Your Love Affair With Salsa

groovetpt

groovetpt

Son Montuno
Another member of this forum, timberamayor, made me think of an idea for a new thread. Being so passionate and enthusiastic about Timba -- actually, "abnormous" is what she calls herself :-) -- I was curious about how she became Timbera Mayor. So I asked her about this in another thread, "Que Suene La Timba" ( salsaforums.com/showthread.php?t=18511 ).

Before I post timberamayor's response ( she gave me permission ), I also want to ask others here at SF about their love affairs with Salsa... how it began, what got you to this point, why you are so passionate about the music, the dance, and so on.

Some may have been listening to Salsa since the womb, maybe part of your culture growing up... some may have discovered Salsa later in life... some speak and understand Spanish fluently, some not at all... Some are more into the music and aren't dancers, for others it's all about the dance. It's all good.

So, what's your story about your love affair with Salsa? Dancers, DJs, musicians, abnormous fans... post your story here. Could be fun.
 
Timbera Mayor

So, here is timberamayor's post...

I don't really know exactly. I have always loved music since I was a kid and I love to sing along. I used to sing in a choir and play the oboe but I quit all that in my mid-teens. You should have seen me in my opera period. I used to sit at work (when everyone had their own office) with the door shut and sing along to opera :)

Here's my salsa story...
One summer the group of friend I hung out with increased in size by a half-Mexican/half-Swedish girl, a Mexican guy and a Colombian guy. It also just so happened that one of the Swedish guys among us started dating the daughter of the Dominican Republic's Ambassador to Sweden. So there were a lot of Latinos around.

On Dominican Republic day we went to the only salsateca at the time and even though we had no idea what we were doing, I had one of the best times of my life. We were just standing in the middle of the dance floor and the Colombian guy was showing us basic steps. Looking back I'm sure all the salseros were as irritated as heck with us but we were blissfully ignorant :)

So then I decided I wanted to learn to dance so I could relive that experience. A Norwegian guy in our group was interested the Half-Mexican girl and wanted to impress her, so we started taking lessons together. But after he'd taken say 12 weeks of lessons (mixed Cuban and Colombian style but at the time I had no idea there was any difference in styles) he quit because they were now dating and they could dance OK together so he was satisfied. BTW: They are now married and have 3 lovely children.

So I quit becasue I had no one to dance with. Oh but I kept listening to salsa music at home, just salsa romantica: Marc Anthony, Victor Manuelle, Rey Ruiz that type of stuff.

About 2 years later a guy at work who had lived in Mexico wanted to learn so I started the beginner's class again with him. He and I would practice Wednesday nights at his apartment and then go to la Isla, still pretty much the only club as far as I know at that time. We knew that we had to get out and dance if we were going to remember anything from class. And from then on I just kept going even after he quit.

I'd say 3 weeks into our first class together we asked some of the best dancers at the club who their teacher was. They introduced us to him and we started taking classes with him the next week. He was a Cuban street dancer whose grandparents had been great son dancers. He had an incredibly elegant style. One of my friends once said "There are a lot of Cuban men who look cool when they dance but he is the only one I've seen who makes the dance look beautiful". I have never seen any video fo him dancing otherwise I'd link to it for you.

At this time (1999) there was still no xbody salsa in Stockholm. So the clubs played all music from all countries. I'd say in about 2001 xbody finally started making inroads when a Colombian guy and his wife started teaching it. they were very popular with the young latinos so everyone started joining. I took a few classes and some workshops and some ET2 workshops workshop but the styling, dips, spins all turn me off so I never really went anywhere with xbody. This is also when the clubs started segregating into Xbody with PR/NY music versus Cuban.

As for the music...I can't say exactly when I realized I was a timbera since people played all music at the clubs. I know that the first Cuban CD I bought was Marcando La Distancia because as soon as I heard Manolito's opening tumbao I was just blown away. It was like a shot of adrenaline. That would have been some time in 2000.

