Traveling Smithsonian Exhibit Celebrates Latin Music Influence

By Michael J. Fressola, silive.com

Ordinary people who like popular music (but aren’t musicologists or scholars) trust their ears.

But even when they know what they’re hearing, can they detect the Mexican or Cuban or Puerto Rican sounds that underlie other formats, like rock and roll or hip-hop or R & B?

“American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music” at the Performing Arts Library through mid-July aims to assign audio-cultural credit where it belongs. The show reveals the Latin genes within the multi-cultural genome of American popular music. They’re all over the playlist.

The less lofty goal, perhaps, is to celebrate some of the Latin contributions. “American Sabor” (“sabor” means taste or flavor) isn’t exhaustive or encyclopedic. Of Staten Island’s contributions to Latin musical culture — namely native-born Islanders Joan Baez and Christina Aguilera — only Baez is part of the current presentation.

The bilingual panels have text (statistics, biographical information) lively graphics and photographs of performers, dancers, album covers, publicity set-ups. The show looks at the Latinos and music through five cities: New York, L.A., Miami, San Antonio and San Francisco.

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