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"My Way To Show Baton Rouge I'm Here": Latino Music and Dance in Baton Rouge
By Dominic Bordelon
Introduction / Latin American Music: Popular Contemporary Genres
Status of Latin American Music in the Baton Rouge Area / Mestizo / Julio & César
La Rumba Buena / The Latin Four
Traditional Mexican Dance: Irma Farfán Cobb / Festival Latino / Conclusion
La Rumba Buena
La Rumba Buena (meaning "The Good Rumba") is a band from the New Orleans area that regularly plays in Baton Rouge and specializes in Caribbean styles of music, especially salsa, merengue, and bachata. They also play some Mexican songs, and some American songs with a "Latin flair." Unlike most bands in the south Louisiana music scene today, the band is quite large: 11 members, as well as a person dedicated to sound engineering. The leader and founder of the band is Johnny Marcia, a native and resident of Kenner.
Like many professional musicians, Johnny grew up surrounded by music. His father was the leader of a Latin band called Los Sagitarios, a New Orleans-area group that played together for about 35 years. Johnny's father immigrated to the area from Honduras in 1968, and two years later Johnny was born. From early childhood, Johnny heard and watched his father, who played percussion, bass guitar, and piano, and his uncle, who played "almost anything." What he wasn't able to pick up by watching, his father taught him. Johnny started on a drum set, playing American music. However, when his father's drummer moved away, Johnny was invited into the band at 16 years old, the youngest member. About his father and music, Johnny has said, "It helped our relationship a lot. . . . That was the thing that we did together."
Johnny continued playing with his father's band; sometime around 2001, Johnny began gradually taking it over. About four years later, he decided to truly make it his own by changing the name and lineup. The band became La Rumba Buena, and new, enthusiastic members were recruited. "I needed to do something different. . . . I wanted to go to another level. . . . We had gotten to a plateau where, that was it, we couldn't go anywhere." Though this was not an easy decision, he felt it was necessary in order to continue improving as a musician and a band. He recruited new members by looking at various bands and picking the best musicians he could find. Before long, La Rumba Buena was playing more genres and larger venues than Los Sagitarios had.
La Rumba Buena's current lineup of about 11 members includes three singers (one woman, two men), keyboard, horns, bass guitar, and most importantly, percussion. The band's percussion instruments include snare drum, timbales (Johnny's favorite, shallow drums whose sides are also used to make sound), a block (which sounds like claves), cowbells, congas (tall drums), bongos (an attached pair of smaller drums), tambora (medium-sized drum), and a güira. The percussionists weave intricate patterns of sound, sometimes playing completely different rhythms with each hand. Meanwhile, the vocalists carry the melody, harmonizing with each other, and sometimes they play percussion such as the cowbell. The horns accent the vocals and share the melody during instrumental interludes. The keyboard races along in a tumbao (salsa pattern) or plays the careful arpeggios of bachata. Finally, the bass provides necessary backup, a melodic foundation for the music.
Unfortunately, the full band is not always able to perform in its various venues, particularly restaurants. The band's public venue in Baton Rouge is Fernando's Mexican Grill & Cantina on Coursey Boulevard, where a mix of Latino and others come to listen. There, they can only bring about seven members. Johnny has said, "If it were up to me, I would bring the whole band all the time. That's the sound that I like. . . . That's what makes us different from everybody else." This sound is one that he describes as "powerful."
Nevertheless, even the pared-down version of the band is a crowd-pleaser. At Fernando's, as many as a dozen couples manage to squeeze into the small area cleared for dancing. Large, garage-door style windows are opened, so that those sitting on the patio can hear the music almost as well as those inside. As Johnny has said, "We do a lot with the audience; we're there to entertain them." The singers often speak in Spanish, and many in the audience understand, and respond accordingly. As the night gets later, a singer might ask the crowd, "¿Seguimos?" (roughly: "Should we keep going?"), to which many will respond, "¡Sí!"
At some point towards the end of their last set, the band and audience perform a tradition known as punta. The band gets into a percussive jam with little other instrumentation, the people on the dance floor circle up, and individuals take turns dancing in the center. One of the singers calls out the names of various countries, and representatives of those countries (among which have been Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras) go to the center of the circle and dance. A singer and the crowd chant exhortations such as, "Pa' abajo, pa' abajo, pa' abajo" (roughly "down, down, down") while the dancer shows off their prowess and the percussion pounds away. This is perhaps the most popular part La Rumba Buena's performances.
