Hola salser@s!

Los "hermanos Soulsa" Paul and Goobi are back to Bar Rumba for a special DJ set in honour of la Guarachera de Cuba, the Queen of salsa, you know who I am talking about: Celia Cruz!!

A very brief summary of her life... (a longer version will be available soon on the Facebook version of the London Salsa Meetup with plenty of videos

Celia Cruz is by far, the most beloved female Latin music singer of the second half of the 20th century. Her career started in 1947 in Havana, Cuba, as a singer in the prestigious cabaret Tropicana and as a lead singer for la Sonora Matancera from 1950, the most famous classic Cuban orchestra.

In 1959, the year of the Cuban revolution, Celia Cruz and la Sonora Matancera went to Mexico on a tour... and never came back (NB: this meetup is about music, NOT politics )

Instead, she settled in New York and continued a successful career with la Sonora Matancera until 1965, then with Puerto Rican timbalero Tito Puente. In the 1970s, Celia Cruz joined Fania All Stars, the super sized salsa group founded by Johnny Pacheco and Jerry Masucci. She became the "jewel of the Fania crown". That decade was really the golden era of salsa.

In the 80s, salsa music changed and the Fania sound was considered as old fashioned. The younger generation preferred merengue and a slow paced, salsa romantica with pop influences. She managed to be still active even during that decade of transition in Latin music. From the late 80s, she started a collaboration with producer Ralph Mercado (RMM label, later taken over by Universal). RMM hired the singers of the Fania era and some new artists and with Sergio George as a musical director, the label created a good quality, modernized salsa, which was a much welcomed breath of fresh air in the salsa scene. Her major hit of the RMM years is a song that EVERYONE knows: la vida es un carnaval. She continued singing until 2002 and unfortunately, she died of a brain tumour in July 2003.

So, what to expect on Tuesday 12th of August?

La creme de la creme: all her great songs between 1960 and 1990. Everyone knows la vida es un carnaval, but in our opinion, to know the real Celia Cruz, you have to sample her best recordings and they were made without doubt with la Sonora Matancera and Fania All Stars.

Come, listen, dance on her fabulous music and you will know why the whole American continent cried when she passed away in 2003.

Maruro
Assistant Organizer

Where:
36 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 7ER

Tube: Piccadilly Circus

When:
Tuesday August 12, 2008
From 9 pm

Admission: £4

How to find us:
The venue is in the basement. Go downstairs, turn left and you will see a dance floor, a stage and at the back, the DJ booth. On the right, next to the stage, I will put a Meetup sign and you can recognize me from my profile picture.