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Do you enjoy Latin music? Would you like to get more involved in this genre and share your passion for Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Merengue and more. Why not joint our Global Team of volunteers as a correspondent?
You can ask for more details with no obligation and we’ll be happy to talk to you about the benefits that come with the role [Read more…] about ISM / November 2024
Europe
Do you want to go to Europe but you don’t know where are the best places to dance? Do you want to enter in the passionate salsa world? Are you looking for adventures and meet new people? International Salsa Magazine wants to guide you to the best salsa and Latin places in Europe. In this edition we show you the dance life in three different countries: Ireland, Switzerland and England.
Strictly Salsa
This academy/club offers a weekly Salsa Classes and a Salsa Club every Thursday in The National Stadium on the South Circular Road, Dublin. The classes are divided for categories:
For more info: http://strictlysalsa.ie/
A lot of our instructors are also performers and they have a huge amount of experience performing on stage /in competitions/ at weddings & parties. The academy has dancers from Ireland, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Romania, and each one brings their own individual strengths to our group.
The teacher’s team has two previous winners of the Irish Salsa Championships, and the current (2012) Champion of the Irish Bachata Open. We also have instructors with backgrounds in Ballroom, Hip Hop, Ballet, Contemporary etc. which gives the team a greater understanding of musicality and a deeper appreciation for what they teach.
Development of the dancers is a key focus in our structure. Through regular team meetings, teachers training and dance group practice, we are able to keep physically and mentally growing and improving. You never stop learning no matter how good you are, so we are always striving to better ourselves. This academy works with world class international teachers and champions, bringing them to Ireland so that they can share their knowledge and ideas with the academy and their students.
Workshops are crafted for all levels of Salsa and Bachata lovers. A day of workshop involves a total of 4 hours of learning from four local and international dance instructors!! You will be sharing this amazing experience with both your fellow learners and from people from outside the regular classes.
For more info: SalsaDublin.com
La Movida Laussane
La Movida/Poco Loco is a bar-restaurant known by its Latin-Mexican aesthetic and food, which also offers special nights and parties for Salsa and Latin music lovers. With the performances of Dj’s and live bands, this special club is bringing all the Latin flavor to Switzerland. Cocktails, food, music and more!
For more info and reservations: https://pocoloco-movida.ch/
Whether you are completely new to the art, or experienced dancer, Salsa Passion Company has the knowledge and the experience to bring you further with your dance skills.
The academy philosophy is understanding that dance is about social and fun, but while you are investing your time and money to learn, why not learn it properly.
They’ve develop a “step by step” method that is fun and efficient for everyone to learn. They teach the “know how”. You will learn the vocabulary and the techniques of how to put them together, so you can be.
To learn how to dance Salsa, you should first understand the rhythm of Salsa, the steps, the body movement, the TWO persons but only ONE system principle in order to dance together with harmony, then move on to the turns and figures, and that’s the focus of the academy.
For more info: http://www.salsapassion.ch/d_course.html
Caramelo Latin Dance
Looking for Salsa classes in London? You’ve come to the right place! At Caramelo Latin Dance you will find only the highest quality tuition in Crossbody Salsa On1 and On2, as well as in and many other Latin dances.
The 4-week Latin dance courses are perfect for a consistent and immersive approach that will help you see a marked progression in your dancing irrespective of your level.
Classes take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays. You can Combine your Salsa classes with Bachata, NY Mambo On2, Cha Cha Cha, Pachanga and Styling and enjoy Latin dancing to the fullest!
For more info: http://www.caramelolatindance.co.uk/
Incognito Dance Company (IDC) was established in 1999. It has some of the most experienced and qualified Latin Dance instructors and performers in Europe. All our Latin dance courses, workshops, holidays, events and clubs are run and taught by highly trained, friendly instructors who encourage dancers of all levels to enjoy the spirit of dance.
Try the award winning Gold, Silver & Bronze Salsa Courses, learn to dance, have fun, keep fit and meet new friends. Check out the private lessons, weekly classes, regular workshops, bootcamps, monthly parties, holidays, and special events.
Experienced dancers are given fun, technically challenging classes, and plenty of hours to social dance to the latest Latin music by our fabulous DJ’s. The academy teach many Latin dance styles of salsa from LA Style, NY Style, Cuban and Puerto Rican, as well as Bachata, Kizomba, Cha Cha, Reggaeton, Latin Hip Hop, Merengue etc.
For more info and classes: https://www.incognitodance.com/
The best place to celebrate your Latin roots! Salsa classes every night of the week, amazing drinks menu with over 50 cocktails and of course non- stop Latin music.
This club/restaurant has menus to suit all occasions and tastes. For a bigger party or less formal occasion they Sharing Planks are perfect and includes Salsa favorites like tacos and Iberico ham croquettes. Special events, birthdays, parties and more, with the best atmosphere in London!
