“It’s a pain in the ass being in a band 16 years,” says Rei Alvarez, the on-again, off-again sonero of Richmond salsa band Bio Ritmo. “It’s just like a family.” Indeed, Bio Ritmo celebrated its Sweet 16 last month with a big hometown blowout, playing its catalogue in chronological order. Alvarez helped found the band […]
Sylvia Pfeiffenberger
Bio: Sylvia Pfeiffenberger lives in Durham and hosts a weekly Latin music show on WXDU.
Posted inNews
Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band, Omar Sosa and his Afreecanos Quartet
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Puerto Rican brothers Jerry and Andy Gonzalez learned a valuable lesson from Thelonious Monk: Persist in your art, even if the public doesn’t understand it, and you can arrive at something great. Led by Jerry on trumpet and congas and Andy […]
Posted inMusic
Raleigh’s Rey Norteño sings one for the road
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. For anyone who’s migrated to this Triangle we call home, you now have […]
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La Ley anniversary and La Fiesta del Pueblo
La Ley excitement It’s 9 p.m. on a steamy Thursday in late August, and Disco Rodeo is already so packed you can’t move. By 10:15, people are being turned away. Even the balconies are standing room only. The only creatures here with space around themthe giant stuffed animals dangling from the ceiling, like midway toys […]
Posted inFilm & Television
In El Cantante, salsa finds a voice
After this review went to press, El Cantante‘s distributor cancelled the film’s opening this weekend in the Triangle. No information has been given about when the movie will open locally. There’s a lot riding on El Cantante, the biopic starring Marc Anthony as the ’70s salsa singer Hector Lavoe and Jennifer Lopez as his wife […]
Posted inMusic
Circle of influence
Eddie Palmieri Trio: Iridium Jazz Club It began as an experiment at the San Francisco Jazz Festival last year: Eddie Palmierithe maestro of the Latin pianoand 38-year-old saxophonist David Sanchez jammed. “It was a duo. Believe it or not, it was better because it was freer,” says Sanchez, making noises as if being blown away: […]
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Nestor Torres visits UNC-Chapel Hill’s Charanga Carolina
Besides a taste for fine pork barbecue, Cuba and Carolina now have another thing in common: charanga. The Cuban charanga orchestra was born in the late 19th century, a creole blend of violins, woodwinds and Afro-Cuban percussion. Four years ago, ethnomusicologist David F. Garcia founded Charanga Carolina at UNC-Chapel Hill to introduce his students to […]
Posted inGuides
Floating his boat
When Durham author and environmental advocate John Manuel decided to write a book about canoeing, he had a choice to make: write something that would be sold in bait shops, or write literature. The result is The Canoeist, part nature guide, part memoir, a combination that works because Manuel is not just an expert helmsman […]
Posted inMusic
Travels in salsa
Nobody sings their unsung salsa heroes like Puerto Rico, where rank-and-file musicians are known by name and “nostalgia” acts like El Gran Combo, playing their 45th anniversary concert this month, remain industry powerhouses. Salsa wells up from the ground here. Or perhaps it radiates from above: After all, in San Juan, my iPod was redundant, […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Got faith?
The religious drama Guadalupe opened in U.S. theaters Dec. 8, just one week after its Mexican debut and the same day as Mel Gibson’s much-discussed Apocalypto. Both films were pegged to the week of Dec. 12, the feast day for the Virgin of Guadalupe, good timing to draw the attention of Mexican-American audiences. Both films […]