Artists

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero

North America / United States / New Jersey

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero hails from Caracas, Venezuela.

Where his father, a respected percussionist in his own right, tutored and encouraged his son to become one of music’s best percussionists.

Luisito comes from a long line of outstanding musicians including his uncle, Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Robert Quintero.

He studied at the respected Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela (The Symphonic Orchestra of Venezuela) and his percussion technique soon garnered attention from his colleagues.

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Luisito joined the popular music ensembles Grupo Guaco and Oscar D’Leon, where he enjoyed worldwide acclaim.

Luisito Quintero has worked and recorded with many of music’s legends including The Rolling Stones, Vanessa Williams, Paul Simon, Santana, Jack De Johnette, David Sanborn, George Benson, Joe Sample, Bill Cosby, the late Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Cachao, Eddie Palmieri, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Richard Bona, Ravi Coltrane, Nathalie Cole, Diana Krall, Giovanni Hidalgo, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Spanish Harlem, Willie Colon and countless others. One of his recent projects finds him as musical director for Louie Vega and the Elements of Life Band, as well as extensive work with Jack DeJohnette’s Latin Project. He has also had the privilege to tour and record with the Tony & Grammy award winning Jazz artist, Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Quintero himself has earned more than thirteen Grammy certificate awards for his participation in numerous recordings.

Luisito Quintero has two solo projects under Vega Records/BBE, entitled “Percussion Maddness” and “Percussion Maddness Revisited”.

Timbalero - Luisito Quintero — Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Scheduled for release in the spring of 2013, his upcoming production entitled “3rd Element”, features guest artists Gato Barbieri, Oscar Hernandez, Doug Beavers, Richie Flores, Steve Khan, Reynaldo Jorge and his cousin Roberto Quintero. Currently, Luisito is the touring & recording percussionist for the legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea and for Spanish Harlem.

Nicky Marrero is an innovator, timbalero and bongo player, living legend of our Afro-Latin and Caribbean music.

Nicolás Marrero Jr. “Nicky Marrero” was born in the Bronx, New York, on June 17, 1950, to a Puerto Rican father and mother (born in San Germán and Corozal, respectively).

He had formal studies in drums during his adolescence, but more could the sounds of Tito Puente and Willie Bobo, his major influences.

Nicky Marrero is an innovator, timbalero and bongo player, living legend of our Afro-Latin and Caribbean music.

He debuted in music with a high school ensemble called Orquesta Caribe.

However, his first recording session was at the age of 15 with the original band of another teenager born in 1950: Willie Colón.

Curiously, at the time of these sessions, three pillars of the Alegre All-Stars, Charlie Palmieri, Louie Ramirez and Kako, were present in the studio, and young Nicky was invited to participate as a timbalero.

In 1968 he was recruited by Eddie Palmieri, who by then, as a consequence of internal problems, gradually disbanded his original orchestra: La Perfecta.

Nicky Marrero joins the orchestra shortly after recording the album “Champagne,” the album “Justicia” (1969), where, still under the powerful voice of Ismael Quintana, Nicky begins to explore his own sound (listen to his solo in the song “My Spiritual Indian”),

The decade of the 70’s opens for him with three important events: the classic album “Vámonos Pa’l Monte”, his participation with Patato in the album “Portrait Of Jennie” by Dizzy Gillespie and the beginning of his career as a percussion teacher, as a member of the faculty of the East Harlem Music School, the school of Johnny Colón, legendary pianist and one-time pioneer of boogaloo.

At this institution Nicky gives his first lessons to a 13 year old boy named Jimmy Delgado.

In 1972 Nicky is invited to participate in the Afro-American Music Festival. 1975 he joins the troupe of the Wonderful Jew, Larry Harlow, then he is part of the Revelation Orchestra, two years with the Novel Orchestra.

