What is your favorite salsa song(s)? Can you describe how this song makes you feel when you hear it?

Discussion Response: Ivi – Orlando, FL

Everybody has a list of favorite songs, and I am one of those people as well. Whether it’s Salsa, Charanga, Cha Cha, Son, Etc.

As for me, I have a total of 4 favorite songs. Two mambo & two cha cha. My first one is from Larry Harlow, A Tribute to Arsenio fea. Ismael Miranda Album, the song: Sueltala. That song is one song I can play in my head right now from beginning to end. The song starts off slow but picks up once that brass section kick in. When the trombone start to blair, I get this uncontrollable shake & the mambo gods take over my body. This song was not a main stream song in the 70’s but OH MY GOD!! I need a sedative. LOL!!! I start singing the song & I’m lost in the rhythm..no escaping it.

Second song: Bao khen de (I think that is how you spell it) from El Gran Combo: I remember when I was a little girl my dad would play this LP on his turntable at home on Saturday morning while cleaning the house & I would dance my non danceable butt off. Now, that I dance, when song is put on, I just get up and just take off. I hear this song @ work, I get up with my headphones start singing & dancing at my desk. I do a show in front of my co-workers. LOL!!! The brass section is amazing in this song & the coro is what makes it evening hotter. This tune will definitely get you out of your seat.

Third Song (Cha Cha) Lindo Yambu from the Eddie Palmieri: This song actually sounds live but on top of that the clave is so loud in that song along with the cowbell. AYE PAPITO!! And Ismael Quintana…just jams the song even more with his voice. It literally puts the tingle from the top of my head down to the tip of my toes. Don’t forget Eddie’s piece b/c he tears them keys up.

Fourth Song (Cha Cha): Kum Kum from Ismael Quitana on the Apunta Aparte album: This track is off the hook. The coro Kum Kum echoes in the song & goes right on top of the cha cha steps. Another great song with a great voice. The brass section is awesome on this song as well. This song makes me smile all the time (gives me flashbacks as a little girl dancing with dad. My feet do not stay still at all. I have to get up and dance & the cha cha gods take over body in the song..to the core.

If you like old school as much as I do…you got to check these songs out…they are awesome to dance to. It gets your blood boiling and running fast. At least it does to me.

Ivi – Orlando, FL

Discussion Response: Rob Young – Denver, CO

What is your favorite salsa song(s)? Can you describe how this song makes you feel when you hear it???

No matter what I’m doing, who I’m talking to, or how tired I may happen to be if I hear “Atrevida” by Ray Rodriguez I “feel the spirit” if you will! The opening piano and bass riff just speaks directly to my soul and the tempo provides plenty of time for me and my partner to really play IN the music. For me this song just oozes passion.

Rob Young – Denver, CO

Discussion Response: Boyd Marlar – Arkansas

Wow, I have a bunch, here are some of them:
La Comay – Sonora Carruseles
Vamonos Pa’L Monte – Eddie Palmieri
La Muerte – El Gran Combo
Han Cogido La Cosa – Grupo Niche
El Preso – Joe Arroyo
Nina y Senora – Tito Puente
Lo Que Te Queda – Tito Rojas

What all these, and the other songs I love, have in common is that they start with a fairly smooth melody then at some point in the song break into an instrumental that just says to me let it all go and get crazy. I love the bongos, cowbell, horns and especially the flute. That’s the great thing about salsa, so many different instruments, so many sounds. Just listening to these songs make my heart start racing and my feet start moving. It goes really well with my dance style. I usually start out doing what would probably be called LA Style, but when the jam breaks out I go to more of a what I think would be called cuban style. It’s really similar to how I do hustle. I just picked it up from watching the local latino dancers. They have so much their soul into the dance and that is what I want to put into mine.

Bentonville, Arkansas

Discussion Response: Myron Abernathy – Atlanta, GA

I think I speak for alot of salsaholics when I say my favorite song is “Lloraras” by Oscar De Leon. The dance floor is always packed when this song is on and I can hear everybody singing along with it. I sing along as well, although since my Spanish needs much improvement I have no clue what I’m singing about. I love this song not only because it’s a great song (I replay that famous breakdown at the end countless times when I play it in my car) but because since I’ve only been going to clubs for less than a year, it’s one of the few songs I know by heart. I love when I’m able to tell when the end of a song is coming so I can do something flashy at the end instead of trying to guess and end up holding a long dip, only to realize that the song ain’t over yet. Whenever this song comes on at the club, I immediately search the dance floor for my favorite salseras. I have to make this song count, so I know I have to act fast because since everybody else loves this song too, my favorite partners are bound to get snatched up pretty quickly.

Discussion Response: JD Smith – Boston, MA

Yes , yes and yes! There are those songs that just “connect”. For me what they connect with is that certain feeling of “hipitude”that I feel way down to my toes. These songs send me back to my roots in NYC, back to the days when it was really happenin’. This is MY music, music that lifts me, reaches down and takes hold and does not allow anything other than being in the moment, the eternal here and now. In a way, it means little to name these songs, as they are no songs in particular. They are rather those tunes that lift and mobilize an already more than willing spirit to consort with Mother Africa herself. All I’m able to say truthfully is that I know it when I hear it. I do not make a policy or habit of having favorite tunes. On any given occasion, any tune may become my favorite tune of the moment, IF, it has that certain something that transports me to my place of ecstasy. For me, it’s all about attaining an ecstatic state through music and movement. If Mambo be the food of life, PLAY ON!!

DJ Nik‘s Picks for the Dancefloor

“La Familia” – Conjunto Barroco
“Mas Salsa Que Pescao” – Louie Colon
“Pa Goza Candela” – Federico y Su Combo
“I’ve got to find” – Monguito Santamaria
“Alonzo” – Cal Tjader
“No Lo Creas” – Paul Ortiz y la Orquesta Son
“Mima la Pululera” – Pedro Conga Orq. feat Tito Rojas
“Mata Que Dios Perdona” – Ray Perez y los Dementes
“Delta Mambo” – Cache
“El Vivir de Tumbao” – Orquesta la Paz