Page 5 - La Matancera News Today

Ray Barretto · Barretto Power It was 1970 when Fania Records released Barretto Power, one of a series of seminal albums by master percussionist and bandleader Ray Barretto. 1970, the beginning of an explosive decade in our planet. A decade of crisis and change, especially in New York. A decade of socioeconomic and cultural challenges for a new Latino generation in the Big Apple. Tropical music, the explosion of the so called salsa movement as a unifying phenomenon was gathering momentum, a...

Johnny Pacheco, a seminal figure in Cuban-based dance music as it is played in New York City, died on Feb. 15 at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J. He was

Musicians perform on the street in Old Havana - Credit: Getty Images Before and after its revolution, Cubas soul has been found in its music, says SOPHIA DEBOICK Despite existing in a silo for decades, Cuban music has swept the world. The long-standing post-revolution embargo has seen artists struggle to get visas to play in the all-important US, and the thaw of relations begun by the Obama administration has been rolled back under Trump, but Cuban rhythms have proved irresistible and artists f...