Sunday, December 21, 2014

Dave Santiago & Latin Affair - La Peluca

Hard questions? Along with hard answers, we need em to develop smart Salsa dancers, and not robots who have no idea what they dance to - blindly executing turn patterns. 

Hard question of the day: Can we KL Salsa dancers enjoy our dancing night with the absence of 'Ting-Tong' music? 

What's this then? Some old-timers in the local Salsa scene understand this tongue-in-cheek term which refers to excessively jazzy Salsa numbers, usually punctuated by a strong piano and/or marimba melody. These strong melodies sometimes overpower the regular Salsa percussion instruments, making the tunes in essence, jazz pieces. 

Some dancers love it for the groove it brings. Some dancers dislike it because they can't grasp the abstract jazzy timing of the song. But love it or hate it, quite a few jazzy Salsa groups have become mainstay in our social nights, making it 'safe' music selection. Take for example, the New Swing Sextet and Grupo Latin Vibe, both awesome Salsa bands in their own right. If you don't know what Salsa song to play for your dancing crowd for the next 10 minutes or so, you really can't go wrong with overplayed evergreens such as 'La Llave' or 'My Favorite Things'. 

Because the KL scene is relatively comfortable with the 'Ting-Tong' Salsa songs, can we really survive, so to speak, without it? 

Let me introduce Dave Santiago and the Latin Affair with one of their songs 'La Peluca'. You can hear it in the YouTube link below:-


As far as music goes, I generally find Dave Santiago smooth as silk. Check out 'Chibola'. This is slightly less smooth with a strong pachanga feel (flauta included!). But towards the end, there is this lovely double-bass solo followed by the outtro with the rest of the instruments. Nicely done Dave. 





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