Salsa Club Life In The Seventies (Eyewitness Memory) EL CORSO Luis Chaluisan Salsa Magazine

Starting in 1975 for me there's these nights at the Chez Sensual on Westchester Avenue and The Corso in Manhattan that stand out in my mind as the first exhibition of a new truth while witnessing a real life "Electric Rican Cabaret.” Latino gays and flaming heteros turn it up a notch at The Ice Palace on 57th Street.

It's all from the future.

My friend Lulu is with me one evening at The Corso on 86th Street. We just got out of rehearsal with Felix Romero's Teatro Otra Cosa and I want to go see this crazy trumpet player perform at the club.

Roy Roman can hit high C's that open up the ceiling.

I snag a table with Lulu ringside and in a little while Maria (a photographer who becomes a card carrying member of the early Latin New York crowd) joins us. A bunch of young Puerto Rican dancers shows up at the club about 11:30.

The midtown jazz dance studios have let out and the Broadway shows wrapped for the evening.

These are hardcore Rican cabaret jazz dancers from the city.

They're part of the next wave that's going to redefine dance on Broadway.

All they want is a break. Aids wipes a lot of them out. But for now these kids work their money makers.

Some graduate the High School For Performing Arts. Others the various Catholic High Schools in the city. Many are understudies and chorus dancers in various Broadway and off­Broadway shows like

The Wiz, All That Jazz and Pippin.

All rehearse and practice long hours getting ready for their chance to break through to fame.

The club plays a minute and a half jump swing number by the MFSB orchestra to signal the opening or close of its live music sets. Man, that piece still swings. It's not hip it's Hep.

Well, the MFSB swing horns blow and the dance floor explodes as this crew of dancers takes the floor. Break dancing pales against what I witness those dancers do that night as Lulu and Maria simultaneously perform their own verbal mambo.

The Corso's DJ launches into a remixed version of "Push Push in The Bush" that’s heavy on the bass drum, bass and percussion.

At a break he switches to a second percussion laden segment from a second song and so on in rapid fire until you can't tell what song is playing but damn that beat is kicking.

The D.J. that night pushes the beat on the music up in such a way that it seems to stop time as Lulu and Maria riff about what else? Life = Sex:

A wave of caramel toned Glistening bodies Snake in and out of Each other with movements In megaforces Jumping Laughing Spinning Groaning Coupling Splitting Relaxing Stretching their bodies taut To catch the downbeat Of the song and when it hits They release themselves In a cascade of smooth Muscular perfection Aware in the direction Where each and every Other dancer is vibrating So never to disrupt The overall flow of joy There's so much rhythm In that part of the room That he nearby tables Even dance The club's twirling Lights rain on Each and every one Appearing as diamonds Crowning their heads While illuminating the group In its own special spotlight That captures distinct eyes, smiles and Promising Young Rican Faces This unfolds for a solid half­hour As they glide from beat to beat While never missing the beat

It's not African Caribbean dance Or Jazz movement From the States Though it comes From those places No It's none of these anymore

In their Rican bodies The dance becomes Something unique It's the epitome Of the swagger Ricans add to The streets of the Big City They translate the beat of life In all those Rican apartments Throughout La Gran Manzana And lay it open For us to see In their exhilaration But it doesn't end there

Checking out Roy Roman Climbing on stage for the next set Lulu speaks Her sexual healing Floats in and out With the music Recounting adventures With a recent lover Accented by the percussion Dripping from the Speakers And the dancers Coming in front of us He then blows Wicked trumpet lines Over the beat Inviting the band in Who joins With righteousness Streaming From canned disco To live musica As the dancers and the girls Stepped out of time Drenched in SALSA

If you ever want to upset a hardcore musician or musical purist just use the word SALSA to describe Puerto Rican music in New York. You know what it really is?

Salsa Is the truth Life is a dirty Lowdown shame That shouldn’t Happen to a dog

Salsa Is the things New Ricans Do In their lives To bark at the Life

It exposes "el jibarito" In the big city It’s Spic Chic Parading the runways To a Caribbean beat Steamed in a A mainland cauldron It’s African spirits Rising as aromatic mist Freed to exact their Due after surviving The Middle Passage

It’s a Taino soul Tempering That just anger

It’s Freedom Land And Section 5 at The Bronx Riviera

Salsa Is oratories That exorcise Suffering

There are only Fleeting bad moments In life All changes And our sorrows Are prayed away In verse and song

It’s a bronze Statue of Liberty Holding sheet music And A set of maracas

While Ricans stay in clave And See the world Awash in Renaissance perspective

Aware of the past in the present Reinterpreting it But holding true To it’s lessons

Fufillment Fueled by Desire Channeling Regrets

It’s as much as Batacumbele As it is Eddie Palmieri Sharing the stage with Los Lobos While Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz Bless the congregation And Ralphie Pagan And Hector Lavoe die Powdered deaths

For Our Sins Salsa Is a lover's passion caught by a musician's voice

It anticipates Interactive media In the computer age

Salsa Is sensuously stylish Latin dancing

Don’t get lost in the percussion And Miss the real deal in Salsa

The secret is How the bass riff And The two dancers

Thrust against each other Wrap themselves Around the hips

To drive in unison Across the floor In its most abstract

IT Is the switch between The bass The dancer hips And The left hand of the timbales player Accenting the count

It’s making love With your clothes on To a celestial metronome

Excerpt from "Newricane" (c) 2001 Gathering of the Tribes Fly By Night Press NYC

Presented by: Luis Chaluisan WEPAwebTV - New Edge Theater WEPAwebTV Roughrican Productions Rocker Roller Rican vlɒɡSalsamagazine.com 2014 Recognition Awards Federico Chaluisan Maria Hernandez L.f. Chaluisan Batlle Editors WEPAwebTV - New Edge Theater El Extreme Luis Chaluisan http://luisfchaluisan.wix.com/luis-chaluisan

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