In fact, thanks to his internship with Harlow’s band, Nicky was already part of Fania Records’ staff of musicians, recording as timbalero, bongos player and even drummer (and one of his first assignments for that label as a studio musician was the album “Pa’ Bravo Yo” by Justo Betancourt, produced by Harlow himself in 1972).

In 1973 he was included in the Fania All-Stars, replacing Orestes Vilató.

Marrero received an invitation from Pacheco to make his debut with them at Yankee Stadium in August of that year. Ironically, despite the events that separated Vilató from the stellar orchestra, he remained part of Fania’s studio staff. In fact, Vilató and Marrero crossed paths on countless sessions for various artists on the label between 1973 and 1980, in most cases with Marrero on timbales and Vilató serving as bongos player.

His multiple sessions for Fania (Ismael Miranda, Ismael Quintana, Héctor Lavoe’s first solo album (“La Voz”), Justo Betancourt and others), he also participates in “Sun Of Latin Music,” Eddie Palmieri’s classic par excellence and the first album to win a Grammy in the then debut category of “Best Latin Album.”

He is also invited to participate in the first of several rock sessions, this one specifically as an all-around percussionist for the group Electric Flag: “The Band Kept Playing”.

He travels with Fania to the African continent, later Jerry Masucci gets a potentially lucrative contract for the Fania All-Stars with Columbia Records, for recording purposes the orchestra is reduced to a sextet: Pacheco, Barretto, Nicky, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentin and debuting with the orchestra, Papo Lucca.

This is how Nicky, without being a band leader, not only became a star member of the Fania All-Stars, but also an “exclusive artist” of the Fania label. And as such, he appears on several albums that are not necessarily Latin and travels with Fania to Europe (the first of several subsequent visits) and Japan. Together with Harlow, Vilató on bongo, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera on bass, Frankie Rodríguez on congas, Harry Viggiano on guitar and Pablito Rosario on percussion, he recorded an album of downloads for the Japanese market under the curious group name of Belmonte (“Olé”). [This album is very difficult to obtain.

1977 he joins Tipica’73, an orchestra which he joins shortly after the release of the previous album: “Rumba Caliente,” ironically replacing Vilató once again. The album in question, for which Nicky alternated between his timbales set and the drums proper, is “The Two Sides Of Tipica’73,” the band’s most progressive album.

Nicky introduces drum toms to his rhythm kit (the only drum component Nicky overlooks in his regular timpani set is the hi-hats).

Nicky even recorded his first drum solo on the song “Yo Bailo De Todo” on that album. By this time, production at the Fania label and its subsidiaries was exhausting and the salsa boom in New York was in full swing.

Exhausting tours with the Fania All-Stars, he travels with Tipica’73 to Havana, Cuba, the first time in 20 years of economic blockade and open political friction that a New York Latin orchestra performs in the home of son, Nicky’s visit with La Tipica and Orestes Vilató’s own visit the following year, replacing him with the Fania All-Stars, helped to restore the timbal and bongo to the importance they should never have lost in Cuba.

To this day, Nicky remains healthy and active in music.

Also Read: The legendary singer Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond “La Lupe”

Willito and Japhet from La Sonora Ponceña

The stories of two great musicians

The island of enchantment, Puerto Rico, has been one of the places with the most talented musicians in Latin America, so it is always worth mentioning some of the most important names in the music scene in this beautiful land. Today it is the turn of talented musicians Willito López Vázquez and Japhet O. Rodríguez from the world-famous orchestra La Sonora Ponceña.

Next, we will talk a little about both salsa exponents’ stories separately so that our readers can get to know these great personalities of the entertainment world who are not so famous for some.

Willito López

Wilfredo López Vázquez, artistically known as Willito López, is a famous percussionist whose career over time has been brilliant and has countless great collaborations with other exponents of the genre such as Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Nieves, Jerry Rivera, Luis Perico Ortiz, Lalo Rodríguez, Bobby Valentín, among many others.

One of the instruments that makes this musician excel more than another is the conga and it is present in several of the greatest records of La Sonora Ponceña, the orchestra to which the artist currently belongs.

