Dominican singer José Alberto El Canario, three-time Latin Grammy winner, said Tuesday in Miami that his album “Big Swing” defends the salsa big band format for its tradition and validity.
“We have opted for that, despite the fact that there are voices that consider all this outdated, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are the results with the repercussion of this album, which contains an important piece of the historical development of this music that we call salsa,” said El Canario.
The current nomination in the salsa category, at the Latin Grammy, has “a high meaning” for him, as it is an album that contains allusions to Mariano Mercerón, Silvestre Méndez, Tito Puente, Arsenio Rodríguez, Tite Curet, Kiko Mendive, great singers, musicians and composers.
“On the other hand, we learned of the recent death of Enrique Bonne, a great author of our tropical music, of whom we made that classic of all Latinos that is ‘I don’t want stones in my way’. We would like to dedicate this nomination to his memory, may that great be in glory,” added El Canario.
The salsero, one of the essential voices of Latin music, pays tribute to the great orchestras of the 50s with works such as “Tiemblas”, by Tite Curet; “Negro bonito”, by Silvestre Méndez; “Niña y señora”, by Tito Puente, or “Negro ñañamboro”, by Mariano Mercerón, among others.
“Big Swing” is produced by the Los Canarios label and distributed by La Oreja Media Group.
José Alberto El Canario is the artist most awarded the Latin Grammy for Best Traditional Tropical Album (three). The most recent, last November, with the bolero album “Rodando por el mundo”.