El Concierto Del Amor 2k3
By
Nestor Louis
After being away from the Latin music scene for over a year due to total boredom, I decided to jump back in with both feet by checking out El Concierto Del Amor for the first time since they began. It was an interesting event to say the least. I asked Debbie Mercado if she could kindly put me on her guest list with a plus one, and she did. But because I wasn't precise in asking for tickets, I ended up with a green bracelet on my wrist that only got me limited press access to the concert. This error on my part got me placed in a controlled area with the real media, watching a tv monitor with the sound turned down, waiting for each artist to come into the room to field questions from them. Lucky thing my plus one didn't feel like going out.
Don Chezina, promptly got things started with his brand of reggae en Espaņol, complete with DJ, digital mixing equipment, and scantily clad women. A herd of camera people were ushered from the press room to the front of the stage to take pictures, and quickly ushered back. While I'm not a fan of this musical genre, I'm still able to appreciate a good show when I see one. The large crowd at hand certainly did. Did I mention scantily clad women?
The reggae en Espaņol tease was over and quickly the crew responsible for setting up and setting down the equipment got to work for the next act. I took this time to survey my surroundings and, considering the horrendous weather and driving conditions of the night; I was surprised to see the huge turn out of people that came out to support the artists scheduled to perform.
Next - Sporting a reddish-brown shirt & slacks, a yellow silk tie, and silver jacket was El Gallo Salsero Tito Rojas. Tito Rojas had control of the stage for approximately 45 minutes. Pretty much every act, with the exception of Don Chezina, did. During his time on, Tito did a medley of his most popular tunes that included Seņora and Siempre Sere followed by an extended descarga version of A Todas Las Mujeres. Albeit the sound was less than tolerable because the acoustics in the sporting arena are not exactly designed to host tropical music concerts with lots of brass and hand percussion, but nevertheless the crowd seemed to enjoy his performance. I was indifferent to it. Don't ask me why.
However, nothing could've prepared me for what the next act had in store for me. Not even ear plugs could've protected me from the shrieking that was emitted for the next forty five minutes. There was something about this next performance, that even the most amateurish contestant on American Idol couldn't, shouldn't, and wouldn't dare to imitate for fear of not being allowed to audition in front of a deaf panel of judges. India, a woman with a great vocal range who exhibits at times great ability in emoting the proper sentiments out of a song; totally reverted to her days of plain old yelling at the top of her lungs in order to compete with the brute force sound of a 1993 Eddie Palmieri Orchestra. I'll never forget the look on three to five people heading out of the immediate arena plugging their ears in shocking discomfort. "Geez I'm not alone here", I said to myself. In all fairness to the acclaimed Princesa de la Salsa, the acoustics seemed to be definitely bad, and the band headed by Isidro Infante was playing excessively loud. Maybe she couldn't hear herself and was trying to compensate for it by plain ole yelling. By the way, it's official... India is "La Princesa de la Salsa". It's true! She said so herself, either after Polito Vega or Celia Cruz anointed her with that title - almost 9 years ago. India went on to sing a bolero-guajira that was not bad. Until it suddenly became a stage that was too small for both, a soloing Nelson Gonzalez and an exorcized India, who clearly was feeling the music just a bit too much. Throwing herself on the floor, rolling her neck along with her lusciously gorgeous mane of hair, without a doubt got the crowd excited. They cheered and clapped for that display of musical passion (if you want to call it that) with such fervor you'd swear The New York Mets won The World Series - at last. India's performance was yet another modern day case of The Emperor's New Clothes. India's theatrics went to the point of deception. With a little over 30 minutes into her set, MC's of the night came up to the stage to pretend to "yank" her off the stage cause her time was up. Bull! The fact is that her time was not up, she still owed us about 8 more minutes. All that drama was a crazy ploy concocted to... I don't know... Maybe get the audience to think - "how sweet of India. She's so concerned about us. She wants to play one more song for us, but they won't let her. YOU GO GIRL!!! YOU SHOW THEM WHO IS BOSS!" How corny. On a brighter note, I found India to be incredibly gracious when she acknowledged the record company that gave birth to her salsa singing career, RMM Records. That was in a word - sweet - of her to do. Overall, India's performance was misguided, but showed great talent and potential that could be indicative of a stellar career. A career that could and should be bigger than anything she's ever done thus far.
