April

Born in 1943, Oscar D’ León is one of the references when it comes to salsa music. In his beginnings, and influenced mainly by Benny Moré and by the Cuban sound that since he was a child was already part of his life because of the records his father listened to all day long; Oscar was an amateur singer while he earned his living working in his cab and in the General Motors factory in Caracas.

In 1973 he created with trombonist Cesar Monge his first band, La Dimensión Latina, where Oscar started singing and playing bass, and had a big hit: “Pensando En Ti”. In their first album the songs were not enough, so they had to record a shared album with El Clan de Victor Mendoza.

In 1976 he formed Salsa Mayor and then settled down with his big band Oscar D’ León y su Orquesta. Since then Oscar has not stopped performing all over the world, improvising on any line of any melody, and recording many of the best albums in the history of salsa.

Great singer, improviser of inspiration, stage beast, perfectionist: Venezuela’s greatest star combines musical talent and human qualities unanimously celebrated: the substance with which the greats are born.

It was at the wheel of his cab, or at the General Motors factory in Caracas, who employed him until 1967, or perhaps in the popular Antimano neighborhood of Caracas, where he saw the day for the first time on July 11, 1943, that Oscar Emilio León Dionisia, alias El Diablo de la Salsa, alias El León, launched his first songs, and sharpened his vocal cords.

Coming from a modest background, he is also a self-taught musician who starts on other strings, those of the double bass: watching the musicians play and playing over the records.

Still today, Oscar is faithful to him and his double bass is never far from him when he is on stage. He sometimes takes over a bar, a solo, a few dance steps or a turn on the dance floor, as if this old accomplice were a source of resources for him.

It is possible that the Latin Dimension project was born, founded in 1972 by Oscar D’Leon, percussionist Wladimir Lozano, percussionist José Rodríguez and trombonist Cesar “Albóndiga” Monge, where the arrangements will make the ensemble thunder.

The group sounds like a New York salsa, its impact is strong and Dimensión Latina quickly makes a name for itself in the clubs of Caracas. The success is so fast that there are only a few numbers left to record and the group has to share their first album with Victor Mendoza. It is also the time of the first hit number, Pensando en ti.

But it is in 1977 that Oscar D’ León truly emancipates himself and founds La Salsa Mayor: a group cut to his measurements, with which he records in 1977 his first real album.

His singing, influenced by the greatest Cuban soneros (and especially by Benny Moré, great among the greats) is supported by a brass section that evokes the good old New York salsa (dominated by Fania) and Puerto Rican (Gran Combo); a big gulp of swing learned from listening to the great Cuban orchestras of the 50s: now Oscar D’Leon’s style is forged and his talent is mature and preceded by his album El más grande (which covers such pearls as Mi bajo y yo, El baile del suavecito, Bravo de verdad), the Leon feels ready to challenge New York in 1978… who knows how to appreciate his courage.

The continuation of his story is a flawless career and Oscar D’ León will be rewarded with the recognition of all. Cuba makes him triumph when he visits the island in 1986, the gold discs are chained one after the other and the honors are lined up… until that distinction of the city of New York, who dedicates him a day, March 15, 1998!

And on stage, the Lion roars even louder. It is there that his qualities of improviser find the measure and take all the forces, for concerts of high rank where the generosity and the energy deplored by Oscar D’Leon bring immediately the adhesion of the public.

Today Oscar appears on a good fifty albums and his name is affixed next to the greatest: Celia Cruz, Tito Puente… USA, Mexico, Latin America, Japan, Europe… the former General Motors worker conquered the world.

From his beginnings in music, Willie Colón’s image was associated with that of the intrepid, shrewd and reckless boy who – by force – carved out a space for himself among the big names of Caribbean music in the complex world of New York in the 1960s.

Before the astonished gaze of those responsible for the Latin sound at the time, the young neophyte was a “no name”, an unknown figure on the stages of popular song and, particularly, a small-time musician, strange, inexperienced and an outsider.

In his beginnings he was censured for his loud and strident style and was even accused of being inharmonious by those who were veterans in the Latin music scene.

It is said that his nickname “El Malo” was associated, in the first instance, with the epithet used to refer to his trombone playing ability when he made his first appearances in the music scene, at only fifteen years of age. Of Puerto Rican parents, William Anthony Colón Román, who was born on April 28, 1950 in the Bronx, learned very early in his adolescence to discern between the derogatory images and adjectives that were poured on the Latino community and the harsh reality of immigrants in the “Big Apple”.

