JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of Willie Colón.
Tag: Fania Records
New Video: Jacksonville’s LPT Releases a Stylistic Visual for Hard Charging “Sin Parar”
The Jacksonville, FL-based Salsa and Afro-Cuban collective LPT is comprised of a cast of local scene vets, including Josué A. Cruz (lead vocals), Milan Algood (timbales, vocals), Angel Garcia (keys, vocals), Mike Emmert (baritone sax), Bryant Patterson (trombone), Jonah Pierre (bongo and bell), Stan Piper (bass), Juan Carlos Rollan (tenor sax, vocals), JP Salvat (congas) and Steve Strawley (trumpet). Initially forming with the mission of keeping Salsa Dura (Hard Salsa) and Descarga Salsa alive, the act have quickly become ambassadors of Salsa and Afro-Cuban music in the Southeast. Additionally, the members of LPT pride themselves on sharing the region’s diversity with a new, young audience — while having an opportunity to play the old school inspired sounds that they love.
The Jacksonville-based Salsa and Afro-Cuban collective’s full-length debut was released last Friday, and the album finds the band capturing the high energy of their live set paired with their thought-provoking take on hard salsa. The album’s first single, album title track “Sin Parar” — which, translates into English as “non-stop” — is a Fania Records-like dance floor friendly song that is centered around lyrics that encourages listeners to start looking at their world critically.
“The inspiration for the single is the feeling we all get from the machine,” according to the band’s Josué A. Cruz. The Machine as Cruz explains is a metaphor for life, work. tech and family going non-stop. “As a band,” Cruz adds, “we decided that if the machine is going to march on without stopping, then so are we. It’s almost innate in the metaphor that you have to keep marching on if the machine is marching on. It’s the only way to deal with the grinding of the gears and nerves.”
The band concludes, “Salsa music, and Latin music as a whole, is easily characterized as simple party music with whimsical lyrics, and there is a place for that. Yet, there is a rich tradition of music with substance in our genre. Music created on the street is going to have something to say about said street. We hope to humbly add our fingerprint to the thought-provoking canon.”
Directed by Antoine Prat, the recently released video is split between the members of the collective performing the song at Heartwood Soundstage and some film noir-like segments following a camera carrying, trench coat wearing figure shot in black and white. Much like the album, the video stylistically captures the band’s live show.
The Jacksonville, FL-based Salsa and Afro-Cuban collective LPT is comprised of a cast of local scene vets, including Josué A. Cruz (lead vocals). Milan Algood (timbales, vocals), Angel Garcia (keys, vocals), Mike Emmert (baritone sax), Bryant Patterson (trombone), Jonah Pierre (bongo and bell), Stan Piper (bass), Juan Carlos Rollan (tenor sax, vocals), JP Salvat (congas) and Steve Strawley (trumpet). Initially forming with the mission of keeping Salsa Dura (Hard Salsa) and Descarga Salsa alive, the act have quickly become ambassadors of Salsa and Afro-Cuban music in the Southeast. Along with that, the band has managed to share the diversity of the area with a new, young audience while allowing the band’s grizzled vets an opportunity to play old school-inspired sounds.
The band’s full-length debut Sin Parar is slated for a January 2020 release, and the album reportedly finds the band capturing the high energy of their live set while featuring their thought-provoking take on hard salsa. Interestingly, the album’s first single, album title track “Sin Parar” — which translates into English as “non-stop” is a Fania Records-like dance floor friendly song that is centered around lyrics that encourages listeners to start looking at their world critically.
“The inspiration for the single is the feeling we all get from the machine,” according to the band’s Josué A. Cruz. The Machine as Cruz explains is a metaphor for life, work. tech and family going non-stop. “As a band,” Cruz adds, “we decided that if the machine is going to march on without stopping, then so are we. It’s almost innate in the metaphor that you have to keep marching on if the machine is marching on. It’s the only way to deal with the grinding of the gears and nerves.”
The band concludes, “Salsa music, and Latin music as a whole, is easily characterized as simple party music with whimsical lyrics, and there is a place for that. Yet, there is a rich tradition of music with substance in our genre. Music created on the street is going to have something to say about said street. We hope to humbly add our fingerprint to the thought-provoking canon.”
Live Footage: Eddie Palmieri Performs Songs from Harlem River Drive
Eddie Palmieri is a legendary, Grammy-winning New York born and -based pianist, composer and bandleader who has released a number of beloved and highly-regarded Latin funk albums that have pushed the boundaries of what the genre should sound like and concern itself thematically, through renowned labels including Fania Records, Alegre Records, Tico Records, RMM and Concord Picante. Back in 1971, Palmieri along with a new backing band Harlem River Drive wrote and recorded Harlem River Drive, a sociopolitically charged album inspired by the inequality that his fellow Puerto Ricans faced in the New York of the early 1970s — and as a result, the album was a fiery and much-needed protest that featured novelistic lyrics that immersed you into its creators world. Interestingly, the album wasn’t a major commercial success but over the years, it became a cult-favorite album, while being as powerful and relevant today as it was when the album was originally released.
Earlier this year, Red Bull Music Academy invited Palmieri and his backing band to perform the material off Harlem River Drive live for the first time in several decades on what turned out to be a rainy afternoon and evening at Harem’s Marcus Garvey Park — and the folks at NPR’s Jazz Night in America shot some great live footage that includes album title track “Harlem River Drive,” “Seeds of Life” and “Comparasa.” Check it out by clicking on the link above and it’ll lead you to a full-screen embed.
Ray Lugo and the Boogaloo Destroyers at NUBLU 7/11/14
Ray Lugo and the Boogaloo Destroyers Nublu July 11, 2014 Originally founded back in 1964 by the Dominican bandleader and composer Johnny Pacheco and an Italian-American lawyer, Jerry Masucci, Fania Records quickly became the beloved […]
Originally founded back in 1964 by the Dominican bandleader and composer Johnny Pacheco and an Italian-American lawyer, Jerry Masucci, Fania Records quickly became the beloved home of salsa music, the sound that courses through the barrios of […]
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=3877283800/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/ Over the last two decades, the Richmond, VA-based salsa act Bio Ritmo have developed a reputation for experimentation and stubbornly refusing to be pigeonholed, as they’ve employed the use of synths, along with traditional salsa […]
There’s something about the rhythms of salsa that automatically brings summer to mind – or more precisely the sounds of the streets of Corona, Queens during the summer, as you’d hear salsa being played from […]
Established in 1948, Rums of Puerto Rico is a governmental agency whose mission is to ensure that rum, the national drink, was made under strict guidelines – ostensibly so that quality would be ensured, as […]
Fania Records — Armada Fania Pop Up Store and Club at the 1896 featuring DJ DNGR GRDN, DJ Wasabi and DJ Louie Vega 5/25/13
Fania Records, often described as the Motown of Latin music, had a rather unique series of events from May 22nd – May 25th, to celebrate the label’s release of a compilation of remixes of their […]
Untitled — the Asbury Park, NJ edition
Memorial Day Weekend this year was incredibly busy. Friday night, I was at Fania Records’ Armada Fania Pop-Up Store and Club Party at the 1896 in Bushwick, Brooklyn with world famous DJ Louie Vega spinning […]