The History of Latin Music in London

We would like to share this article about Latin music in the Uk, written by Amaranta Wright from Candela Live, a London base Latin music and culture promoters.

Notwithstanding the cheesy album covers, Candela explores the rich and idiocyncratic story of Latin Music in London to celebrate LaLinea's 10th anniversary festival this year.

It was 1981. I mostly remember the legs of dark, glossy-haired, poncho-wearing folk, as I squeezed through them to get to the front. There, I had full view of Gilberto Gil as he sung his acoustic version of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry. Perhaps it was the playful, sweet percussive serenity of his music, its simplicity and richness, or the sheer emotion it generated in the room. Whatever it was, it blew this nine-year-old away and I still thank the flaky babysitter, who ever she was, who failed to turn up that night, forcing my parents to sneak me into the Hammersmith Palais on a cold winter’s night. It was my first ever concert and it cemented my love for Latin Music forever.

Many would be surprised to know how long Latin Music has entranced audiences in the UK. Back in the 1940s Cuban bandleader Don Marino Barreto made his name playing to pilots on the Salisbury Plain during the Battle of Britain. After the war, Barreto passed his band over to Edmundo Ros who became the most successful musician in Britain, across the board.

The 1940s and 1950s and the Curious Case of a One Man Latin Allure

Arriving from Caracas, Venezuela, Ros became a sensation after Parlophone released Los Hijos de Buda in 1941. He went on to have several hits, including Rhythms of the South and Arriba and his albums sold briskly. His biggest hit, The Wedding Samba, even crossed over to the U.S. Top Five, selling three million copies in the process.

The charismatic Latino attracted the cream of London society to his appearances at the lavish Coconut Grove on Regent Street. The national headlines he made, when a defendant in a high-profile divorce case implicated him as a catalyst for his marriage's demise, only made him more popular. He even taught then-Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret to dance.

He owned three nightclubs in the West End, including the Coconut Grove site which he bought and renamed Edmundo Ros' Dinner and Supper Club, and was a DJ on Radio 2. His radio programmes became the ‘housewives choice’, as he tailored his Latin big band sound to the English ear by emphasising melody over rhythm. The cool society scene created by Barreto and Ros, opened the door for other Afro-Caribbean immigrant artists such as Rita Cann, the distinguished pianist who formed her own Latin Band in the 1940s. Ros was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 New Year's Honours List.

Playing to the stereotype of Latin cheese: the popular Edmundo Ros

The 1970s and 1980s and the Music of Latin Solidarity

During the 1960s, the popularity of Latin Music gave way to Beatlemania and the ascent of English pop. In the early 1970s, however, it came back in a different form, when political refugees started to flood in from the wave of dictatorships sweeping through Latin America, starting with the coup that overthrew socialist President Allende in Chile in 1973 to the US interventions in Central America of the 1980s. With the political migrants, many of whom were creative types and musicians, you had a developing interest in the Nueva Trova and Canción de Protesta (protest music) of the likes of Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa, and Cuba’s Silvio Rodriguez. The exiled years of Brazilian legends Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso in West London added much allure to this cool London sub-culture.

In these de-politicized times, it is difficult to imagine political Latin music having widespread appeal, yet Andy Wood, La Linea promoter who started his career putting on concerts for the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign describes a buzzing scene that tapped into the broader politically activity in Britain at the time. “The Nicaragua Campaign had thirty full time staff and brought loads of artists. We had support from the Greater London Council (run by ‘Red Ken’ Livingstone) who helped bring the likes of Rubén Blades, Inti-illimani and Silvio Rodriguez. This was before the dance class boom. People enjoyed dancing to live salsa, without worrying whether they were dancing on the one or the two.”

The Impact of Latino Immigrant Culture

Accompanying the influx of political refugees was an even bigger wave of economic migrants in the late 1970s, mostly from Colombia, fleeing both the political and economic terrors of a 40-year long civil war. A second Colombian wave came with the further economic slump caused by the busting of the drug cartels in the late 1980s. Today, Britain has the world’s third largest Colombian Diaspora, after the US and Spain.

Out of the spotlight, the Colombian community, known to be great salsa lovers, built their own thriving music scene in London. The Guardian writer Richard Williams remembers the Monday night in 1975 when a grungy punk-rocker pub, acted as stage for the first salsa band to across the Atlantic. A 29-year-old Héctor Lavoe, already a legend in the US and South America, played to a scrawny London pub crowd and, according to Williams “for a couple of hours made its seem like the only place to be.”

