Friday, July 1, 2005

Beginnings of Salsa En Nashville

The Nashville City Paper previewed a recent Salsa en Nashville performance at the Belle Meade Plantation and highlighted band leader Al DeLory's musical pedigree:

"'Latin music was always my main love,' [Pianist and bandleader Al] DeLory said. 'I was playing that long before getting into the pop and country, and right now I'm devoting complete attention and focus on it. When you're working within the Latin context, you've always got to think about not just the instrumental component, but about dance and vocals as well, because people always want to dance at our shows. The first part of the Sunday set will be instrumental, and the second half we'll present a lot of our vocal things.'"

"While he also had excelled as a session pianist on the West Coast and appeared on recordings produced by Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, DeLory's biggest acclaim resulted from huge hits he produced for Glen Campbell like 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix' and 'Wichita Lineman,' plus 'Gentle On My Mind' for John Hartford. He also collaborated with Nick Venet and Fred Darlan on the score for the film Out of Sight and even had a chart hit with a single of 'Theme From Mash (Suicide Is Painless).'"

"A 1998 trip to Cuba, where he studied with Arturo Sandoval's former musical director, among others, inspired DeLory to create a larger group that would combine the rhythmic energy of Latin and Afro-Cuban styles with the improvisational edges of jazz. The band was initially called Mambo 98-Salsa En Nashville, later evolving into Salsa En Nashville. Besides doing dates throughout the Southeast, Salsa En Nashville has begun making appearances downtown at the new Club Tormenta (formerly Club Caliente)."

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