Because I'm not a big fan of merengue, I didn't watch Los Hermanos Rosario perform. Instead, I left the halls of the arena for a comfortable chair in the press room. Heck! I was tired, and my feet were hurting! Watched a couple camera dudes trade business cards, other press folks were chatting amongst themselves. Me? I was watching this hottie in a brown outfit prance around the room. Oh yeah, I was also watching The Rosarios on the tv monitor. I guess they did a great job because the live roar from the audience could be heard in the press room. I didn't realize they had so many hit songs! At this point, Rafael Ithier and some members of El Gran Combo waltzed into the press room to greet the attendees. Once there, they recorded a bunch of promos for different radio stations, took a bunch of pictures with different people, and proceeded to answer the standard questions. Rafael - Como se siente usted y el resto de los muchachos por participar esta noche? All was going well until someone asked, Rafael, que opina usted de la palabra salsa al ser utilizada para describir lo que en realidad es musica cubana? I cannot believe that people still ask this silly question. Isn't this the new millennium? 2k3? Here's a group of well documented musicians with over 35 years of experience. Why are their balls being busted on? When we started way back in the sixties, salsa was never called that, it was called tropical music. And to complicate things a bit more, each rhythm had a name. The bolero, the chacha, the guajira, the son, the guaguanco, the guaracha, the pachanga, on and on... many of the people earning a living off them, Beny More, Vicentico Valdez, Orlando Contreras... and many others, were cuban. To me it's interesting that those great figures in our musical history, never tagged their nationality to the source of its origin. Isn't that something? Now, the word salsa is just that - a word. A word that due to its simplicity became commercial enough to describe the type of music that is now performed all over the world. Music that has earned El Gran Combo a lot of love from its fans world wide. So to answer your question, I don't have a problem with it.
By this time, Los Hermanos Rosario were through with their act and gave way to the performance I, under the guise of journalistic interest, wanted to see. Gilberto Santa Rosa. The band, headed by Jose M. Lugo along with some of its most recognizable members, took the stage. The difference in sound quality, while still too loud, was as extreme as night and day. For starters, you could understand every word Gilberto said and sang. It was in direct contrast to the prior acts. It was in direct contrast to the Gilberto Santa Rosa of say... 5 years ago! I remember the days Gilberto couldn't sing for more than 4 songs before he would start losing his voice. Understanding every word that a singer sings, while being backed by a full band that includes brass and percussion, is the barometer that gauges in my ears the difference between a great vocalist and the average street singer. There was a short period of time when even Gilberto couldn't hit the high notes on HIS songs! Vivir Sin Ella became the song he would have the audience sing for him. Not anymore. Gilberto sang one of his most difficult tunes in recent times, Que Alguien Me Diga. The crowd loved it. Minutes later, he introduced a long time musical partner with whom he shared many stage areas under the tutelage of Willie Rosario. Backed by Gilberto Santa Rosa's band, Tony Vega came on stage. He sang two songs, Aparentemente & Dejeme Soņar. The latter was done as a duet with Gilberto, and to tell the truth - Tony Vega should've never come out to sing. The man had zero voice. Aparentemente, Tony's voice was so weak and hoarse that suddenly feedback noise broke from the speakers. Like Gilberto Santa Rosa used to do 5 years ago, Tony Vega resorted to "encouraging" the audience to sing along with him. Later Gilberto joined Tony, and the pairing of their voices was like the pairing of Placido Domingo & the worst out of tune singer imaginable. Without Tony Vega sharing the stage, Gilberto returned to his show - singing his music. His act truly commands a stage without really trying. It is really something to witness. In a manner reminiscent of the late Frank Sinatra, Gilberto Santa Rosa has no need for choreographed dance routines, or seizuresque yelling episodes; His relaxed intensity, is the portrait of an artist with class, posture, and talent that's clearly evident. Again - without really trying.
As soon as Gilberto ended his show, I bolted for the door. My feet were killing me! So I didn't get to see El Gran Combo perform. And lucky I didn't! Not because I didn't want to see them perform, but because, it took me almost 30 minutes to locate my car. The Continental Arena, is great facility with a huge parking lot but with the thread of rain looming not far in the distance, finding my car to beat traffic on to The Lincoln Tunnel was a wiser proposition. I was decisive, and took action! If only I would've asked for tickets.
Š 2003 Nestor A. Louis
Nestor@palosalsero.com
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