Dear friends and fellow salsa fanatics,
I want
to tell you all about a great cultural event happening in Chicago during the
period of December 12 – 16. While many of my friends do not live there, I do
have some in the area and I am urging you all to check this out. Especially
exciting to me is the live music. Pupy Cantor will be channeling the spirit of
Chamaco Ramírez, Henry Cole and his ensemble will be invoking the spirits of
afrobeat originators Tony Allen and Fela Kuti, as well as the Boricua bomba and
plena masters of yesterday and today;
and Orquesta el Macabeo will blow your mind with their irreverent,
progressive salsa stew! All three will be unique acts that people in the Windy
City have rarely seen live before, if ever (El Macabeo and Henry Cole are flying direct from Puerto Rico). I will be there helping out – doing
some DJ-ing, helping to host the record fair, setting up some eye candy in the
form of an album cover exhibit, etc. It all ties in with this project I am
assisting with, a documentary film called Alive And Kicking: La Historia
de Chamaco Ramrírez (The Story Of Chamaco Ramírez). Not to be confused with the
British comedy from the 1950s of the same name, this is a bio doc about the
Puerto Rican singer known as Chamaco Ramírez, taking its name for the singers
only solo record released in 1979 (which I helped reissue with Fania/Codigo
last year). The film is being put together by the extremely talented team of
Eduardo Cintron, Omar Torres-Kortright, Eduardo R. Ortiz Romeu, Chamaco Ramírez
Jr., Glorily Velez, Paul Galati and Steven Aguilar. I was recently with them in
New Jersey participating in some “talking head” interviews (myself and Ron
Levine, original cover artist for Alive And Kicking the LP) and it was a blast. The
film features lots of interesting in-depth interviews as it tells the story
behind the man and his music. You can find out more about it at the events
listed below, and by checking it out on line:
Tribute
to Chamaco Ramírez
Featuring Pupy Cantor
Wednesday,
December 12, 2012 8:30 PM - FREE
Old
Town School of Folk Music - 4544 N. Lincoln
This
tribute to Chamaco Ramírez will include an exclusive preview of the documentary
Alive and
Kicking: The Story of Chamaco Ramírez and a live performance by his dear friend Pupy Cantor.
Don't miss this incredible night of film and old school salsa.
 |
| Pupy Cantor |
 | |
| Tribute To Chamaco Ramírez (pictured: Tommy Olivencia, rt; Chamaco Ramírez, lft) |
Henry
Cole & The Afrobeat Collective
Thursday,
December 13, 2012 - 8:00 PM $15
Mayne
Stage - 1328 W. Morse
Equally
able to jam with a hip hop crew or jazz masters, Henry Cole harnesses
well-honed rhythmic power and love of catchy, evocative melodies to create a
deep, wide-ranging vision of unity, balance, and Afro-Caribbean creativity.
This is their Chicago debut.
 |
| Henry Cole |
Orquesta
el Macabeo - Two Shows
Friday,
December 14, 2012 , 9:00 PM- $10/$15
Bottom
Lounge - 1375 W. Lake
Sunday,
December 16th, 2012, 6:00 PM - $10/$15
Willowbrook
Ballroom - 8900 S. Archer Ave. Willow Springs, IL
 |
| Orquesta el Macabeo |
 |
| El Macabeo |
With
backgrounds in rock, punk, ska and reggae, Orquesta el Macabeo's intense,
driven, highly percussive salsa dura is tinged with a bit of all of those
influences and will have you dancing to salsa without having to take a single
class.
2nd
Afro-Latin Record Collectors' Fair and Exhibit
Saturday,
December 15, 2012 - 4:00 PM FREE
914
Studio - 914 N. California
Pablo
Yglesias (DJ Bongohead), author of Cocinando: Fifty Years of Latin Album
Cover Art (Princeton Architectural press, 2005) will be joining us for this one-of-a-kind Afro-Latin Record
Collector's Fair. Collectors will be allowed to play, exchange, buy and sell
records.
SRBCC's
Traditional Traveling Parranda
Saturday,
December 15, 2012 - 4:00 PM - $10
Studio
914 - 914 N. California
 |
| A still from video of last year's Parranda |
Traveling
Parranda in 2 large buses with pleneros and jíbaro music from Puerto Rico.
Everything will end with a big party at the Afro-Latin Record Collectors' Fair
taking place at Studio 914.