In the years to come, the sheer numbers of Latinos in London and their musical nostalgia ensured an audience for some of the salsa greats who came to play in London year after year through the 1980s– Colombia’s Grupo Niche, Gilberto Santa Rosa and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Willie Colón and Venezuela’s legendary Oscar de Leon. to name a few.

The Colombians in London certainly played a big part in kicking off the Salsa club phenomenon. For, as well filling their own clubs, their party spirit spilled over into the mainstream Latin themed bars that were springing up all over London offering salsa classes. Paul Young, who jumped on the trend by congregating thousands of salsa fans in weekend Congresses says, “a lot of those people were introduced to Latin music and artists such as Tito Puente, purely through the dance.”

The allure of Latin rhythms allowed many British musicians such as pianist Alex Wilson and Robin Jones of Salsa King or DJs Snowboy and Gilles Peterson, to make a living off their passion for Latin music. But the influence hasn’t all been one way. You can hear the appreciation of English pop in the much of the music of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, from London, London Veloso’s melodic tribute to the city to Gil’s stunning Brazilianisation of The Beatles’ Hello, Goodbye. Other migrating Latinos have infiltrated the English music establishment behind the scenes: Percussionist Roberto Pla, who started out with Boney M.,Venezuelan-Argentine Stereophonics drummer Javier Weyler or Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera from Colombia. As solo artists all have fused Latin rhythms with British pop and electronic styles.

The 'Latin Boom' of the 1990s

The years of Canción de Protesta and the Latino immigrant culture bubbling under London’s surface, coincided with the advent of World Music which was being promoted by mainstream music magazines such as NME. The influential music weekly displayed artists such as Bhundu Boys and Kid Creole and the Coconuts on the cover for the first time in Britain.

With his stream of chart successes in the UK such as Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy, Kid Creole in particular became hugely influential in providing the Anglo audience with the bridge into Latin Music, says Andy Wood, “Kid Creole invented World Music before anyone had a name for it. By synthesizing Latin and Caribbean music for a wider audience, I would say he did what Edmundo Ros did, but for a different generation.”

This opening of the doors, together with the revival of traditional Cuban music, according to Wood, prepared the ground for the success of Buena Vista Social Club in the nineties. “The popularity of the Buena Vista artists was not the product of some big marketing master plan, as some people think,” says Nick Gold, executive producer of the Buena Vista series, “but the live performances, great reviews and word of mouth of an already receptive audience. The Wim Wenders film then made it into an international phenomenon.”

Then, of course, came the invasion of the commercial superstars via the US - Gloria Estevan, Ricky Martin, and Shakira - who provided the Saturday night anthems of London’s now prolific Latin-flavoured venues such as Bar Salsa and Havana and added to what the Evening Standard described as “The Latin Boom.”

This English and London Latino appreciation for a common sound culminated in the Latin mega-festivals that began with Salsa 2000 in Battersea Park, which had Celia Cruz, Oscar de Leon, Ruben Blades and Alberto ‘El Canario’ sharing the stage. This was followed by the launch of La Linea, which celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year and Clapham Common’s Latin Splash, which drew 9,000 people in 2005.

The Future of Latin Music in London

The new generation: club culture taking Latin Music forward in the UK

The impact of the estimated 700,000 strong Latin American community (mostly in London) can been and in the many established yearly music festivals - Carnaval del Pueblo, Colombianamente and Colombiage - that are now part of London life.

The Latin music of choice has changed, however. “We always used to open La Linea with a salsa band,” says Wood. “But La Linea is about New Latin Music and sadly there is not a lot new happening in Salsa.”

The great bands such as Cuba’s Los Van Van that are able to reinvent themselves through the generations will always fill venues, but there is more interest now in fusion groups such as the Cuban Hip hop-timba project Orishas, or the electronic tango outfits Bajo Fondo and Gotan Project.

The new, however, still sits comfortablu side by side with the appreciation for traditional orchestras. Andy Wood remembers the double-Cuban bill he put on with Orishas and the legendary Orchestra Aragaon, which was like a passing of the baton.” When Orishas went on first, Orchestra Aragon band leader Rafael was looking distinctly nervous when he looked out to see all the girls who were throwing themselves at Orishas and said this doesn’t look like our audience. But in fact when they went on the same girls were dancing just the same in the second half, only they weren’t passing them their numbers.”

