Salsa seems to me like a shining chrome express train – flashing past, glistening in the sun, wheels and gears whirring in extreme dynamic perfection – an extraordinary exemplar of musical perfection that I cannot reach or even really comprehend – a moving display of beautiful people dancing to an other-worldly rhythm that if I tried to mimic would be like a dog on its hind legs.

And then Colombia throws me a bone. La Mambanegra, performing what they call break salsa. They can do that stupendously beautiful music, but they can also break it – break it down – make it comprehensible for dullards like me that need a stick crudely drawing shapes in the sand – put one foot here, then the other foot there, etc.

What you have here in this OP YT clip is 6 years old, but ageless in its vivacity. Jacobo Vélez, the bandleader – some kind of anti-Eldritch in his white outfit and straw hat (but with Andy-Pandy’s mirror shades and clearly driven approach to carving a musical path for his band) joyfully drawing out all their musical professionalism in a way that bursts the hermetic seal of salsa.

A riot of » Continue Reading.