Aventura - New CD, Tracks, Concert/CD Release Event, Breakup ?, Etc....

I'll just start this thread tonight - and add to it as I get the time. Feel free to contribute - especially music fans.

The new Aventura CD - "The Last" - is scheduled for official release on Tuesday June 9th. Several tracks have been released. Additionally, other tracks have leaked out on the Internet. I've gotten a few from my sources. Appropriately named, rumors abound that the band will "break up" after this CD (and presumably a supporting tour ?) and that Anthony (Romeo) will pursue a solo career or go in another direction. Do bands ever really break up ?? Think of the Eagles or Van (Hagar) Halen.

From the tracks I've heard thus far, it's the usual diverse material centering around pop Bachata that the band is known for. A skit thrown in - and help from Akon, Ludacris and others. The "Por Un Segundo" track is some great basic Bachata.

There is a CD-signing event at 4:00 PM June 9th in NYC at a Blockbuster store near Houston Street. I'll give it a go - but I expect it to be mobbed. While the chicas are generally a welcomed sight, they will certainly be blocking the point of interest in this case.

After that there is a private Concert / CD Release Event at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Tickets were difficult - as they were only released for radio station contests and various promos. No Ticketmaster or venue box-office options. I found one on CraigsList (I guess CL is good for something else !!). Not cheap. I don't know what to expect - whether they will play a full set - or just a few tunes. I think I can certainly expect to see a multitude of hot chicas there. I'll do my best - however, you've read my reports about how I feel the chicas differ so much in the States as opposed to the DR - especially in this northeast area. This is not Clasicos.

With camera in hand, I'll try to get some good pics, videos and provide a review.

More as time goes by......


-NJH

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Originally Posted by NJ_Hobby

I'll just start this thread tonight - and add to it as I get the time. Feel free to contribute - especially music fans.

The new Aventura CD - "The Last" - is scheduled for official release on Tuesday June 9th. Several tracks have been released. Additionally, other tracks have leaked out on the Internet. I've gotten a few from my sources. Appropriately named, rumors abound that the band will "break up" after this CD (and presumably a supporting tour ?) and that Anthony (Romeo) will pursue a solo career or go in another direction. Do bands ever really break up ?? Think of the Eagles or Van (Hagar) Halen.

From the tracks I've heard thus far, it's the usual diverse material centering around pop Bachata that the band is known for. A skit thrown in - and help from Akon, Ludacris and others. The "Por Un Segundo" track is some great basic Bachata.

There is a CD-signing event at 4:00 PM June 9th in NYC at a Blockbuster store near Houston Street. I'll give it a go - but I expect it to be mobbed. While the chicas are generally a welcomed sight, they will certainly be blocking the point of interest in this case.

After that there is a private Concert / CD Release Event at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Tickets were difficult - as they were only released for radio station contests and various promos. No Ticketmaster or venue box-office options. I found one on CraigsList (I guess CL is good for something else !!). Not cheap. I don't know what to expect - whether they will play a full set - or just a few tunes. I think I can certainly expect to see a multitude of hot chicas there. I'll do my best - however, you've read my reports about how I feel the chicas differ so much in the States as opposed to the DR - especially in this northeast area. This is not Clasicos.

With camera in hand, I'll try to get some good pics, videos and provide a review.

More as time goes by......


-NJH

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It is rumored that Romeo has signed solo contract with a record company in the US although there is NOTHING in the music news to support these rumors. The band consisting of Anthony, his cousin Lenny, and two other Santos' who are brothers but not related to the others have been together since 1998. All of the songs are writen by Romeo, so it is possible that he wants to look in another direction, and the band having been together for what would be considered in the music business a long time is goinig to stop playinig together as Aventura. This could be nothing more than the band changing record companies and this will be the last cd on the SONY International label.. It could also be nothing more than media hype to promote their new cd, and tour. Although extremely popular in PR, and DR, they are not a houshold name in the states outside of the Latin communities like say Carlos Santana is... One thing about Aventura.. I do love their music.. It is excellent to dance to!!! Whatever is going on with them, We will have to wait and see... Have fun at the concert..

By the way, I have the complete "The Last", and thought I would let you in on it. go to www.thepiratebay.org. just do a search for Aventura and look for the last. all 18 songs are there to download for FREE!! you may need to download Vuze, and I find it is an easy way to find, and download music, and videos. www.vuze.com/Download . I just love free music!!! If you have questions about downloading the torrents, e-mail me and I'll be glad to help out..

I was listening to "The Last" cd, and considering that the introduction talks about "It has been fun, and everything has to come to an end sometime, and the last song is called "Gracias" and thanks all of the fans, I would have to say that this will be the last Aventura CD.

