grew up in – Utuado, Puerto Rico). Anyways, enjoy! (If you want, you can google up the lyrics if you are realy interested).

 

Salsa Bloopers – ’cause sometimes %$#& just happens…

We talk about great performances all the time.. but what about when we know we've messed up during part of the performance? Let's face – it happens. At somepoint, the statistics are against us that we are either going to forget/blank out during the performance, or miss a hand that will cause us to be out of sync with the rest of the dancers. Well, that's completely alright. It is not how you start the performance, but how you end it. Sometimes, you can't do much when you screw up during part of the choreography, but you can try and make up for it in other ways.

This video shows exactly that – when something goes wrong, you try to recover it as best as you can.

From Mambo to Hip-Hop…

This information was sent by Patrick about a documentary called "Mambo to Hip-Hop" by Henry Chalfant. Here is the excerpt:

Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Story features Luis Chaluisan as the narrator: Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Benny Bonilla, Orlando Marin, Manny Oquendo, Willie Colon, El Extreme, Africa Bambaata, Kool Herc, Charlie Chase, Fabel, Kid Freeze, Track II, Trace, Bom 5, Sandra Maria Esteves,and more. The film presents a panoramic view of the music that blossomed in the latin community of the South Bronx from the late 1940’s when mambo burst onto the New York cultural scene through the birth of hip hop in the 1970s. The film chronicles two generations who grew up literally on the same streets, and both used rhythm as their forms of rebellion – for the older generation it was the pulsating rhythms of Cuba; for their children it was the rhythms of rap. The film, designed for public television and possibly theatrical release, aims to bring attention to the Bronx neighborhoods and communities who, with few resources, transformed the world’s pop culture. Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Story, release January 2006, an hour long documentary produced by City Lore, Inc. and directed by Henry Chalfant.

I think this can be a very entertaining and powerful documentary in connecting different dance styles – and the whole Latin-New York culture during that era.

 

Salsa Birthday Dances – so everyone can celebrate!

Well, if you don't know the regular salsa tradition – it's Salsa Birthday Dances. If you haven't had one, well – you should start the tradition where your local dance scene is located. This birthday dance was really taken from the swing world (so its not unique to salsa).

A salsa birthday dance is very simple: The person who's birthday it is, is placed in the center of the circle. Then, all the other dancers dance around the birthday boy/girl for a pretty long song. Then each dancer on the outside takes turns with dancing with the birthday person in the middle of the circle. When the birthday person is female – it takes a some skill from the outer dancers because they must have learned how to switch in a middle of a dance. (When one male dancer passes the girl to another male dancer during a pattern). When it is the birthday of a male person, its pretty hard for them because since most of the outer dancers are females (and for some reason they are not assertive enough to go in and switch) he has to decide what girl to dance with next. It reminds me of my birthday dances – they were a lot of hard work.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some fun salsa videos of birthday dances, so you can see how they are if you have never seen one before.

Dancing in General – ‘You define your own limits’

Now, to tell you the truth – when I started watching the video I was like: "Oh man, someone sent another video advertising their stuff…" – but I ended up watching and I noticed why this video is very inspirational at the least. Now, I'm not sure what the story is with the young fellow in the salsa routine, but I think its pretty amazing to not let your disabilities get the best of you. I hope this video comes to show everyone that (just like the caption says) – You define your own limits. Anyone can dance – regardless. When there is a will, there is a way.

Salsa Tip #22 : Getting the bad ones out of the way…

Yes, #22 (which means it very important!). It is usually the case that you will learn something new in a salsa class and you will not get it right, right away. It is just the way we (as human beings) are built. We can't automatically duplicate an action – we are not built for consistency. Anyways, this of course is the main reason we practice – to perfect what takes us time to perfect.  However, most students forget this little fact, and sometimes get discouraged when they haven't done it right by the 10th time.

Now, lets go back to a little bit of history. Thomas Edison , a great inventor of the light bulb (among many other things). You know how many tries it took him to actually make a working and quality lightbulb? It took him more than ten thousand failed attempts. Have you ever thought of the times that we (in our lives) have tried something new, and maybe failed at it  10-15 times and thought about giving up? Imagine if Thomas Edison would have given up on the light bulb after try #1000. How bright would our world be?

