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Home - Music
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Spicy Salsa!
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Authentic Nuyorican music makes a comeback
by Brent Crampton
“The essence of what this music is had been lost for the past 15 years,” said Oscar Hernandez, bandleader of the Grammy Award-winning group, Spanish Harlem Orchestra (SHO). “Now it’s our time to leave our mark.”
Hernandez, who has played professionally since age 16, grew up in 1960s New York City, living in El Barrio (also known as Spanish Harlem) and in the Bronx. His parents were part of the Gran migraciσn of Puerto Ricans to NYC in the ’40s and ’50s. Making up the largest population of Puerto Ricans outside of the country itself, the culturally homogenous group began to refer to themselves as Nuyoricans.
“Back in those days you could hear Latin music from every window you passed by,” said Hernandez.
While these neighborhoods were being hit hard with race riots and poverty, there was simultaneously a flowering of music, giving rise to boogaloo, Latin soul, the evolution of salsa and eventually the celebrated Fania music era of the ’70s. Legends such as Tito Puente and Ray Barretto hit the airwaves and music halls of the world, yet called Spanish Harlem their home. Because of all these elements, Hernandez and many others attach a certain romanticism to the era.
But the turning of the cultural tide ushered in an era of commercial pop salsa.
“It became all about the singer and less about the band,” said Hernandez. The format became all too familiar; find the young, suave and salable face, send lyrics through a factory of what’s most broadly appealing and then stamp its approval with a suit-and-tie major label.
On the other hand, for Hernandez, “Music, I feel in my heart. I record what I want to record and let the chips fall where they may.”
While many now opt for the commercially fabricated stars, if SHO’s Grammy for the Across 110th Street album and two additional Grammy nominations for Un Gran Dia En El Barrio and their last effort, United We Swing, are any sign, there’s an audience waiting to pay respects for a neo-retro salsa-surgence.
That audience includes the ubiquitous Paul Simon, who is executive producer on SHO’s upcoming album, finished just three weeks ago. Simon has been a longtime collaborator with Hernandez, starting in ’98 with the Broadway musical, The Capeman, and culminating with Hernandez asking Simon to record a song for the United We Swing album.
“No sooner had the words come out of my mouth and he said, ‘I’d love to,’” said Hernandez. “I was like, ‘Woah!’ because Simon doesn’t record with just anyone.”
They did a rendition of Simon’s 1980 hit, “Late in the Evening.”
The 13-member SHO now travels the world performing at festivals and performing arts centers, educating and igniting a resurgence of salsa dura (hard salsa). In concerts, enigmatic horn blasts hit the audience with the sense of tropical colors, percussion circles up on rhythm and totes it for an all-night dance fever. Vocals never seem to break from anything but soul-splurging intensity.
“They’ll see high-energy, polished, raw and kick-ass music from one of the best ensembles of any music,” said Hernandez of SHO.
While it may be a bit odd to have such dance-friendly music in a performing arts venue, Hernandez said he enjoys these gigs because “people can just sit down and appreciate the music from a listening point of view.” While those that love to dance sometimes complain, “occasionally dance trivializes the quality of the music because people just wanna party.”
Regardless, Hernandez and the SHO are carrying the neo-torch passed down from a golden era of Latin music. One that is more concerned with musical composition as a whole than with the design on the lead singers Gucci shirt.
“I think our music is planting a seed for other Latinos to follow,” said Hernandez.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra plays the Kiewit Concert Hall at the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St., Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $19-$45. For more info, visit omahaperformingarts.org or call 434.8587.
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