On Tuesday I got to the CD signing event at about 4:00. It could be described as organized chaos. Thousands of people there - mostly chicas - all hoping to get an autograph and/or see the band. Hundreds just standing nearby and not in line - hoping to see the band as they emerged from their transport. At about 4:20 Aventura was still not there - running late. Judging from the length of the lines and the fact that Aventura had to get to the Nokia theater by maybe 8:00, it looked like only the first several hundred in line would actually get to meet the band. The police there told me that the line had been cut off three hours before - so that would have been 1:00. They said that chicas started showing up the day before. Flirted with a couple of the chicas. I guess a few were surprised that this gringo knew a lot about the band and could speak simple Spanish.

I took some pictures - thumbnails here - and went to a local AMP - as I had some time to kill.

Arrived at the Nokia Theater near Times Square at around 6:00. This time two large lines - but I had a ticket to get in. Many more chicas - probably some from the signing a few hours before. Doors opened around 7:00. Security would not let me take in my sharpie markers (Brought for a possible autograph. Oh well ... Always something ...) The following two hours were basically promos by the sponsoring radio station (La Kalle 105.9) and metroPCS stores - and of course a lot of chica-watching. Nokia is a nice place to see a band and no seat is horribly far from the stage. Flirted with a few more chicas - exploiting the novelty of being the only gringo in thousands and knowing a lot about the band and the DR. A few were quite impressed. One Dominicana didn't even know where Costambar was. Displaying a video of me playing sax with the band at the POP airport didn't hurt either.

The backing musicians took the stage followed by Aventura at about 9:00. The crowd erupted with screams of appreciation. They began with a few tunes from the New CD - I think it was "El Deprecio" and "Por Un Segundo". Got a lot of decent pics and videos - which I will be sending to friends in the DR. Toby Love - who was in Aventura prior to 2006 - joined the band for a tune. Of course, they played a lot of the tunes from the new CD "The Last" - but Anthony (Romeo) seemed to be sensitive to the crowd wanting to hear some of the classics and mentioned that from the stage. Hence a few crowd favorites like "Obsecion" and "Mi Corazoncito" (a favorite of mine) were also performed. At some point a chica from the audience was brought up on stage. A few more new tunes - a few more old tunes. They closed the set with "All Up To You" which on the CD features Akon, Wisin & Yandel. The live performance was mostly samples - I don't think Lenny & Mikey were even playing their guitars.

All in all a fun time and a good show. I assume there will be a supporting worldwide tour for this CD and the facts/rumors about the band dissolving will roll out as time goes by. As a band which thrives on controversy and criticism for it's motivation - and blatantly includes a few rumor-fostering tracks and skits on their CD, it's all just part of the experience.

Some pics added as thumbnails.


-NJH

OUTSTANDING thread!!!!!!!!!!

But i'm just curious as to why you were surprized that the chica never heard of "Costambar"?? Isn't that the tiny town where blackbeards is located? I'm sure many Dominicanas living in DR never heard of it.

Thnx ... Yeah, I guess it just surprised me .. Yes, that's where BBs is. And I guess some may have not heard of it.


-NJH

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Originally Posted by psriches

OUTSTANDING thread!!!!!!!!!!

But i'm just curious as to why you were surprized that the chica never heard of "Costambar"?? Isn't that the tiny town where blackbeards is located? I'm sure many Dominicanas living in DR never heard of it.

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I had read in a DR newspaper that Romeo is leaving and that Aventura had already paid some young singer a large amount to replace Romeo. Aventura may not be a household name in US, but travel to any LA country and they are pretty well known. Even in some european countries where bachata is getting popular it is due in some part to aventuras popularity.

If you got a number or scored NJH you could of claimed you have "GAME".

Guess it is back to the drawing board :p:D

Got a few numbers/Emails. But I think it's back to Clasicos for me !!


-NJH

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Originally Posted by Hunter

If you got a number or scored NJH you could of claimed you have "GAME".

Guess it is back to the drawing board :p:D

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If true, that will be interesting. Henry does the lead vocals on about 20% of the tunes - but I guess they don't feel he has the chops to take over everything. Anthony (Romeo) really carries the band. And he's got the looks and mannerisms to make the chicas go wild. A few bands have replaced lead singers successfully. Van Halen comes to mind. But I don't think they performed any of the DLR tunes during the Van Hagar era. More recently, The Cars tried to pull it off - but it was more of a short-term novelty thing - and a lot of people were Todd Rundgren fans already.

Recently another band (actually a duo, I believe) with a very similar sound has emerged - "Carlos Y Alejandra" I think out of Boston. Very similar to the Aventura Bachata sound (although a little less diverse) and they've copied the Aventura trademark of saying the band's name in every tune. Of course, the female vocals are present in every tune - while Aventura only used a guest female vocalist on occasion. Alejandra looks fairly attractive - which can only help the band's popularity.

