Top Colombian salsa band eyes Bollywood
The Colombian salsa melody, an energetic version of traditional Cuban, Puerto Rican, Caribbean and American dance music with African influences, may soon find its way into Bollywood if popular Colombian Salsa band 'La 33' has its way.
"You may see some surprises later this year in Bollywood. We invited music producers from Mumbai to our concert in the capital Friday. We are hoping to enter into a collaboration with them. I will divulge the details once the partnership sees the light of day. Salsa shares many similarities with contemporary Bollywood music that makes the scope of fusion feasible," David Fernandes, percussionist of 'LA 33', told IANS.
'LA 33', one of the top five Salsa bands in Colombia, performed a combination of foot-tapping Salsa Dura of New York, the Caribbean Salsa, jazz and traditional Colombian folk at the Mavalankar Stadium here Friday evening.
The concert was presented by the Embassy of Colombia and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to mark 200 years of Colombian Independence.
"India is exciting. We are here for the first time," vocalist Guillaermo Leon said.
The band formed in 2000 shot to fame with its Salsa Dura hit single 'La Pantera Mambo' from their debut album 'La-33' in 2004 that was the theme song of movie The Pink Panther.
Last year, the band released its third album 'Ten Cuidado' that features a track, 'Roxanne', arranged with The Police.
The 12-member 'La-33' plays the 1970s style jazz-oriented salsa with base instruments like timbale drums, bongo ceros, congas, trombone, cowbells, cymbals, saxophone and guitar.
"Salsa music is very popular around the world as well as in many cities of India. It is easy to identify with the music because salsa has several influences like the jazz and island folk. What started as immigrant music in New York by the Cuban and Puerto Rican migrants and later jazz came back to Colombia in the eighties to assimilate from local folk and lean on jazz," Fernandes said.
