Caliente

I was just listening to some good old school Salsa music on my iPod and realizing that right there is an entire genre of music that is being destroyed by the economy and the era of overproduced music. My wife is Puerto Rican and I have loved Latin music since I moved to New York in the early 90's and have seen that people don't want to pay for a full band or a brass section and real musicians, some of the finest in the business are being replaced by samples and keyboards both live and in the studio. Now that Coney Island is going to the wealthy condo buyers, who knows if even the great live Salsa we enjoyed so much in the summer on the piers will even be back in the future.

If there are no outlets for quality musicians, and music can be made simply by plotting notes on the computer using your mouse, how do we encourage the future generations to pick up an instrument and play? Being able to express yourself creatively is one of the true gifts we receive and it concerns me that as time goes by I am seeing creativity replaced by sample libraries and Apple GarageBand. Not that great compositions and tracks aren't made with the new tools, but even I, as a musician, sometimes forget the beauty or interweaving the organic with the electronic.

I am thankful that I can sit at a piano or set of drums and allow inspiration to flow through me but I have to remind myself that in this day and age talent is a very ambiguous term.