Halloween’s next week, and while we’re busy planning costumes, parties, and pumpkin carving designs as per usual, this year we’re already looking ahead and filling our Google calendars for November. Next month is shaping up to be quite the awesomely packed music season, all to the tune of cumbiaaaaa and other tropical rhythms. Read: Joe Arroyo, Damas Gratis, Sonido Martines, Buraka Som Sistema, Maluca a-plenty, DJ/rupture y más!
It all starts November 4th with Portuguese/Angolan kuduro pioneers Buraka Som Sistema, playing at (le) poisson rouge with Dominican tigerasa Maluca and DJ Geko Jones. We caught BSS at Bowery Ballroom back in May, and shit was out of control–we can only imagine the mayhem at the much more intimate LPR. Rest up before this one, ’cause it starts LATE.
Next up: Remezcla’s favorite cumbia villeros Damas Gratis are finally making it up to the US from Argentina. There had been rumors of them coming in the summer, then in September, but those hopes were quickly squelched, and we had to satisfy our villera cravings with Que Bajo?! parties, ZZK mixtapes, and YouTube videos. But this time it’s for real, and it’s all going down November 6th in Astoria …we have keytar-wielding, jheri curl-sporting DG frontman Pablo Lescano‘s word:
[UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED. BOOO! But the video is still worth watching…]
Y vos no puedes faltar, guachin! VAMONOS PIIIIBES!!!! If that doesn’t get you excited, we’re not sure what will, but here’s another visual to help seal the deal:
Click here to buy tickets, though the site (alta resaka? big cartel? eh?!?) doesn’t really inspire confidence. And in case you need a refresher course on Damas Gratis, check out this video, and this one too (yikes!).
Then you’ve got just enough time to recover from your pa’ lante, pa’ trasing before November 13th, when fellow argentino Sonido Martines makes his US debut (!) with a massive party at the American Museum of Natural History (!!). The event is part of The Fader’s One Step Beyond series, and DJ/rupture, Maluca, Matt Shadetek & Jahdan Blakkamoore are also on the bill, and you get to check out the Space Show. Not too shabby.
Sonido Martines has been collecting rare and classic cumbia and tropical tracks since waaaay before it was “cool”, and it’s an extra-special treat to finally have him in our fair city. He’s put together a (REALLY GOOD!!!) new album called Nueva Cumbia Argentina on Soot Records, which features Damas Gratis and other major BA players (Fauna, El Hijo de la Cumbia, Chancha Via Circuito…). Get a taste with these two tracks:
…and dance to plenty more like it at the AMNH, and in Jackson Heights November 14th at D’Antigua, along with local Colombian fusion group M.A.K.U. Sound System:
Speaking of old tropical tracks, Colombian salsa great Joe Arroyo will be playing in Woodside at Extravaganza night club on November 13th. This man’s a legend (“Rebelion,” “La Noche,” “Pa’l Bailador,” and the list goes on…), and while the Museum of Natural History event looks pretty damn cool, we might have to opt for El Joe. Ah, decisions, decisions!
(this is the closest we could come to a flyer… photo by Monika Fabian. Gracias!)
Hasta noviembre!