I remember the first time I heard Lola Lola by La Charanga Habanera. I literally thought to myself "This is the most perfect song ever written!" and I listened to it over and over for hours day after day. You might call me slightly obsessive. I think that right there was a pretty good clue as to my musical leanings but I suppose at the time I didn't really understand the implications.
Note to readers: If you love this song you are probably a timbero
youtube.com/watch?v=l4qOmBNCirU

But what pushed me over the edge into my current abnormous obsession was the 2003 concert by la Charanga Habanera in Stockholm. It was the group that recorded the CD Soy Cubano, Soy Popular but before that CD came out. I made a serious mistake inviting a bunch of non-dancing friends. Never ever do that! Only one came, and that was just because he was interested in me. So I ended up with someone who couldn't dance and since he was alone I felt like I couldn't leave him by himself. I developed a bad headache and when the first set ended I thought the concert was over because my Spanish wasn't good enough to understand.

I was still really amazed by the part I'd seen and when I found out I'd missed a whole set and that it was even better than the first set I became obsessed with seeing them again. So 5 months later I went to see them at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and that was that. Kevin at Timba.com had asked in his blog if anyone had seen the concert, so I sent him some pictures and a report on the concert and that was how I got involved with Timba.com. In August 2004 I started the Timba Geeks yahoo group and I guess that's about the whole story in much more detail than you wanted :)

Here they are a year later, this time I stayed for the whole show!
youtube.com/watch?v=W6f7sPzAB_o
 
Now this is my kind of thread!1 :banana:

My love affair with Salsa, started in the womb, my mom played music when she was pregnant and she told me that everytime I moved like crazy. She knew I was going to love music. From her side of the family are a lot of musicians (not famous ones), so I get the gene from my family. :banana:

I grew up listening to salsa my whole life. I've seen all the PR Orquestras and bands live for free & my favorites sometimes I've paid to see them!! PR bands usually play for free when they're promoting new albums everywhere they can. :banana:

My love for the dance was always there, yet I never had the opportunity to dance slot style/ x-body. My dad taught me & my sisters to dance salsa (street style) in a classy way, very very old school. My dad grew up in NYC during the time of the palladium, yet he so he taught us the basics. "That's all you need go have fun" he would tell us.
My uncles would dance with me at every family event there was, every quinceañera, every wedding, every baptism, Christmas, new years, the epiphany celebrations, beach party, block parties, birthdays!!!

My mom & school teachers taught us (me & my sisters) bomba, plena & rumba for the schoolplays. I was the Indian, so I never got to perform, but I learned the dances anyway.

It was in 2000 (my son was 3 years old) that I got the curiosity bug. I took classes in an academy for about 6 months. Learned On1, learned some hand-styling and began the transition to On2, but I never dared to go out socially. Many reasons the main one was my son was too young for me to go out and dance. I put salsa dancing aside for about 5 years. During that dance hiatus, my son began taking percussion lessons in school, so being his #1 fan, I told him to teach me clave and how to find it.

The PR Salsa Congress was promoting free tickets on a Radio Sation in 2005, and I won 2 tickets. My son was on vacations with his dad, so I went to the congress and that was when cupid hit me with Salsa!! I went with a friend of mine, just to sit and watch the dancers. One of the dancers, he was from Mexico asked me to dance, I think he saw our faces so excited and in awe. I refused because I felt overwhelmed, yet he kept insisting, even his partner urged me!! I told him I only knew basic. After the dance, he said "You're a very good dancer, you dont know how good you are". I danced with him three more times that night & my friend also danced with him three more times, we had the time of lives. We will never forget it. She enrolled in classes right after that, until she married my cousin (talk about destiny!).

