Salsa Salsa Salsa

Veteran Salseros Ricky Rangel and Luis Acosta are facing major medical challenges: Parkinson’s disease and ALS respectively.  Gil and Oli Medina (no relation to this author) of El Vacilon took the task of organizing a tribute and benefit for both of these vocalists at El Valenciano on Labor Day weekend.  It was a heartfelt tribute that featured Tito Garcia y Su Orchestra International and Eric Rangel y Su Orquesta America (taking the place of Salsa Caliente).  The cozy venue was full of old school salseros, musicians and scene makers.  I joined DJ Carlitos Way in the DJ crew that spun music in-between sets that evening.  The emotional high points of the evening came when Rangel joined both Tito Garcia and his brother Eric Rangel on stage.  The effects of the disease such as shaking arms were obvious but were minimized when Rangel began tearing through pregones and coros on a few tunes.   The crowd loved every minute of it and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.