Representante de la Salsa - 8522

Review The Susie Hansen Latin Band's new CD, Representante de la Salsa, is on fire and tailor-made for salsa dancers.p> Violinist/bandleader Hansen is a long-time favorite in Los Angeles, where she conducts an average of 150 live performances per year. A native of Chicago, Hansen is currently celebrating the twentieth anniversary of her band, as well as the release of her third CD. This well-established artist has developed a trademark style that features her electric violin as the lead melodic instrument of a powerhouse ensemble. Drawing from various forms of jazz and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Hansen and her band play hardcore salsa and Latin jazz guaranteed to make any audience get up and move. As Susie states: "We aim for the feet!" Latin Beat Magazine salutes and congratulates the talents and efforts of this amazing bandleader that calls Los Angeles home -- Susie Hansen, the L.A. Queen of the Latin Violin. A performance by the Susie Hansen Latin Band includes familiar and traditional Spanish-language songs, original salsa and Latin jazz scores, Latin-style interpretations of jazz standards, salsa selections with English lyrics, and traditional Cuban charanga music. For more information visit susiehansen.com. --Latin Beat / Rudy Mangual Editor's Pick: The West Coast is very lucky to have violinist-composer Susie Hansen, who consistently releases finely crafted and highly swinging dance material. On her new project Hansen orchestrates a repertoire that consists of salsa, charanga, Latin jazz, and a very classy extended cha cha cha medley of Sinatra covers. The compositions mix Spanish and English lyrics, often within the same song. Great job by singers George Balmaseda, Kaspo Abbo, and Hansen. Listen to the killer "No Te Metas Conmigo," a red hot charanga number that is one of my favorites here. With bassist Rene Camacho, Jimmy Branly on timbales, pianist Joe Rotondi, and others. First rate stuff, this. Highly Recommended. --Descarga.com / Bruce Polin Product Description Liner Notes by Don Heckman, 'International Review of Music': The first time I saw Susie Hansen in action, leading her Salsa band in a rhythmic set that was setting even my non-terpsichorean feet into action, I knew she was something special. The tunes and the rhythm and the sheer energy of the music she was creating - moving lithely in front of the microphone, her flip hairdo flying - were more than enough to prove that fact. But it wasn't until I found out more about her, about the fact that she was a Chicago girl with a classical music background and a pair of Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., that I realized how unique Susie really was. So, strange though it may seem for the title Representante de la Salsa to be claimed by a slender blonde, playing a five-string electric violin, leading an all-male band of Latin jazz veterans, the proof is in the music. And the music in this collection is a scintillating display of what she loves most and does best -- Salsa and Latin jazz. One of the fundamental givens about Latin jazz has always been that it is fueled by a simmering undercurrent of dance rhythms. Whether it was the pioneering Machito band, Dizzy Gillespie's Latin-infused bebop, Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, Los Van Van or Poncho Sanchez, whether the first emphasis was on jazz or dance, the two elements seem almost symbiotically connected. In this case, Susie notes that the dance element was what led the way in the planning of Representante de la Salsa. "My producer Erich Bulling and I wanted to keep the connection with jazz that's always been basic to my music," says Susie, "while moving more in the dance direction. We included a couple of instrumentals, and lots of soloing on every track, while still making it a total dance album." Susie has done exactly this. The title track, Representante de la Salsa, written by Susie, Bulling and singer George Balmaseda, is given a dynamic vocal interpretation by Balmaseda. According to Susie, this will be the first single released from the album, and the vibrant combination of Balmaseda's vocal with the hip-shaking rhythms virtually guarantees that it will quickly become a dance hit with the Salsa DJs. "Vehicle" drives - appropriately - with swinging enthusiasm, enhanced by Kaspar Abbo's roaring, David Clayton-Thomas-like lead vocal and Susie's high-flying solo. Backing him, the ensemble, with David Stout's orchestration placing Susie's crisp violin lines at the top of the horns, recalls the hit tunes of Blood, Sweat & Tears. "I always tell arrangers," explains Susie, "that you need to think of this as a three-horn sound - trumpet, tenor and trombone - but with the violin playing the lead role of the trumpet." A pair of instrumentals, "Si No Contigo" and "Las Calles de Chicago" (a tribute to her hometown written by Hansen and Bulling), swing hard with exactly the kind of sound she describes. For some exciting soloing, listen to Joe Rotondi's jaunty piano solo on the former, Sus
ASIN: B003SHVY4S
VSKU: 5ALWH0000CKU_ns
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Susie Hansen
Binding: Audio cd