Jazz Meets Salsa is a 24 hour (7 days a week) Salsa Radio, Rumba Buena Estereo, currently streaming via www.jazzmeetssalsa.com. This is a 100% Canadian run station where you will have the enjoyment of listening to great salsa music in the comfort of your home and with no need to worry about changing CD’s.

Our vision is to bring Salsa Music to our listeners without the need of having to login to a foreign site. In this site their is also a section where visitors will have access to listen to the bands offered, Cache amongst others.

We are only a year new, and have already accomplished one of our visions, to bring forth the first ever Latin stage to Toronto’s own Beaches International Jazz Festival in 2010 where we showcased Latin Bands, percussion workshops as well as dance lesson on a wood platform, ideal for the dancers. This new area is called, Latin Square, and our main stage is JAZZMEETSSALSA. All this conveniently located right by the boardwalk. Who said you needed to travel down south to have the Latin flavours and rhythms. We worked hard to bring it to the people in Toronto.

Feel free to take a look at some pictures of last years event at www.beachesjazz.com

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We are also interviewing Wilson about Cache’s new album which has just been released and we will be bring you this interview soon. Until then, check out jazzmeetssalsa.com and enjoy!

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We were mildly disappointed that we missed the salsa bands. We were able to hear two or three different flamenco bands and one even mixed salsa with flamenco for an interesting sound. However, with the craziness and mass audience, we were not inspired to dance.

As in the last two festivals, we visited this summer, the highlight was a very interesting band with a lead musician who played an electric violin. They were amazing as usual and built the biggest audience of the evening. They played right at the opening of the festival and 2 hours later as we returned from finishing the walk they were still playing strong. The lead exerts so much energy jumping and playing frantically, it is so fun to watch.

I would love to hear if anyone got to see Son Ache or Cache playing during the weekend. Hopefully there are still a few more opportunities to this summer to catch the bands playing. Looking forward to the Latin festival at Mel Lastman Square in September!

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There are several venues for the festival. The Parti Gras part (kind of like the pre-party) is taking place this weekend at the Distillery July 20th – July 22nd. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of salsa but is still worth checking out.

The main event is in the beaches area next weekend. The main stage at Kew Garden has Son Ache playing on July 28th at 12:30pm. They are an excellent Toronto band with up to 11 artists. I saw them at the beaches festival last year and they were wonderful as usual. It is great fun as people are dancing on the grass and in the park. There are plenty of other bands too playing from 11:30pm-5:00pm on both Saturday and Sunday July 28th/29th.

The most fun part of the festival is the evening portion – also known as the Streetfest which takes place from July 26-28th. Every evening from 7pm-11pm the entire strip is closed off and there is an abundance of artists, music, food and goods on display. Cache will be playing during one of these evenings (not sure of the time – let me know if you do) as well as Samba Squad and Gypsy which is a Rumba/Flamenco band. Lots of great options to choose from during this weekend.

For more info click here. Hopefully you will all take advantage of this wonderful event – one of the best festivals in Toronto. Happy listening!

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I am convinced that there is very little that can top salsa dancing on the streets in the summer to a live salsa band. That is what I love about Toronto in the summer. From the Jazz Festivals to the Toronto Street Festival to the Salsa on St. Clair festival, there is no shortage of great salsa being played live under the sun or the stars. Of course you have to not mind getting very hot and sweaty and remember that you can’t turn properly. However if you keep your moves simple and have lots of water on hand it is well worth the experience.

Hopefully many of you got to enjoy the salsa bands that played in Toronto in the past two weeks as part of Luminato and the Taste of Little Italy festivals. Just so you don’t miss some good events coming up in Toronto here are the main festivals with live salsa music:

The Toronto Jazz Festival – June 22nd – July 1st
Salsa on St. Clair – July 13-14th
Beaches International Jazz Festival – July 26-29th

Of course there are also the free concerts at the Harbourfront Centre, the Dundas & Yonge Square, Mel Lastman Square, the Distillery and much more.

We’ll keep you informed as the summer progressed.

Happy summer salsa dancing!

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