Jose Conde brings Latin music into maturity
By Jordan Fenster, Entertainment Editor
jfenster@nhregister.com / Twitter: @jordanfenster

NEW HAVEN — Jose Conde is a one-man Latin music class, and in one day this weekend you can follow him from basic education to doctoral degree.

Conde describes himself as a singer/songwriter, though he writes within a Latin music milieu. But Latin music can mean a lot of things — from reggeton to rumba — and Conde attempts to blend Latin music of all kinds into one, coherent sound.

And he succeeds.

Take, for example, Baby Loves Salsa, taking the University Theatre stage, 222 York St., at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, 3 p.m. Sunday. It’s a project designed, not only to introduce Latin rhythms but also to educate.

“We talk a little bit about the development of salsa,” Conde told the New Haven Register recently. “It’s geared toward kids and the young at heart.”

Conde, though he lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., currently, is originally from Miami and is of Cuban descent. His heritage seems to have informed his musical sensibilities and goals.

“Cuba has been a fountain of creativity,” he said. “A place where much of Latin music has been fused.”

Conde said that the music of the island has blended Hatian, French, African European and American influences, calling Cuba “a hotbed of creativity, a real catalyst.”

At 7 p.m. Sunday, Conde takes the stage on the New Haven Green for a show that is as musically complex as Baby Loves Salsa is simple. His music is never satisfied with one sound, jumping from style to style and incorporating bits and pieces — beats or sounds — from across the globe.

That project consists, in addition to Conde himself, of Gintas Janusonis on drums, Jorge Bringas on bass, Marko Pankovich on electric guitar, Marlysse Rose Simmons on keys, multipercussionist Ze Mauricio and Marvin Diz on congas and bongos.

But at heart, Conde is a songwriter, and while some tunes, like “Amor y Felicidad” (which uses a hip-hop beat in a rumba) will get people dancing, Conde is clear that “it’s definitely not salsa.”

“It’s very much a songwriter’s project,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve done anything purely Latin. It’s a very individual expression.”

But that ability to reach across the Latin world is not exclusively Conde’s, he admits. It’s something that has been happening in Latin music for a while.

“Latin music is growing up,” he said. “We can rock ’n’ roll with the best of them.”

Of course, living in Brooklyn hasn’t hurt the multi-ethnic flavor of Conde’s music. Brooklyn, like Miami and Cuba, Conde said, is home to many different blended cultures and ideas, sights and sounds.

“I don’t think it’s hurt at all. It only makes you richer,” he said. “I’m exploring the sights and sounds and styles in my life.”

Conde’s new self-titled CD will be available in stores Sept. 9, but anyone who signs up for his mailing list at www.joseconde.com prior to that date can get a download of the CD for free.