In accepting a trophy at the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards last month, Emilio Estefan, musician, producer and husband of a famous wife, talked about how hard it had been for Latinos to establish themselves in 'the biz'. 'Latinos were discriminated against for many years. Now we're making progress in bringing recognition to our culture,' he said.
There's little discrimination these days, now that the rich white world has appropriated another minority musical strain: Latin has gone the way of R&B, rock 'n' roll and blues to become the genre of choice, at least until the next craze. Suddenly, Carlos Santana is hip, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera are hot, and the Buena Vista Social Club has turned in its collective pension book. Latin even has its own back-slapping awards bash. At the commercial end of the dollar-fest is the hip-swivelling hombre who has done more than any other performer to stoke the fires of the phenomenon: Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican pin-up whose profit potential mushroomed when he began singing in English as well as Spanish.
The Caribbean's most celebrated leather-trouser exponent will be here, briefly, for a concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum, Tsim Sha Tsui, on October 9, tempting the manic masses with a glimpse of la vida loca (the crazy life), as his second-biggest hit has it. His first, La Copa De La Vida (The Cup Of Life), was the irresistible theme to the 1998 football World Cup, and that, plus his bum-wiggling performance at last year's Grammys proper, put Martin, now 28, into the orbit of the stratospherically popular.
Good on him, too: he might be a pretty boy to many, and he may have crossed into the mainstream with his collaborations with Cher, Aerosmith and Jon Bon Jovi; he may even have anglicised his real name (Enrique Martin Morales); but Martin has also kept the faith with a fun, funky, worthwhile form of music. Get down to the Coliseum and boogie ... if you can get a ticket.
There's a treat in store at the Jazz Club too, with Japanese guitar hero Kazuo Takeda appearing tonight (October 6) and tomorrow. Takeda, voted Japan's best guitarist four times, has shared the stage with Jeff Beck, B B King and Miles Davis, among other stellar names. Now US-based, he has just resurfaced, after a prolonged fallow period, with only his third album, Members Only. That's not a great output for three decades in the business, so check out this master player before he goes to ground again.
