Search Results for: Son

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and Latin music

The Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery is one of those places where every salsa lover in New York should visit since there is plenty to see here. This museum has all kinds of items donated by many renowned artists or relatives of some who had passed away. This collection of valuable possessions has resulted in a set of priceless objects that will bow anyone visiting the facilities of such a special institution out of water. 

The Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery, also known as Spaha Salsa Gallery, can be defined as an institution of a cultural nature whose main purpose is to serve as a reminder of how great our culture is, especially our music. Both residents and visitors of East Harlem, New York, can learn about the salsa genre and its roots as long as they desire. All thanks to a lot of tools, information and many initiatives with which those interested will know all kinds of interesting facts about salsa first hand. 

Another of the great objectives pursued by this place is the quest for knowledge about Latin music and the artists involved to offer it to anyone who decides to visit its facilities. That is why both its president Johnny Cruz and the team that helps him have been responsible for creating an inclusive and diverse gallery in which you can appreciate how far Hispanic talent has come by the hand of its top stars. 

Role of the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture 

The role played by the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture is very important, since these institutions are the ones that manage to arouse the interest of the inhabitants of Harlem and other nearby sectors towards one of the most representative musical genres of Latinity. This has made many other cultural institutions to use this gallery in order to awaken a higher interest in its own activities, which shows extensive cooperation between those who seek to promote anything Latin-related at all costs. 

Fortunately, our work is not that complicated to carry out because too many tourists visit New York every day and many of them know that this city was the birthplace of the biggest salsa movement in history, so they are always looking for cultural sports in which you can find information about this set of rhythms and how it emerges in the public arena.   

Who Johnny Cruz is 

Johnny Cruz is the founder of the Spaha Salsa Gallery, but there are many other facets by which this talented Puerto Rican is known in the entertainment industry. Cruz is a famous musician and record producer who has worked and make friends with a wide number of artists from all genres, by providing him with the platform to create a true sanctuary for Latin music lovers. 

One interesting fact about the museum is that it is located on the plot where a hardware business owned by Johnny’s father used to function, which was made into something completely different thanks to the genius of his son long after. Today, that place contains several of the most invaluable objects in the history of salsa and whose relationship with some of the greatest figures of the genre is legendary.   

Link to the official website of the Spaha Salsa gallery: spahasalsagallery.com

By: Johnny Cruz correspondent of International Salsa Magazine in New York City, New York

His beginnings

As we all know, the United States has been the birthplace of a large number of Latin music stars who are dedicated to this group of musical genres in order to stay true to their roots. Such is the case of Angel Papo Vazquez, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but much of his training occurred in Puerto Rico, so he has always had a very special connection with the Island of Enchantment. 

As a 14-year-old teenager, it was his uncle who recommended him to the first band in which he participated. It was around this time that he met famed trumpet player Jimmy Purvis, who would be his biggest inspiration to focus on jazz and start to show interest in trombone. The following year, the boy had already acquired enough experience to perform with local orchestras and accompany renowned artists such as Eddie Palmieri. 

A few years later, he decided to move to New York, where he would rack up most of his musical accomplishments to date. It was there that he performed and recorded along with some of the greatest Latin musicians such as Héctor Lavoe, Willie Colón, Ray Barreto, Larry Harlow and many others. He was hardly 20 years old when he had already toured the world and showed his talent to all types of audiences he could find on the way. 

His groups and orchestras

Another reason why he is so well known is for being one of the founding members of Ford Apache and Conjunto Libre de Jerry Gonzalez, but these are just some of the groups of which he was part. He was also in Tito Puente’s Latin Jazz Ensemble. It was with the King of Timbales with whom he achieved recognition as a lead trombonist and experimented a lot with jazz, a genre for which he was already fascinated at a very young age. 

After all the experience gained so far, Vasquez was able to start merging certain Afro-Caribbean rhythms that allowed him to innovate in jazz and Latin music in general. He was based on many of the things he learned and heard in Puerto for this. 

As early as the 1980s, Papo was mixing bomba jazz, which is basically a mix of jazz and traditional Puerto Rican bomba. In the 90’s, he recorded his first album as a bandleader and collaborated with a lot of Latin jazz artists who greatly appreciated his talent, resulting in great discographic works that are still remembered to this day. One of them was the one he made with certain New York personalities, which is a live recording that included the participation of recognized figures such as American saxophonist Michael Brecker, New York bassist Andy Gonzalez and many more. 

This project was called Pirates & Trobadours – At the point Volume 1 and evolved as such that it include more musicians who had no trouble joining the trombonist in this adventure. The group that made the album did many tours and performed at music festivals all over the world. They were so successful that they continued to make new editions throughout the years. In fact, one of Vasquez’s latest albums was Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours – Chapter 10: Breaking Cover, which was released in 2020. 

By: Johnny Cruz correspondent of International Salsa Magazine in New York City, New York

Historical background

Music is a crucial part in every man’s life regardless of his nationality, culture, age, life story or other particular details. This is because this set of sounds accompanies us as a species from time immemorial at every stage of our lives and during every emotion we feel. Every moment certainly has a musical background with which we can accompany it without any problem, so we can say that this union of melodies has a very deep connection with what we feel. 

Our ancestors already knew how important this tool would be for the future when they began to realize that music and other sounds were extremely useful when communicating, warning others about possible dangerous situations, among other things. At the same time, this element was a great help for humans to develop social skills and create a language with which to express their ideas. 

Let us not forget that naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin speaks at great length on the issue in his text On The Origin of Species, in which he comments that the rhythm and cadence of human speaking has certain musical sounds. This is one of the indications of a possible active role in speech development, but the influence of music goes far beyond, but also seems to be able to alter our emotions at surprising levels. 

How this connection works

When analyzing the evolutionary process our brain has gone through over time, sounds are an essential part of the creation of patterns and emotions. In fact, emotions are responsible for making sounds understandable to our minds without even realizing it. This association between sound and emotion is what enables us to manage our reactions depending on the context in which we find ourselves at a certain point. 

The above is what lets us know if a person is happy or sad just by listening to the tone with which he or she speaks. For the most part, we usually relate sadness to a deep low sound, but the contrary happens with happiness. This differentiation we manage to make is what lets us know how we should act depending on the situation. 

According to information available from plenty of neuroscientific studies, music is perfectly capable of altering our moods by activating certain areas of the brain entirely linked to emotions, which has led to truly amazing changes in brain stem activity. 

Something quite revealing to say on this subject is that music activates the areas of the brain that are responsible for imitation and empathy. At the same time these are the parts in the brain where mirror neurons are found, which are activated when a person performs an action and sees another one do exactly the same thing. This is how we are able to feel pain for what others suffer, to rejoice over the good things that happen to them. That is the reason why music is able to bring so many people in one voice and make them feel the same just by listening to a song.   

When words are not enough to express what we want to say, we can use music to achieve that purpose, since it helps us with the sensory description. This is how we get message recipients to understand our ideas perfectly.