Highlights from The 350+ Year Evolution of Salsa
The event combined a class visit, followed by a lunch with BU Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, Dr. Michael Birenbaum Quintero. In the afternoon, there was a musical presentation introduced by Dr. John Thornton, Director, African American Studies Program with opening remarks by Dr. Michael Birenbaum Quintero. Online registrations through Evite totaled 43 with 4 email addresses from BU, possibly signifying the broad external appeal of the event. Actual attendance was 55 with mixed attendance of alumni, faculty, and students.
In the morning, Mr. Obando visited Prof. Brita Heimarck’s “Music, Migration, and Diaspora” course, offered to undergraduates in the Musicology & Ethnomusicology Department. The topic was Amiri Baraka’s writings about music, and the students engaged with Obando about the ways in which, in both Black and Latino cultural nationalism in 1970s New York, political sentiment in music went beyond the lyrics into the politics of the music itself. Over lunch with Prof. Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Mr. Obando described the ethics of working with artisans in his work acquiring instruments such as sacred Afro-Cuban drums for the musical instrument collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Obando then gave a lecture and musical presentation with his ensemble on the evolution of salsa instruments coupled with their cultural significance. During his presentation, José Obando was able to collaborate with student members of Presencia, the BU student salsa band, and the dancers of the BU Student Salsa Club, performing a spirited rendition of the salsa classic “Bilongo.”