"Salsa Talks" is another book that I'd managed to finish just recently.
It's a large book, comprising intimately candid interviews coupled with some marvellous photographs; a volume that brings the protagonists of salsa to life in a way that I've found no other book has been able to.
Despite the dedication of a good portion of its contents to pictures, sometimes duplicated which left me wondering if it was a design feature or "padding", the interview transcriptions are meaty but simultaneously easy to read. This is a welcome change from the normal fare which is either extremely well researched but stodgy, being derived from someone's musicology thesis; or so under-researched and misrepresented as to be misleading.
This book is SUCH a refreshing change.
Salsa Talks gives something back to you every time you read it: the way the artists express themselves about their work; their recollection of the times; their hopes. Many of them have passed on now, a comment on how long Mary's journey has been.
It has helped me personally on so many levels:
1. much of the flotsam of information I'd gathered from a multitude of sources finally came together within the context of the narratives, making salsa clearer and more comprehensible;
2. my listening appreciation of music became more profound as I came to understand what the artists were personally going through and thinking at that time; and
3. their comments about how they approached their work gave me valuable insight into how I might interpret salsa myself as a musician.
Over and above everything else, Salsa Talks communicates with passion, a sense of Time and Place; that's something books don't do often enough.
I'm glad that this one is with us, because it makes us all the richer for it.
Loo Yen Yeo
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