Reggaeton was just the start - Reggaeton News

By Jordan Levin Miami Herald

July 01, 2007

It's time to stop calling Calle 13's music reggaeton.

The white-hot Latin-funk-hip-hop-fusion group that played the club La Covacha on Friday night may have made its name with that pervasive Puerto Rican genre. But as Calle 13's powerfully live and sophisticated show made clear, reggaeton was just a launching pad.

Led by the incandescently charismatic rapper René ''Residente'' Pérez, Calle 13 ignited funk and reggae, hip-hop and cumbia, jazz and tango, reggaeton and rock in a bonfire of gleeful groove. For now, just put them in an unidentifiable booty-shaking class of their own.

As central as Residente is onstage, credit for the group's power live goes to the his half-brother, retiring Eduardo ''Visitante'' Cabra, the composer/musical director who runs Calle 13's fabulously tight, rocking band, which brings their adventurousness on CD to even more vibrant life. Hard to think of anyone but Cuban funk group Yerba Buena or a great salsa orchestra with this kind of tightly meshed swing.

This is a full-tilt, real deal, live band, exuberantly at ease playing with each other: two percussionists (on a battery of drums ranging from deep bass Brazilian sordo to congas and timbales to Afro-Colombian tambor), a drummer (who frequently shifted to back-up rapper), trombonist, trumpeter, bassist, guitarist, Visitante's baby-faced teenage sister PG-13 rapping and singing coros, and Visitante on keyboards, samplers, bandoneon and more. On one song, Chulin Culin Chunfly,the whole group put down their instruments and rapped along with Residente in a wild vocal chorus.

Wearing baggy white pants and undershirt, face and muscular tattooed arms streaming with sweat in La Covacha's steamy outdoor stage, Residente seemed possessed. No strutting or posturing, he's all about intensity -- kicking, striding, jogging, mock-tangoing, unafraid to lose control or even look a little silly. Bikini-clad, Barbie-bodied girls may squeal over him. But for all the sex in his lyrics, Residente's appeal is more rock wildness than hip-hop or reggaeton sensuality, about igniting energy, not a sexy, slow groove.

On Se Vale To-To (It's Worth Everything), he traded hyper-speed polyrhythmic vocals with the percussion section. La Crema (The Cream), a fierce call for Puerto Rican pride, accumulated thunderous, apocalyptic rock 'n' roll power, complete with squealing guitars. Pal Norte (To the North), a tribute to immigrants, and Tango del Pecado (Sin Tango), Residente's sarcastic response to the criticism of his dating revered former Miss Universe Denise Quiñones, were exhilarating anthems of rebellion.

The encore, their hit Atrévete-te-te (Get Wild-d-d), was an exhilarating 10-minute jam, with an energy and musicality that took it beyond its original status as reggaeton anthem to one that simply celebrated music.

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