Willito playing the conga — Willito López playing the conga during a performance

In one of his last interviews, he talked a bit about maestro Ángel ”Maldonado” Maldonado, of whom he cherishes fond memories after his unfortunate death a few years ago. He mentioned that the sonero lent his support to him when he needed it most and was very grateful for that, while regretting that he was already no more in this world.

Undoubtedly, he is a pride to his family and the artists who have had the opportunity to feature his talents for any project in the past. He has always left everything on stage with each of his works and we have no doubt that he will continue to do so as long as his arms allow him to delight the audience with his talent.

Japhet Rodriguez

Japhet Rodríguez is also a talented Puerto Rican-born percussionist who has a very interesting career behind him.

The artist was initially invited by La Sonora Ponceña to participate in some projects in 1998, but after having shown what he was really made of, he continued working with the orchestra for years to come.

Japhet with his timbales — Japhet Rodríguez with his timbales

It was in 2007 that he became an official member of the group and thanks to which he became popular all over the world while serving as the timbalero of La Sonora Ponceña.

While it is true that he has reached a huge popularity worldwide thanks to the aforementioned Puerto Rican orchestra, Japhet has been part of many other important names in Latin music such as Sabor Ponceño, La Terrífica de Ponce, Costa Brava, Moncho Santana, Los Hermanos Moreno, Willie Crespo, Camilo Azuquita, Impacto CREA, Raphy Leavitt Y La Selecta, Manix Martínez, Rafy Class, Conjunto La Perla, La Tropicana de P.R., and Homenaje Matancero.

Something very interesting about the musical career of this great artist is that all these groups to which he has belonged have not only been from Puerto Rico, but also from countries such as the United States, Panama and Colombia. This shows that his talent has not only shone in his native country, but also in other latitudes.

In next editions, we will be talking a little more about other salsa exponents who have left our music in high, so you can not miss the section of Johnny Cruz in coming months.

René Latin Soul and his journey into music from his home country

René Latin Soul

After anything we have yet witnessed in the Latin music scene of the United States, we can say that it is undeniable that Cuba is an endless source of talent and passion for music, so this island can never be missing in International Salsa Magazine. On this occasion, it was the turn of producer, musical director, arranger, composer and trombonist René Latin Soul.

René is a talented Cuban who has managed to gain a very important place in the music industry in this country and we wanted to know how he managed to get there. Do not miss the fascinating conversation we had with the artist.

René playing the trombone — René Latin Soul playing the trombone during a performance

Beginnings in Cuba

René Amet Campos Artigas was born in the province of Camagüey, specifically in the municipality of Nuevitas. He came to music from a very early age, as many of his relatives are musicians, including his father and grandfather. This led him to enroll in the music conservatory when he was only 10 years old.

He confesses that he always knew he wanted this to be his profession and had no other career in mind for tomorrow, so he always did his best to excel as much as he could in the music business.

Once he finished school, René entered the military for mandatory service and was part of the general staff band. He was always intended to move to Havana in order to make himself known as an artist and he finally did it to stay for a while and see how he was doing.

During this time, he was working for several nightclubs that offered live music, but he did it with the trombone given by the army when he was in the staff band, since he just did not have enough money to buy one of his own.

Unfortunately, the time of the ”Special Period” arrived and this crisis forced him to return to his native Camagüey. However, this was not the end of his dream.

Upon returning, both René and his father started an artistic project which they named ”Valentín y Los del Caribe” and started working in tourism, specifically in a company called El Cuartón Club which had hotels in Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta and Ixtapa, Mexico.

Canada and the United States

While working with El Cuartón, René spent a long spell touring in the Aztec country, which gave him the opportunity to get to know other territories and other ways of doing things. In one of these trips, he made the decision not to return to Cuba and try his luck on new horizons.

