History

During the Christmas season, many Puerto Rican churches transform their hymns into jíbaro rhythms. We owe this modality of the Misa Jíbara to the late professor and folklorist Pedro Escabí. When in the early 1960s the Vatican Council II…

Ismael Miranda finished the '80s with four Christmas albums (Part 3) and starts the '90s by jumping into the Salsa Romántica craze. He extends that romanticism into a series of Bolero albums with Andy Montañez and finishes the decade with…

As this week Puerto Rico commemorates its "discovery" by Columbus (November 19) in 1493, our folk rhythm of "Plena" is still going strong over a century after its origin. Note: this blog was originally published in 2010, when this rhythm…

After a strong finish to his first decade as a solo artist (as we covered in Part 2), Ismael Miranda continued producing good Salsa albums towards the end of the Fania Records era. He even resurrected the Orquesta Revelación. But as the 80s…

The solo career of Ismael Miranda began incredibly well. His first three solo albums were so good and became so popular that they marked the rest of his career. The impact of these albums was such that when in 2001 Ismael Miranda…

Ismael Miranda, "El Nino Bonito" (the pretty boy) of Salsa, is approaching 55 years of a very illustrious career in Latin music. The phrase "lo importante no es llegar, sino mantenerse" (the important thing is not to make it, but to stay…

Like everyone else in the music business, El Gran Combo was impacted at the start of the 2020 decade by the Covid-19 pandemic. And like several other artists, the band tried to make good use of the performing downtime. 2020 Virtual…

This year we commemorate 100 years of Sylvia Rexach's birthday, and what a better way to do it by highlighting her achievements on International Women's Day. A True Latina Pioneer Sylvia was a trailblazing woman and a versatile artist…

Cheo Feliciano's Salsa Navideña classic, "Felicidades" celebrates its 48th anniversary this year. A Salsa Dura album with great flavor, "Felicidades" became a perfect complement to the few existing Salsa Navideña music albums that had been…