Yerbabuena, the New York City-based Puerto Rican traditional music ensemble head by musician and singer-songwriter Tato Torres, released their first independent production, "Boricua Roots Music", on Saturday, October 14th, at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, located on the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. With over 100 copies sold onsite that night, the jammed-packed audience enjoyed the sounds of Bomba, Plena & Lelolay as they celebrated the long-awaited release of their debut album.

Yerbabuena’s "Boricua Roots Music"
CD Release!

by Laura Ortiz-Meléndez
New York City LPM Correspondent

Yerbabuena is a group of individuals brought together to play the music that they love. It is composed of musicians, singers and dancers from the New York City area, who share an intense passion for the musical traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

In their album, they convey wholeness and harmony, and their music invites listeners to ditch their inhibitions, and embark in a tropical journey guided by African-inspired grooves and fascinating blends of folkloric tunes. In addition, to make justice to their commitment to reconciling tradition and modernity, Yerbabuena incorporates in “Boricua Roots Music” contemporary instruments like electric guitars and keyboards. The music they play is, by nature, participatory, as demonstrated on their CD-release party. As usual, they brought the house down with their contagious vibes and rhythm. Whether bomba, plena or música jíbara, it's all interactive. As witness to their vibrant sounds, and the deep joy that making music together brings them, the audience usually is left with no choice but to join in the chorus and dance the night away.

The concept of Yerbabuena developed during the summer of 1999 at the renowned Rincón Criollo Cultural Center, also known as "La Casita de Chema", in the heart of the South Bronx, and has been growing since. It evolved out of the need for cultural expression, redefinition and re-appropriation of the Puerto Rican musical heritage by a new generation of Boricuas.

“There is mystery and uncertainty with everything regarding Puerto Rican culture. The world is experimenting a new awakening in which old standards and assumptions are being questioned, specifically those about Puerto Rico and our culture. Yerbabuena is just lucky enough to be in the eye of the storm, and, therefore, people are more receptive to our music and message”, says Tato.

According to Yerbabuena’s website, www.myspace.com/tatoyerbabuena, for a long time, Puerto Rican musical traditions have been constricted by commercial culture, and generally limited to holidays and "folkloric" presentations. Yerbabuena is an important part of the struggle to develop and promote identity through living Puerto Rican musical traditions such as bomba, plena and música jíbara. “Culture has no need to be redefined by anyone, because everything that’s alive defines and redefines itself naturally. My mission with Yerbabuena is to keep alive the traditional Puerto Rican identity, as I see it”, he adds.

“We don’t go about necessarily after a specific sense of belonging or even looking for an exclusive definition for whatever it is to be Puerto Rican. Our purpose is to bring people together, to facilitate the encounter among generations, among those who are looking for afar and those who are closer”. And, when it comes to bringing people closer, Yerbabuena strives to forge new pathways leading to the recognition and legitimacy of Puerto Rican culture and its traditional music within the commercial current. “People enjoy what we do because we have a special charm, a magic developed throughout the course of our existence. With this fist recording we seek, not only to pay the bills, but also to reach out to those who ignore what Puerto Rican music sounds like. The best and most successful way to disseminate knowledge of a specific culture is thought its roots, in our case, we choose music.”

New technology models such as Ipods, online music stores like Latin Pulse Music, and online network sites like Myspace.com are also contributing to the dissemination of a completely new musical language that allows audience to share and enjoy a greater level of intimacy with their artist. Also, those ventures represent a window of opportunity for music genres that are so often left behind by mainstream demands. For instance, to be able to download traditional Puerto Rican music from the Internet was something quite unthinkable just a few years ago.



For the time being, the CD can only purchase at Yerbabuena’s presentations throughout the city. Soon, says Tato, it will be available in a limited number of record stores in New York. Due to economic constraints, he admits to not having specific marketing strategies for the album, which consequently puts the entire promoting agenda exclusively under his wing. Eventually, they hope to identify key persons who could shed some light in the process.

In the meantime, Tato and Yerbabuena take advantage of new platforms of distribution and promotion. With nearly 5,000 users logged on their Myspace’s friends list, Yerbabuena now prides itself of being riding atop the technology wave, bringing a particular flavor to its already seasoned dynamic. Although he has yet to learn how to trust online vendors and overcome the initial skepticism of not knowing who’s on the other side of the virtual transactions, Tato recognizes that in order to boost Yerbabuena’s chances of mayor sales, Internet and other non-traditional emerging outlets are crucial.

“Ipods and online music stores are redefining the market, opening windows to explore with your product beyond conventional settings. It allows us as performers to experience immediate feedback, to have a two-way channel of communication and to be closer with our audience.”

10.19.06 - Laura Ortiz-Meléndez - Latin Pulse Music Reporter
email: ortizmelendez@gmail.com

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