Sam's Sounds: Azucar!: a Caribbean Celebration

On Friday, another event that I helped organize for the Latin American Coalition was held at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte. This time it was called "Azucar!" which means sugar in Spanish, but the phrase means more than that. The late great Celia Cruz would call out Azucar! and it became her catch-phrase. But it also signifies the excitement of Caribbean music, the driving rhythms of salsa, the powerful harmonies of a bolero, the tingle of goose bumps on your neck when you hear a sad bachata, or the pulse of feet stamping to a merengue. Originally the show was conceived as a Cuban show, but then we decided to make it about the entire Spanish-speaking Caribbean, to highlight the common threads between the islands but also to showcase the region's diversity of music and dance.

The show was broken up into three parts, the first featuring music and dance from Cuba- son montuno, cha-cha-cha, mambo, then moving east to the Dominican Republic- merengue, bachata, and reggaeton, and ending up with Puerto Rico- bomba y plena and salsa. Each section had bands playing live music and dancers performing to recorded tracks.

The theater was packed, the crowd energetic, and people didn't stop dancing until close to midnight. There was even an after party.

Here are some pictures.

Havana Social Club giving dance lessons