Latino Music Cafe

Street buzz about the Asalto Navideño concert in Puerto Rico

Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by Hector Aviles in Latino Music

Being on vacation in my homeland Puerto Rico is great. I go out to the street and hear what people say about Willie Colon’s Asalto Navideño concert, which occured this past Saturday, December 19th. The comments were mixed, although trending to the negative.

Pre-Concert Comments:

The first comments regarding the concert where before it happened. In a popular music store in Santurce, I overheard a known bandleader and other commenting that ticket prices where too expensive and that the timing was not right. I had heard the timing comment before, as the 19th was right in the middle of the X-mas season, and there had been a string of concerts recently in Puerto Rico, and that added to the Christmas expenses, would leave little discretionary budget for a concert at this point in the X-mas season. This was unfortunately true, as a local concert review in newpaper Primera Hora said the Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum was barely half-full. When I made my vacation travel plans, I thought I would be lucky enough to see Ruben Blades’ Todos Vuelven tour, then scheduled for December 13th, the day after my arrival to the island. But the Ruben Blades concert was moved to February 2010. So was a Johnny Ventura Christmas concert, moved to January 15th.

Post-Concert Comments:

Local papers Primera Hora and El Vocero published concert reviews, which mostly agreed. The music was good, which should not surprise as Willie Colon normally delivers good music, and more so if the musical director is the maestro Cucco Peña. Willie played 20 songs and there was a dance platform in an area of the Coliseum for people to really make it a party dancing the night away. Negative comments included that Willie started about 1 1/2 late and that he talked to much, mostly out of written comments. Well, the man has expressed interst in running for a Puerto Rico elective post in our local Congress, so he must be practicing his public speaking. According to the reports, he’ll need a lot more practice. Willie has never lived in Puerto Rico, and will have a uphill battle convicing Puerto Rico voters that he can best represent them in the Puerto Rican Congress.

In the street, people said about the same. He talked too much, there were plenty of sound and concert logistics errors, but the music sounded good, so did Willie’s voice, and the many guest artists did very well, including Victoria Sanabria, who is launching herself as a Salsera with a recent CD release. People liked that there was a dance floor to enjoy the music dancing, and the lenght of the concert with 20 songs. Some people comments indicated they didn’t like the constant reference to Hector Lavoe in concerts. I have to say that if someone can truly talk about Hector Lavoe, it is Willie Colón. Others commented that he included many non-Christmas songs.

Cash on the Past, Setup for the Future:

The concert seemed to have 2 purposes; one was to cash from the past, which many artists do. Some make an exclusive living from it. Just go to Las Vegas and you’ll see. A bit of extra cash for Christmas is not bad, but getting the face time in the local media, when you are thinking of running for office here is not a bad idea. I don’t give Willie Colon much of a chance to win anything in 2012, even though he says he’s relocating here in 2010, has been seen house haunting. As any good politician, he did a “surprise”visit to a local charity before the concert, and got some press out of it.

Life in Seattle does not provide me with the chance to go out and find what people are thinking and saying about musical events. I had better things to do with family than to go to the concert, even tempting as it sounded. Willie got a lot of points with the locals for coming to do a one-time Chirstmas concert in Puerto Rico. People are commenting in the newspaper websites that they admire that even when he wasn’t born or raised here, he came to the land of his ancerstors to give us his music, and good music it is.

As I blogged recently, my favorite Christmas CDs are Willie Colón’s Asalto Navideño Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Willie Colón is a musical icon in Puerto Rico (and in the Latin music world around the globe), and most people here admire him for the legacy he has left.

Tags: Christmas, Cucco Peña, latin music, ruben blades, willie colon