LARRY ROHTER


At its shows in Europe, the 11-piece orchestra La Excelencia is often introduced to audiences as personifying “salsa from New York.” But on its home turf the band’s hard, tough sound and fondness for lyrics that address social issues has led traditionalists to regard the group as somehow outside the salsa mainstream.

One of La Excelencia’s signature songs, “La Lucha,” or “The Struggle,” blends Cuban danzon, Puerto Rican bomba and Colombian cumbia. “It is important for us to feature everybody in the band, and that our songs be for all of Latin America,” said Jose Vazquez Cofresi, who plays conga. Julian Silva, who plays timbales, added: “That’s why we call it salsa. It’s a mixture of everybody’s music. Why would you want to limit yourself?”

The throwback eclecticism of La Excelencia, founded in 2005 by Mr. Vazquez and Mr. Silva, extends to its makeup. Band members, who range in age from 26 to 35, are of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Colombian, Argentine-Ecuadorean and Japanese descent (with a n Anglo trumpet player from Florida) and know how to fuse styles without making it apparent.

Rather than focus the spotlight on a nattily dressed lead singer, La Excelencia operates as a collective. Instead of writing syrupy love songs, as demanded by the salsa romantica style that has been dominant for a quarter-century, the group sings about immigration, discrimination and poverty. In place of synthesizers and strings, La Excelencia emphasizes hard-driving brass and percussion, just like a Fania Records band from salsa’s heyday in the 1970s.

“La Excelencia represents something very significant, a return not just to the classic formula of salsa but to the virtues of it,” said Aaron Levinson, a Grammy-winning producer best known for his work with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. “The really critical difference is that they are also going back to the more eclectic period when salsa was street music, playing with spirit and integrity and writing socially relevant music again.”

Mr. Vazquez and Mr. Silva met as teenagers as part of a delegation traveling to see Pope John Paul II during his 1993 visit to the United States.

Mr. Vazquez, 34, of Puerto Rican descent, and Mr. Silva, 32, who was born in Cali, Colombia, were members of Los Calientes del Son, a band that toured the South, playing “everything from salsa to rock, jazz and even country,” recalled Mr. Vazquez .

In 2000 they moved to New York and quickly signed a deal to record a salsa CD. But “we got tired of the kind of rules that were placed on us because we were salsa,” said Mr. Silva, who has a degree in psychology and has worked in cancer research. “ They were telling us to sing about love and not protest, to look sharp and sing to the women. Jose and I just got fed up.” On its own Handle With Care label, La Excelencia has released two CDs whose titles give a sense of the group’s philosophy: “Salsa con Conciencia,” which means salsa with “awareness” or “conscience,” and “Mi Tumbao Social,” or “My Social Drumbeat.” The band has also used YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other social media extensively to promote its music.

Commercially, however, the band has chosen an uphill path. La Excelencia’s insistence on “doing what we want the way we want it and not worrying about anything else,” as Mr. Silva puts it, has won the band a dedicated following but not huge acclaim or success. Neither CD has yet sold more than 15,000 copies .

“This is a band that for sure can succeed in festivals in Europe, because over there a great community supports that kind of thing. But in the U.S. it’s tough sledding,” said Sergio George, the producer best known for his work with Marc Anthony .

“The truth is that La Excelencia is a mixture of the retro and the contemporary,” said Pablo Yglesias, author of “The Rough Guide to Salsa.” “I think they just see themselves as playing great music and not caring about fashion, so they are fresh that way.”