The Picket was a cool respite on one of the hottest nights of the summer when La Excelencia came to Liverpool.
Whilst their infectious salsa had people dancing right from the start it was the third track when they really started to move the room. By the end of the set they had the whole audience dancing from the mechanical steps of the salsa newbies to the bewitching moves of the more experienced dancers.
La Excelencia are a salsa orchestra from New York formed in 2005 who according to their myspace page seek to bring a ‘new outlook to salsa music by being hip, young, writing about social issues, and breaking the mold yet not losing the true roots of salsa’. Whilst their socially aware lyrics may have been lost on the mostly non-spanish speaking audience, the contagious dancibility of their ‘
salsa dura’ sound was not. Their sound is given punch by a wealth of trombones and trumpets and the two excellent vocalists accompanied by piano, bongo, congas, timbales.
There was a bit of distortion on the sound system and many of the audience were expecting either a longer set or two sets but despite these minor gripes La Excelencia’s New York street salsa was a big hit.
La Excelencia have a new CD of original salsa compositions - see www.laexcelencia.net