BC SALSA: IDENTITY, MUSICIANSHIP AND PERFORMANCE IN VANCOUVER’S AFRO-LATIN ORCHESTRAS by MALCOLM Al KEN B.Mus., The University of British Columbia, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Music) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2009 © Malcolm Aiken, 2009 11 ABSTRACT For over twenty-five years, musicians, dancers and singers of Afro-Latin music have maintained an active presence in the culturally diverse music scene of Vancouver, BC. During this time, the music performed and created by this group of artists has undergone dynamic changes in sound and function, reflecting a new transcultural music identity. This music, commonly referred to as salsa, is being created, performed and transformed by musicians of all backgrounds and social classes. Local composers are incorporating a variety of musical influences into their music and assimilating elements of the city’s music cultures. Today, an eclectic mix of musicians in Vancouver are creating new forms of music rooted in the Afro-Latin music traditions, and are establishing a unique contemporary musical scene. At the forefront of salsa’s local history are the Afro-Latin dance bands prominent in the city’s dance community. Their impact on the musicians and local music culture has been paramount and pivotal to the exposure of salsa to a mainstream Canadian audience. One prominent factor in the continued growth of the music has been the influence of the many non—Latino musicians who have assimilated into the salsa community as performers. Their musical and cultural influences have helped push the music in new directions and maintained the music’s relevance within the wider arts community. An ethnography of the Vancouver Afro-Latin music scene has never before been attempted. A nuanced analysis of a global salsa culture such as this, especially one outside of the Latino cultural sphere, parallels the scholarship of Roman Velasquez and Hosokawa, whose insights into the salsa communities of London and Tokyo have highlighted salsa’s global interest and presented it as a truly transnational music culture. 111 In that framework, this study presents a history of this community at a micro level and documents its development and the musicians who shaped it. Salsa in Vancouver today reflects the dynamism and diversity of the city’s cultural landscape. The local dance bands and musicians involved in its creation and performance are reshaping its traditional sound and identity, and helping to redefine salsa as a contemporary musical genre within the global music community. iv .TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv DEDICATION vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION I Methodology 3 Motivations for Research 6 CHAPTER TWO: THE AFRO-CUBAN DANCE ORCHESTRA 10 The Cuban Son (1850-1930) 11 Son in New York (1930-960) 12 From Son to Salsa (1960-present) 14 CHAPTER THREE: SALSA IN VANCOUVER 17 The First Bands (1970-1990) 17 a. Afro-Latin fusion: Jubaleo, Mandito, Rio Bumba 17 b. The Romero Brothers 20 c. Julio Portillo and BC Salsa 23 d. Carlos Martinez and Orquesta Tropicana 23 The Salsa Explosion (1995-2002) 23 a. Mesa Luna 23 b. Latin Jazz 25 c. Expresion Juvenil 26 New Directions (2002-present) 27 a. D’TaIle and the Cuban injection 28 b. Tanga 29 CHAPTER FOUR: CASE STUDIES 31 Introduction of Participants 31 Data and Analysis: Common Themes 34 a. Musical Education, Training and Development 34 i. Studies Abroad 34 ii. Training and Skill Development 36 iii. The Stages of Learning 38 1. Introduction-Appreciation 39 V 2. Absorption (Listening/Watching) .40 3. Training 41 4. Practical Experience 42 5. Specialist-Leadership 43 b. Technical and Socio-Cultural Challenges 45 i. Understanding fundamentals 45 ii. Cultural understanding 47 c. Musical identity and Artistic Development 48 i. Integration in the Salsa community 49 ii Audiences and Technologies 52 CHAPTER FIVE: TRANSCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSIS 55 a. Dime Donde Estas 55 b. TeVeoalFin 59 CHAPTER SIX: CODA 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY 66 APPENDICES 68 A: Terminology 68 B: Interview Transcriptions 71 C. Music Transcriptions 101 D: CD Recording 101 vi DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my brother Ciaran Aiken, whose love and support has helped me see this chapter to the end. I also thank Emily Cheung for her compassion and commitment to being a part of my life through all its trials and tribulations. Thank you to Dr. Michael Tenzer, my advisor, for his support and guidance though to the end of my studies, and to Dr. Sal Ferreras for his friendship and for inspiring me to pursue my passions. Thanks to all the musicians who participated in my research, shared their knowledge and supported this project: Al Johnston, John Korsrud, Niho Takase, Jeremy Vint, Raphael Geronimo, Gilberto Moreaux, Dr. Daniel Tones, Mark Beaty and Martin Romero. And to the musicians of my band Tanga which has served as a laboratory for my ideas and concepts, and have inspired me along the way: Salvador Pedraza, Chris Denis, Steve Mynett, François Levesque, Rod Murray, Miguel Benavides Kent Wallace, Daniel Shook, Fito Garcia, David Lopez, Rafael Arguello and Danay Sinclair. Thanks the artists with whom to all I have shared my love of Afro-Latin music over the last ten years and thanks to the bands old and new who continue to spread the passion and excitement of this music, inspiring people of all backgrounds to share in the sabor of salsa. