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Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3: Renegade Queens Has Been Released
Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3: Renegade Queens explores the largely untold story of the San Francisco Bay Area’s pioneering women of Latin jazz
With the first two volumes of Salsa de la Bahia, arranger and trombone maestro Wayne Wallace and filmmaker Rita Hargrave provided a detailed history of the San Francisco Bay Area’s vibrant and oft-overlooked Latin jazz scene. Track by track the albums make a powerful case that the region has nurtured a treasure trove of artists drawing on a singular blend of influences from across the Caribbean and Latin America.
Released on Wallace’s Patois label on March 21, 2025, the double album Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3: Renegade Queens shines a bright and necessary spotlight on the women who muscled their way into this scene with a combination of talent, commitment, imagination and moxie. From Venezuela, Cuba, Chile and Colombia to the thrumming creative hub of San Francisco’s Mission District, the album brings together a dazzling cast of artists changing the face of Latin jazz and related idioms.
Hargrave credits Bay Area DJ and journalist Jesse “Chuy” Varela, who contributed cogent Renegade Queens liner notes, with pressing her to pursue the project after she’d finished her documentary The Last Mambo (which led to original Salsa de la Bahia albums). “He said he’d done a show on women in Latin jazz for Women’s History Month and got such a big response,” she recalls. “He felt there was a real hunger for that. He said, ‘When are you going to do Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3?’ I had done the background work, but it turned into a much more difficult dive.”
With documentation on the pioneering women of salsa and Latin jazz thin or nonexistent, Hargrave found few recordings with women as leaders recorded before the turn of the century. Renegade Queens captures the accelerating impact of female players on the Bay Area scene with a series of thrilling performances. But more than a deep dive into the archives, Renegade Queens is a present-tense celebration. Both discs open with new music showcasing a brilliant cross-section of women players.
![Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3: Renegade Queens [front cover art]](https://i0.wp.com/latinjazznet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Salsa-de-la-Bahia-Vol.-3-Renegade-Queens-1.jpg?resize=740%2C740&ssl=1)
Arranged by Wallace, “We Were Born to Drum” is a surging big band mambo featuring vocals by powerhouse Christelle Durandy singing lyrics by poet supreme Avotcja. Many of the players on the performance are featured throughout the anthology, like saxophonist/flutist Mary Fettig, percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz, and the mother and daughter tandem of vocalist Sandy and vocalist/trombonist Natalie Cressman. Similarly, the second disc opens with “La Mensajera,” a new Wallace salsa number that showcases the instrumental prowess of veteran improvisers such as violinist Sandi Poindexter, tenor saxophonist Jean Fineberg, and trumpeter Marina Garza, who led the talent-packed 1990s all-woman band Orquesta D’Soul.
The two new tracks also highlight the central role that Wallace has played in producing and championing women artists. Hargrave describes the recording sessions as “a love fest.” So many people wanted to work with Wallace, who mentored generations of musicians. It’s no coincidence that several of the artists featured on Renegade Queens released albums on Wallace’s Patois label. Multi-instrumentalist and Latin jazz expert Roger Glenn, percussionist John Santos and flutist/arranger John Calloway’s names also came up a lot, she says. The Latin jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, and Jazz Camp West were also cited as invaluable relationship proving grounds.
Each piece on Renegade Queens opens a window to a extraordinary musical realm. Here are some of the highlights. Vivacious Afro-Colombian vocalist Xiomara Torres is featured on “Me Quedo Contigo” (“I Will Stay With You”), the opening track from her 2022 debut album under her own name, La Voz Del Mar. The richly orchestrated salsa dura arrangement by vibraphonist Dan Neville effectively supports an artist who has drawn international attention to the unique folkloric culture of Colombia’s Pacific coast.
![Salsa de la Bahia Vol. 3: Renegade Queens [back cover art]](https://i0.wp.com/latinjazznet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Salsa-de-la-Bahia-Vol.-3-Renegade-Queens-2.jpg?resize=740%2C740&ssl=1)
“La Lagrima” (The Tear) is a traditional song from Venezuela’s Caribbean island of Margarita delivered by the singular, Caracas-born vocalist Maria Marquez. Her throaty cello tone caresses the sensuous ballad, which she recorded for her acclaimed 2004 Adventure Music release Princesa De La Naturaleza (Nature’s Princess). The lapidary arrangement features rhythms and percussion instruments from the coast of coast of Venezuela by Venezuelan percussion master Gustavo Ovalles and the cuatro of Jackeline Rago, who’s played a key role introducing Venezuelan rhythms to the Bay Area scene.
