Music News – Livestreams 4/25/2021

Livestream Action…..Renowed SF-Oakland Bay Area based timbalero/percussionist Mio Flores (pictured in the middle of his All Stars) celebrated his birthday this past Saturday evening with a livestream featuring a hot band of All Stars from legendary Bay Area salsa bands Avance, Charanson, Salsa Caliente and Orquesta Actualidad . Mio has been leading an all-star band in such venues as the late Havana in Alameda. Joining Mio last Saturday evening was Santana timbalero/percussionist phenom Karl Perazo and former Santana trumpeter Bill Ortiz. The explosive band “A Taste Of Caliente” who backed them up were made up of pianist Gary Flores, bassist/vocalist Carlitos Franco, percussionist Eric Rangel, violinist Anthony Blea, flautist Juan Ceballos, percussionist Javier Navarette, bongosero Oscar Soltero and trumpeter Lorenzo Perez. The noted Latin Rock band Tortilla Soup provided the livestream that showcased two sets of swinging Salsa. The livestream is available for viewing at the Tortilla Soup channel on You Tube .

Major livestream fiasco ruined the scheduled Marc Anthony broadcast scheduled for last Saturday’s 4/17/21 broadcast. The worldwide livestream was cancelled last weekend due to technical difficulties on the livestream’s Producers LivePass end. Marc quickly posted an apology to the fans, demanded that the producers of the livestream refund all the monies back to the public and posted the show on his You Tube Channel for 24 hours from last Sunday 4/18 to Monday 4/19.

I caught the majority of the concert which featured Anthony backed up by a mighty 20 plus piece orchestra. Anthony came out dressed in a black suit, sporting a stubbled beard, wearing sunglasses, gold chains with visible tattoos on his neck and hands. He was in fine voice, enthusiastic and playing material primarily from his last recording “Opus” including the hit “Parcecen Viernes“.

The set that he presented was the combination of his signature Pop and Salsa that was a lot more entertaining than other contemporaries on the charts. However, Anthony may have disappointed fans and salseros who wanted to hear his older, harder Salsa hits. With now close to 30 years in show business, Anthony has established himself as a major pop star who has hits that encompass Ballads, Reggaeton and Dance music collaborations with Salsa as his base. He brought out Reggaeton icon Daddy Yankee to do a guest turn on their hit collaboration “Da Vuelta A La Vuelta” during the last third of the show. The production of the show was top-notch.

The livestream concerts are a hit and miss proposition that still needs the combination of technical expertise, solid financial backing and luck to pull off. I just can’t wait until live shows are back in full force!!

Ciao 4 now!!