After that I never stopped going to the Salsa Congress until I moved to NJ in 2010.
 
my story go way back to my childhood.

my father was a 78rpm records enthusiast. when young, he used to collect all records that were discarded in his hometown jukeboxes (10" 78RPM's at that time). I remember he has hundreds of them and when a party was going on in my house (this happened very often) he used to take out the Victrola, choose songs until he make a big pile and then he inserted all of them in the gently arms of the record player.

all kind of music was played then... trios, folk music (Chuito, Ramito, etc.), big bands, mariachis, boleros, south american waltzes, merengue, cumbias and, of course, mambos, guarachas and guaguancos. at that time, my Dad was the "DJ".

every saturday, he turned on that Victrola very early in the morning. we were used to wake up with music. on these occasions, LP's were preferred (less time to decide what to play). I clearly recall listening to Lebron Brothers (Salsa y Control), Tommy Olivencia, Felipe Pirela, Roberto Ledesma and even Los Ángeles Negros when I was 8 or 9 years old.

my first LP was Harlow's "Salsa", followed by Harlow's "Hommy". I was 12 then.

as years passed by, more records and several 7" 45RPM's were bought, beginning my collection. I still have two Coors Light boxes full with 45's. LP's can't be afforded so 45's were the logical choice. 75 cents each one at that time.

radio stations like Radio Voz, WIAC (Terry Denizard's Night Show), WKVM and WKAQ shaped my Salsa preferences as Fania and a lot of other record companies brought "new" recordings during the 70's. We were living in their golden era without even knowing it.

after loosing a few records, decided to stop lending them (a practice that I still keep), changing the option to being the only one playing my own records at each friend's party. I guess that's when I started as a DJ.

8-tracks joined the collection; my first one was Corporación Latina's 2nd. recording in 1974. Light FX's were limited to used Christmas lights, a Radio Shack traffic light and a couple of strobe lights.

after working with a few Frankenstein builded hi-fi equipments, I decided to buy a decent one: A top-of-the-line Technics combo and a mini-fan (to keep it cool!).

after high school years and with a few savings, I finally bought my first pro-equipment (Peavey).

Attached Pictures... #1 & #2: My Sister and I dancing in front of the Victrola furniture (5 and 8 year old, respectively). #3: DJ Javier, circa 1988.
 

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My first strong musical memory was when I was eight years old. My father took me to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. They had a lot of hits on the radio then. The year was 1966. I was immediately attracted to the sound of the trumpet and bugged my father to buy me a trumpet. I got one for Christmas that year. It looked so fantastic, the shiny gold brass inside the red velvet case.

Fast forward to 1982... I'm a music major student at City College of New York. I was mainly interested in Jazz by this time. After a couple of semesters at City I noticed something. The jazz students I was hanging with, well, we couldn’t get any gigs in clubs. But this whole other group of Latino students at the College were gigging almost every night, travelling to other countries, recording albums... I was going to school with Sergio George, Oscar Hernandez, Joe Santiago, Ricky Gonzalez… and these guys were playing five nights a week with bands like Machito, Hector Casanova, Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow... They were already veteran musicians on the Salsa scene, where you learned the style mainly on the band stand and being mentored by an older musician. They were going to CCNY to get more knowledge about Jazz and music theory, arranging techniques, etc.

One day a trumpet player at school asked if I was interested in playing a Salsa gig later that night. A band leader needed a trumpet player last minute. “Heck yeah, I’ll do it!”. There was no rehearsal. Just wear a black suit and read the music. Keep in mind I was not familiar with Salsa at all really except for what I heard blaring from car radios and in the bodegas around City College. I was not prepared for the shock and adrenaline rush I was about to experience. I had played Big Band Jazz before, but this was a whole other thing. And it was heavy.

The club was dark, but elegant. The women looked beautiful in their dresses and high heels, guys mostly in suits. Well groomed. Very sophisticated looking. It was primarily a Puerto Rican crowd. They were dancing in this amazingly graceful and sensual style and they looked so good doing it. All my senses were on high alert.

It’s time for us to play. The band leader counts off the first song, stomps his foot very forcefully in time while screaming AH, AH, AH-AH-AH-AH… Man, I was not prepared for what happened after that first downbeat. I had to play loud, clean, in tune, articulating notes in a certain way, like never before. The stage was vibrating from the drums and bass. And the songs seemed to go on forever, ten or fifteen minutes each. The dancers loved it, they didn’t want the songs to end, it seemed. I had to pick up things by ear (moñas) from the other trumpet players as we extended the songs. It was a challenge and I was just hanging on for dear life. Plus, the force of beat four on the 3 side of the clave was throwing me off. I thought four was one sometimes. I didn’t know anything about clave. Boy did I have some homework and listening to do. Truth be told, I was out of my league that night, but I was so enthralled by the whole scene I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of.

