The Rough Guide to Salsa Dura New York City

San Francisco (California), USA – The Rough Guide series focuses on salsa music created in New York. With its thrilling, fast paced energy and hot-blooded spirit, Salsa Dura NYC  (RGNET1177CD) is music made for dancing. Born in the nightclubs of the Bronx, Spanish Harlem and Brooklyn in the New York City of the 1970’s this is the no-frills, hard (dura in Spanish) Latin music whose revival is filling Latin clubs around the world.

Perennially known as ‘the city that never sleeps’ (a title shared with Madrid), New York pulsates with bright lights, a hybrid of different cultures and streets ablaze with activity. It is also the backdrop to the hot-blooded, Latin dance music of the 1970s known as salsa dura. Over a twenty-year period, through the ‘80s and ‘90s, this fast-paced strain of salsa suffered a depression while other musical genres came to the fore. The Rough Guide To Salsa Dura NYC celebrates its return to the limelight and is a tribute to the artists who have kept the Latin sounds of NuYork alive.

The album kicks off with a fiery track from Eddie Palmieri – one of the greatest contributors to the salsa dura genre and well-loved for his innovative musical fusions.

Further on, the master drummers are represented by Jimmy Delgado – timbalero extraordinaire who burst on to the New York City scene in 1977 – and award-winning

percussionist and pianist Chino Nuñez whose racy dance track ‘Aqui Cada Uno Viene Con Lo Suyo’ is a guaranteed floor-filler.

With ‘Oigan Mi Rumba’, eminently talented Chico Alvarez gives a spirited taste of the Spanish Harlem musical blend – strident big-band brass with a raw trombone sound and traditional tres licks. This is followed by a track from virtuoso trombonist, Jimmy Bosch, renowned for shying away from big corporate labels in favor of working freely on his own projects. Often referred to as the ‘Hendrix of the Nuyorican trombone’, his work is perpetually exciting with its unique combination of charanga strings, flutes and the classic New York City salsa grooves.

As well as showcasing some of the ‘big players’, the Rough Guide to Salsa Dura NYC  also provides a platform for lesser known artists of the Latin ‘underground’. Compiler Pablo Yglesias – also a DJ, writer, artist and percussionist – introduces the listeners to the sounds of Los Soneros Del Barrio and Wayne Gorbea, who never really hit the mainstream despite giant followings in the barrios of New York and Colombia.

Along with Ricky González, these names are attached to Rumba Jams – one of a handful of New York independent labels supporting the resurgence of salsa dura. They may be less familiar to those in the mainstream, but their red-hot, fever-pitch Latin beats certainly whip the dance-floor into a frenzy.

Last but not least, Joe Quijano and his Conjunto Cachana wind us down with a stunning version of the Cole Porter classic ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’, a smoky, after-hours comedown that closes out this sensational collection.

The album contains a data track that includes an interview with the compiler Pablo Yglesias, music information from The Rough Guide To World Music book and travel information from The Rough Guide to New York City book .

Buy the Rough Guide to Salsa Dura NYC