Bronx Salsa legend Joe Quijano y Su Conjunto Cachana play Midsummer Night Swing at Damrosch Park in Lincoln Center on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 7:30 pm. Floor opens at 6 pm.
Get tickets at www.lincolncenter.org
Joe Quijano
Quijano was born in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1935. He moved to The Bronx in 1942. In high school he led a band that included Salsa legend Eddie Palmieri.
Joe Quijano y Su Conjunto Cachana
On a trip to Cuba, Quijano heard bands playing with one trumpet and a flute. Back home in the Bronx, together with Salsa legend Charlie Palmieri, Quijano founded Conjunto Cachana with that sound. Cachana was Joe’s grandfather’s nickname.
Quijano worked for a record distributor. He got them to finance a single called Amor. That hit led to a couple of hit albums and Quijano’s career was on its way.
Seventy years later, Quijano is “El Rey de la Pachanga.”
Pachanga
https://youtu.be/XDwqnvU_RvA
Pachanga is a happy Cuban blend of son montuno and merengue. It came up in Cuba in the late 1950s during the Cuban Revolution. That event pushed artists out around the Caribbean and to New York where the Pachanga caught on in New York City’s Latin community.
Caravana Club
The Caravana Club on East 149th St near St. Mary’s Park was the center of NYC’s Pachanga scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s. That part of New York City was the crucible of Latin Jazz and Salsa.
Federico Pagani, the Palladium Ballroom’s booker, was part of the management team. The club had its own dance team, Los Pachangueros, who performed around town.
The Club closed in 1962. It became the Bronx Casino and later a church. Today it is the Opera House Hotel which is also called the Bronx Opera House.
Caravana Club (Opera House Hotel)
436 East 149th St, Bronx, NY 10455
https://youtu.be/N-hw9uJk93g
Look at the dancers. It’s a contemporary video, but the way they dance the pachanga looks more Cuban or Colombian than New York Style. The movement is an open embrace and the dancers maintain their own axis. The dance is circular. The energy is in the feet.
New York Salsa on2 didn’t come up until Eddie Torres began teaching it in the 1970s. Salsa on2 is cool because it emphasizes the tumbao of the conga and rhythm section and adds more syncopation to the dance.
Joe Quijano y Su Conjunto Cachana Tickets
$17 in advance
$20 day-of-show
- Before 5 pm: David Geffen Hall Box Office (the building on the right or north of the main plaza).
- After 5:30 pm at Damrosch Park
Get tickets at www.lincolncenter.org
Visit Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center
Travel light. Don’t take any bags. You can’t leave them on the dance floor and here is no seating on the dance floor. Bags must be checked for $4 per bag.
The dance floor is a sprung wood dance floor, so if you are a dancer, bring shoes appropriate to your style of dancing.
Weather cancellations are at 8:30 pm. Weather changes quickly at this time of year so prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.
Subway
(1) to 66th St – Lincoln Center
(1) or (A) (C) or (B) (D) to 59th St – Columbus Circle
Bus
M5, M7, M11, M66, M104 to Lincoln Center
Parking
Beneath Lincoln Center