Our beloved colleague Lise Waxer, died on August 13, 2002. A Canadian-born ethnomusicologist, she conducted extensive ethnographic and historical research on salsa music and its Cuban roots. Her studies included fieldwork in Canada, Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela. She wrote extensively about salsa and its international diffusion, and also performed in salsa and Latin jazz groups. Waxer completed doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and had finished working on a book manuscript based on her dissertation field research on salsa in Cali, Colombia, to be published by Wesleyan University Press. She also edited a collection of scholarly essays on salsa in global perspective, Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meaning in Latin Popular Music, (Routledge, 2002). Her contributions to Trinity College, the city of Hartford, and the international scholarly community, as well as her tireless activities as musician, teacher, mentor, advisor, colleague and friend are her abiding legacy.

     
To hear excerpts of Salsification click here

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH:                 See attached CV
     the following are excerpts from the CV:

Books
 The City of Musical Memory: Records, Salsa Grooves and Local Popular Culture in Colombia. Hanover: University Press of New England, for Wesleyan University Press, forthcoming 2002. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meanings in Latin Popular Music, ed. Lise Waxer. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Chapters in Books
 "Cuban Musicians in New York," "Puerto Rican Musicians in New York." The American Musical Atlas, ed. by Jeff Todd Titon. New York: Schirmer, forthcoming.

Entries on "Salsa" and "Colombian Music." Commissioned for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, rev. ed., edited by Stanley Sadie. London: MacMillan, forthcoming.

"Consuming Memories: The Record-Centred Salsa Scene in Cali." In Sound Identities: Popular Music and the Cultural Politics of Education, edited by Cameron McCarthy et al. New York: Paul Lang, in press 1999, pp. 235-252.

Articles
"Record Grooves and Salsa Dance Moves: The Viejoteca Phenomenon in Cali, Colombia", Popular Music (Cambridge) 20/1 (2001, forthcoming)

"Las Caleñas Son Como Las Flores: All-Women Salsa Bands in Cali, Colombia," Ethnomusicology, vol. 45/2 (2001), forthcoming.

"En Congo, Bongó y Campana: The Rise of Colombian Salsa," Latin American Music Review, vol. 21/2 (2000), forthcoming

"Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love: Dance Music in Havana and New York City from the 1930s- 1950s." Latin American Music Review vol. 15/2 (1994): 139-176.
"Oscar Valdés: Un nuevo rumbo con Diákara." La Palabra vol. 4/47 (March 1996): 12-13. (Cali: Universidad del Valle.)

Ph.D Dissertation
"Cali Pachanguero: A Social History of Salsa in a Colombian City." University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998.

Master’s Thesis
 "Latin Popular Musicians in Toronto: Issues of Ethnicity and Cross-Cultural Integration." York University, 1991.

Lectures (*invited)
*"Ears to the Pavement: Studying World Music in the City." Invited lecture at Trinity College San Francisco campus, February 22, 1999.

"All-Women Salsa Bands in Cali—Lessons from the Field." Presented at the Trinity College Women’s Center, Hartford, November 19, 1998.

*"The Roots of Salsa and Merengue." Invited lecture for undergraduate resident hall cultural series, Wesleyan University, Middletown, November 12, 1998.

OTHER CREATIVE WORK:
MUSICAL DIRECTOR and PERCUSSIONIST, Salsafication (Trinity College Latin Band)
PIANIST, Magenta Latin Jazz (Latin jazz), Cali, Colombia
MUSICAL DIRECTOR and PIANIST, Adelante (salsa band), Urbana
STEEL PAN PLAYER, with AfroPan Steelband, Toronto
DANCER, with Flaming Dono Drum and Dance Group (Ghanaian dance), Toronto
BROADCASTER and PRODUCER Jazz and world music programs, CIUT-FM radio, Toronto
"Tea for Two", duo jazz piano concert with Steven Czak '99, Garmany Hall,  AAC