Not long after that we played another gig. Another band was getting ready to play in the same club. This was normal in those days… two or three big name bands playing in the same club on the same night, from 10 pm until 4 am. It was Luis Perico Ortiz. I'd heard about this guy, what a great trumpet player he was and how tight his band was. Well, I was standing near the band stand. They looked great, all in matching tailored suits, and Perico counted off "De Patitas". Man, the hair on my neck stood up on end. It sounded so hip, so tight, so enticing, so powerful. That was it. I never looked back.
 
Great stories, EMOYENO and Abayarde! I was hoping you both would post.

Those pictures are priceless, Abayarde.

I'm hoping to hear from El Caobo, sweavo, DJ Ara, and a whole bunch others...
 
groovetpt said:
My first strong musical memory was when I was eight years old. My father took me to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. They had a lot of hits on the radio then. The year was 1966. I was immediately attracted to the sound of the trumpet and bugged my father to buy me a trumpet. I got one for Christmas that year. It looked so fantastic, the shiny gold brass inside the red velvet case.

Fast forward to 1982... I'm a music major student at City College of New York. I was mainly interested in Jazz by this time. After a couple of semesters at City I noticed something. The jazz students I was hanging with, well, we couldn’t get any gigs in clubs. But this whole other group of Latino students at the College were gigging almost every night, travelling to other countries, recording albums... I was going to school with Sergio George, Oscar Hernandez, Joe Santiago, Ricky Gonzalez… and these guys were playing five nights a week with bands like Machito, Hector Casanova, Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow... They were already veteran musicians on the Salsa scene, where you learned the style mainly on the band stand and being mentored by an older musician. They were going to CCNY to get more knowledge about Jazz and music theory, arranging techniques, etc.

One day a trumpet player at school asked if I was interested in playing a Salsa gig later that night. A band leader needed a trumpet player last minute. “Heck yeah, I’ll do it!”. There was no rehearsal. Just wear a black suit and read the music. Keep in mind I was not familiar with Salsa at all really except for what I heard blaring from car radios and in the bodegas around City College. I was not prepared for the shock and adrenaline rush I was about to experience. I had played Big Band Jazz before, but this was a whole other thing. And it was heavy.

The club was dark, but elegant. The women looked beautiful in their dresses and high heels, guys mostly in suits. Well groomed. Very sophisticated looking. It was primarily a Puerto Rican crowd. They were dancing in this amazingly graceful and sensual style and they looked so good doing it. All my senses were on high alert.

It’s time for us to play. The band leader counts off the first song, stomps his foot very forcefully in time while screaming AH, AH, AH-AH-AH-AH… Man, I was not prepared for what happened after that first downbeat. I had to play loud, clean, in tune, articulating notes in a certain way, like never before. The stage was vibrating from the drums and bass. And the songs seemed to go on forever, ten or fifteen minutes each. The dancers loved it, they didn’t want the songs to end, it seemed. I had to pick up things by ear (moñas) from the other trumpet players as we extended the songs. It was a challenge and I was just hanging on for dear life. Plus, the force of beat four on the 3 side of the clave was throwing me off. I thought four was one sometimes. I didn’t know anything about clave. Boy did I have some homework and listening to do. Truth be told, I was out of my league that night, but I was so enthralled by the whole scene I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of.

Not long after that we played another gig. Another band was getting ready to play in the same club. This was normal in those days… two or three big name bands playing in the same club on the same night, from 10 pm until 4 am. It was Luis Perico Ortiz. I'd heard about this guy, what a great trumpet player he was and how tight his band was. Well, I was standing near the band stand. They looked great, all in matching tailored suits, and Perico counted off "De Patitas". Man, the hair on my neck stood up on end. It sounded so hip, so tight, so enticing, so powerful. That was it. I never looked back.
Click to expand...

Fantastic story. thanks!
 
groovetpt said:
Great stories, EMOYENO and Abayarde! I was hoping you both would post.

