Salsa Please! With, or Without MSG?
by
Nestor Louis


I was looking forward to spending a nice quiet weekend at home. No going out, no clubbing, no nothing, just taking it easy at home. Play some video games; watch a baseball game or two, perhaps even learn some FrontPage 2000! But just as my weekend neared, I got this call from my editor, George Rivera. “Listen, I got a ticket for Ralph Mercado's yearly Salsa festival at MSG (Madison Square Garden). Are you interested,” he asked me. “Honestly? I'm really looking forward to just chilling at home bro. Can you give them to someone else?” George gave me an Editor-in-Chief type of reply, “I would go myself, but I got a very important appointment that I cannot miss. I want someone to go and write something about it. So, you are interested.” Being that I had messed up on a prior engagement that featured Willie Colón announcing his support for some politician named Engel, I decided to go.

I wake up late Saturday morning sticking to my original plans. I turned the TV on, watched a little news, played some FIFA 98 on the play-station, and dreaded the time to get ready and attend this concert. 6:00pm finds me still at home, however begrudgingly getting ready to go and pick up my ticket. I easily drive to MSG, listening to the highly over-rated and over-hyped Buena Vista Social Club, and find parking not too far from the Garden. As I'm walking towards the Press gate, I see all these...street hustlers, for lack of a better word, hawking awful Tito Puente commemorative T-shirts, yelling “Salsa! Salsa! Salsa T-shirts. Tito Puente T-shirts! Salsa! Salsa! Salsa!”  Oh boy, I thought to myself, some things just never change. As I approach the Press gate I see an unbelievable amount of people waiting to get in to pick up their tickets. It’s now 8:10pm and as many as sixty people are hovering over this tiny little door, pleading with MSG and RMM staff to get their tickets. “People, please step back, you have to wait. Trust me, if your name is here you will get in,” but after 30 minutes of waiting and watching a countless number of industry people, friends of industry people, and friends of the staff, get in before me I decided to make a suggestion to a woman that came out from inside MSG to count how many of the little wrist bands she needed in order to get her friends in. “Excuse me Ms, but why don't you also help the people on line that have been waiting for quite a long time? In this line you have press agents, guest invited via contests and other public relations affairs.” In a peculiarly defensive manner, this woman responded by telling me that, “they are staff members, and as such they have to be allowed in as quickly as possible.” Recognizing the bs, only because the musicians were given more of a hard time than these “staff” members, I immediately replied, “Ms, if these people are staff members, why weren't they given their passes in advance? These people on line have been waiting for over forty-five minutes.” Her response? “First off, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO BE ASKING ME QUESTIONS? WHO ARE YOU?” At this point the people she's trying to help out are muttering, “we're staff, we're staff.” She continues, "WHY DON'T YOU MIND YOUR BUSINESS?” After the woman gave me the “talk to the hand” gesture, her seven “staff” people made it in without a glitch. Minutes later, Debbie Mercado steps out and politely says hello to everyone in and out the line. She was obviously under a lot of stress. Still, she managed to clear the tiny little entrance and get me and some other folks in with a special little red wristband. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking; you'll just have to get over it. By 9pm I was in the elevator going up to witness the 25th New York Salsa Festival at MSG. Or so I thought.

I was ushered into the Pressroom where the group Son By Four was receiving the largest amount of press coverage. There they expressed their surprise and honor regarding their appearance in this tribute to Tito Puente. The Press, made up of local and foreign newspaper reporters, photographers, cable access personalities, hot skinny chicks with lots of caked up makeup waving microphones, and dot-com guys like myself, were confined to this room for the sole purpose of asking questions to artists we couldn't see or hear perform. As a result, the questions ranged from the standard “How does it feel to be part of this event paying homage to Tito Puente?” to the controversial “Where do you stand in regards to Vieques?” Rest assured that everyone was more than honored, and felt The Navy should vacate. Most press people did not have access to actually see the main event, but thanks to George Rivera, Olga D’Andrade, and Debbie Mercado, I did. I've done the backstage thing for quite sometime now, and I got to tell you, that scene is totally over-rated.

Anyway, after walking back and forth from my seat, to the back-stage area, I quickly realized that my seat was the place to be. Not because it was a great show to see, but because it was much less embarrassing in comparison to the anemic antics of the press room. To stand around and watch people sitting around waiting for the next artists to show up and ask them questions is just not my style. Neither is watching Tito Puente, Jr. sing, but at least the Tito Puente Orchestra, featuring Sonny Bravo, Johnny Rodriguez, Jose Madera, Reynaldo Jorge, Lewis Kahn, and Bernie Miñoso was, at the very least, great to watch and listen to. Frankie Morales, the last steady vocalist for Tito Puente, did a good job in singing “Babarabatiri”. Tito Nieves followed him, and sang the one record he recorded in Tito Puente's 100th LP, as well as Domingo Quiñones, Oscar D’Leon, Tony Vega, and Celia Cruz. Later, after a brief intermission and the presentation of a moving RMM video montage highlighting the collaboration between Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri during the recording of Masterpiece, “The Sun Of Latin Music” took to the stage. The start of the second half of the show was greeted by loud forceful horns and one accordion, along with the stellar performances of The Eddie Torres dancers. Together they delivered the accent of the tango. The Eddie Palmieri half of the show, began with “La Última Copa”, featuring Herman Olivera on vocals. Trumpeter/vocalist Jerry Medina, Oscar D’Leon, Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, and Michael Stuart, followed singing their respective songs. All of course are included in the Puente and Palmieri collaboration. Basically the concert featured some of the material recorded on Tito Puente's 100th LP and some of the new tracks recorded for the Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri CD. Even though the Tito Puente Orchestra rendered the material of both Puente and Palmieri exceptionally well, there was a distinct void of energy and enthusiasm that not even a very well (and rare) executed timbal solo by Eddie Palmieri could infuse energy to the overall concert. This went beyond the absence of Tito Puente It was a weird feeling. I don't know exactly what it was. As far as I can tell, the producers of the event worked very hard in putting it together. Proof of it was evident with the quality of the sound. Although it was excessively loud, it was the best sounding Ralph Mercado New York Salsa Festival at MSG in recent times. The visuals were pleasing to the eye, lots of color and great camera work. The performances of The Eddie Torres Dancers and the invited mariachi band, which served as the prelude to Eddie Palmieri's version of “Cielito Lindo”, were superb. To my surprise, Celia Cruz was also remarkably good.

