Sounding Salsa Performing Latin Music in New York City Christopher Washburne paper EAN: 978-1-59213-316-1 (ISBN: 1592133169) $26.95, Jun 08, Available cloth EAN: 978-1-59213-315-4 (ISBN: 1592133150) $82.50, Jun 08, Available 272 pp 6x9 8 figures 19 halftones

"Washburne shows the reader in myriad ways how and why salseros have become the ‘migrant workers’ of the music world. His vantage point as both practicing musician and scholar is unique, giving us a privileged view of musical performance as seen from the bandstand. This is a very successful and engaging sociology and ethnomusicology of modern salsa"
—Ruth Glasser, Lecturer, Urban and Community Studies Program, University of Connecticut, author of My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities, 1917-1940

This ethnographic journey into the New York salsa scene of the 1990s is the first of its kind. Written by a musical insider, and from the perspective of salsa musicians, Sounding Salsa is a pioneering study that offers detailed accounts of these musicians grappling with intercultural tensions and commercial pressures. Christopher Washburne, himself an accomplished salsa musician, examines the organizational structures, recording processes, rehearsing, and gigging of salsa bands, paying particular attention to how they created a sense of community, privileged “the people” over artistic and commercial concerns, and incited cultural pride during performances.

Sounding Salsa addresses a range of issues, musical and social. Musically, Washburne examines sound structure, salsa aesthetics, and performance practice, along with the influences of Puerto Rican music. Socially, he considers the roles of the illicit drug trade, gender, and violence in shaping the salsa experience. Highly readable, Sounding Salsa offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on a musical movement that became a social phenomenon.

Excerpt

Excerpt available at www.temple.edu/tempress

Reviews

"Christopher Washburne has drawn a fascinating portrait of salsa’s musical and business practices. As a professional trombonist for top salsa bands, he combines the intimate knowledge of an observing participant with the critical distance of scholarly analysis. I was impressed with his deft interpretation of controversial issues in studying salsa."
—Jorge Duany, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, author of The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States

"Sounding Salsa provides an insight into the lives and experiences of salsa musicians. Washburne has done thorough research and the book is a comprehensive historical account of Salsa in New York in the 1990s."
—Patria Roman-Velazquez, City University, London

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Salsa in New York
1. Salsa Bands and the Performance of Pueble
2. "The misic is so good, but the scene is pure dues!": Salsa Musicians
3. "Play like there's a gun to your head!": The Aesthetics and Performance Practice of Sounding Violence in Salsa
4. New York Salsa and Drugs: Aesthetics, Performance Practice, Government Policy, and the Illicit Drug Trade
5. La India and the Masquerading of Gender on the Salsa Scene
6. "They are going to hear this in Puerto Rico. It has got to be good!": The Sound and Style of Salsa
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Bibliographic References
Index

About the Author(s)

Christopher Washburne is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Columbia University and the founder and Director of Columbia's Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program. He has recorded over 150 albums and performed with numerous Latin musicians including Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony, and Rubén Blades. He leads his own band SYOTOS, a popular Latin Jazz group in New York.

Subject Categories

Music and Dance
Latino/a Studies
Urban Studies

In the series

Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Music, edited by Peter Manuel.

Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Music, edited by Peter Manuel, aims to present interdisciplinary studies in the traditional and contemporary musics of Latin America and the Caribbean.