The projects earliest piece is “Cosmo” by The Blazing Redheads, an all-female septet that coalesced at the end of the 1980s with a dance-inducing combination of jazz, funk and Latin beats. Composed and arranged by the dynamic percussionist and trap drummer Michealle Goerlitz, the samba-tinged “Cosmo” came out on 1991’s Crazed Women and features a particularly charged flute solo by Donna Viscuso (who’s performed and recorded widely with Jackeline Rago’s Venezuelan jazz projects).
Some three decades later, the femmeton of La Doña (aka Cecilia Cassandra Peña-Góvea) has earned national attention, including Barack Obama listing her song “Penas con Pan” on his 2023 summer playlist. Many of her recent fans don’t know that she grew up playing rancheras, cumbia, and boleros in her Mexican-American family band La Familia Peña-Govea. In something of a programmatic coup, Renegade Queens features the title track of her much-anticipated 2023 release on her Text Me Records, Can’t Eat Clout. An anthem about overcoming doubters and haters, it’s a piece that resounds far beyond the dance floor. In many ways, La Doña speaks to the challenges faced by all the renegade queens.
“Women in Latin jazz, they’re a community within a community, a genre within a genre,” Wallace says. “These are national artists who’ve stayed true to the craft and art of making music. We included a variety of styles, because that’s the truth of the Bay Area.”
Source: Patois Records / Braithwaite & Katz Communications
Brazilian mandolin virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda opens a new creative chapter with Nova, a wide-ranging album that brings the traditions of Brazilian instrumental music into conversation with contemporary jazz and sounds from Africa, India, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Released by Sony Music Brasil on May 20, 2026, the 14-track, 56-minute recording was produced by de Holanda and Marcos Portinari. Recorded in different parts of the world, Nova draws inspiration from the people, places and musical encounters that have marked de Holanda’s extensive travels.
At the heart of the album is the Hamilton de Holanda Trio: de Holanda on 10-string mandolin, Salomão Soares on keyboards and synthesizers, and Thiago “Big” Rabello on drums. Their six-year musical partnership gives the project its central identity, balancing rhythmic precision, melodic freedom and intuitive ensemble interaction.
The trio is joined by an impressive international cast that includes Indian sitarist Anoushka Shankar, French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, Cuban percussionist and vocalist Pedrito Martínez, Angolan singer-songwriter Paulo Flores and Brazilian percussion legend Paulinho da Costa. Other guests include Pedro Martins, Michael Pipoquinha, Pretinho da Serrinha, Mestra Zélia do Prato and Larissa Umaytá.
Opening with “Nova Alvorada,” the album imagines a new dawn rooted in African and Afro-Brazilian traditions. Pedrito Martínez contributes vocals and percussion, Michael Pipoquinha adds electric bass, and singers Tatiana Parra, Vanessa Moreno and Dani Gurgel form the supporting chorus.
Elsewhere, “Som de Baile” channels the energy of Brazilian dance bands, drawing upon the spirit of Banda Black Rio, Jorge Ben Jor and Gilberto Gil. “Frio Lá Fora,” composed during a bitterly cold stay in New York, features Maalouf and Pretinho da Serrinha, while “Pras Crianças” combines an ijexá-based foundation with the resonant sound of Shankar’s sitar. “Luanda (Unidos)” creates a bridge to Angolan semba through the voice and text of Paulo Flores.
Among the album’s most reflective compositions is “Mono no Aware,” which has received an official visualizer. Written by de Holanda and Soares, its title comes from a Japanese expression describing an awareness of life’s impermanence—and the realization that beauty becomes more meaningful because it is temporary.
Recorded at producer and engineer Mario Caldato Jr.’s Los Angeles studio, the piece features Paulinho da Costa on percussion and Pedro Martins on guitar alongside the trio. The gathering connects three generations of Brazilian musicians in a performance that is sophisticated, spacious and emotionally restrained.
The visualizer complements the composition’s contemplative character through imagery evoking delicacy, transition and constant transformation. Rather than presenting a literal storyline, it creates an intimate visual environment in which the music’s mixture of quiet joy and underlying sadness can unfold. The official visualizer is available through Hamilton de Holanda’s YouTube channel.
Now entering his sixth decade, de Holanda remains one of Brazilian instrumental music’s most innovative figures. By expanding the traditional eight-string bandolim into a 10-string instrument, he developed a broader harmonic and melodic vocabulary that has allowed him to move naturally among choro, samba, jazz and global musical traditions.
With Nova, that spirit of invention is guided by gratitude, generosity and an enduring belief in music’s ability to connect people. Tradition and experimentation are not treated as opposites; they become complementary parts of a living musical language.
