Interviews

Haitian bandleader and musician Mac Gregore Brunis fulfills his dream in Montreal

We do not often write a lot about Latin music artists in Canada, so we want to remedy that situation and provide coverage to a very talented Haitian based in Montreal. We are talking about bandleader, composer, and musician Mac Gregore Brunis, an artist with whom we have been able to talk about his interesting story and career with the musical group he currently directs, Sabor 19.

Mac posing for the camera — Mac Gregore Brunis posing for the camera at an event

Young Mac’s beginnings in music

In perfect Spanish, Mac thanked International Salsa Magazine for the invitation and started by telling that music had always been more than a simple hobby for him. His first contact with this world was in his native Haiti when he was on his way to school by public transport and there were always musicians playing, so music was always part of his life.

He also played instruments with some of his classmates who formed musical groups in the classroom.

However, his professional career would not begin until his move to Canada, where he decided to go at age 21 to study electrical engineering and where he remains to this day. Some staff members of the University of Moncton, New Brunswick, where Mac would end up studying, visited some Haitian schools to promote their educational program among young students. The fact that French was spoken in Haiti, as in Canada, also helped Mac make the decision to try his luck in North America, since Haiti did not offer him the opportunities he was looking for.

It was in this country, more specifically in the city of Montreal, that he met other music lovers who introduced him to salsa and other Latin genres. Although he had already heard salsa and bachata in Haiti because of its proximity to the Dominican Republic, some Colombian friends he made in his new place of residence introduced him much more to all this culture, especially the music.

Sabor 19

When Mac graduated and left the province of New Brunswick to move to Montreal, he began attending salsa and bachata socials to dance on Monday nights, and it was there that he met Eduardo Ramírez. They became friends and played together some of the instruments Eduardo carried, such as maracas, güira, and bongo. When Mac told his new friend that he wanted to learn to play the piano and other instruments, he and Eduardo began meeting to practice and develop the idea of creating a musical group, which they called Sabor 19 in homage to the year it was created, 2019.

Once they had finally decided to do something more formal in music, they invited other musician friends with whom they met weekly to rehearse. They ended up being a group of about 10 people, including Diego, who would be the band’s lead vocalist. For better or worse, the original members are no longer there, but the current ones from countries such as Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Morocco, and Turkey, have kept the ship afloat for the past seven years.

Despite coming from such diverse countries and backgrounds, this has not hindered communication between the musicians in the least. In fact, all of them speak or understand Spanish very well, so they have managed to understand each other almost perfectly.

Mac playing at the festival — Mac Gregore Brunis and Sabor 19 playing at the Nuits d’Afrique Festival

Original music and genres

Since the foundation of the group, they have focused on covering the most popular hits such as “El Preso,” “Canoa Rancha,” “Un Verano en Nueva York,” and many others. Their repertoire consists of a total of about 70 covers, which are divided depending on the requirements of the concert or show.

However, over the past three years, Mac and the rest of the team have felt the urge to offer something of their own to the public, so they set to work to create their own music in regards to lyrics, arrangements, melodies, and everything else.

Silly D’Or Festival

Sabor 19 is well known for having reached the semifinals at the Silly d’Or Festival as part of the Nuits d’Afrique Festival, which is one of Montreal’s most popular music competitions. Although they did not win first place, Mac describes their participation as a very good experience, as this gave them the opportunity to make themselves known to a much wider audience. In addition, being evaluated gave them a good sense of which aspects to improve for the future.

Gabrielito Y La Verdad giving everything in Los Angeles and beyond

Gabriel González from the group Gabrielito Y La Verdad has been kind enough to speak exclusively with International Salsa Magazine and me, Karina García, about his beginnings, bands, and current career. The composer, actor, and musician gave us some of his time to address the most important issues concerning his successful career and everything that surrounds it, for which we are extremely grateful.