Those pictures are priceless, Abayarde.

I'm hoping to hear from El Caobo, sweavo, DJ Ara, and a whole bunch others...
Click to expand...
Yeah I love those pictures. thanks for sharing them Abayarde.
 
One summer evening, while walking around the Ithaca Commons I heard music that transported me back to being a child again; in bed late at night listening to the faint sound of music coming from the local street bar ays I fell asleep. Happy Memories! Intrigued I walked into a party where friendly hosts introduced me to the language of Latin partner dance. Enamored by the hypnotic rhythms of the different styles (salsa, bachata, cha cha cha, merengue...) and movement of people on the dance floor. I quickly discovered I had found the missing pieces in my life puzzle: Latin dance and music. Finally I had come back home in a foreign land, reconnecting to the drumbeats of Tanzania, East Africa – my birthplace - and the Goan "susegad" lifestyle. I believe that this happened in 2001/2002...
Anyway, I soon became an active participant in the Latin dance community, taking lessons with two dance teachers, starting rueda de casino, and then participating in the Ithaca Salseros, La Familia de la Salsa of Syracuse. I began conducting rueda practicas on Saturdays, doing team practices 3-5 times a week, going dancing 2-3 times a week...I started also doing other partner dances. I taught a few private lessons on the side.
In 2006 I bought a house and slowed down considerably. Then in 2010 I decided to really get back into the scene again. I soon was attending Palante of Cornell University, and SMAC rueda troupe of Binghamton practices, and classes by Palante and at Oasis Dance club. The teacher at Oasis asked if I would like to co-teach classes with her. In 2011 I started a rueda dance group with Nancy A, and started djing and tecahing privates regularly.
Now this is how I describe my love affair for Latin:
As a dancer, I strive to maintain the magical trinity of three - music, partner, and dance - as one. The music needs to move me for me to dance. (No overplayed tracks please...) I am sensitive to how my partner moves, for example moving away from closed if my partner is jarring me when doing bachata. I often can be spotted at Latin dances throughout the region: Rochester , Syracuse , Binghamton , Ithaca and more. I enjoy calling social ruedas as a way of building up the rueda community.
As an instructor I want to share the joy of dance, as I believe that anyone can put rhythm in motion.
As a DJ, I wish to share the breadth and depth of Latin music –old and new - with you. I take advantage of my experience as a dancer and instructor to inform my music mix. I am passionate about exposing dancers to the latest global trends, like timba and merengue electronica, while at the same time keeping people moving on the dance floor. I do my best to keep on playing new songs rather than the same old tracks, and think i do a decent job. I do emphasize cuban salsa, but then that's me. ;-)
 
Nice stories by everyone. I like this thread!! :rocker:

groovetpt said:
The club was dark, but elegant. The women looked beautiful in their dresses and high heels, guys mostly in suits. Well groomed. Very sophisticated looking. It was primarily a Puerto Rican crowd. They were dancing in this amazingly graceful and sensual style and they looked so good doing it. All my senses were on high alert.
Click to expand...
I was wondering about that not too long ago, maybe the change in culture from Puerto Rico to NJ/NYC. I find it very insulting (maybe I'm old schooled) when I get very dressed up to go to the clubs and the guys are all dressed down, wearing jeans that look more like mechanic workshop or painters jeans than anything suited to dance. I understand it's comfortable, but please if I dressed up (took my sweet time getting pretty - because competition is fierce) so I can attract you guys to dance with me (just one dance!) and the guys now a days are all ugly dressed. talk to the hand!! I wont hear it. I find very insulting period!!!
--- On another note, back to topic----
groovetpt said:

Not long after that we played another gig...... It was Luis Perico Ortiz. I'd heard about this guy, what a great trumpet player he was and how tight his band was. Well, I was standing near the band stand. They looked great, all in matching tailored suits, and Perico counted off "De Patitas". Man, the hair on my neck stood up on end. It sounded so hip, so tight, so enticing, so powerful. That was it. I never looked back.
Click to expand...