Thus, he soon turned his artistic work into the most forceful social testimony clothed in sonority, with memorable lyrics that narrated the details of the incidences of marginality, prejudice, poverty and misery. Although other musicians of the time took the same line, no one knew better than him how to conjugate in harmonies the feeling of heartbreak and helplessness of the Diaspora.

His music reflects, at the same time, a traditional rhythmic lyric and the farewell to the weeping and hope of a new generation, forced to abandon their land to congregate in the U.S. city,” comments writer James Moreno.

Willie Colón is, without a doubt, a painter of the faces of his people, an artist who captured in his songs -especially in his strong sound- the conscience of a generation that demanded social respect and fought for the vindication of their living conditions. A sage among geniuses.

The musician and arranger Willie Colón took his first steps in the arts as a trumpet player until he discovered the fascination of Mon Rivera’s work and the uses he employed with the trombone for the interpretation of the bomba and plena.

His musical passion, on the other hand, was derived from his grandmother, who raised him by lulling him to sleep with the melodies of the Puerto Rican popular songbook, introducing him to the fascination of the typical rhythms of the country.

Early in 1965, this intrepid young man took to the streets to prove his talent, just at the time of the Latin music boom in New York, where Tito Puente, Charlie Palmieri, Eddie Palmieri, Larry Harlow and Ray Barretto, among others, dominated.

In 1967, when he was 17 years old, he joined the group of artists who formed part of Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco’s group and who were responsible for driving the rise of the new record label that would unite the new Latin musical expression: La Fania.

Willie Colón’s entry into the group marked the most significant moment in salsa, as it was the most impacting starting point that would develop the new salsa expression, in an attempt to homogenize the work that had been carried out for several years in the Latin world of New York, as part of a new sound proposal.

In this context, Willie Colón’s glory lay in his ability to elaborate the precise sound that identified the new rhythmic tempo, which in its sociological meaning meant the Latin representation. Nobody better than him could harmonize the musical tendencies of the Anglo-Saxon world with the “old” Latin school of mambo, son, pachanga, cha-cha-chá and guaracha, adding the nostalgia of the traditional Puerto Rican sound, inscribed in the jíbara music, bomba and plena.

The take-off of Willie Colón’s musical project was due, to a great extent, to his union with the Ponce-born singer Héctor Lavoe, who came to him on the recommendation of veteran musician Johnny Pacheco, and with whom he created the most important duo in salsa music. Together with the so-called “Singer of Singers”, he elevated his proposal to the highest level of the music scene, especially because of his assertiveness in weaving a new musical concept that combined the mischievous and hurtful tone of Lavoe’s voice and his attachment to the melodies of traditional Puerto Rican song, with the interest of the daring trombonist to project in his work the nostalgic evocation of the sound of the roots of Puerto Rican music, in union with the strong and aggressive sound of the urban world that sheltered them. During the seven years that the union of Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe lasted, salsa triumphed. The recipe for success was to disrupt the established rhythmic patterns to mark the beat of the new time of salsa, armed with modern compositions and tinged with typical phrases and phrases of the Puerto Rican peasantry.

Owners of the malice “EL MALO de aquí soy yo / porque tengo corazón” (I’m the BAD guy here / because I have a heart), thus ended the lyrics of Héctor Lavoe’s first hit with Willie Colón, which set the tone for the career of this neo-dynamic duo. This “bad guy” image accompanied them for more than a decade, helping them to create fame and serving, at the same time, as an image of identity of the Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York, creating problems in more than one corner.

Colón says that in the mid-seventies they had to move away from this perception, because everyone wanted to fight with them at the dances and, obviously, neither he nor Héctor had the physique to back it up. It was a funky image that caught on, because violence is part of the Caribbean culture. And there were many of Willie Colón’s compositions that touted violent competition in and for Latin spaces. But “El malo” is singular, although its reference was in one of the most remembered salsa couples of the salsa scene: Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe. In this song, which gave life to his first record production (1967), the idea was to set the tone for the career of a young man of little more than fifteen years of age in the tough commercial culture. Colón wanted to be strong and for others to lead the way. Singularly, he had to find a singer to record the number and here came Lavoe, joining in or competing for the bad guy image? According to the song, in the barrio there is no room for two bad guys; so it is suggested (that, at least at the beginning, Colón and Lavoe were competing for the reign this pairing was not just an image. This is the group that grew up with the Fania record label and with the popularization of the term salsa to name that musical project. This duo is the most characteristic of the genre, because none of them had been famous before, nor had they recorded with any big orchestra. The competition, perhaps, came from Larry Harlow, but more than the pianist of Jewish origin -who remained very attached to the Cuban sound- Willie Colón’s work was distinguished by its rhythmic mixture of calypso, bomba, plena, guaguancó, bugalú, guajira, mambo and jazz.