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Vancouver’s Afro-Latin music community is a diverse fusion of local cultures and global traditions. Over the past twenty-five years, immigrant Caribbean, Central and Latin American musicians have established an informal network of bands, dancers, promoters, and DJs, bringing an abundance of Afro-Latin dance styles to the mainstream local audience. Today, in venues across metro Vancouver, one can hear bands playing the rhythms of Cuban salsa, Columbian cumbia, Dominican meringue, bachata 1 While performing in a traditional musical framework, these and reggaeton. bands draw new influence from the musical backgrounds of their members, and are assimilating the city’s increasing diverse cultural landscape. One type of ensemble that is prominent in the Vancouver Afro-Latin music scene is the Latin dance orchestra, commonly referred to as an orquesta. Functioning primarily as live musical accompaniment for dancers, these bands perform a repertory of Afro-Latin musical styles known as salsa2. These ensembles range in size from eight to as many as twenty musicians, and are rooted in the tradition of the early twentieth century Cuban 3 whose popular song with folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythms. dance orchestras music fused Since their appearance in North America, beginning in the 1940s, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Columbian and North American popular musics have also played a key role in shaping the identity of these ensembles. Locally, this tradition of cultural and stylistic See Appendix A for definitions of each style. 2 In addition to referencing a distinct musical style, the term salsa is also used as an umbrella term for a composite of styles performed by these Afro-Latin bands. This includes any combination of Cuban son and rumba, Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena, Columbian Cumbia, and Dominican Meregue and Reggaeton, and latin jazz styles. Cuban dance orchestras, or Tipicas, were prominent in early 2O” century Cuba. They first appeared in Havana and later migrated to the Spanish immigrant communities on the east coast of the US, notably in New York and Miami. Influenced by the swing bands of America, these orchestras played a variety of Cuban dance rhythms including son, charanga, bolero and danzon (Sublette 2004). 2 synthesis is reflected in the diverse ethnic mix of the ensemble members, where musicians from differing cultural, social and musical backgrounds collaborate in the music’s composition and performance. Today, while salsa music is still identified with Latino culture, Canadian musicians, along with dancers, promoters, and audience members, play an important role in the development of these ensembles and the creation of local salsa music. In this these salsa orchestras on Vancouver music study, I examine the impact of the community, with a focus on how musicians of non-latino origins confront issues of identity, musicality and education within the ensembles’ complex socio-musical framework. Referencing studies of international salsa culture by Lise Waxer (2002), Christopher Washburne (2002), Patria Roman-Velasquez (1999) and Robert Baron (1977), I document the history of salsa as a distinct musical style in Vancouver, and explore the processes of musical development and cultural interchange taking place between those inside the salsa community. Furthermore, through transcription and analysis of compositions genre by local artists, I show how pan-musical influences and fusion are manifested in the music itself. Using data collected through ethnographic conducted fieldwork in Vancouver from 2005-2008, I explain how these ensembles function as important socio-musical organizations whose members use music to bridge Canadian and Afro-Latin culture. 3 Methodology This study is structured around three main points of interest: • What is the tradition of the salsa orchestra in Vancouver? How has it developed and how do the bands function in the greater music community? Who are the musicians and ensembles that have shaped this community’s contemporaty identity? • These local ensembles are extremely multicultural,