Salsa Singer D’Leon Still Delivers Spice

Forget the charts and forget Arbitron--the most exciting thing in Latin music is Oscar D’Leon. The 55-year-old Venezuelan, considered by most experts as the best salsa singer around, has enough stamina to dwarf his younger and better-selling competition, and enough music to be the undisputed embodiment of all that is good about Afro-Latin dance music. His goal is simply to please crowds and leave the groundbreaking and renovation to others.

It could be argued that D’Leon, like many legends, is past his prime and depends on old hits to prolong a career that has seen better records. That’s only partially true, as he demonstrated Friday at the House of Blues.

D’Leon did concentrate on the same old tricks, like his memorable medley in tribute to the late Cuban singer Beny More. But he still sings as well as he used to way back in Caracas. And nobody pleases crowds like he does.

D’Leon’s package is not only salsa, but merengue, cumbia, boleros and rancheras. His sets are more than two hours of nonstop, sexually charged dancing and singing. Imagine that and a smoking 14-piece orchestra in the background, and you have the definition of what Latin music is all about.