So what was bothering me? Was it the fact that each singer, with the exception of Frankie Morales, Herman Oliveras, Michael Stuart, and regretfully Oscar D'Leon, sang only one song with very little room for true improvisations? Could it have been the unwarranted sight of a sweaty Tito Nieves stripping from his elegantly tailored suit down to a shirt? Perhaps it was Oscar D'Leon's amateurish attempts at the art of the soneo, on two of the worst songs ever sung by him? The semantics are just too confusing. I don't know exactly what contributed to such a luster deprived show. I can endlessly speculate and theorize about what could've been done differently. The fact is that the legendary MSG has seen bigger and livelier New York Salsa Festivals. That's it! This event, with all of it's glory and sentimental appeal, would've been better suited for a smaller venue that could've matched the elegant and at times theatrical demeanor the show exhibited. Playing straight mambos and tasty cha-cha-chas, the Tito Puente Orchestra catered to a surprisingly smaller audience than the norm, in a presentation that should easily be adapted for video sales.

After witnessing this New York Salsa Festival, it is time to admit that maybe, just maybe, this type of concert, featuring the stars of yesteryears is old. Figuratively and literally, and as much as I hate to admit it, today's fan of tropical music is more driven to see, as it was the case here, Son By Four than Puente and Palmieri. In my walking back and forth from my seat to the pressroom, about six young ladies asked me if Son By Four had performed. Through the years Ralph Mercado has gotten an incredible amount of heat from us, the critics, for not booking or showcasing “the right talent” at these MSG concerts. By “the right talent” I mean, Palmieri, Pacheco, all the Fania guys etc, etc, etc. But the fact is that, for the most part, the people are more interested in supporting what's new. My heart was broken every time I was asked about Son By Four. It will be evident that the same press that will condemn this concert, for whatever reason, will forget the fact that they themselves were more interested in interviewing Son By Four than any other artists that night. Why? Because it is more profitable to do a story on Son By Four or any other happening act, than one that's not. And for the large majority of young consumers, the iconic old-school artists of any genre seem to be a great point of reference, but not the main attraction. To sit here, at this point in time, and argue to the contrary is just a plain waste of time. As explained by a good friend of mine who is deeply involved in the marketing and advertising arena, “Look at the groups that are filling arenas nationwide. ‘Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears! These are performers whose broad youthful fan base will spend hundreds of dollars to see their concerts over and over again. These are the people who will see a movie more than once. To fill a huge arena like MSG with them is as easy as pie. In my experience in promoting Latin artists, I've learned the total opposite. With a tiny amount of exceptions, if you see any Latin performer once a year, you're pretty much satisfied. ‘Who's going to be at MSG? Fulano, Sotano, & Mengano. Oh I saw them just six months ago.' Even a year ago, for most Latin consumers, is too close a period of time. Under these idiosyncrasies, in our market, star power and massive advertising is a must. With all due respect to Palmieri, the late Puente, D'Leon and all the artists, but those were just the two ingredients that were missing, and badly needed here".

Could it be then, that the standard salsa concert is going the way of the dinosaur? It depends. Largely on venue and artist. Maybe the MSG thing is not where it’s at today for artists from the golden era of salsa, but the MSG Theater, the Beacon Theater, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, even Lehman College could do very well. There's no shame in knowing when to step down, especially when it’s done gracefully. If Andrew Lloyd Weber pulled the plug on CATS, the show whose tag line was “now and forever” for 18 years, then 25 years of salsa at MSG is an admirable accomplishment. Let’s move on and "darle paso a un ritmo nuevo".

I hope that consumers and record label execs do not misconstrue the above sentence and go believing that I am endorsing today's insipid music. For as a dancer, listener, and collector of the true essence of our music, I am tired of hearing the repetitive rehearsed robotic banter of musicians, arrangers, producers, and artists alike, selling us on the idea that their music “is a little bit different from what's out there right now. It has a little bit of everything. That's why in my music I include a little bit of jazz, funk, and R&B blah, blah, blah.” All of you are putting out the same lame stuff. I do mean however, to go back to basics, whether it’s with young guys or old timers. Let's bring back the clave, let's bring back the afinque, and let’s make the dancer dance and the listener listen, let’s generate the buzz that the music used to generate not long ago, with, or without MSG.