He lived in the capital of the aforementioned country for more than 12 years, during which time he worked as an instrumentalist and worked with several artists belonging to the salsa guild such as La India, Jerry Rivera, Grupo Niche, Oscar D’ León, Los Adolescentes, among many others.

René on stage — René Latin Soul performing on stage

When he met the woman who became his wife, they started their romantic relationship and began making plans of life in common, between which Mexico fell a long way short, so it was time to put down roots elsewhere. At first, this new place would be Canada, but plans changed and the couple ended up leaving to the United States of America.

René and his wife spent about eight months living in Canada, but immigration issues became very difficult for them from one moment to another, so it did not take long for them to relocate to the United States.

René never thought to live here, since the Cuban government instilled an absolutely negative view of what this country represents in children from a very young age and he was no exception. However, all those opinions changed once the musician began to really get to know this nation. Today, he feels he has adapted perfectly and has been here for about six years, when he moved to this country to establish his family and career.

René Latin Soul & His Quartet

Once René arrived in the United States with his wife, his situation was very complex as any immigrant’s, so he had to work on things that had nothing to do with music. In fact, he recalls he spent more than a year without playing the trombone because he could not devote himself to music at that time.

That was it until he started playing trombone with the Kimbalai Orchestra, which he left in December 2021 and went to live in the city of Murrieta, one hour from San Diego. Once there he met Michael Mora, a friend who advised him to exploit the features of the city to start a solo project, which led him to start a solo career, which he finally did.

As he made a name for himself, he was able to include other musicians in his project, which allowed him to build the quartet he has today. Although René is very happy with what he has accomplished so far, he plans to have a much bigger salsa band in the future.

René and his piano — René Latin Soul in front of his piano

Music classes

A very important part of René’s work with music is teaching and this was a point we found interesting to discuss.

When asked if talent was natural or developed, he said natural. The artist thinks that the ability to play an instrument is innate in the musician, so this person only requires academic training to educate those gifts at a professional level.

He finishes by saying that ”there is a very particular way of feeling the music and, if you don’t feel it that way, you can’t play it correctly. Time, tuning and melody are essential for anyone who wants to be a professional musician.

Cuban talent despite the circumstances

According to one of the descriptions provided by René’s website, the artist is one of the figures who demonstrates the virtuosity of Cuban-born musicians. Of course, considering that the island does not live the same normality as most countries in the world.

About this, René said that ”clothes don’t make man. The most important thing to a talented person with an instrument is to focus on what he or she has to do and not look at anything around. There may be vicissitudes and shortages, but if you are focused on something you love, you have to find a way to improve and develop yourself in spite of everything”.

In his case, the musician tells us that he had friends with travel opportunities who brought the most recent findings made in music and he was always interested in knowing these things to apply them to his own technique.

Juan Antón ”El Blanco” from La Clave Del Blanco

Everything started in Peru for Juan

There is always a pool of new talents to be known and analyzed, since our Latin countries are the cradle of great artists of all kinds, especially in the area of music. Today it was the turn of the talented Peruvian Juan Antón.

We have taken the audacity to contact the leader of the orchestra La Clave Del Blanco, Juan Antón, to know the most important details of his professional life and his current group. We are very pleased to present to our readers the most important details of this pleasant and enlightening conversation, which lasted for almost half an hour.

Peruvian singer Juan Antón, Leader of La Clave Del Blanco

First contacts with music

Juan Antón was born in Peru, specifically in El Callao, a port city near Lima which is well known to all salsa lovers. Like most of the salseros who have passed through International Salsa Magazine, Juan started getting interested in music since he was a child and enjoyed La Sonora Matancera and, later on, the salsa music that came from New York.

However, although he was always a lover of the aforementioned musical genre, his career began with Peruvian Creole music, which is composed of waltzes, jarana, black music, among other variants.

When he leaned towards this kind of music, he sang with guitar, cajón and bass at parties in a bohemian way. He had some proposals to work with Creole music in a more professional way, but he accepted due to the pile of responsibilities he had with his work and studies. He was doing well at the time, but admits that he regrets that decision today because it would have been a good start.

