NYC salsa bandleader Joe Cuba dies at 78 . . .

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-02-15-obit-cuba_N.htm

SAN JUAN — Salsa band leader Joe Cuba, dubbed the "Father of Latin Boogaloo" for weaving a fluid, bilingual mix of musical influences, died Sunday in New York City, a member of his group said. He was 78.
The musician, a friend and contemporary of the late salsa giant Tito Puente, died from complications of a persistent bacterial infection at Mount Sinai Medical Center a day after doctors disconnected his life support, said Cheo Feliciano, a longtime friend and singer in the Joe Cuba Sextet. Cuba had fought the infection for several years.

Born Gilberto Calderon in 1931 in New York to a family from Puerto Rico, the band leader and conga player helped change the sound of salsa in the 1960s, Feliciano said.

Until then, most popular salsa had been played by orchestras, he said. But Cuba led a six-member band with three singers who also played percussion and danced a routine.

"He had a dynamic group," with a signature vibraphone-fronted sound that "caused a craze because it was different," Feliciano said. Albums such as 1966's Bang! Bang! Push, Push, Push incorporated elements of salsa, Latin jazz and R&B and featured lyrics in both English and Spanish.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-02-15-obit-cuba_N.htm

Bang Bang (Classic hit version)
(loud is good)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MenOmqIBmIM&feature=related

Bang Bang (Live performance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXtleF5mTiU&feature=related

[OneBlueSky]

1. what, no salsa fans on DU? . . . or oldies aficionados? . . .

Joe Cuba may not have been a household name outside the Hispanic community, but his hit "Bang Bang" was all the rage in 1967 or so . . . for a time, the song's tag line "Bangie Bangie with Joe!" became a greeting comparable to "Yo!", at least in my neighborhood (which was not heavily Hispanic) . . .

give a listen and see if you can stop yourself from moving! . . .
then thank Joe Cuba and wish him well on his journey . . .:toast:

[infidel dog]

2. RIP, Joe! Many thanks for the sounds...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Thanks for the link.

I'll have to check him out more. RIP.

[Canuckistanian]

4. CBC radio had a tribute to him last night

To be honest, I'd never heard of him before. But it was GREAT music.

They played "I'll Never Go Back to Georgia". It's kind of hard driving while trying to dance.