Interviews

We are very happy to share a little with musical director, Erim Kardes, and pianist, Gustavo Del Pino, of the band Los Calicubanos, from whom we had the pleasure to hear a bit about their individual careers and the foundation of their current group.

The interview, conducted in both English and Spanish, touched on some very interesting topics about music in general, and we hope all who read it will enjoy it.

Erim and Gustavo’s beginnings in music

The first to take the floor was Gustavo, who told us that he started playing piano at the age of six. His father played the saxophone and his mother played the piano, but they saw music only as a hobby and were not professional musicians. Throughout his childhood in Peru, he listened to a lot of Latin music at family gatherings, so six years later, at about age 12, he was already performing in front of crowds. Among his family’s most loved artists were El Gran Combo from Puerto Rico, Héctor Lavoe, and Rubén Blades.

After that, he studied classical music in a conservatory, and when he finally moved to the United States and met Erim and the rest of his bandmates, he studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In Erim’s case, he said he started playing the guitar when he was 14 years old in Turkey, the country where he grew up. Like Gustavo, no one in his family was a musician, but that did not stop them from listening to Turkish music all the time, and it was from there that he started to like it beyond entertainment.

By the age of 20, he became interested in Latin music and began experimenting with it. He was in graduate school studying engineering in Los Angeles, where he had been living for some time, and taking some jazz courses at the University of California. One of his professors was the one who finally introduced him to Latin music, and he liked it so much that he never separated from it again. One of his most important teachers was legendary bassist from the band Weather Report, Alphonso Johnson.

Professional start for both

Coming back to Gustavo, he told us that when he completed his studies at Berklee, he began to get his first jobs as a professional musician. He started making small tours with some of the classmates alongside whom studied there and was involved in the recording of a few albums, but as a session musician. He did not yet have a formal band to be part of, but he did play with some Argentine, Colombian, and Peruvian artists and musicians. Some of them were Colombian singer Alejandra Jimenez “Alea” and the Peruvian band Perú Meztizo.

On the other hand, Erim told us that he first played bass in rock bands in college. He also played funk and jazz in Los Angeles for some time.

Foundation of Los Calicubanos

Erim created the idea of Los Calicubanos and eventually founded the band. The group, as it is known now, was officially launched in August 2025, i.e. that this month would be its first anniversary. Once he knew what he wanted, he placed online ads looking for a pianist to join him, which is when Gustavo contacted him and was tested until finally staying with the job.

At that same time, he met percussionist Arturo Ramírez, so the three of them got together in June 2025, and officially launched Los Calicubanos in August of the same year. They were later joined by conga player Jim Miranda, singer Luis Jiménez, singer Marisol Echegoyen, trombonist Andy García, trumpeter Mark Trejo, and trumpeter Joseph Dubois.

Erim has been in California for the last 25 years and also traveled twice to Cuba, which led him to discover rhythms that fascinated him and changed his perspective on music completely. Therefore, he decided to combine “California” with “Cuba” because of the mix he wanted to make as a result of the music he discovered in both places.

Upcoming events

Los Calicubanos do not have any tours scheduled at this time, but they do have many important performances, such as the LA Jazz Festival, concerts at restaurants, and a few private events.

As for new releases, they are currently writing completely original music and making new arrangements, but they want to have a fair amount of material ready before entering the studio to record.

Read also: Puerto Rican Trombonist and percussionist Arturo Vazquez Jr. from Projecto 7 Salsa & Latin Jazz Band

After several attempts, we finally managed to meet with bandleader and saxophonist Héctor Rivera, known in the industry as Riverita, and ask him all kinds of questions about his artistic career and his current group, Riverita y Su Orquesta Noche Caliente.

Here are some of the most important issues we touch with the artist during our pleasant conversation:

Riverita’s inspiration to become a musician

Despite not having musicians in his family, Riverita remembers growing up in an environment where music was always very present. He was born in New York, but spent long periods living with his grandparents in Puerto Rico while his parents settled down and eventually moved to the “Island of Enchantment” to give their son greater stability.

At his grandparents’ house, he used to listen to great artists of the time performing their unforgettable hits on the radio and one of them was Mon Rivera Y Su Orquesta performing “Karakatis-ki,” a song he never forgot, along with so many other musical pieces that gradually got him interested in this world. When his parents returned to Puerto Rico and he returned to live with them, he started listening to Cheo Feliciano, Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez, Felipe Rodríguez, and many others.

All these rhythms led the boy to play a sort of percussion on the table, a biscuit tin, or anything else that served as an instrument for him at the time.

His passion for music grew to the point that he began studying music education at the Escuela Libre de Música in Ponce and, subsequently at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico in San Germán, where he studied for only about two years. Although he did not complete his studies, this helped him to understand even more the profession and apply what he learned during those years.

Being in Puerto Rico, he played with a merengue orchestra whose name he does not remember, but with which he learned to play alto saxophone professionally. After that, he moved to the United States permanently.

Year 2013

As he moved to Virginia, he took a long break from music until 2013, which is when his cousin, Michael Valladares, asked Riverita to found an orchestra, which was not in his plans. However, he accepted the challenge and carried forward the project.

Back then, the artist worked as a mailman at a post office, making it difficult for him to reconcile his previous professional activities with the direction of an orchestra. Still, he did not allow that to discourage him and chose to give priority to this new ensemble.

It all started when Michael was looking for an orchestra to perform at a gala event to celebrate 500 years of the city of Melbourne, Florida, so he contacted Riverita and proposed him to create an orchestra in which he would serve as musical director for the sole purpose of performing there. That was when the saxophonist set about finding musicians and producing a repertoire, which was not easy, since he did not know any professional musicians and did not have any arrangements he could use.

He was so distressed that he spent sleepless nights thinking about how to proceed to complete the mission entrusted to him. With three months to go, he had no time to spare. That is when he managed to make contact with a group of musicians of different nationalities, of whom only the singer, José Reyes, continues to work with him.

Finally, he relaunched the project with a new group of musicians—since the previous ones had left and called it Orquesta Noche Caliente, a name that it still bears today.

Among the most frequently recurring members, we can mention singer José Reyes, singer Danny Rivera Jr., pianist Kevin Figueroa, and trombonist Derick Harris.

To date, they have recorded three CDs and 26 songs. Some of them are “Noche Caliente,” “En Tiempos de Bolero,” and “Mi Linda Música.” They are also preparing their Christmas song several months in advance and will name it “Rabito de Lechón.”

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