Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Fiesta Havana

I went to Osbanis’s class and it was really good. The music was excellent, friendly crowd and had a wicked time. I always have a good time in FH. Was lovely to see some Cardiff faces. Great dance Lisa - Thanks!

Likewise Joe!!

Hi Steve,
You’re right with the type of salsa music I prefer but I wouldn’t term one narrow band of the music ‘proper salsa’ over any others. There are loads of different flavours of salsa that I’m happy to listen to and dance to including mambo, Cuban, Columbian, Puerto Rican, UK, boogaloo,... If something sound more like salsa to me than anything else (say reggaeton) then I’ll probably call it salsa irrespective of where it comes from. If it sounds more like reggaeton than salsa then I’ll probably call it reggaeton. Most of what I usually hear played on a Wednesday night after 11:30-ish I’d stick in the second category but that’s just my opinion.

Getting back to my original question, looks like most people who post here are happy with the music played and so I’ll leave this topic there.

I suppose trying to define salsa is a hiding to nothing. But it seems to me that el Diablito’s definition is so broad it’s almost meaningless.

The music I would expect at a salsa night, first and foremost, is music you can dance salsa to. I’m pretty sure we can agree on the dance variants that qualify as salsa. Salsa music, to me, will have a recognisable element of Son, be of a danceable tempo, between about 42 and 56 bars per minute (though, I suppose, slower and faster music can still be salsa) and feature some combination of the typical Afro-latin instrumentation: congas, cowbells, bongos, claves, tres, flute, brass etc etc etc.

You both forgot to mention of course that if the record companys who produce the stuff, and the Bands who play the stuff describe it as Salsa and often state on their record sleeves that, according to their definition, (not mine) their tracks are Salsa, then Salsa or Salsa variants are probably what they are and frankly that’s good enough for me!

Salsa Reggaeton is one such variant - more modern than say son or mambo but then music, especially Salsa, is evolving all the time and if you fail to recognise this, you are arguing against not only me but 800 million Latinos and all the Salsa bands who play it and recognise / categorise it as such.

As I said Salsa is a generic term and by definition (unless you start being specific about categorising the music and stop using the term Salsa) you have to accept that it’s going to be broad therefore I disagree that my definition is so broad it’s almost meaningless - for example I wouldn’t class the music of Kylie, the Beatles, Bach or Clemens non Papa as Salsa!

Thank you Lisa Nathalie Tom & Joe for your kind words and support - I’m grateful for your presence in the Club! And I’m especially glad you like what we do. We’ll try to continue to keep you guys happy and, as I said to Brendan in an earlier post, if there’s anything in particular you’d like to listen to please don’t hesitate to ask for it.
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As for coming over to Cardiff, although I’d love to be able to, once again start a night in your fair city (we had a great time whilst we were there previously) the impression I got from the post I placed around Xmas time on this forum was that a) there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of interest and b) people wouldn’t like us to clash with already established nights. After further research it seemed that whatever night I chose I would probably clash with someone. As Thursday at that time would have been preferable for me - and this was the most popular Salsa night in Cardiff, it didn’t seem to make sense to try to dilute or compete with an already successful night.
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Since then anyway I have started a whole new line in promoting which you can checkout if you like on the new and, dare I say, improved SalsaMania website at www.SalsaMania.biz
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So sadly I’ve decided that it probably wouldn’t be a good time right now to come over on a weekly basis although both Nigel and I are open to offers for one off nights should anyone be interested in bringing us over.
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Apart from that we may be starting a once a month Salsa Party close to you guys at the junction of the M4 & M5 (as previously) which would be a bit more convenient for those who are happy to travel! This is still in negotiation and when I have news that is more concrete, naturally I will inform you pronto!
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Thanks once again for your interest in having us back - believe me if it were possible / feasible we’d love to come over.