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Publication: The Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH.
La Excelencia, an 11-piece salsa orchestra, knew they had a unique sound to offer when they first performed in London two years ago. While playing songs off their 2009 album "Mi Tumbao Social" the group was able to coax the Londoners to their feet with their powerful salsa, Jose Vasquez-Cofresi, conga player and co-founder of the band, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"We were told that when [playing] in London people are not used to standing up and dancing," Vasquez-Cofresi said. "When everyone started dancing in the Barbican Theatre, we knew that was an amazing moment."
The event was broadcast by the BBC as part of a documentary on modern salsa dura, which differs from the more familiar salsa romantica, according to Vasquez-Confresi. Salsa diverged from other Latin musical styles in the 1960s and 1970s, and arrived in New York with immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, he said. Salsa dura is actually more similar to the original incarnation of salsa than the better-known salsa romantica, according to Vasquez-Confresi.
"Salsa began to get commercialized," he said. "It started to lose its roots, its personality."
One of La Excelencia's goals is to return salsa to its more forceful and energetic form....