Salsa, the way it was

Skipping over the last two decades, Colombian band La-33 derives its music from the salsa of the 1960s and 70s.

August 04, 2010 05:02 pm | Updated November 28, 2021 09:03 pm IST

Members of Colombian band La-33 in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Members of Colombian band La-33 in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

In terms of how it has managed to transcend boundaries and endear itself to people the world over, irrespective of how far-fetched it is from the music of the local populace, salsa has little competition. Salsa holds sway among non-classical dance classes and salsa music concerts are always packed and mostly characterised by dancing in the aisles. The same when La-33, salsa band from the Colombian city of Bogota, performed in the Capital recently.

La-33 is a big group; 12 in all. It comprises Sergio Mejia on bass guitar, Santiago Mejia on piano, Guillermo Celiz, David Cantillo and Pablo Martinez on vocals, Cipriano Rojas on congas, Juan David Fernandez on timbal, Diego Sanchez on bongos, Vladimir Romero and Jose Miguel Vega on trombone, Felipe Cardenas on saxophone and Roland Nieto on trumpet.

Salsa has been one rolling stone that has gathered moss wherever it went. But as Juan David Fernandez from La-33 (the name derives from the Bogota address where the band used to practise) tells us, “Bogota is a big city, so we pretty much listen to all kinds of music. But you can't tell that from our music. We don't fuse it. We play only salsa. We do salsa based on the salsa of the 1960s and 70s.” The salsa that followed in the 1980s and 90s is “more commercial, more pop,” he says.

Mixed influences

He adds, “We use the same instruments as in the 60s and 70s. Nowadays salsa bands play drum sets. We don't.” La-33's percussion includes the bongo cero, congas and even cowbells.

The stress is on purity, even when the origin of salsa is steeped in mixed influences. Dispelling the popular notion that Colombia is the home of salsa, Fernandez says, “Salsa came from all the immigrants who went to New York— Puerto Ricans, Cubans, all these people had their own culture and traditional music, which they mixed with jazz when they got to the U.S. Salsa is a mixture of different music styles, like Guaguanco of Cuba, Bomba of Puerto Rico. Thus, salsa came to New York and only when it became more popular did it come to Colombia.”

Even in Colombia, Bogota was hardly the place salsa took off.

“Cali was where salsa came to Colombia at the beginning (from U.S.A). Now it's shifted to Bogota,” Fernandez informs. “Bogota doesn't have a salsa tradition. It's kind of weird to think that salsa comes from Bogota. Actually, we are the very first salsa band out of Bogota.”

Colombia's topography has also affected the country's music. “Salsa is one of the different kinds of music that Colombia has. We have two Oceans, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and in every coast the music is very different. And then there is the centre,” we are told. Fernandez, tuned into jazz and rock in the beginning, joined La-33 to learn salsa. He's been with the band since the beginning, for almost eight years now.

La-33 has three albums behind it — “La-33” (2004), “Gozalo” (2007), “Ten Cuidado” (2009). “The musicians in the band compose their own songs. They sing about their own lives,” says Fernandez. So topics range from their “love lives and breakups with girlfriends to colonial society.” All their songs are in English, with one exception — an arrangement of the track “Roxanne” with English band The Police for “Ten Cuidado”. Was Sting there? “Sting wasn't there. It was just an arrangement that we did. Hopefully, he listened to it. He had to listen to it to approve it,” Fernandez smiles.

This year this time, there are apparently five Colombian independent bands touring the globe.

Despite thousands of concerts the world over, two stand out. “We went to Japan in 2008. We had a performance in Tokyo. It was really interesting to see how people knew our music, to see how our music reached such a distant place. So that's something to remember,” recalls Fernendez. The other was in France three years ago, in a festival called Tempo Latino. “It was a really, really beautiful concert. We finished the whole set, played an anchor and we went backstage. I was already changing. And after five to 10 minutes, an order came backstage, ‘Hey, go back to the stage, they want you again.' And we went back to the stage. ”

The percussionist seems flabbergasted when encountered with examples of the reach of salsa. “There are several salsa bands in Japan. They even sing Spanish. Sometimes they don't even understand what they are saying, but they do sing Spanish!”

Music composers Salim-Sulaiman were front-rowers at the concert later. Any collaboration on the cards? “We have been talking with Indian producers (no names mentioned). So probably you will be having some surprises,” is all that Fernandez reveals for the moment.

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