Tuesday Evening in the South Bronx: SummerStage presents José Alberto "El Canario" at St. Mary's Park

The stalwart Bx19 bus got us into and out of Riverbank State Park in Harlem last night, and going the other way this evening, the Bx19 got us to St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx for a spectacular SummerStage show featuring José Alberto, "El Canario," the peerless Dominican singer of salsa romántica, who wowed the enormous crowd in a full-length performance of grace, soul and charm.

It was a terrific show, and we're grateful we got to be in St. Mary's Park tonight to see El Canario.

For some of us, it brought back great memories of the 1970s. Dreams, too.

Tuesday Evening in the South Bronx: 8 y Más and Lavoe All Stars Cantando Renzo Padilla at St. Mary's Park

This evening we had fun in beautiful St. Mary's Park off 149th Street in the South Bronx, a quick walk from the Third Avenue 2/5 train station, where we caught much of a terrific evening of contemporary and past Latin music presented by SummerStage in association with Globe Star Media and La Mega 97.9.

It was a great show, enjoyed by many of the people in the large crowds. And as we did at last summer's Our Latin Thing tribute to the Fania All Stars at East River Park, we saw some great dancing from audience members tonight at St. Mary's Park.

We were also astonished by the spectacular mambo dancing of a group of young people who seemed to be only introduced as St. Mary's dancers. If these people are not professionals, then they are truly gifted. For us, they were the highlight of the evening.

The main events, though, were mighty fine. 8 y Más is one of the hottest new bands on the contemporary Latin music scene today. Comprised of a team of internationally recognized musicians considered by many to be some of the best in NYC and beyond, 8 y Más boasts a group of stellar veteran musicians including: Bobby Allende, Angel Fernandez, Ricky Gonzalez and Marc Quiñones. In 2006, the band released its first production, Juega Billar to much acclaim by salsa music lovers.

Lavoe All Stars featuring lead singer Renzo Padilla reunites the original Hector Lavoe band members, including Professor Joe Torres, Jimmy Delgado, Danny Rosado, Jose Mangual, Eddie Montalvo, Jhon De Jesus and Reynaldo. These talented musicians have reunited with the sole purpose of bringing back the magical sound that only Lavoe’s band had. As the band begins, listeners are instantly transported back to the 70’s glory days of Salsa. Tonight, the band celebrates the musical legacy of the late, beloved Fania Records salsero, Héctor Lavoe. Here are the Lavoe All Stars with "Abuelita":

(YouTube video courtesy of DonSalserisimo)
and 8 y Más with "La Pelota":

(YouTube video courtesy of DonSalserisimo)
Anyway, it was a wonderful evening of great music in a beautiful setting.











We're grateful to everyone who brought tonight's show to the vibrant South Bronx.

Thursday Night on the Lower East Side: Our Latin Thing's Tribute to The Fania All-Stars with DJ Lucho at East River Park

For us, tonight was the party of the summer, at East River Park, as dozens danced and hundreds swayed to the salsa rhythms of the past in the SummerStage show featuring Our Latin Thing's tribute to our salsa fanatic father's 70s favorite, the legendary Fania All-Stars, along with DJ Lucho, whom we've loved forever too.

It was like being taken back to the past, to another steamy Thursday in August, back 29 years - to August 26, 1971 - at The Cheetah,

the legendary club on East 53rd Street, the night salsa exploded onto the New York scene when the Fania All-Stars took the stage.


Our dad, and our brother, Jonathan, ten years younger than us, were totally devoted to salsa.

Our parents had been always been great Latin dancers. Fifty years ago, when we were only nine, we watched them one night in a San Juan nightclub, and Mom and Dad, then only 29 and 33, looked so glamorous and suave.

So pre-salsa, we always heard Latin sounds coming from our basement in the evenings and we'd watch our parents and their friends dance. When we were in our teens, they got their friend Joe Vega (of Joe Vega and the Cha Cha Aces) to give us lessons, and even though we always were pretty clumsy, we could handle the slower rumba really well and liked to dance with our mom.

Salsa, that unique New York thing, a mongrel like a lot of the city's cultural touchstones, was too fast for our two left feet. But we liked to listen, and we heard it all the time. Whenever we borrowed our dad's Cadillac, we'd turn on the ignition and hear salsa on Spanish radio stations (when that little girl wasn't going, "En mi casa, toman Bustelo / En mi casa, toman Bustelo").

Jonathan blared it night and day and during a teenage phase, adopted a salsa style. Anyway, the Fania All-Stars, separately as superstars and together, were the soundtrack of much of the 1970s for us - so much so that we weren't aware of it.

In the early 1980s, living in South Florida, we'd drive with Dad and hear the evolving sounds of salsa - Celia Cruz did the ID spot for WQBA, "La Cubanisima" - so while this wasn't the music we ourselves deliberately listened to, it was always there, so much so that we only noticed when its sound wasn't there anymore.

So we could identify when someone said that they were doing the music we all grew up on: "when we'd get up, when we'd go to sleep, when we'd take a shower, and doing the...other thing too."

It may not have been for us, as someone said, "the sound that gave us our swagger," but we loved tonight's show, seeing other people dancing and just enjoying.

We bought a Puerto Rican flag for a dollar (did they need to write "PUERTO RICO" on the bottom stripe?) and waved it when the call came, "Boricua, make some noise!"

"Nobody parties harder than Latinos," someone else said tonight. We enjoyed watching the party.

This concert drew the biggest crowd of the summer of any of the events in the East River Park Amphitheater.

Salsa's part of the Lower East Side's history, and tonight seemed both a tribute to that history and a little bit of it itself.

We had so much fun.

Thanks to Our Latin Thing, who were great.

Thanks to the Fania All-Stars for being an inspiration.