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Originally Posted by prtyr2

I had read in a DR newspaper that Romeo is leaving and that Aventura had already paid some young singer a large amount to replace Romeo. Aventura may not be a household name in US, but travel to any LA country and they are pretty well known. Even in some european countries where bachata is getting popular it is due in some part to aventuras popularity.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hunter

If you got a number or scored NJH you could of claimed you have "GAME".

Guess it is back to the drawing board :p:D

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What ever "Game" is, I am sure NJH has it, and thanks to him for the intel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NJ_Hobby

they've copied the Aventura trademark of saying the band's name in every tune.

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You have to be joking!

I have over 2000 bachata tracks and I guarantee the artist or artists' names are spoken on 80% of them, going back to the earliest days of bachata. I have always wondered why that was.

My guess (and only a guess):
It goes back to the folksong roots when all the musicians were illiterate and all the audience were illiterate so wandering "minstrels" would advertise themselves by saying, singing or shouting their own names during live performances as there were no posters or handbills.

Then when music started to be recorded, and with the total absence of copyright protection, the artists found continuing this tradition useful for "hallmarking" their recorded tracks to reduce their being copied and issued under other names as fraud or in error. This would do nothing to enhance their royalties but at least they would get credit and publicity for any popular tracks, so helping their careers.

I have bought several bootleg CDs on the street where titles and artists are misattributed and only this saying of names has enabled me to sort out the tracks.

It also happens with merengue and reggaeton but I haven't noticed whether it is quite so prevalent there.

It's not really that deep. It's just a combination of marketing and tradition.

A shout out, hype, etc.........

I should have said they do it "similar to Aventura ..." since was making a comparison of the bands' similarities. Didn't mean to imply that Aventura had invented it. We don't hear it too much in American music, however...


-NJH

Quote:

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Originally Posted by weyland

You have to be joking!

I have over 2000 bachata tracks and I guarantee the artist or artists' names are spoken on 80% of them, going back to the earliest days of bachata. I have always wondered why that was.

My guess (and only a guess):
It goes back to the folksong roots when all the musicians were illiterate and all the audience were illiterate so wandering "minstrels" would advertise themselves by saying, singing or shouting their own names during live performances as there were no posters or handbills.

Then when music started to be recorded, and with the total absence of copyright protection, the artists found continuing this tradition useful for "hallmarking" their recorded tracks to reduce their being copied and issued under other names as fraud or in error. This would do nothing to enhance their royalties but at least they would get credit and publicity for any popular tracks, so helping their careers.

I have bought several bootleg CDs on the street where titles and artists are misattributed and only this saying of names has enabled me to sort out the tracks.

It also happens with merengue and reggaeton but I haven't noticed whether it is quite so prevalent there.

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The record company owns the rights to the name "Aventura" so if the band chooses to leave their current label they will have to come up with a new name so that could be what all this "last" stuff is about.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by weyland

You have to be joking!

I have over 2000 bachata tracks and I guarantee the artist or artists' names are spoken on 80% of them, going back to the earliest days of bachata. I have always wondered why that was.

.....
It also happens with merengue and reggaeton but I haven't noticed whether it is quite so prevalent there.

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Interesting, I just played some of my favorite bachata tunes for my Colombian amiga/Spanish tutor here in the states about a week ago. She's a paisa (from Medellin). After hearing it, she immediately compared it to at least one other folk/pop music form in Colombia (unfavorably, but she said it was similar), and said in Colombia the singers also "sign" their names in each song in the same way she heard my favorite Dominican bachateros do it.

I'm pretty sure the style she was talking about was vallenato, as I do now know that vallenato is a style somewhat similar to bachata, in form and substance - lots of laments about lost love in a kind of Colombian folksian-blues-country. I'll have to find out more about this music when I get to Colombia soon myself....although I will be primarily focused on something else of course. :wink:

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Originally Posted by curiousdude

Interesting, I just played some of my favorite bachata tunes for my Colombian amiga/Spanish tutor here in the states about a week ago. She's a paisa (from Medellin). After hearing it, she immediately compared it to at least one other folk/pop music form in Colombia (unfavorably, but she said it was similar), and said in Colombia the singers also "sign" their names in each song in the same way she heard my favorite Dominican bachateros do it.

I'm pretty sure the style she was talking about was vallatero, as I do now know that vallatero is a style somewhat similar to bachata, in form and substance - lots of laments about lost love in a kind of Colombian folksian-blues-country. I'll have to find out more about this music when I get to Colombia soon myself....although I will be primarily focused on something else of course. :wink:

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Yes, it's quite true that it sounds like vallenato, but in this form of music the accordion, caja and guacharaca is mainly used. Btw, a lot of bachateros have used vallenatos songs and converted them !