Did you know that Ruben Blades is going to re-record a lot of his Fania material? If you would like to find out interesting things like this, follow me on Twitter or friend me on facebook. Twitter.com/danyjoshua or facebook.com/danyjoshua

I would like to share with you a show that I have been following for the last few months, “El Show de Ruben Blades”. Ruben Blades is a Salsa artist that I would like to meet, and after watching 27 shows, I feel that I almost know him. Here are some quotes that I liked and a link the show.

“Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.” – Ruben Blades.

Ruben Blades explica, “Quiero ese disco, el disco con Cheo, que tengo que terminar y ya lo voy a terminar lo mas pronto possible. Estoy regrabando todas mis cosas. Ya Walter Flores termino. Y ahora tengo que ponerle la voz a todos los discos que hize con el periodo de la Fania y toda es question, lo estoy regrabando todo para que cuando yo me muera pueda dejarle todo eso a mi familia porque los discos no son ni mios. Los discos son de la compan~ia, no mios. Este es el unico negocio del mundo donde la compan~ia de discos te de la plata para que hagas el disco, y te la cobra de tus regalias y no te dan un centavo hasta que la compan~ia de discos no recobre lo que invirtio. Y despues que lo recobra, tadavia el disco es de ellos. Es como si tu tuvieras una casa y a usted le da un prestamo el banco. Y usted paga y paga y paga, y cuando termine de pagar la casa, la casa todavia es del banco. So, que es eso hombre! Eso que es! Eso no se accepta en ningun lugar. Asi explotan a los musicos!”

El Show de Ruben Blades
http://www.rubenblades.com/sdrb/

Special thanks go to everyone that has shown love and concern for our Thursday Salsa party in New Brunswick. I really miss it too. I miss playing my records for such a warm crowd week after week. But please be patient because better days are ahead. In the meanwhile, I want to share with you two things. First, after one year of DJ’ing, please allow me to formally introduce myself as a Salsa DJ (check my DJ bio here). Second, please direct your attention to a short video that just keeps making me laugh every time I see it. If you like it too and it makes you laugh, please friend me on facebook and drop me a message on my wall. Enjoy. – Dany J.

Scarlet Mambo has made a big push to become an elite disc jockey service in the New York and New Jersey Salsa scenes. Having a dancer’s perspective, the Scarlet Mambo DJ’s strive to play the best music for Salsa dancers. In fact, in a perfect world, DJ Dany J and DJ Leonard would exclusively play Salsa exclusively for dancers only, 100% of the time! (redundancy intended)

With this in mind, Scarlet Mambo is “on tour” in New York and New Jersey, making appearances at Salsa socials of some of the most prestigious Salsa personalities. Last week, on January 3rd, 2009, the Scarlet Mambo DJ’s made an appearance at Yesenia’s Dance Factory Salsa Social.

On Saturday, January 17th, 2009, Scarlet Mambo is scheduled to spin music at “The House of Dance Salsa Social”, hosted by Griselle Ponce.

In New York, DJ Dany J will be playing at Sabor Tuesdays at Iguana every Tuesday for the the month January (2009). DJ Dany J plays a long set that is followed by DJ Antonio La Conga.

This is a rough schedule of DJ gigs for Scarlet Mambo for January:

- Tue, Jan 13th @ Sabor Tuesdays at Iguanas
- Thu, Jan 15th @ Scarlet Salsa Thursdays at 360 Lounge
- Fri, Jan 16th @ Fire N Ice Salsa Fridays
- Sat, Jan 17th @ The House of Dance Salsa Social (hosted by Griselle Ponce)
- Tue, Jan 20th @ Sabor Tuesdays
- Thu, Jan 22nd @ Scarlet Salsa Thursdays at 360 Lounge
- Fri, Jan 23rd @ Fire N Ice Salsa Fridays
- Tue, Jan 27th @ Sabor Tuesdays
- Thu, Jan 29th @ Scarlet Salsa Thursdays at 360 Lounge
- Fri, Jan 30th @ Fire N Ice Salsa Fridays

Let’s talk about what makes the 2008 NY Salsa Congress different from previous years. The director of the congress, John “Choco” Knight, has truly developed the 2008 NY Salsa Congress into a well-marketed all-week event. The schedule is so full of back-to-back attractions – workshops, afternoon socials, afternoon shows, and night shows, night socials – that it is difficult to find free time to rest, eat or sleep during the congress. Before the congress even started, there was plenty of dancing at pre-parties during the week all over New York City.

It has hard to estimate the number of people that participated in each evening social. I do not think that anyone kept track. Suffice it to say that it was crowded! I could have danced every song if I wanted to. Let’s assume that I danced about 100 songs during the whole congress (6 songs per hour x 4 hours x 4 nights = 96 songs). Out of those dance partners, I can only remember one girl saying that she didn’t want to dance. Those are good odds! The point is that everyone wanted to dance, and there was a lot of everyone.

Our favorite professional dancers/instructors were easy to spot also. They were usually found in the middle of a circle of observers.

Performances
Saturday and Sunday night performances were amazingly spectacular, so many to list. Two acts that stood out from the rest were Jayson Molina’s kids group and Maykel Fonts solo performance.

Every year, Jayson Molina showcases a mega routine composed of very young Salsa dancers. The most charismatic kid (the one with spiky hair) in that performance looked no older than 6 years old!

The Cha Cha performance of Cuban-born dancer Maykel Read the rest of this entry »

FYI, some good history reading. I found this NY Times article about the life of Israel Cachao López, the inventor of Mambo. This article should fill a lot of gaps in our understanding of the development of this music genre and dance.

Cachao, Mambo’s Inventor, Dies at 89

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/arts/music/24Lopez.htm

By JON PARELES
Published: March 24, 2008

Correction Appended

Israel Cachao López, the Cuban bassist and composer who was a pioneer of the mambo, died on Saturday in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 89 and lived in Coral Gables.

The cause was complications resulting from kidney failure, said Nelson Albareda, whose company, Eventus, was his manager.

Cachao, as he was universally known, transformed the rhythm of Cuban music when he and his brother, the pianist and cellist Orestes López, extended and accelerated the final section of the stately Cuban danzón into the mambo. “My brother and I would say to each other, ‘Mambea, mambea ahí,’ which meant to add swing to that part,” he said in a 2006 interview with The Miami Herald. The springy mambo bass lines Cachao created in the late 1930’s — simultaneously driving and playful — became a foundation of modern Cuban music, of the salsa that grew out of it, and also of Latin-influenced rock ’n’ roll and rhythm-and-blues. For much of the 20th century, Cachao’s innovations set the world dancing.

In the late 1950’s, he brought another breakthrough to Read the rest of this entry »