Latin Music USA on PBS

so, back in june the whole digital switch left me sans-tv...just static these days. luckily, theres the interwebs, cuz i was feelin a bit pissed that i was missing this special on PBS on Latin music. so i got the chance to check out hour 2: the salsa revolution.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1293757593/

great interviews, unseen footage, all around exceptional work. Jerry Masucci comes off looking like some Leonard Chess exploiter of the brown and black youth of the Loisaida Nuyoricans...whatever the footage of the show at Yankee stadium, with the crowd surging on to the field, jumping on stage and confiscating instruments was pretty wild. the interview w Willie Colon sayin they sounded awful, Larry Harlow breakin down the piano, footage of Lavoe, Mongo...it was all too much...

As a historian, though, i would have liked to see the film makers tie in the African roots of Salsa and then connect the music to modern day hip hop artists who incorporate salsa rhythms into their productions--a sort of before and after if you will. i listen to salsa from a hiphop frame of mind, and i know im not alone. there are many others.

dj avatar--boricua bounce (loisaida rmx)


another thing, how bout some of the other fania subsidiaries...vaya, inca, etc...?? why no mention of them??











like i said, i'm an amateur historian with an interest in latin and modern day music, so i tend to view these things with a critical eye...forgive me.