Wednesday, August 5, Afro Caribbean Rhythms & Salsa Workshop

I was especially interested in the percussion aspects of this class. Most of the music I am familiar with has a basic bass line to it which is generally easy to pick up. With the music from this area, there seems to be several percussion lines with different bass tracks to it. This could provide research topics for music electives classes.

Professor Gonzalez explained that there were four(4) major influences on the music from this area. They are the indiginous population, Spain, Africa, and France. Spain and France had a lot of colonies therefore they had quite a bit of influence in the area, especially with the slave trade and European colonization of the Caribbean. From 1900 until 1980, Cuba and Puerto Rico led the rise of salsa.

Unfortunately I sprained my ankle trying to avoid a lizard on the way to this class and was not able to participate in the actual salsa dancing activities.

Note the lizard on the brown mulch below, almost in the center of the picture.