As de Holanda explains, creating original music with such an extraordinary community of artists is his way of affirming that, regardless of the world’s uncertainties, “the music will continue.”
Nova — Complete Track Listing
1. Nova Alvorada — Hamilton de Holanda
2. Presente pra Sempre — Hamilton de Holanda
3. Nasci — Hamilton de Holanda
4. Som de Baile — Hamilton de Holanda
5. Mono no Aware — Hamilton de Holanda and Salomão Soares
6. Frio Lá Fora — Hamilton de Holanda and Gabriel de Holanda
7. Carrossel — Hamilton de Holanda and Gabriel de Holanda
8. Pras Crianças — Hamilton de Holanda
9. Luanda (Unidos) — Hamilton de Holanda
10. Por Essa Eu Não Esperava — Hamilton de Holanda and Gabriel de Holanda
11. Forrozin de Mestra Zélia — Hamilton de Holanda
12. Choro Fado — Hamilton de Holanda
13. Sol da Noite — Hamilton de Holanda
14. Até Amanhã — Hamilton de Holanda and Salomão Soares
Album Credits
Hamilton de Holanda Trio
Hamilton de Holanda: 10-string mandolin
Salomão Soares: keyboards, synthesizers and Moog
Thiago “Big” Rabello: drums and percussion
Guest Artists and Additional Musicians
“Nova Alvorada”
Pedrito Martínez — percussion and vocals
Michael Pipoquinha — bass
Tatiana Parra — backing vocals
Vanessa Moreno — backing vocals
Dani Gurgel — backing vocals
“Nasci”
Eduardo Neves — tenor saxophone
Aquiles Moraes — trumpet
Rafael Rocha — trombone and horn arrangement
“Som de Baile”
Eduardo Neves — tenor saxophone
Aquiles Moraes — trumpet
Rafael Rocha — trombone and horn arrangement
Larissa Umaytá — percussion
“Mono no Aware”
Paulinho da Costa — percussion
Pedro Martins — guitar
“Frio Lá Fora”
Ibrahim Maalouf — trumpet
Pretinho da Serrinha — percussion
“Pras Crianças”
Anoushka Shankar — sitar
Leander Motta — moringa percussion
“Luanda (Unidos)”
Paulo Flores — voice and spoken text
“Forrozin de Mestra Zélia”
Mestra Zélia do Prato — voice
Production
Producers: Hamilton de Holanda and Marcos Portinari
Executive producer and editing engineer: Marcos Portinari
Assistant producer: Fellipe Cabral
Mixing: Thiago Rabello and Da Pá Virada
Mastering: André Dias
Assistant engineer: Vitor Nery
Photography: Nando Chagas
Label: Sony Music Brasil
Release date: May 20, 2026
Format: Digital album
Duration: Approximately 56 minutes
Craft Latino will reissue Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe’s landmark 1969 album, Cosa Nuestra, on September 25, bringing one of salsa’s most influential recordings back to vinyl and CD. The new edition pays tribute to the late Willie Colón while celebrating an album that helped define the sound, image, and cultural force of New York salsa.
The vinyl edition has been mastered entirely in the analog domain and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. A limited Metallic Blue pressing, restricted to 300 copies, will also be available through Fania, either separately or bundled with a retro-logo T-shirt. A newly remastered version of the album is already available on digital platforms in standard and high-resolution audio.
Colón and Lavoe began working together in the mid-1960s after meeting at Fania Records. Colón was only 16, while Lavoe was 21. Their 1967 debut, El Malo, introduced an unusually compelling partnership: Colón’s raw, trombone-driven arrangements combined with Lavoe’s distinctive phrasing, streetwise personality, and exceptional command of the sonero tradition.
Following The Hustler and Guisando, the duo moved beyond the boogaloo sound that dominated much of the era and began developing the tougher, more sophisticated musical language that would become closely associated with salsa. Their fourth album, Cosa Nuestra—“Our Thing”—marked the moment when all the elements came together.
The album’s now-iconic cover reinforced the gangster imagery established on their earlier recordings, portraying Colón as a mobster preparing to dispose of a body near the Hudson River. The theatrical concept was more than a marketing device. It reflected the rebellious identity, urban atmosphere, and youthful attitude that made Colón and Lavoe central figures in the emerging Nuyorican music scene.
Produced by Jerry Masucci and overseen by Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco, Cosa Nuestra introduced a revitalized ensemble featuring trombonist Eric Matos, timbalero Little Louie Romero, conguero Milton Cardona, bongó player José Mangual Jr., bassist Santi González, and pianist Professor Joe Torres.
