Posted on March 16th, 2009 by Allan Tabilas
“When one can distinguish between the individuality of the rhythms, one can know what a Plena is, what a Mambo is, and a Danzón, a Guajira, and know how to identify a Guaracha. This says a lot about how today’s youth, mostly, have only one term for all those rhythms - Salsa.” — Charlie Rodriguez, Tresero, Puerto Rico — La Epoca Documentary.
“We just finished watching the screening of this film. Let me tell you - I learned so much … I thought I knew things about salsa and mambo and Latin music in general. I knew nothing until today. Today was the day that my eyes were opened. ” — George Dennis, Instructor and Dancer, Philadelphia.
Originally conceived after the death of the legendary Tito Puente in 2000, photographer, musician, and producer Josué Joseph has finished what is perhaps his life’s work, La Epoca - The Palladium Era.
The documentary film’s tagline is “Before Salsa, There Was Mambo.” La Epoca explores the history of the artists during the famed Palladium era of the 1950s in New York who were instrumental in producing the various rhythms of the music. The musicians include Arsenio Rodriguez (originator of the mambo rhythm) and Israel “Cachao” Lopez (taking the mambo and danzon rhythm into an entire song) Josué has unique perspective into the origins of this music as his father is Alfonso “El Panameño” Joseph, who played as a bassist for Arsenio Rodriguez, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and many others. Josué’s goal is to document, preserve, and value the original traditions of this music, and to understand why they are part of this umbrella term of “salsa”. Additionally, the documentary goes in depth into the differences of dancing on1 vs dancing on2.
(As this blog post barely touches the surface of the subject matter, we refer you to the film’s website for substantially more information. You can also buy the DVD and official soundtrack at the site.)
The documentary made its debut in September of 2008 in Greenville, South Carolina, and has toured Hartford, CT, Westpoint, NY and New York City, Chicago, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cali, Colombia, Paris, Poland, Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania.
We were fortunate to have George Dennis of Fuzion Creativa and Brett of Drexel University sponsor the filmmaker to bring a screening of La Epoca to Philadelphia on March 14. Audience members were taken on a two hour journey. Even those with background in music and dance took away new knowledge. Several attendees thanked Josué for giving them the opportunity to learn more about the music’s history.
Josué was gracious to give Nuevotec an interview, conducted by George Dennis. We’ve broken the interview in two parts. The first video includes the motivation behind making the documentary, and the second video talks about the future of film with La Epoca 2 - The Lost Rhythms of Salsa (mambo, son-montuno, guajira, guaguanco, etc.) Josué is looking for dancers this April 4 in Washington D.C. to take part in the second documentary.
Please follow this link for our video gallery for La Epoca - Film Screening in Philadelphia. We have included several La Epoca clips available on youtube and vimeo in our video gallery, and below are two embedded videos - What is Salsa and “Vale Mas”.
What exactly is Salsa?
Below is a small portion of the video interview transcribed as text.
George Dennis: Let me thank you for sharing this opportunity with everyone. My first question that I would ask is, what inspired you to do this film?
Josué Joseph: Very simply, as the son of a mambo legend Alfonso “El Panameño” who was the bassist for Arsenio Rodriguez, who performed for Cachao, who recorded with Tito Puente, who performed for Celia Cruz with Pacheco … growing up and listening to all these rhythms and having a father point his finger in my face and tell me what you’re listening to is not salsa … it’s actually a particular rhythm. Growing up like this for years and years and getting onto the dance scene and music scene — that you start realizing that people don’t really have a knowledge of it.They just call it salsa without really understand what that word really means and that’s what inspired me it’s being that the son of about a mambo legend in knowing that Tito Puente without his legacy being documented pretty much.
So what I did was contact all the people in my father’s phonebook, all these legends that were part of Fania records, and before Fania records, and I interviewed them. Six people have died since producing this movie, within the last year or so. So I walk away very humbly and proud being able to document their legacy before they (passed away)
………………….
George Dennis: I have to say (that) you had some of the greatest of all time in music and that collection of artists … I have never seen before on any kind of film. And with them being involved (except for those who have recently passed away) in their schedule still playing/still dancing … I know it had to take a long time to compile all those artists together to get all the footage that you received. So when did you actually get started with this idea?
Josué Joseph: The idea was planted in me in the year 2000 with the death of Tito Puente. And I realized at that time that he took his legacy with him. What film do you know where Tito Puente has sat in front of the camera and has shown and demonstrated his talents in one production. It’s either just him or the big three from the Paladium (Tito Rodriguez and Machito), but nobody has been able to put all of them into one film and no drama. Celia Cruz died three years later while I was doing research she died but remember correctly four weeks before we were going to interview her for the movie. As soon as she died I said, that is it — I’m done with the research.
(So) I took the research and I started formatting the movie, I’ve got to be able to demonstrate this, I’ve got to be able to show this. I didn’t start production until 2006. But as I started interviewing these legends, with all the same questions, I realize that there was a gap between the seventy and eighty year-olds … what they were talking about and the people who were young (twenties and thirties). And I said there’s a big gap, what is it, I have have to bridge it together. So then I started asking younger crowd — what is it that you want to know? Everybody said we don’t know what mambo is, and that is a big part of the movie. Before salsa, there was mambo and many other rhythms. That’s how it started.
Tags: , Documentary, George Dennis, Josue Joseph, La Epoca, mambo, Palladium, Salsa
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