The 7th Chicago International Salsa Congress 2008 Band
Performances
A Comprehensive Review
Thursday:
The Thursday night opening party is the toughest gig
at the congress.People are trickling into the ballroom tired from
a full day at work, a long trip, airline delays or all of the above.The Salsachicago Mambo All Stars kicked it off and did a good job getting
the crowd moving.Ocho y Mas from New York came on to close out the night with the second
set.Even though they are only 8 musicians, they were able to fill
the Grand Ballroom at the Westin O'Hare with the hard driving salsa tunes from
their "Juega Billar" release and keep the dancers on their feet.More details on Ocho y Mas are at: www.8ymas.com .
Friday: This
night's featured performers were Grupo Gale with Jerry Galante from
Colombia.I have to admit I came in with low expectations.I have heard so many of Grupo Gale's commercial hits, so many times, I
just couldn't imagine what they could do to keep me interested.Jerry Galante came on for just three songs in the 2nd set,
this show at the congress was mostly Grupo Gale. Their show wasn't just a big
surprise, it was a delight.It had to have been the setting in
this large classy ballroom with several thousand square feet of dance floor full
of dancers from end to end.They played improvisations of many of
their standard hits and even mixed in instrumentation from other genres.The tune might have started out as "Medellin" or their medley "Homenaje a
Fania" and then they would take it in a different direction.After
this show I have to revise my preconceived notion that Colombian bands only play
their standard hits one by one like clockwork.In the right
setting and with the right ingredients, anything can happen.
Saturday:
Sammy Garcia and El Sabor De Puerto Rico were back for an encore this
year.They received rave reviews for their first ever stateside
performance in last year's 2007 Chicago Intl. Salsa Congress.The
band had to have been inspired to play for such a large crowd of dancers.How large was it?I couldn't begin to estimate.All I know is that if it hadn't been for the small carpet divider that
separated the front and back sections of dance floor from one another and the
front carpet area that separated the stage from the front dance floor, there
would have been no way to move from one end of the Grand Ballroom to the
other.That's how packed it was.They played many
songs from their release "Por Buen Camino". More details on the band are on
their website and myspace (www.elsabordepr.com and myspace: Sammy Garcia y El Sabor De Puerto
Rico).Their next major shows are March 16 at Calle Ocho in Miami
and July 19 at the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress.For the final
songs, Roberto Roena, the featured artist for Sunday's closing performance sat
in on bongo and campana and did a few dance numbers with the lead singers of the
band.
Sunday:
Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound.The Chicago Intl. Salsa Congress
traditionally features the top name act as the closing show of the
congress.In recent history that act was Eddie Palmieri (2005), El
Gran Combo (2006) and Puerto Rican Power (2007).So here comes
Roberto Roena to steal the show of shows.How was that possible?
The band got off to a slow start.The Grand Ballroom had been
changed over from the dance performance setting to band setting in record
time.The chairs had barely been cleared off the dance floor when
the band started off.Initially the vocals were a little off
balance but with so many music fans in the house crowding the sound engineer to
make the necessary adjustments I figured they would get this resolved
quickly.They did.By the second or third song the
concert was in full swing and the true flavor of Roberto Roena and Apollo as one
of the leading innovators and entertainers in salsa came through.Inevitably though we got close to the end of the show and this is where
it happened: The top
highlight of the entire congress was the closing song of this closing
act.In this final song (before the encore as the audience
wouldn't let them off the stage), bandleader Roberto Roena, a dancer, bongosero
and campanero, called dancers to join on stage and dance with him. Tito Ortos,
Gordon Neil, Vanessa Millan, Mark-Anthony Sheppard, Andy Cruz, Griselle Ponce,
Saladeen Alamin and more, maybe 20 professional dancers in all, danced in line
in front of the stage. Then one by one they did solos while the lead singer
improvised a soneo, the coro phrased the tune and the percussion section kept
the rhythm or
improvised. Meanwhile everyone else in the audience stopped
dancing and rushed up to the stage to watch the show and join in on the coro. It
was a moment to remember and I hope the many people recording with their video
cameras will post them on youtube some day.