Meanwhile, a new Latin movement that London can call its very own is being created by the first generation of Latino-Brits, now coming of age and making their mark on London, mostly noticeably on the Club scene. Their music of choice is Urban Latin with its creative fusions of Afro-Latin genres Bachata, Bomba, Plena with Salsa, Hip–hop and House. The big names Tego Calderón, Calle 13, and Pitbull have already played in London to audiences that are the most eclectic yet. At La Bomba, London’s biggest Latin Urban party Jamaican, Asian, Arab as well as white and Latino Londoners. “Whereas the salsa scene began to alienate people with its obsessive focus on dance technique,” says La Bomba promoter DJ Joe Luis. ”This scene brings it back to the music and culture of the Spanish Caribbean. Its recreating that inclusive atmosphere and making it even more part of the ever broadening spectrum of British music culture.”

Sancocho

Soups are an important element in the South American cuisine. In my home they played an indispensable part of the main meal. Most South American soups originated in European kitchens, but a few like sancocho date back to pre-Hispanic times. In fact sancocho was the sacred dish of the Incas, who used it not only as energy food but also as an offering to the gods, asking for good health. With the introduction of pucheros or cocidos by the Spaniards local ingredients such as corn, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, peppers and yucca were used as ingredients

This is one of our Collaboration with Perfiles Magazine, A Latin American London Base Magazine.

Open publication - Free publishing - More sancocho

Sabor Reviewed in Umami Greek Magazine

Open publication - Free publishing - More sabor

Colombian Independence Day - 200 Years Anniversary

Sabor is proud to be collaborating with Vinopolis in the celebration of 200 years of Colombian Independence this year. For this event we have created a new range of cocktails using Colombian fruits, which will be served at a special event at Vinopolis on the evening of 20th July.

What if Latin America Ruled the World?

Some of us at Sabor went to Colombiage for the first time just a couple of years ago; this is a festival of Colombian literature, music, cinema and even gastronomy, which has been held at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith for the last couple of years. During that weekend in 2008, we were captivated by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera's interview with Gerald Martin, who at that time had just published a biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (highly recommended).

Since that time Oscar has become a good friend and regular customer of Sabor, and we were excited when we heard that he had a book of his own coming out, to be titled 'What if Latin America Ruled the World?'. Oscar's earlier books have been aimed at the academic community, but this promises to be a great read for any members of the general public with an interest in the broad sweep of history and geo-politics, especially if they are particularly interested in Latin America.

We don't think we can improve on what his publishers have to say about the book, so we've reproduced their introduction to it below - it's well worth a read.

"For most Europeans and Americans, Latin America is still little more than their underdeveloped sibling, its inhabitants pitching up in Madrid, Paris and London, or struggling across the Rio Grande into the USA. It is a place of exuberant music, mesmerising football, extravagant beauty, fantastic literature, drug-trafficking and guerrilla warfare – in short, exotic, dangerous and exciting.

In this counterintuitive and hugely engaging book, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera sets the record straight about Latin America’s role in world. He shows that, far from fitting its stereotype a region of banana republics and idealistic utopias, the peoples of Latin America have risen up and now stand together. Taking control of their own destinies and resources while distributing rewards, Latin Americans have resisted some of the worst consequences of the unfettered market policies associated with deregulated finance, demand sustained by debt, resource depletion and ‘free trade’ that have wreaked havoc elsewhere. Retelling the story of Latino peoples from their pre-Columbian origins through the Spanish and Portuguese ascendancy and the British commerce and piracy of the Caribbean, to the IMF and ‘the end of history’ until today, this book shows that the official story of globalisation is wrong and misleading.

After having witnessed South American countries fare better than most during the current Great Recession, make their mark in global debates about climate change and assume their role as world leaders, as in the case of Brazil, the rest of the world seems ready to listen. Making its presence felt from Quito to Shanghai, from Brazilia to London and from Buenos Aires to New York, Latin America no longer specialises in losing.

While the world acknowledges the continuing importance of the US in international affairs, few have noticed that with Spanish language and culture in the ascendant the US is quietly but quickly becoming the next Latin American country. In fact, Guardiola-Rivera argues, the next Barack Obama is more than likely to be of Latino origin.

