Edwin Bonilla beats the drum hard in “Homenaje A Los Rumberos”

We recently approached one of the collaborating DJs on our page, Juanderful Juan, to do an article on the Puertorican salsa artist Edwin Bonilla. Juanderful is one of the masterminds behind the Tropicalismo! parties and has been bringing Tropical Bass to Philly on a monthly basis, inviting artists like Uproot Andy, DJ Sabo and Maga Bo to heat up the dancefloor.

Last year, Edwin Bonilla, an international salsa superstar,  released his latest hit album “Homenaje A Los Rumberos” with SonicProjects Records. This album features powerful horns, strong percussion riffs, crisp and wide vocal arrangements and deep live “descargas”. “Homenaje A Los Rumberos” reached #16 on the Billboard Tropical Albums Chart and gained exceptional reviews on various worldwide salsa publications.

Here’s the article Juanderful shared with us:

My brother and I have constantly challenged each other with different music and he recently asked me to take a listen to Edwin Bonilla’s latest effort.  “Homenaje a los Rumberos” is Edwin’s fourth solo album. Although my brother was one of the assistant engineers on this project, that wouldn’t stop me from telling him if I wasn’t into it.  I don’t know that I would consider myself a salsa expert but I do have a decent collection, so I wanted to take on the challenge.

I don’t know Edwin Bonilla personally but from the research that I’ve done he seems like a genuine, hard working person.  Actually almost every piece that came up on him mentioned something about him being one of the hardest working men in the biz. As I dug for more information flipping through one of my favorite magazines, Wax Poetics, to my surprise, in the October/November 2006 issue, I noticed there was this interview with him, “Salsa Dura Now! Edwin Bonilla works hard to move bodies.”  This gave me some great points of reference on Bonilla.

On my first listen to “Homenaje a los Rumberos” it took me back to one of my parent’s old school parties, it has the same good vibes feeling to it. From the first song, “La Melodia”, it throws you right on to the dance floor. In the Wax Poetics interview he mentions “I like to get people going from the beginning-I like to get to the point in my music. When you hear it, it’ll catch your ear and make you want to get up and dance.” With “La Melodia” it definitely does this and the vocals help with that. “Canto Abacua” is the next song that is another dance floor killer. Great keyboard action, around minute 2, that reminds me a bit of a space-agey Eddie Palmieri and then goes down into the breakdown.  Which is one thing I noticed on many of the songs, there are some great breakdowns! This one makes you feel like you’ve been thrown into the middle of a carnival. I love the vocals on “Timbalero Suena”, it just has some of that old school sound to it. Flows nicely throughout the entire song, with some nice scatting action which leads the breakdown with a little “rompelo ya Edwin Bonilla!” The title song “Homenaje a Los Rumberos” is beautifully composed and again has that old school feeling to it. Love the backup vocals on this one with some “voz de vieja” (the high pitched/nasal backup vocals) action. The last song, como cosa rara, tears up the dance floor again. “No Hay Quien Se Aguante”, with its song title, it kind of dares any dancer to keep up with the pace of this song.  Go ahead I dare you! When you start feeling like your legs are going to give way… don’t despair, the rhythm will be right there just in the nick of time to carry you. All in all, this album is well put together and if it doesn’t make you move in some way you should feel guilty.  “I have to beat the drum every day. It calls me- I feel guilty if I don’t hit it.” Edwin Bonilla

Foto por: Natalia Angarita