Gabriel performing at the museum — Composer, percussionist, singer, and actor Gabriel Gonzalez playing live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

How Gabriel started to become interested in music

Gabriel was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he took his first steps towards what would become his lifelong vocation. Since his parents were Mexican immigrants, it was not uncommon for him to listen to rancheras, huapango, boleros, son jalisciense, and other genres typical of that country.

He liked music so much that he began participating in contests at “El Mercadito,” a place located east of Los Angeles, where amateur concerts and all kinds of musical events were held. After his father sang there several times, he told him he wanted to do the same, and that is how he began entertaining wider audiences with his voice.

Years later, after his passion for music was being shaped and getting more serious, he contacted his uncle, who was a promoter, and took him with him to Mexico to get some acting work in movies. This means that his artistic career was not just limited to singing but also to acting, but at some point, both areas would end up mixing.

It should be noted that his work as an actor made him stay in Mexico for several years, so he shared with many great actors of the time who were also singers, such as Yolanda del Río, Federico Villa, David Reynoso, Lucha Villa, and many more.

Upon returning to California, he experienced a significant culture impact. He realized that he was not Mexican enough for Mexicans nor American enough for Americans. This double identity made it much easier for him to cross cultural and musical boundaries, so from playing ranchera, huapango, and son jalisciense, he was given a chance to play other styles such as son montuno, which for Gabriel is the basis of salsa and much of Latin music.

Gabrielito at the Vibrato Grill And Jazz — Gabrielito Y La Verdad performing at the Vibrato Grill And Jazz

Gabriel’s professional beginnings in music

Gabriel tells us that, during a huge part of his career, he worked as a solo artist, but he went on to collaborate with several groups and one of them was the Mexican band Quetzal, which specializes in playing Chicano rock and son jarocho. His sister Martha González was the lead singer, so he was able to work with them on and off for about 20 years. He describes his time with Quetzal as a very nice period in which he learned a lot and was even blessed to win a Grammy, but everything has an end, so he went ahead and worked with many other bands in the Los Angeles salsa scene.

In fact, today he is a member of Boogaloo Assassins and has been playing with them since 2015, while also having his own project, which he named Gabrielito Y La Verdad.

Gabrielito Y La Verdad

After all experience gained so far, Gabriel decided to form his own group Gabrielito Y La Verdad, with which he had his first big hit “Oye Muñeca,” released around 2019. Since the project began, the artist has had the same keyboardist and pianist, but the rest of the musicians have come and gone over the years, as it is not easy to maintain a cohesive musical group for a long time.

In fact, he usually has a list of musicians he can call, and their presence at an event depends almost entirely on their availability and ability to read sheet music. Gabriel often works with the same musicians Jimmy Bosch uses, so when the Puerto Rican travels to Los Angeles, Gabriel knows he can count on them if an event comes up. He also often uses some of Jerry Rivera’s musicians and those of many other exponents of the genre.

Gabriel with Oscar Hernandez — Gabriel Gonzalez and bandleader and pianist Oscar Hernandez

Facets additional to singing

In addition to being a singer and film actor, Gabriel has also participated in commercials and done a little musical theater, since the condition of being an artist forces you to learn a little about everything. Being still very young, he participated in the film ”Mojado de Nacimiento” alongside La Sonora Santanera.

One of those memorable experiences was his participation in the second national tour of the musical ”In The Heights” with Lin-Manuel Miranda. It was during this tour that Gabriel learned that he had won a Grammy with the band Quetzal. The news came during a bus trip, making it clear that he experienced several of these facets at the same time without any problems.

More recently, he has served as composer of several of Gabrielito Y La Verdad’s songs in collaboration with pianist Matt Amper, who is also actively involved in the creation of the group’s original songs.

Collaborations with other artists

Gabriel has shared the stage and collaborated with big names in the industry like Bruno Mars, “El Divo de Juarez” Juan Gabriel, Los Van Van, Silk Sonic, and many others. Similarly, during his acting career, Gabriel also met many great actors of the time with whom he shot scenes during the day, and at night, did voice-overs at the studios, and went out singing.