How awesome is that you played with Luis Perico Ortiz, do you know he still teaches at the Music Conservatory in San Juan? :rocker:
 
I was wondering about that not too long ago, maybe the change in culture from Puerto Rico to NJ/NYC. I find it very insulting (maybe I'm old schooled) when I get very dressed up to go to the clubs and the guys are all dressed down, wearing jeans that look more like mechanic workshop or painters jeans than anything suited to dance. I understand it's comfortable, but please if I dressed up (took my sweet time getting pretty - because competition is fierce) so I can attract you guys to dance with me (just one dance!) and the guys now a days are all ugly dressed. talk to the hand!! I wont hear it. I find very insulting period!!!
Click to expand...
Ha! Well, when I was first exposed to the Latin music scene, in the night clubs in New York City in the early 1980's, people dressed up when they went out dancing - men and women. And one thing I noticed during that era was that the bands that visited from Puerto Rico always looked so sharp. I'm talking about Willie Rosario, Sonora Ponceña, Roberto Roena... they always wore coordinated suits. I think that is where Perico got that from, being from the island, and he was always a very sharp dresser and he insisted on his band appearing that way.

How awesome is that you played with Luis Perico Ortiz, do you know he still teaches at the Music Conservatory in San Juan? :rocker:
Click to expand...
Actually, that night I wasn't playing with Perico -- I was there with another other band -- but I got to watch him perform for the first time and it blew me away, to say the least. I did get to play with Perico and his band a few months later at El Corso, however. What a thrill that was.

Yes, I heard that Perico teaches at the Conservatory in San Juan. A classy man and incredible musician.
 
I first began learning Spanish from a couple guys stationed with me in the U.S. Marine Corps. They were Mexican-Americans and I started enjoying regional Mexican music.

When I left the military, I majored in Spanish in college.

At a job, while trying to impress a co-worker with my Spanish, I started singing a Mexican song to her. She told me that she didn't like that music and then brought me several cassette tapes with salsa and merengue on them. I fell in love with salsa.

A friend took me to a bar to shoot pool. It happened to be the area's only Puerto Rican bar and had nothing but salsa and merenuge on the juke box. There was a set of very nice, wooden, LP congas sitting in front of the juke box. There also were güiros, maracas and a cow-bell available behind the bar. For a few years, I went nearly every day. I met some wonderful boricuas there who schooled me on all the instruments. I eventually learned to play them all considerably well. Two of my new friends from there came to my house and taught me and my wife how to dance to the music. They were not school trained, but were able to give us a great lesson on how to feel the music and dance to it naturally; just as they did. One of my new boricua friends happened to need a few bucks and offered to sell me some of his salsa albums. I bought Marvin Santiago's "Fuego en la jicotea," Hector Lavoe's "La comedia," Willie Colon and Ruben Blades' "Siembra," and a few more.

The owner of that place decided to move back to Puerto Rico, so he closed the bar! This was a sad time for me! I wanted to hear the music, play the instruments and dance to it. So, I started asking everyone that I thought could tell me, where I could find salsa. Someone finally told me of another place on the other side of town that was similar to the bar that had been closed. There, I met more great boricuas. I started going there often and grew more and more in love with salsa.

Finally, back on my side of town, I found a group of older salseros who had an every-other-week party in a local bar. I met the dj there and established a rapport with him. I started buying more salsa music, with a fury and a passion. After amassing quite a collection, I decided to try djing in a bar near my house.

I eventually joined a professional dj pool; for which I would become their marketing representative. At the time I was the marketing director for Latin America for the Chicago office of the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India. So, I knew a thing or two about marketing. Because of my connection to that music, a guy doing a radio show asked me to be his co-host and I did so.

After some time co-hosting that show, I applied for my own show and about 6 months later, was giving a show of my own.

Online, I met another salsa lover and radio host, Latin Lady Dj Margarita. She put me in touch with the owners of the Fania catalog at that time, and I established a rapport with them, because of Latin Lady Dj Margarita.

A few years later, the new owners of the Fania catalog contacted me and we reached the terms of an agreement that would be meaningful, long-lasting and that I very much cherish.

Recently, I established a rapport with another professional dj pool; which when combined with the classic Fania catalog enbles me to be able to spin both classic and contemporary salsa music.

