THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
SALSA from Richmond?
That's Bio Ritmo - and we ain't talking zesty chip dip.
What we are talking is a nine-man band playing the rhythmically percolating, horn-punctuated Afro-Cuban dance music called salsa, along with other spicy Caribbean genres like mambo, merengue, bomba, plena and guajira.
The exotic combo - which will perform at Town Point Park Friday as part of Norfolk's Cinco de Mayo celebration - emerged five years ago in Richmond, the result of a collaboration between local drummers.
``I got together with (some friends) to do a show of just percussion at a local museum,'' explained Jorge Negron, a transplant from Puerto Rico and singer of Bio Ritmo's entirely Spanish language repertoire. ``We were having such a good time that we just kept on playing.
``A year later we added full horns and became a salsa band. We've been playing ever since,'' touring rock clubs and festivals up and down the East Coast and appearing with the diverse likes of avant-garde jazzbo Marc Ribot, Latin act Mongo Santamaria and post-mod lounge lizards Morphine and Combustible Edison.
Bio Ritmo's broad appeal, Negron said, comes from its members' eclectic backgrounds in punk, world beat and reggae bands, as well as salsa's diverse components.
``It's a combination of Afro-Cuban music, Puerto Rican music, elements of jazz,'' Negron said of Bio Ritmo's sound, captured most recently on their hip-shakingly excellent album debut, ``Que Siga La Musica.''
``Most of us were punksters at one time or another, so some of us listen to rock, some of us listen to jazz, some of us listen to dance music. There are a lot of elements in the band and everybody brings a little bit of that.''
With mainstream artists from Gloria Estefan to the Beastie Boys incorporating Latin influences into their work and indigenous talents like Cuban bassist Cachao nabbing Grammys, interest in hot Latin sounds is definitely on an upswing.
``We're getting some airplay in Puerto Rico, L.A., Austin, Texas,'' Negron said. ``And we've been getting pretty good reviews. The critics are real happy about it, actually. They're like, `Wow, what a fresh sound. We were expecting guitars and all of a sudden it's this Latin groove.'''
Bio Ritmos's fat sound - complete with piano, bass, flute, brass and a non-stop percussion section of congas, timbales, tambora, maracas, clave and guiro - is so fresh, in fact, that the trendy MTV fashion program ``House Of Style'' used the band's music in its promo clip.
So is salsa, Bio-Ritmo-style, poised to conquer the globe?
``Of course, we'd love to travel the world, play here and there and sell records,'' Negron said. ``But you just never know with music. You just gotta go out and once people are enjoying it, and you're enjoying it, and people are receptive to it, you have to push it. And that's our goal.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ISABOR!
The exotic Bio Ritmo combo got together in Richmond and now tours
rock clubs and festivals up and down the East Coast.
by CNB