Interestingly, they are also known for their Jíbaro sound. This, in turn, facilitated their transition from New York to Puerto Rico. The ajibarado metal of Lavoe’s vocals and José Manual in the chorus gave these “locos” from New York a pass of authenticity for the music of the Nuyoricans to enter the Puerto Rican radio space.

Seen from the 21st century, the trip seems to have been easy, but we cannot forget the difficulty Puerto Ricans in New York had in those years to be recognized as authentic Puerto Ricans.

They achieved their passport to the Puerto Rican market with the album “Asalto navideño” (1971), with which the musician “assaulted” the national culture, proclaiming salsa as typical Christmas music. With phrases such as “aquí traigo la salsa” and “esta Navidad vamos a gozar”, the so-called bad boys emphasized the displacement of a community and a genre, approaching the national culture with a language similar to the one used to “take” the New York streets. This time, they also told their audience that “if you hurry you die”, and with a little more humility, because “there are jíbaros who know better”.

Beny More – “El Bárbaro del Ritmo” Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré was born in Santa Isabel de las Lajas on August 24, 1919. Helio Orovio says in his Dictionary of Cuban Music: “Unanimously considered one of the most brilliant artists produced by our popular music, he shone in all genres” HIS ANCESTORS. -He descended from the king of a Congo tribe. His son, Gundo, was captured by slave traders. In Lajas he was sold to a landowner named Ramon Paredes and they called him Ta Ramon Gundo Paredes. He is the great-great-grandfather of Benny Moré. He was sold to Doña Susana Benítez. Later to the Count of More and is renamed Ta Ramón Gundo Moré. With Julia More (slave owned by the Count) they have a daughter named Julia. Gundo becomes mancipated and dies free at the age of 94.

Julia More has six children with Simeón Armenteros y Calvo, Colonel of the Mambí Army: Patricia, Bernabé, Tomás, Felipa, Chiquitica and Sofía. Patricia was the first of the daughters. She was not recognized by her father and carries her mother’s surname Moré. Patricia had relations with a wealthy Spaniard and had four children: Ofelia, Felipe, Julia and Virginia Secundina.

The father did not recognize them, so they carry their mother’s Moré surname. At the age of 18, Virginia Secundina has a son with Silvestre Gutiérrez: Bartolomé Maximiliano, who carries his mother’s surname, was the eldest of 18 siblings.

Bartolomé himself assures that he always had a vocation for music: “I think I started singing when they took away my diapers, at least that’s how I see myself in my memories, singing since I was a child” His mother confirms that since he was a child he liked music. His mother says that when he was six years old he looked for a board and a spool of thread, tied the thread to the board and said that they were the strings of a guitar. This is how he made his first guitar at the age of six.

His brother Teodoro participated in the ensemble that Benny put together at a very young age, with machetes and nails as instruments. Condensed milk cans served as bongos. In 1935, at the age of 16, he was part of the first serious musical group.

He didn’t know anything about music, he bought a guitar but he didn’t know how to play it. He went with his brother Teodoro to cut cane at the Jaronú plant and met Castellanos and Víctor Landa, who helped him to start playing the guitar. With the money he earned and Teodoro’s savings, he bought his first quality guitar in Morón.

The following year, 1936, he goes to Havana. He lives by selling fruits and viands that are beaten or deteriorated and medicinal herbs. Six months later he returns to Las Lajas. He moved to the Jaguayal plant, near Ciego de Avila, to cut sugar cane with Teodoro.

Later they go to Central Vertientes. In 1939 Bartolomé and Teodoro fall ill with malaria fever.

They alternate their work with serenades in the company of the Avance group (Horacio Landa, Enrique Benítez, Che Casonas, Mayombe and others. Benny was the singer). With two of the members of this group (Enrique Benítez and Cheo Casanovas), he later formed a trio of voices and guitars.

In 1940 he arrives in Havana for the second time. For four years he lives as he can, playing and singing in bars and cafes. He would pass his hat and say “Cooperate with the Cuban artist”. In the restaurants he was thrown out on the street so as not to disturb the clientele. At the beginning of the 40’s he started in the radio, in the CMQ radio station he started a program called “Corte Suprema del Arte” (Supreme Court of Art), in which all kinds of artists competed.

Those who succeed are hired by unscrupulous businessmen, who exploit them. Others are not so lucky and their participation in the contest is abruptly and humiliatingly cut short by the ringing of a bell. Bartolomé enters the contest. The program is presented by Germán Pinelli and José Antonio Alonso. As soon as he began to sing, they rang the bell. Later he participated again in this program and won the first prize.