For more info and reservations: https://www.bar-salsa.com/soho
Edgardo ”El Bambino” Otero Lugo is the one to whom we want to dedicate some of the lines of this edition in International Salsa Magazine. The talented Puerto Rican vocalist has given us a few minutes of his time to talk exclusively about his beginnings, his career and other unpublished details that are not read in other media.
As Edgardo’s childhood took place in his hometown of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, the artist recalls that he would sit on the balcony of his house and play with buckets and sticks to pretend to play music. His mother, fed up with the noise he made, decided to enroll him in the school choir so that he could explore his curiosity about music in a more professional way. That was when he was in the fifth grade of the elementary school.
As the years went by, the boy’s love for music just kept growing, until he got his first big opportunity thanks to singer-songwriter Edwin Crespo, who had already written for famous groups such as La Sonora Ponceña at the time. Back then, Edgardo was only 14 or 15 years old, so he still needed a lot of guidance on these issues, so maestro Crespo was the ideal person for that.
It just so happenes that Pedro Crespo, Edwin’s father, was the founder of his own orchestra and grandfather of some of Edgardo’s cousins. Since they all lived nearby, Edwin heard him singing one day and liked his voice, so he offered to teach him how to sing professionally and invited him to join his Orquesta Ética, which is where it all began.
By being part of the Orquesta Ética, Edwin decided to spend two or three days a week explaining to Edgardo what to do and how to do it so that everything would go wonderfully for the young vocalist, and that is exactly what happened. So much so that Edgardo spent about three years singing for the group, in which he claims to have learned much of what he knows today.
After having left Orquesta La Ética, Edgardo was also part of Orquesta Los Rukanos, which was much bigger, had more instruments and more musicians. Therefore, it represented a bigger and more complex challenge.
In 1981, he was invited to join the group by a Guyanese friend and colleague named Ferniand Pudia, who asked Edgardo to join him in a musical project he was working on, which he would name Los Rukanos, paying homage to the term used to refer to peasants and working class men in the South American country.
Alongside with this orchestra, of which Edgardo was also one of the founders, he managed to perform in completely new stages and to follow his path in the learning of this complex and rich world that is music.
During a concert in his hometown, the members of Conjunto Quisqueya heard Edgardo singing and liked his voice so much that they invited him to play with them in a project for Nelson García, who at that time was the second trumpet of the orchestra.
Having accepted the offer, the group recorded a whole LP called ”Nelson García y Merengue ’86”, which was a very nice experience for Edgardo since he had never had the opportunity to record in a studio before and finally he was able to do so. And it was not just any studio, but one of the most important in Puerto Rico, which was Tele-Sound Recording Studios.
”Playing with the members of Conjunto Quisqueya was a spectacular experience. Their musicians are wonderful human beings with whom I still have very strong friendship bonds” said Edgardo about his experience in the ensemble.
There were some years that merengue was gaining a lot of popularity in Puerto Rico, so the artists and groups of the moment had to adapt to fulfill the musical taste of the audience. Such was the case of saxophonist Angel Rivera, also originally from Vega Baja, who created an orchestra and invited several musicians to play with him, including Edgardo.
The result was good acceptance from the public to the extent that the orchestra participated in competitions and won some awards thanks to the work done.
This was very useful for Edgardo’s career, since he succeeded in diversifying his rhythms and learning to play new things and genres, which made him acquire a lot of knowledge. Until such time as he played with Conjunto Quisqueya, he had only done salsa, so trying merengue was really enriching for the musician.
Edgardo was in the Puerto Rico National Guard for about 24 years in total and he remembers a time when he was mobilized to the Iraq War in 2006, the year in which he met Edwin ”El Calvito” Reyes, who was part of the 3rd Infantry. El Calvito” had a group whose lead singer could not speak Spanish, so he learned the lyrics phonetically in order to perform them.
The chemistry between all the members was so great that they even played a few times at the U.S. base in Baghdad, where he stayed until 2008. It was then that he returned to Puerto Rico to adapt gradually to civilian life again, during which time he met Raphy Santana and joined his Tribute Orchestra, which made music to pay homage to maestro Héctor Lavoe.
Permanent move to the United States
In 2019, both Edgardo and his wife were retired from their jobs, so they thought it was a good time for a change of scenery, as they felt that nothing interesting was going on musically. This led them to move to the United States to settle permanently there, although he continued to travel to Puerto Rico to meet some commitments with La Corporación Latina, of which he was still part at that time.
Read also: Momotombo SF with former members of Malo and Santana
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Do you enjoy Latin music? Would you like to get more involved in this genre and share your passion for Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Merengue and more. Why not joint our Global Team of volunteers as a correspondent?
