The Abolition of Slavery Concert presented by the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center

Sat, Mar 20, 2010 7:00 PM
Park West
Buy tickets HERE
For more information, visit www.srbcc.org

Featuring Los Pleneritos Del Son, directly from Puerto Rico!

Know your Plena:

Plena is a narrative song from the coastal regions of Puerto Rico. Its origins have been various claimed as far back as 1875 and as late as 1920. As rural farmers moved to San Juan and other cities, they brought plena with them and eventually added horns and improvised call and response vocals. Lyrics generally deal with stories or current events, though some are light-hearted or humorous. Manuel A. Jiménez, or El Canario, is the most highly celebrated of the original plena performers.

In the 1940s and 50s, artists like Cesar Concepción and Mon Rivera made plena slicker and made some hits internationally, but the music's popularity sunk drastically by the mid-1960s.

Plena's popularity blossomed in the 1990s, and the revival has survived and influenced foreign genres from Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil and other Latin and Caribbean countries. Artists like Willie Colón united plena and bomba with salsa music to great critical acclaim and popularity, while other important bands of this revival include Plena Libre (long-time leaders of the genre) and Plenealo.