All this led him to share the stage with Aida Cuevas, Rosenda Bernal, Los Lobos, and Lalo Guerrero. While still with Quetzal, he opened for Aerosmith, Taj Mahal, and others.

Gabriel Gonzalez and Richie Perez — New York’s singer Hector ”Pichie” Perez and Gabriel Gonzalez

Colombian dancer and instructor Camila Cepeda takes salsa caleña to Canada

Every day there are more Latinos who, with their talent, are gradually taking over various cities in Canada and the hearts of many of its inhabitants. Colombian instructor and dancer Camila Cepeda shows us that she and several of her compatriots have managed to break into the aforementioned North American country and shares with us a little bit of her interesting story.

Camila’s interest in dance

Camila has danced through life, and since she was a little kid, dance has been very important to her. One genre in particular that caught her attention was salsa caleña, especially since she saw it for the first time with dance groups on the TV show “Colombia’s Got Talent”. From there, more specifically in 2011, she looked for a dance academy where she could learn to dance and imitate what she saw on the screen.

Almost immediately, she realized that it was a very demanding style that required stunts and movements that were not common in more classic versions of salsa. After training in dancing, she did not want to be just an expert in salsa caleña, but many more people learned how to dance it as well, which led her to create a folk dancing group with which she would take her first steps towards teaching.

In addition to salsa caleña, Camila also danced salsa choka, champeta, bachata, merengue, and Colombian folklore.

Camila dancing at an event — Camila Cepeda dancing in one of her salsa caleña events

Moving to Canada

Initially, Camila’s plans did not include leaving Colombia, but when she knew Canada, she found it an extremely interesting country where she could start something new with dance due to the lack of salsa caleña there. So, she entered the country with a student visa and studied international business at Seneca College in Toronto, with the intention of forming her own company in her new host country.

While gaining business experience through jobs for other companies, she continued to offer classes in parallel. Finally in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and when she was still a university student, she decided to register and open her dance academy, “Salsa & Sabor.”

During that time, she also validated her teaching in English so that she could give classes to both locals and people from other cultures who spoke the same language.

Camila, Aleja, and Sonia — Camila with dancers Aleja and Sonia

Salsa & Sabor today

Although the academy was started with only online classes due to the sanitary restrictions of that time, Camila was able to gather together a more or less numerous community that allowed her to stay afloat in such a difficult moment. Therefore, when government controls were relaxed, the young woman had no problem to organize dance classes and activities in parks keeping proper social distancing.

A short time later, she could finally open her dance studio, welcome students in person, and recruit other instructors such as Diana, Victoria, Mateo, and Paula. One thing to mention about these five young Colombians is that they were all Camila’s students in the past and, after all the training she offered, they also became experts in the field. Given the pitifully small number of salsa caleña instructors in Canada, when they were ready, she asked them to join her team, and they gladly accepted the opportunity.

This, in turn, helped them to open up more schedules and workshops for many more people, allowing the academy to grow even more.

Camila with her students — Camila with some of her little students

Division of teaching genres and events

As we said at the beginning of this article, Camila also teaches other genres such as salsa choke, la champeta, bachata, and merengue, but her flagship and main rhythm remains salsa caleña. An important difference between salsa caleña and the rest is that it has a well-defined continuity and academic structure, so it takes much longer to learn. The other genres are relatively simpler, so they do not require as many hours or such an elaborate program.

Differences between salsa caleña and traditional salsa

According to Camila, a very important component of salsa caleña is its speed compared to traditional salsa. The way salsa is danced in Puerto Rico, Cuba, or New York is much better known around the world due to its age, while salsa caleña is a little newer and only began internationalizing a few years ago. In addition, traditional salsa is slower and uses the hips and shoulders a lot, while salsa caleña relies heavily on the rapid movements of the feet.