I usually tell students that when they learn a new pattern or footwork – it will take them at least 50 times to get it down and be able to do it smoothly without effort. Basically, telling them that on try #51, thats why they'll be able to do it perfectly. I tell them to practice it 50 times as soon as they can, so they can get to #51 as fast as possible. This is because since you know you won't do it right until the 51st time, why not speed the process up by doing the pattern/footwork 50 times as soon as you can – so you can get those (bad ones or failed attempts) out of the way and start enjoying the good ones? 

Salsa Episode 26 : The Magic of Real Cha-Cha Music

No! Your eyes don't deceive you – its another episode! Well, this is another episode I'm going to be listening to for a long time. At some point, we all may become biased on whether we like cha-cha or not. I remember when I first started dancing, I learned ballroom cha-cha, and thats why I ended up saying how I disliked it. But, after learning salsa really well, and actually going to the clubs and listening to the real un-ballroomized cha-cha music (guajira) – its a totally different experience.

Additionally, Cha-Cha can be used to help with your salsa dancing skills. In this episode, I outline a couple of suggestions that should help you use Cha-Cha music to your advantage in becoming a better salsa dancer, and a better dancer that can feel and understand the motions of music. 

Song List:

1. Que Rico Boogaloo – La 33
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Salsa Technicals : Solo Precussion in Music

Regardless of whether you understand whats going on (or even how this video of a DVD tries to show you how to perform good perscussion solos) – just listening to the solos are great! For those who dance On1 – , listen very carefully to the music here (because the clave and rhythm is isolated for you to hear). This is really what we (On2) dancers use in the music to dance to. You might say it sounds like cha-cha – well….you are correct, but you dance Cha-Cha On2, and the same instrumental fundamentals of clave apply to Salsa/Mambo. That's why, people who dance salsa on2 can easily dance cha-cha correctly (and vice-versa) because all you are doing is replacing the pause with a cha-cha-cha step. There is no cha-cha On1 – it doesn't make sense because the cha-cha-cha happens on 4-and-5 and 8-and-1 in the music (just listen to it) – meaning your break happens on 2-3 and 6-7… just like in…. Salsa on2 .

While the beat is really a cha-cha beat, its still just amazing to listen to – I can literally listen to this beat, rhythm and solo melody of 'guajira ' ALL DAY LONG! You can just feel and groove to it.

I added this next video in the set – more for completeness than for preference. It is more of a 'Tito Puente' style of latin ensemble, where you are mixing more new york jazz melodies with the traditional Cuban sound.

Club Review : Salsa by A Time To Dance @ Estancia Hotel and Spa in La Jolla

Well, I  went to a nice club last week over at a brand new place and I decided it was time to come up with a format on writing a salsa club review. Here we go on a first try (sorry, no editors)

Addicted2Salsa Bottom Line:

If you want a great Sunday night location to dance, at no cover and in a great atmosphere – this is the place to be (if you don't mind the high priced drinks). This can become one of the best hots spots on Sunday nights in San Diego for salsa.

The Atmosphere: Well, the Estancia Hotel at La Jolla is a very interesting place. The dance location is in a club/cabana/restaurant location within the Hotel village-like section. They have removed all the tables in the restaurant for dance space. The floor is what I'd like to call smooth-cement (not polished). While this may sound like it's bad to dance in, it is actually not. Don't expect to be doing 10 spins easily without having to work on it – but you can do your doubles and triples easily if you are light on your feet. However, because the floor is not too slippery, it does provide enough friction so that you won't slip doing any complicated patterns or footwork. The dance floor however is pretty small (for now because this place is becoming quite popular).

In addition, one of my favorite things about the atmosphere, is the overall environment around the dancing area. All that there is in the dancing area is the bar, comfortable chairs (really comfy) and the dance floor. Four doors lets you enter this restaurant area – which actually lead you to the outside. This makes the dance location very well ventilated on a nice Sunday night. Additionally, the space outside is decorated with nice comfortable couches (kind of like a common area) with a fireplace incase it gets chilly outside. Its an amazing look and feel, that for sure its going to make you want to come back for more. Either you can be dancing, or go outside next to the giant fireplace in the nice couches and relax and rest. This alone gives it a huge bonus touch.

