Yuri Buenaventura

New York salsa hasn’t changed; Yuri Buenaventura comes from that tradition, from the sharp and sensual, romantic and fierce salsa of the historic Fania All Stars albums.

“To talk about the origin of this music is to talk about the Spaniards who left their country in search of a new life and got lost in the jungle among mosquitoes and snakes; about Black people thrown onto ships and whipped to make them work; about Indigenous people assaulted by absolute evil with its cross, massacred because they believed in the gods of the river and the sun. And then, there’s tragedy within tragedy: the exodus of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans leaving their sunlit islands for the cold winters of New York’s poor neighborhoods. Well, New York salsa is that music.”

When the general public in France discovered him with his extraordinary rendition of *Ne me quitte pas* in 1996, Buenaventura opened the doors to a renewed interest in Latin music, yet always emphasized its foundations, inseparable from its history. “Refusing to let artificial intelligence write music, wearing a suit to perform—that’s paying homage to Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, who were told to enter through the back door of white clubs and who couldn’t sleep in the hotels where they played because Black people weren’t allowed in the rooms.”

Let’s make the most of it: salsa, even romantic salsa, is history you can dance to.