Oscar introduced the book to British audiences during the Hay Literary Festival –the most important of its kind in the United Kingdom, and one of the most reputed literary festivals in Europe - last 31 May. The highly qualified audience attending Hay gave the book a very warm welcome, and the ‘preview’ copies of the book sold out in less than a day. Oscar will be appearing in several venues presenting his book and speaking of its wider implications in the context of the celebrations of the bicentenary of independence in the Americas. On 11 June he will appear at Birkbeck College. On 27 June, Oscar will be at the Trycicle Cinema in London for the ‘Women in Power’ workshop and film exhibition. On 29 June, Oscar will join historian Eduardo Posada-Carbó at the British Library to celebrate the bicentenary of independence in Latin America and the Caribbean, after having talked to Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan at UCL’s Bentham House on the same day. On 14 July Oscar will be at Sabor for a special fundraiser on behalf of Latin American arts festival Colombiage, featuring a selection of readings from his book, and a book signing session. Copies of What If Latin America Ruled the World? will be available for purchase that day.

This is an unmissable opportunity to share what many critics and commentators are already calling ‘an experience’ with Oscar. His appearances in person always involve a fun and deeper experience, as confirmed by the attendants to this years’ Hay Festival and University of East Anglia’s reputed encounter of storytellers from around the world. ‘It’s the man, not just the book. You have to go and see him!’, says Kevin Conroy Scott from London-based literary agency Tibor Jones. On 14 August and 27 August, Oscar will be appearing at the Edinburgh Literary Festival, before travelling to the USA in September for the American launch of his book. In the second part of 2010 Oscar will be at Southbank, and on 16 November in conversation with the author of Gabriel García Márquez’s biography, Gerald Martin, at the Instituto Cervantes in London. Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the most reputed and widely read newspaper of Brazil, is preparing a feature on the book including an interview with the author. He is scheduled to appear on radio and television in Britain, Spain, Mexico and the United States during the first leg of his book tour.

Both a hidden history of the modern world from the silver peso (the world’s first truly global currency) to Latin America’s clever use of its grassroots politics, new economics and culture, aimed at developing the region’s rich resources, and an imaginative vision of the world to come rooted in a sure understanding of the past, What If Latin America Ruled the World? is essential and entertaining reading."

A Brief History of Chocolate

Chocolate is one of the most fascinating of all the foods that South Americans Indians gave to the world. The cacao tree originated in the Americas, probably in the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers, where most species of cacao are still found. Cacao grows in shady tropical forests protected from the strong sun. Wild Cacao must have spread from Amazonia to other regions and probably was domesticated in Central America. When the Spaniards arrived in what is now Mexico they found the Aztecs using cacao beans to make a drink that was so special that it was served to the emperor in gold goblets. It was believed to be an aphrodisiac, which is why the emperor drunk so much of it. This sweetened drink was made with toasted ground cacao beans, hot or cold water, and spices such as achiote (annatto) or ground hot peppers. It was accessible only to the ruling class and nobility because cacao beans were so expensive (they were, in fact, used as currency by both the Aztecs and the Mayas).

The Name of the drink, Xocoatl, may be related to Quetzalcoatl, who it was believed taught the people how to grow and use cacao. The Nahuatl word for the cacao tree is cuauhcacahuatl. Our word for the processed cacao is chocolate derived from the Aztec xocoatl, which probably meant 'bitter drink'.

At the begining of the conquest the Spaniards found xocoatl unpalatable. In addition to the fact that it combined cacao with odd spices (and no sugar), it was prepared by beating it to a foamy consistency. By 1591, some Guatemalan women had created tablets that could be dissolved in hot water and sweetened sugar to make a chocolate drink. Only then did the Spaniards take a serious interest in chocolate, and in 1631 they brought some cacao beans to Spain. There they began making elaborate mixtures of cacao beans, sugar, spices, almonds, and hazelnuts, all ground together to make a paste that was eventually exported to others countries in Europe. Even so, it was not until 1928 that C. J. Van Houten developed a process for making cocoa powder for drinks and cacao butter for solid chocolate.

When this sweeten European creation returned to the land of cacao's birth a few years later , it quckly became a drink of the Andes countries.