In fact, an important fact to know is that salsa caleña was created from a mistake. It turns out that a group of young people in Cali were doing private parties with LPs by various artists of the time, but they accidentally raised their speed and made the songs sound faster than they should. This led them to create completely new steps and choreographies based on these fast songs, giving rise to what we now know as salsa caleña.

These parties were called “aguelulos,” a Colombian term to refer to alcohol-free parties or gatherings for young people.

Ania Bartelmus from La Candela Flamenco talks about her performance at the Hispanic Heritage Celebration

For some time, Hispanic genres have attracted people from all over the world, who have been captivated by the rhythms and colors of our music and traditions. Such was the case of professional dancer and director of La Candela Flamenco Company, Ania Bartelmus, who despite her Polish roots, could not help but fall in love with these artistic expressions, prompting her to become one of the leading figures of flamenco in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ania was kind enough to take a few minutes out of her busy schedule to talk exclusively with International Salsa Magazine and treat some issues related to her beginnings and current career.

Dancer Ania Bartelmus performing live — Dancer Ania Bartelmus ”La Candela” performing live with Dave Holland and Juan Solas Machado in the background

How Ania’s interest in flamenco and Latin jazz was born

Although Ania was not born into a family of musicians or dancers, she has always been drawn to art and wanted to pursue one of its many branches as an adult. She started taking dance classes in different styles, including ballet, ballroom dancing, contemporary dance, and a little flamenco.

At that time, at 18 years old, the young woman recalls attending a flamenco show by Spanish composer and guitarist Paco Peña in her hometown. She was so fascinated by the musician’s performance that she wanted to focus a little more on that genre and, if possible, manage to professionalize.

Then, her dance classes began to fully focus on flamenco and at much more advanced levels than before. This appeared insufficient to her, so she decided to live in Seville, Spain, for a few years to learn directly from the source.

La Rubia de La Candela

Ania was fortunate enough to have great teachers who turned her into the professional she is today and one of them was Curro Fernández, who affectionately nicknamed her “La Rubia de La Candela” when she was his student. During her first year in Seville, the dancer enrolled in the school of Esperanza Fernández and Miguel Vargas, the first being her singing teacher.

Esperanza was originally Ania’s teacher, but she was constantly touring and could not always attend the scheduled classes. Therefore, it was her father, Curro Fernández, who took her place and taught the classes instead of her, which made him some kind of father and mentor for Ania and the rest of her classmates. His knowledge and good humor made him one of the best references for the girl on the way she had to go.

Ania posing — Dancer Ania Bartelmus posing for the camera

Creation of La Candela Flamenco

In 2014, Ania officially started her company, which initially received the name Ania Flamenco, but she later renamed it La Candela Flamenco in order to give more importance to Ania’s stage name.

At the beginning, the company was seeking to present Spain’s traditional flamenco, but this became a tough task to pull off in the United States, as many of the best flamenco singers are not based there. So Ania decided to change her strategy and opted for a more Latinized flamenco, since most of her musicians come from Latin countries and a large part of the public feels a much stronger connection to Latin genres than to traditional flamenco.

On this subject, he also said: “We continue to respect the main rules of traditional flamenco, but we do not include flamenco singers because of the difficulty in finding them in the city. Our shows focus on other flamenco elements where we can best showcase the tradition’s richness.”

Current members of La Candela Flamenco Latin Band

La Candela Flamenco Latin Band is the company’s main group and is made up of a wide variety of famous musicians, one of them being Venezuelan guitarist José Chirinos, who joined the band in 2018 and contributed greatly to expanding the company’s horizons thanks to his background and the rhythms he brought from his homeland.

Thanks to Jose, Ania met Cuban percussionist Juan Pablo Solas Machado, who brought a lot of experience in flamenco, having been part of a company that toured the world with a Cuba’s flamencoised repertoire. The other percussionist who more recently joined is American Dave Holland, providing great knowledge about rhythms from around the world and serving as a connection between the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon souls for the rest of his bandmates.