The Music: The music is basically the same as in other clubs. However, the night that I went, it was mostly salsa music (very little bachata and merengue – and no reggaeton [yippie] ), which I tend to prefer. The DJ plays a lot of the classics and plays a few unknown tracks which makes it interesting because you don't end up hearing the same music you listen to at the other salsa clubs.

The Drinks: Especially if there is no cover, I tend to buy at least 1 drink at the bar (so that the place makes money and they keep the event going). But how do you consistently measure drink quality? Well, I'm just going to measure what I usually get at the salsa clubs and base it on a standard. So, for those who don't know – I usually get a Sex On The Beach (SB) and a Amaretto Sour (AS). My base price for a SB is $6 and an AS is $6 (based on the Marriott price). Therefore average Drink Value (DV) baseline is $6.

As for the Estancia Hotel, the prices were insane. A SB costs $9.25 (which actually the guy at the bar when I gave him al 20, only gave me 10 bucks back). I guess he assumed that I didn't care about change. The AS was about 9 dollars too. Which means, the DV is 9.50 (since he took my extra 75 cents).

Although, with that said – the water is free, which is always a plus! 

The Crowd: Lots of friendly people. Lots of great dancers. This is when you know you got something great. When most of the good dancers from the usual scene show up. While people do dance on1 here, it is also a pretty big on2 crowd. I always tell students, if you want to get really good, really fast – you have to go to where the best dancers are – and on Sundays, they are coming to Estancia. 

The Info:
Cover: FREE
Parking: Plenty and FREE.
Location:  9700 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA (http://www.estancialajolla.com/ )
When: Sundays, 8pm-12am.
Hosted by: A Time To Dance Studio of Angel and Tulane  (see sponsors above).

 

(Please note: This is my first review, hopefully I will start making a better standard format on club reviews). 

Angel and Tulane @ Cielo – Performance

Well, to keep showcasing some of the interesting performance you see at special events, here is another salsa dance group from San Diego, CA (from the "A Time To Dance Studio" (see 'sponsored links' above to check them out) it is Angel and Tulane doing their performance that was recorded in the Onyx Room (yes, this was a while ago, but I just found someone who took a video of it). If you ever happen to be in the San Diego area, they are some good instructors to check out as well.

Live At The Palladium : Ray Barretto

You just got to love old salsa video clips. They are just facinating to watch and to know of how were the old days of salsa (Golden Age). Also, you get to see some of your favorite artists perform their songs in their prime. Here we have the famous Ray Barretto (you should memorize that name by now) playing at the super famous Palladium concert/dancehall. The Palladium Ballroom (for those new to the salsa culture) was in New York City which is accredited of spreading the Mambo craze in the 1950's here in the United States. This is because immigrants from Puerto Rico began moving to the US (New York City) at the end of World War II. Of course, MOST of you should know about the Palladium because of the famous show called "I Love Lucy" where Desi Arnaz (the husband in the show) used to perform regularly. Also, if you have ever seen the movie "Mambo Kings", thats where they filmed most of the shots.

Anyways, enjoy this performance and the song!

Proof : You are never too old to dance salsa!

You are never too old to dance salsa. Somehow, just dancing in general keeps you young – and here is proof. Found this great video of an fun 76 year old couple from London, England dancing at a salsa at a bar. I can imagine myself when I'm old (with my future wife) dancing salsa at a club – and watching the next generation of salseros take over. I wonder if addicted2salsa will still be alive by then? haha. Only time will tell.

 

Salsa Episode 25 : Finding the beat in salsa music (part 1)

Well, this episode has long been coming. One of the hardest things I ever went through in my salsa 'life' was to find the beat in the music. We all go through this problem, and with this part 1 (of a multiple part series) – I will try to do my best to help you practice on how to find the beat. I will play some songs, do some counting and hopefully give you some tips on how to train your ear to listen and feel the clave of the salsa music.

I did my best to sync the audio correctly to the track. So, don't be hatin.