Hay Festival in Cartagena

We are delighted to share this article about the Hay Festival in Cartagena, written by Kevin Conroy Scott, a literary agent at Tibor Jones & Associates that also promotes and represents Latin American writers such as Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Oscar Guardiola Rivera in the UK . Kevin is also on the board of the Colombiage Arts Festvial. This article was published by the NewStatesman on 21 May 2010

Hay while the sun shines

Kevin Conroy Scott

Published 21 May 2010

Kevin Conroy Scott reports from a Latin outpost of a British literary festival

Ian McEwan is milling around the beautiful

courtyard of the Santa Clara Hotel in Cartagena, Colombia. "The temperature here is wonderful," he says. "This must be the temperature of paradise." The British novelist is in town for the Hay Festival Cartagena, one of six international offshoots of the annual literary event in Hay on Wye. But what exactly is a festival like this doing in a place like Colombia?

Despite its many problems and its strict class system, Colombia is going through something of a renaissance. The country's president, Álvaro Uribe, has been in power since 2002 and has presided over a period of relative calm after 30 years of violence in which drug cartels funded paramilitaries in the jungle, who in turn protected the cartels' business interests (almost 80 per cent of the world's cocaine comes from Colombia). Uribe's solution was aggressively to tackle the narcotics trade in the jungle while providing more security in major cities.

It has been a controversial strategy, drawing criticism from human rights groups. Senior figures in the Uribe administration have themselves been linked to drug trafficking and right-wing death squads. But eight years on, Colombia is arguably a safer place. Or at least it feels that way.

In Cartagena, the "Venice of the Caribbean", time stands still as horse-drawn carriages pass down lantern-lit streets and the voices of street vendors float on the tropical breezes. I asked Peter Florence, Hay's founder, how he felt about the festival coming to Cartagena. "For most countries, security is taken for granted. But security is new for Colombia. And that security feels like an adventure."

Among the authors attracted to Hay Cartagena is Mario Vargas Llosa. His talk was dominated by the buzz phrase of the festival, "perpetual presidents". Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Colombia's feared neighbour, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, were mentioned as culprits. "Perpetual presidents have left their countries in disaster," Llosa said through a translator. "As a Peruvian I have a lot of experience with this." This was greeted with raucous laughter and applause. Later I met a business teacher from Cartagena, and asked her about the audience's reaction. "Uribe is trying to change the constitution to remain in power for a third term in the same way. But most Colombians don't want to change because we think things are good now."

In Cartagena there is a sense that there are now two Colombias. At one of the many lavish parties hosted by Bogotanos with second homes on the coast, a live salsa band played while empanadas and aguardiente were served by the pool. When I returned to my hotel in Getsemani, the working-class quarter just outside the old town, I met a French economics professor who had retired to Cartagena. He told me that "64 per cent of Colombia is owned by 0.04 per cent of the people. That's where all the problems stem from."

It is often said that periods of great instability produce great art. If this is true, I asked Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a Colombian author whom many tip as the heir apparent to Gabriel García Márquez, is Colombia going through a golden age during this time of relative quiet? "I don't think conflict leads invariably to great art," he said. "If it did, Colombia would have produced nothing but masterpieces since 1810."

But Colombia is full of masterpieces. And people's attitudes towards culture are changing as the country begins to export more of it. The pop singers Shakira and Juanes have both sold millions of albums in the US and Europe. But what is more surprising is the international success of the telenovela, the Colombian soap opera. On my way back to London, I stopped in Bogotá and met the king of the format, Fernando Gaitán, the screenwriter/producer who created the global hit Ugly Betty. "Colombia is well known by everyone for its violence. So I thought it was very interesting to counteract that image," he said, surrounded by his awards in his penthouse office. "Colombia is a country that consumes its own culture. This is very rare. My work focuses on everyday lives, the matters that are universal, like love stories. It's the universal stories that travel abroad, not the stories of violence."

So does Hay Cartagena, with all its gravitas and prestige, need to reflect the more complicated texture of Colombian culture? The

London-based Colombian academic Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, author of the forthcoming book What If Latin America Ruled the World?, just shrugged. "Given that there are so few scenarios for rational discussion in my country, that Hay Cartagena exists is an unqualified good for Colombia." And there's new hope for Colombians who think their country is stagnant. In March, the constitutional court rejected Uribe's attempt to change the constitution to get a third presidential term. And now Colombia is in the grip of election fever. The former mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, is gathering momentum as the candidate of choice for the left-leaning student population looking to challenge the long conservative rule. They go to the polls later this month, so Colombia won't have a perpetual president any time soon.

Kevin Conroy Scott is a literary agent at Tibor Jones & Associates and on the board of the Colombiage arts festival