This is essentially what my "love affair" with salsa has been!
 
El Caobo said:
I first began learning Spanish from a couple guys stationed with me in the U.S. Marine Corps. They were Mexican-Americans and I started enjoying regional Mexican music.

When I left the military, I majored in Spanish in college.

At a job, while trying to impress a co-worker with my Spanish, I started singing a Mexican song to her. She told me that she didn't like that music and then brought me several cassette tapes with salsa and merengue on them. I fell in love with salsa.

A friend took me to a bar to shoot pool. It happened to be the area's only Puerto Rican bar and had nothing but salsa and merenuge on the juke box. There was a set of very nice, wooden, LP congas sitting in front of the juke box. There also were güiros, maracas and a cow-bell available behind the bar. For a few years, I went nearly every day. I met some wonderful boricuas there who schooled me on all the instruments. I eventually learned to play them all considerably well. Two of my new friends from there came to my house and taught me and my wife how to dance to the music. They were not school trained, but were able to give us a great lesson on how to feel the music and dance to it naturally; just as they did. One of my new boricua friends happened to need a few bucks and offered to sell me some of his salsa albums. I bought Marvin Santiago's "Fuego en la jicotea," Hector Lavoe's "La comedia," Willie Colon and Ruben Blades' "Siembra," and a few more.

The owner of that place decided to move back to Puerto Rico, so he closed the bar! This was a sad time for me! I wanted to hear the music, play the instruments and dance to it. So, I started asking everyone that I thought could tell me, where I could find salsa. Someone finally told me of another place on the other side of town that was similar to the bar that had been closed. There, I met more great boricuas. I started going there often and grew more and more in love with salsa.

Finally, back on my side of town, I found a group of older salseros who had an every-other-week party in a local bar. I met the dj there and established a rapport with him. I started buying more salsa music, with a fury and a passion. After amassing quite a collection, I decided to try djing in a bar near my house.

I eventually joined a professional dj pool; for which I would become their marketing representative. At the time I was the marketing director for Latin America for the Chicago office of the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India. So, I knew a thing or two about marketing. Because of my connection to that music, a guy doing a radio show asked me to be his co-host and I did so.

After some time co-hosting that show, I applied for my own show and about 6 months later, was giving a show of my own.

Online, I met another salsa lover and radio host, Latin Lady Dj Margarita. She put me in touch with the owners of the Fania catalog at that time, and I established a rapport with them, because of Latin Lady Dj Margarita.

A few years later, the new owners of the Fania catalog contacted me and we reached the terms of an agreement that would be meaningful, long-lasting and that I very much cherish.

Recently, I established a rapport with another professional dj pool; which when combined with the classic Fania catalog enbles me to be able to spin both classic and contemporary salsa music.

This is essentially what my "love affair" with salsa has been!
Click to expand...
And your love affair has been very fruitful for a great many people ;)
 
Great thread Groove and great stories everyone.

Well my love affair with salsa started when i was around 17 years old. Heartbroken and feeling depressed over my recent break up, I turned to music for some relief. I popped in some cassettes that belonged to my oldest brother that contained a mix of Salsa romantica with artists that included Micky Taveras, Tony Vega , Gilberto Santa Rosa , Son By Four , Raulin Rosendo , and others.
The first song I listened to was Micky Taveras "Mi Historia Entre tus Dedos.
After listening to that song I was hooked. I felt like the songs were about the situation I was going through and helped me deal with it.

I remember my brother playing salsa music in the car when I was younger and I didnt like it at all. But once I listened to it with an open mind I was hooked. I kept listening to Salsa Romantica artists like Frankie Ruiz( my favorite artist) , Jerry Rivera , Luis Enrique , Rey Ruiz and others. Finding it harder to listen to older Salsa music, I finally listened to Hector Lavoe's album "La Voz". I loved that album. I found the music and Hectors style engaging.

From then on I listened to as much Salsa as I could and slowly have been building my collection. While everything may change in my life , Salsa music remains a constant part of my life.

..........Que viva la Salsa!!!
 
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