For Johnny and La Rumba Buena, the audience's energy and their own role as entertainers are the most important aspects of performing. Whether he is playing for a Latino or non-Latino audience, "It's all about having fun, all about having a good time, putting on a good show. We like to entertain."
The Latin Four
The Latin Four, a band from the New Orleans area that also regularly plays in Baton Rouge, plays an eclectic mix of musical styles. In fact, this is the most defining feature of the band: they can play a salsa song or a cumbia, and immediately after play something from Frank Sinatra or Motown. Furthermore, they do so skillfully, without struggling to shift between such disparate musical styles. While such a method may sound odd, it is certain not to bore its listeners and has attracted its own following.
The band's eclecticism is better understood by considering its members. John Aleman is the band's singer of English lyrics, with a specialty in American classics such as those of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Richard Carrol, formerly a bassist who played jazz standards with John, plays bass parts on keyboard. The band's Spanish-language vocalist and percussionist is Giovanni Mejia, an accomplished singer of many Latin American standards. Finally, the band's guitarist, lead keyboardist, and manager, Hugo Mijangos, came to the band with a background in classical guitar and jazz. For some gigs, the band is also joined by a female vocalist who performs Motown songs.
The band's diverse membership led to their having a very broad repertoire and appeal. The band was formed about two years ago by Hugo and Richard. Richard knew John because they had played together, and so they invited him. Of John, Hugo has said, "Growing up, ever since he was 10 years old, he was singing Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. . . . I don't see how anybody remembers so many words." John also studied vocal music at the University of New Orleans. After trying a few Spanish-language singers, the group settled on Giovanni, who had been a lead singer for large Latin bands in the 1970s and 1980s. Hugo has said, "His knowledge of the Latin repertoire is really what got me excited."
Hugo himself began playing guitar seriously at the age of 11, around the time that he first moved to Metairie, and continued to do so until he studied jazz in his twenties. He did not play for several years, and couldn't figure out how to fit music back in his life. However, several years ago he found what he wanted in church bands. There he played keyboards, and filled in missing parts in the instrumentation, improving the sound of the band. Finally, about two years ago he organized the Latin Four with the help of his friends. As it turns out, he is learning the most of anyone in the group, because every song they decide to play is new to him, since his original repertoire was mainly classical. Despite his title of "manager," the atmosphere of the band is egalitarian; no one has authority of the band. The group plays as equals, and each member brings something that the rest of the band doesn't have.
The Latin Four's sound and instrumentation vary depending on what style of music they are playing. Giovanni has a flexible voice that can adapt to different styles of Latin American music, either crooning a standard bolero (love song) such as "Sabor a Mí," or letting out high-pitched gritos (shouts) while singing a Mexican ranchera. John's voice can have a full, mellow tone while singing Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon," or a more gritty timbre for Mack Rice's "Mustang Sally." Hugo can opt to play the salsa's tumbao (piano part), synthesize accordions for norteña music, or perform on electric guitar. Giovanni's electronic drums, too, can synthesize appropriate instrumentation for the chosen genre, whether it calls for bongos or a drum set.
John Aleman is the vocalist for The Latin Four, another Latin band that regularly plays in Baton Rouge at Los Gallos Mexican Grill. Photo: Dominic Bordelon. |
The Latin Four play at country clubs, Mardi Gras balls and dinners, corporate events, fundraising events, private events, and restaurants. In Baton Rouge, they play at the restaurant Los Gallos on Friday nights. There, and other places, they have attracted their own clientele, listeners who go to the restaurant whenever they play. The band's audience primarily consists of non-Latino Americans. Though the band could play in other venues for Latinos in the New Orleans area, they prefer not to take such late gigs--according to Hugo, such gigs typically don't end until early in the morning. For Hugo, it is important that the band plays music that the audience identifies with; oftentimes this means the music that they grew up with.
Speaking about their four-hour gig at Los Gallos, John proudly states, "We can go four hours in English, or we can go four hours in Spanish." But the band likes to mix it up--on the Latin side, they play merengue, bachata, salsa, boleros, cumbias, and rancheras; on the American side, popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s, Motown, blues, big band, and rock. This is what the performers seem to enjoy most about their band. Perhaps John, Richard, and Giovanni share Hugo's sentiment: "People ask me, 'What kind of music do you like?' and I wish I could tell you that, but I like everything."
Next - Traditional Mexican Dance: Irma Farfán Cobb / Festival Latino / Conclusion
Dominic Bordelon is a graduate student at Louisiana State University. He did this research as part of the New Populations Project in 2009.
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