You can ask for more details with no obligation and we’ll be happy to talk to you about the benefits that come with the role [Read more…] about ISM / October 2024
To get an idea of the musical family, let’s say that Johnny Rodriguez Sr. also took part in performances and recordings with musicians and singers of the stature of: Alfredito Levy, Joe Quijano, Jose Curbelo, Lou Perez Louie Ramirez, Machito, Miguelito Valdes, Noro Morales, Orlando Marin, Pete Terrace, Pupi Campo and Xavier Cugat.
The father’s enormous musical background was emulated in a great way with ample merits by the son.
Dandy Rodriguez grew up in Spanish Harlem in Manhattan, his home was very musical and when he was in high school he learned the details of percussion represented by the bongos, congas, timbales and drums. Influenced by his father he became interested in music and so in 1962 he joined the band of maestro Tito Puente.
His first professional recording was with Tito Puente and was titled Excitante Ritmo De Tito Puente; after this first album with Puente, “Dandy” Rodriguez began to deepen his musical studies listening and learning from leading musicians such as: José Mangual Senior bongosero from Machito, Rogelio “Yeyito” Iglesias bongosero from Cachao and Vitin Palacio bongosero from Johnny Segui.
He worked with the King of Timbales for more than three decades, initially in the sixties, more specifically from 1962 to 1972, then he rejoined Tito Puente’s band at the end of the seventies and was part of it practically until the death of the famous King of Timbales.
In the extensive career of our Johnny Rodriguez in music we must mention his internship with Joe Cuba’s orchestra, with whom “Dandy” Rodriguez himself says he participated in seven or eight albums since the mid-sixties; the first of them titled Joe Cuba Sextette – Comin’ At Yous; without forgetting to mention that in those albums the name of Johnny Rodriguez Jr. does not appear in the credits due to issues related to contracts with record companies.
His stay with Puente was not a limitation for him to be part of other musical groups, so he also worked for several years with another great of Latin music, the remembered Tito Rodríguez. He was also part of the band of the famous conguero Ray Barreto, replacing Tony Fuentes, and was one of the founders of the famous Típica 73 in 1972 and even took part in a couple of albums with Machito.
In the seventies, during the Salsa Boom, “Dandy” Rodriguez left his mark on recordings with: Jose “Cheo” Feliciano, Charlie Palmieri, Roberto Torres, Willie Rosario, Ismael Quintana, Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco, Louie Ramirez, Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz, Fania All Stars, Alfredo De La Fe, Conjunto Clásico, Henry Fiol and Tito Allen.
As we mentioned before, John Rodriguez returned to the band of maestro Tito Puente in 1978 and was part of the band until Ernesto Antonio Puente’s death in 2000 at the age of 77; he participated in this cycle in at least twenty musical works apart from a large number of concerts and performances on tours in different countries around the world.
During the first two decades of the new century, the musical work of maestro Johnny Rodriguez continued and his musical mark has remained in other publications with The Latin-Jazz Coalition, Frankie Morales, Eddie Palmieri, Gilberto Santa Rosa, George Delgado, Victor Manuelle, Rick Arroyo, Orestes Vilato, Mitch Frohman, Cita Rodriguez, Doug Beaver, Adalberto Santiago and Jeremy Bosch.
Also, special mention must be made of the participation of maestro Johnny Rodriguez with a group called The Latin Giants Of Jazz, in the best style of the classic Big Bands made up of great teachers, including some of the former members of maestro Tito Puente’s band; with this group they have published four albums; this project gave rise to another band called The Mambo Legends, who recorded the album entitled: Watch Out! Be careful!
John Rodriguez is without a doubt one of the most prolific percussionists in the world of Latin music called Salsa. The nickname “Dandy” dates back to his childhood when the car he was driven in was bought at a store or shop called “Dandy” and people said look how cute “Dandy” is and from there he stuck with that nickname. In music he is better known as Johnny instead of John.
In (the year 2022) the experienced Johnny Rodriguez had three or four groups with which he is playing, including Dandy Rodriguez and his Dream Team, while teaching percussion classes online.
In his very extensive artistic career, maestro Johnny Rodríguez was part of historic and iconic recordings of our musical culture, some of these albums have been worthy of awards such as the Grammy Award, among which are:
Tribute to Beny Moré – Year 1978
On Broadway – Year 1983
El Rey: Tito Puente & His Latin Ensemble – Year 1984
Mambo Diablo – Year 1985
Goza Mi Timbal – Year 1990
Mambo Birdland – Year 1999
Masterpiece / Obra Maestra Tito Puente & Eddie Palmieri – Year 2000.
Also Read: Jerry Ferrao says in salsa key: “My life is a drum”
Collaboration: Marino de Jesus (1588) from Salsa History from the Dominican Republic