SALSWING! As an album has different purposes. One, to present the Roberto Delgado Orchestra as an outfit capable of expanding it's original Panamanian roots to cover other musical genres. Another, to present my interest in exploring other vocal directions and thus eliminate the stereotype that affirms that we are conditioned

to only exist artistically within specific boundaries, according to our nationality.

Perhaps the most important point is to exemplify that, as artists, we address our music to the world, not just to a specific segment of it's population. The concept MIXTURA exposes the hope that people will accept music, no matter what the genre is, provided it is done with quality and professionalism. All albums today limit themselves to a specific musical direction, to fill a specific market niche. It is an economic imperative, not an artistic one.

SALSWING! #promotes the possibility of changing the divisions brought on by these financial considerations, forcing creators to limit their output to one direction when producing. SALSWING! #instead creates an album with songs representing not one but TWO musical genres, Salsa and Jazz, executed by the same group of players and directed to music lovers in general, not to a specific type of listeners.

When people ask me what kind of a musician I am, I just stare at them.

When they ask me what do I play, my answer is: Music!

Thank you for listening,

Ruben Blades, 2021