Its songs offered vivid portraits of barrio life, betrayal, romantic disappointment, and everyday conflict. “Te conozco” focuses on a familiar neighbourhood freeloader, while “Tú no puedes conmigo” addresses the sting of a friend’s disloyalty. “Juana Peña” tells the story of a woman known for deceiving her lovers who eventually experiences heartbreak herself.
The bolero-son “Ausencia” gives Lavoe one of the album’s most emotionally resonant performances, expressing the anguish of a man unable to escape the memory of a failed relationship. In contrast, “Sonero mayor” celebrates improvisation and the art of soneo, one of Lavoe’s defining gifts.
The album’s greatest commercial success came with “Ché ché colé,” inspired by an African children’s game. Blending African and Caribbean rhythmic traditions, the infectious recording reached an international audience, helped propel Colón and Lavoe to stardom, and contributed to Cosa Nuestra becoming their first gold-selling album in the United States.
More than five decades later, Cosa Nuestra remains a cornerstone of salsa. Its combination of musical sophistication, Afro-Caribbean roots, urban storytelling, and unmistakable New York attitude established a model that shaped the genre throughout the 1970s. This reissue offers longtime admirers and new listeners an opportunity to rediscover the album in a format worthy of its enduring historical importance. Pre-Order Now!
Craft Latino is celebrating the legacy of Puerto Rican singer and composer Chamaco Ramírez with the first vinyl reissue of Alive and Kicking, his acclaimed 1979 solo debut. Originally released by Inca Records and unavailable on vinyl for more than 45 years, the album will return on September 18, 2026, in conjunction with the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Although Alive and Kicking was Ramírez’s only album as a solo artist, the nine-song recording remains a powerful demonstration of his talents as a sonero, songwriter and bandleader. The album includes enduring favourites such as “San Agustín,” “Adivínalo” and “Así son Bongó,” supported by an exceptional ensemble of musicians from the New York salsa scene.
The new 180-gram pressing was produced using an all-analog process. Dave Polster and Clint Holley of Well Made Music cut the lacquers directly from the original master tapes, preserving the energy and clarity of Ramírez’s voice and the album’s richly arranged instrumentation. A limited-edition Rumba Amarilla pressing, restricted to 300 copies, will also be available through Fania, either separately or as part of a bundle with a collectible Inca Records T-shirt. The newly remastered album is already available digitally in standard and high-resolution audio.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1941, Ramírez emerged as one of salsa’s most admired improvisational singers. He was only 16 when he joined Tommy Olivencia y Su Orquesta as co-lead vocalist alongside Paquito Guzmán. During his 13 years with the orchestra, Ramírez appeared on eight albums and developed a reputation for his command of the sonero tradition and his ability to create spontaneous verses.
Ramírez also performed with the Alegre All Stars and Kako y Su Orquesta before leaving Olivencia’s band in 1976 and relocating to New York. Three years later, he recorded Alive and Kicking for Inca Records, a Fania subsidiary. The album was produced by Cuban pianist and arranger Javier Vázquez, widely recognized for his association with La Sonora Matancera.
The program opens with “San Agustín,” a memorable son montuno composed by Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso. The song pays tribute to the working-class San Agustín community in San Juan’s Puerta de Tierra district. Ramírez then turns toward New York’s urban rumba tradition with an updated version of Cuban percussionist Justi Barreto’s “Rumba moderna.”
Among the album’s most popular selections is Ramírez’s own “Adivínalo,” an upbeat composition whose spirited delivery contrasts with its controversial references to drug use. “Así son Bongó,” written by Cuban composer Joseíto Fernández, is another highlight. Its story of an incarcerated man mourning a forgotten romance is transformed by Ramírez and the orchestra into an energetic guaguancó designed for dancers.
The album’s formidable personnel includes trumpeter Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, bassist Elpidio Vázquez Jr., percussionist and vocalist Jorge Maldonado, saxophonists Manolín González and Mario Rivera, and percussionists Alberto Valdés, Edgar López and Mike Collazo. Adalberto Santiago and Tito Allen strengthen the coro, while producer Javier Vázquez also contributes on piano.
The memorable cover, designed by Ron Levine, depicts Ramírez emerging from a coffin into a beam of sunlight—a visual interpretation of the title that later acquired tragic significance. Ramírez was killed by gun violence in 1983 at the age of 41.
More than four decades later, Alive and Kicking remains a vital salsa recording and a lasting testament to Chamaco Ramírez’s commanding voice, improvisational brilliance and enduring artistic legacy. Pre-Order Now.
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