United States

While it is true that his first steps in the world of music were taken in Peru, it was in the United States that he finally began to be part of more professional groups.

Juan’s first opportunity in that respect came when he was at a Peruvian party where his compadre was given a Creole music ensemble. Knowing those present that he sang, they invited him to accompany the ensemble and perform with them, which Juan accepted and did.

The musicians of the group liked his work so much that they asked him for his number and later called him to sing with them. At that time, he met Jorge Del Castillo, a well-known guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area, who invited him to join a group he was forming and gave him a CD, asking him to learn those songs. The group would be called Kokos Band.

When Juan was listening to the CD in his car, he found out that it was salsa and not Creole music. When he went to tell Jorge that he gave me the wrong CD, he said it was the correct one and the future group would be singing salsa.

Since Creole music and salsa are very different, Juan had to learn a number of details such as the clave, the signals to the musicians, the way of singing, among other things.

Some time later, the story repeated itself. The conguero of Kokos Band proposed him to join the orchestra he was creating, with which he became much more successful and went to more renowned events such as the inauguration of a museum for Puerto Rican and Cuban baseball players. Its name was Orquesta Liberazión.

Being Peruvian, Juan was really proud that attendees mostly from Puerto Rico and Cuba complimented his work the way they did. Considering that both countries have been the cradles of the main exponents of salsa, the congratulations from this group were very important to him.

The third and last orchestra he played with was Saboriche. His time with this group made him realize that he had what it took to become independent and create his own project.

Juan Antón at The Cigar Bar — Juan Antón and La Clave del Blanco performing at The Cigar Bar & Grill

La Clave Del Blanco

One of Juan’s greatest inspirations to devote himself to music was La Clave Del Callao, since the music of this band influenced him and he liked it very much. In addition to that, the name by which many began to know Juan in the San Francisco Bay Area was ”El Blanco”.

Both of these things led him to name his own orchestra ”La Clave Del Blanco”.

Salsa Con Caché

In addition to his facet as a singer, Juan also had a radio show at La Grande 1010 AM and its name was ”Salsa Con Caché”, which was on the air for only one year. Its cancellation was due precisely to the professional commitments the artist had with his music.

He decided to call ”Salsa Con Caché” to this space because ”caché” in many countries means ”elegant” and ”refined”. This is precisely the salsa style he has always liked.

One of the things that set this program apart from others of their kind in the San Francisco Bay Area is that Juan always talked about the history of the artists and the orchestras playing on the air so that listeners would know all this information. Other programs only played background music and did not add more elements to the programming.

Juan was so successful that he received hundreds of phone calls daily and was even appeared in the now defunct San Francisco Chronicles as one of the best salsa shows at the time.

This success was due to the enormous constancy and important information the announcer had. Although Juan does not regard himself as a scholar in the matter, he assures us that he had what it took to keep listeners hooked to his knowledge. He even commented that he had a private collection of more than 600 original CDs in all languages, which he bought gradually.

This extensive music collection helped him a lot to offer a varied repertoire during the time when ”Salsa Con Caché” was on the air.

Juan Antón as an announcer — Juan Antón was also an announcer and his show was called ”Salsa Con Caché”

Recruiting talent for La Clave del Blanco

During his journey through the orchestras where he played, Juan got to know a lot of musicians, especially during his time with Orquesta Liberazión. He became friends with many of them and, when he started forming his own orchestra, he asked them to be part of it.

Since he managed to establish his group, the singer has always made sure to deliver what he promises. This means that, if he makes an offer for the work done, he always honors the full amount. For Juan, ”The most important thing in this business is the given word”, so you always have to deliver what you promise at the beginning.

With respect to the above, Juan has lived this same situation with orchestras he has worked with, so he does not want to have debts with the musicians he hires. This is how he has gained their trust and, whenever he needs them, they are there for him.