We also cannot fail to mention Venezuelan pianist José Manuel García, one of last year’s great additions to the team along with fellow pianist Tony Castillo.

Finally, we also have Bulgarian flutist Teodora Stoyanova, whom Ania met through Jerry Fields, the percussionist with whom she started the company in 2014.

Ania and the rest of the musicians — From left to right: Cuban percussionist Juan Solas Machado, Bulgarian flutist Teodora Stoyanova, Mexican guitarist Ricardo Sánchez “Ricardito”, dancer Ania Bartelmus, American multi-percussionist Dave Holland, and pianist Tony Castillo

Hispanic Heritage Celebration

One of the major events in which La Candela Flamenco Latin Band usually participates annually is the Hispanic Heritage Celebration, to be held on October 25 at the Emory Performing Arts Studio in New York. This will be the third time they have presented this show in Atlanta, although in previous years, the concerts were held at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center.

Ania was first contacted to participate in the event in 2023, as its organizers wanted a show that reflected flamenco in the context of Hispanic heritage. On that occasion, Jose Chirinos played a leading role in the concert, while for the second edition, La Candela Flamenco Band featured the great talent of Mexican composer and guitarist Ricardito Sánchez and the aforementioned Tony Castillo. All of these musicians helped La Candela Flamenco to become more diverse and expand much more into Latin jazz and other rhythms of this type.

Thanks to the great job done by the team, for the second edition of the Hispanic Heritage Celebration, Ania noticed much more interest in the band’s performance than the previous year, and thanks to past experience, the next show worked best.

For the third edition, in which the talented dancer and her group will perform once again, International Salsa Magazine wishes them all the best and we have no doubt that everything will turn out in the best possible way.

Alberto Gonzalez talks about his book on Hector Lavoe and his experience with ‘‘El Jibarito de Ponce’’

As an artist, one of the most noble actions to be taken is to honor the great artists whose legacy inspired later generations, including those who pay homage to them today. Proof of this is the talented bandleader, composer, singer, and now author, Alberto González, whom we thank for sharing his story and various facets of his life with us, including his role as the author of a new book about “the singer of all singers,” Hector Lavoe.

Alberto and his book on Hector — Author Alberto Gonzalez with a version of his book ”Hector Lavoe and Associates”

Alberto’s initial interest in music

Alberto’s initial interest in music began with an aunt from Puerto Rico who went to live with him and his parents in Chicago. She loved the music of Raphael and Sandro, so her nephew listened to them practically every day and ended up falling in love with their music and how they sang.

Little by little, Alberto began to learn their songs and was unknowingly taking his first steps toward becoming a professional singer. However, it did not stop there; he also listened to the trio music that his parents enjoyed and eventually to the salsa albums that his older brother began bringing to the house. Those salsa albums really caught Alberto’s attention.

Among the artists his brother listened to were Eddie Palmieri, La Sonora Ponceña, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Willie Colón, and the one who would become his greatest inspiration, Héctor Lavoe.

Eventually, his brother became a professional trumpet player and played with various salsa orchestras in Chicago. Since he always heard Alberto singing songs at home, in 1979, he suggested that he audition for a new band of young salsa musicians his manager was putting together. For the audition, Alberto was tasked with learning and singing the popular Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe song “Voso.”

Fortunately, his audition was a great success, and Alberto was asked to join La Típica Leal 79. The story behind the band’s name is interesting: Carlos Caribe Ruíz, the manager of the group, decided on the name Típica Leal because most of the members of his previous band, La Juventud Típica, decided one day to quit; they left him. For that reason, he decided to create a new band, and he made sure to add the word “Leal” (loyal in English) to the band’s name. His hope was that the new band, made up mostly of teenagers, would be loyal and not leave, just like the previous band did.

