Salsa Hues: Any Color, …as long as it’s Red (Hot)!

On their first North American tour in a decade, Sierra Maestra, the masters of contemporary Cuban Son, positively dazzled me during their July 19^th appearance at Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia.  It wasn’t so much for the virtuosity of their playing, apparent though it was.   Rather, it was the stunning array of musical ‘color’ and hue encompassed in their performance, and the way in which it inspired the dancers to truly let-loose.  It highlighted for me how ‘monochromatic’ mainstream contemporary Latin music has become.

Not unlike Henry Ford’s famous joke about the Model T Ford, the first mass-produced automobile, it seems that today, you can get Salsa in any ‘color’ – as long as it’s “Red”.  Hot.  Scorching.  Break-neck fast red.

But Sierra Maestra reminded audiences of the incredible spectrum of colors encompassed within Afro-Cuban music. “Red” isn’t the only color that can sizzle.  Dense cobalt blues can burn.  Intense celadon and fuchsias tantalize.  And red itself has a sweeping range of hues: rich burgundies, deep crimson, and of course, scarlet.  Sierra Maestra showed us the thrill of experiencing the spectrum of musical color.

 “I only caught the last set, but it was truly inspiring,” posted DC salsero David Gabel on the event’s Facebook page during that night’s event.  “I came intending just to listen, and dance nice and easy, but the music was fierce and danced through me.”  Part of that ferocity was the variety of tempos and ‘colors’ Sierra Maestra is ‘allowed’ to utilize, as it falls outside of commercial Salsa’s expectations.

Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to expect Salsa - and most dance music, for that matter - in just one color, and just one speed.  The aesthetic of House and 'Trance' styles, while wholly valid in and of themselves, really shouldn't be applied to a genre such as Latin dance.  Rather than one song blending seamlessly into the next, the beauty and drama of Latin music has always been in it's spirited variation.  But contemporary bands that explore that spectrum of color risk dancer revolt.  At many a concert, I’ve watched sumptuous boleros all but clear a packed dance floor.  A brisk, inviting cha cha cha draws comments like, “I’ll take a break until they play another up-tempo number” (“up-tempo” meaning relentlessly fast).

Back in the day, the dancer responded - gleefully - to the musician. Rather than being restrictive, “The Steps” were merely a ‘pathway’ upon which a dancer improvised along with the band.  When Machito’s orchestra, in the middle of a torrid mambo like “Negro Nanamboro”, suddenly down-shifted into a smoldering cha cha cha, the dancer’s at New York’s Palladium Ballroom shifted with them, and dug down deep into a soulful, writhing grind.  When performing at the Casbah (Washington DC’s ‘Home of the Mambo’) Roland Kave and his Fabulous Los Diablos could swirl turn a Pachanga into a Pony in a heartbeat, and the dancer went along for the ride – the minor ‘wobble’ be damned!  Instead of demanding 'the expected' to match precise choreography, you danced from the soul.  You were completing a sacred circle of creativity between musician and audience – an extension of the ‘call-and-response’ heritage of African-rooted music and dance.

It was beautiful to see audiences responding to Sierra Maestra’s music in a way that was multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, and – in the truest musical sense – multi-hued.  Check out this second clip of the band (and DC salsa dancers cuttin' up) at the other end of the color spectrum!