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Taking Center Stage The Boom of Local Bands lAr hen I arrived in Cali, musicians and fans were gearing up for the onslaught of salsa performances that enliven the city's year-endfestivities. Throughout November andDecember, I had the opportunity to observeseveral local orquestas in action—most average, some excellent, but all infused with the ebullient spirit that characterizes Call's self-image as the world capital of salsa. What impressed me in particular was the extent to which Calenos had by the 19908 taken up salsa performance, mirroring the fervor with which earliergenerations had taken up dancing to records. Live salsawas a frequent supplement to civic events and public gatherings. Orquestas could be seen performing not only in nightclubs and at parties, but also in shopping centers, at afternoon concerts in city parks, and in multi-event presentations held on weekend nights at sports arenas and playingfields.By the mid-1990s, over seventylocal bandswere active—quite a shift from earlier decades, when fewer than a dozen groups existed. In the following sections I examine the factors, contexts, and outcomes of the boom in Call's live scene, situating it within other spheres of local salsa culture. The Flowering of Local Orquestas The growth of Caleno salsa bands through the 19808 and early 19908 isstaggering . My enumeration of these groups is presented in Table5.1. Compiled from listings in the YellowPages, newspaper articles, and personal communications , the table summarizes all orquestas and smaller bands active during the mid-1990s, shortly before the live scene collapsed with the arrest of the Cali cartel. The list also includes three bands that perform both salsa and miisica tropical, one group that performs traditional Afro-Colombian music with a salsa influence, and three Latin jazz combos. Notably, my findings suggest that from approximately 1988 through 1995 the number of 5 1*? Caleno salsa bands doubled. In La salsa in Cali, Alejandro Ulloa accounts for only thirty-five orquestas by the end of the 19808 (1992: 556). The table is divided into three main ranks, based on my own perception of a band's commercial status (as evidenced in radio play, record sales, media exposure, and concert billings) as well as on personal opinions culled from conversations with musicians, fans, and media people. The relative position of an orquesta was usually (though not always) related to their commercial status—an important factor when hiring them for a presentation . The average fee for a good band in 1994-95 was between us$700 and $800, although orquestas such as Niche and Guayacan often charged up to twice that amount. Generally, the lower down on the scale one went, the less money would have been offered. In order not to imply an actual hierarchy within these rankings, I have chosen to list all the bands in alphabetical order. It should be noted, however , that Grupo Niche has remained the undisputed leader of the local scene, followed by Guayacan. Included with these orquestas are a small number of other internationally acclaimed bands that I have also designated as first tier, although their status is lower than that of Niche and Guayacan. Following this is a large pool of excellent but lesser-known bands, usually hired to perform at private parties, clubs, and public concerts . These second-tier groups usually had a relatively stable membership and played solidly, despite not having achieved the commercial breaks and success of the first rank. In the third and final category I have placed bands that were considered regular (mediocre, average), sometimes hired for private functions and often used as relleno (filler) at the Festival de Orquestas and other public concerts.1 From what I observed in liveperformances, these third-tier bands were often plagued by problems such as poor intonation , inaccurate execution of parts, difficulty maintaining a steady tempo, and lack of cohesiveness as an ensemble. Some of these orquestas did not perform salsa but rather related "tropical " genres (e.g., miisica antillana orpop tropical), which I indicate in parentheses after the band listing. These bands often appeared in the samevenues as salsa orquestas, however, and performed alongside them at the Festival de Orquestas and regional ferias; hence, they constituted an important part of the local scene. I have also included a separate category of groups that were less interested in commercial success than in musical explorations in related styles such as Latin jazz or in fusing Cuban-based sounds with music of the Pacific littoral. Notable ensembles in this regard include...

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