Sometime later, Alberto would go on to sing with a band called La Inspiración Latina, and he also worked briefly with Orquesta Yambo. In 2001, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began working with Johnny Polanco y Su Conjunto Amistad, becoming one of their main vocalists and traveling the world with them and the band.

Alberto and Johnny Polanco — Alberto Gonzalez playing with Johnny Polanco Y Su Conjunto Amistad

Orquesta Salsa Caliente

When he left Johnny Polanco’s group, Alberto finally felt ready to form his own group, and that is how Orquesta Salsa Caliente was born. He has been leading the band for many years now and has even traveled with the band to Africa and Bermuda.

Over the past few years, Alberto has concentrated mainly on his work as an author. While he continues to perform, his primary focus has been on his debut book ‘‘Hector Lavoe and Associates.’’

Alberto’s Hector Lavoe Experience

In 1979, after auditioning and doing well with the song “Voso,” 15 year old Alberto officially became a member of La Tipica Leal 79.Caribe, the band’s manager, then asked him to learn a few more Hector Lavoe (and Willie Colon) songs. Since Hector was his favorite singer, he gladly learned the songs. Since his voice was somewhat similar to Hector’s, his bandmates began to affectionately call him “Baby Lavoe.”

In the fall of that same year, Alberto learned that Héctor and his orchestra were going to be performing in Chicago. Once he found that out, he asked Caribe to please take him to see Héctor, and, if at all possible, to introduce him to Héctor. Thankfully, he did get to go to that show, and he did meet Héctor. It was during that show, and during one of Héctor’s breaks, that he was able to take a photo with his favorite singer. Alberto still cherishes that photo to this very day. That night, he realized that Héctor was a “man of the people” due to his humility and how he treated others. The photo and his experience with Héctor were some of the main reasons why he decided to write a book about Lavoe. Over the years, many have criticized Héctor and have focused primarily on the negative aspects of his life. Sadly, many people are not familiar with the other side of Héctor, the humble, generous, and kind side of Lavoe. They will learn more about that side of Héctor in the new book.

Well, about a year and a half after first meeting Héctor, La Típica Leal 79 was booked to open for Celia Cruz and Héctor Lavoe. That show would take place at one of the most acclaimed dance halls in the city, where many of the greatest salsa artists performed over the years. That night, Alberto was able to share another conversation with Héctor, and he also took another photo with him. Héctor was generous with his time; he was kind and very accommodating. That’s something that Alberto never forgot.

This and other experiences are documented by the author in the book. Alberto actually interviewed about sixteen of Héctor’s former musicians, and eight of them are featured in the book. You’ll learn about their musical experiences, and you’ll be able to read about their experiences with “El Jibarito de Ponce,” Héctor Lavoe. These are the musicians that are featured: Gilberto Colon Jr., Eddie Montalvo, Jose Mangual Jr., Louie Romero, Eric Matos, Ray Feliciano, Danny Rosado, and Chino Núñez.

Alberto called the book “Héctor Lavoe and Associates,” and that title was somewhat inspired by Willie Colón’s 1978 compilation album “Willie Colón and Associates.”

Alberto and Salsa Caliente — Alberto Gonzalez and his orchestra Salsa Caliente

A few Lavoe stories from the book

Among the many anecdotes that can be read in the book, Alberto told us one in which, on one occasion, a couple of Héctor Lavoe’s musicians had their vehicle broken into, and all of their instruments were stolen. When Héctor found out what had happened, he bought them new instruments and told them not to worry about paying him back. He did not charge them a penny.

Here’s another story. During a show, one of Héctor’s trumpet players accidentally dropped his trumpet on the floor and damaged it beyond repair; the instrument was unplayable. What did Héctor do? Héctor gave him $1,000 to go buy a new trumpet and, once again, didn’t charge him a penny.

These are just a few of the many stories regarding Héctor Lavoe that you’ll be able to read in the more than 400 pages of the book. The book will be officially launched in the coming months. For more information, please visit: www.hectorlavoebook.com.