Interviews

Recently, the second edition of the authorized biography of Míster Afinque, entitled Willie Rosario, El Rey del ritmo, was released. This work is authored by journalist and music researcher Robert Tellez M. The publication of this second edition of Willie Rosario, El Rey del ritmo came just in time to add to the centennial celebration of the musical leader, who has managed to keep his orchestra active and alive for more than six decades.

With this second edition, in alliance with our publishing house, the author was pleased with the treatment of the content and in his appreciation tells us: “This is a documentary work that exposes the different facets of the maestro Willie Rosario: the human being, the family man, the radio broadcaster and of course the leader of the “Banda que deleita””.

Fortunately, during the five years that followed the publication of the original text, maestro Willie Rosario has remained extremely active. In addition, since 2019, the orchestra leader has received several awards; so it was quite easy to collect data and photos that allowed us to expand the text with unpublished content.

As a journalist and researcher, Tellez affirms the importance of the text while clarifying: “This book is also a contribution to the preservation of the memory of salsa, a task that requires a rigorous, precise and responsible approach, ensuring adequate documentation for present and future generations. In my opinion, the work of building this memory is an inherent duty for communicators who are dedicated to disseminating this musical expression.”

Who is the biographer of Mister Afinque?

Labeled as “the one who knows the most about salsa”, Robert Téllez Moreno is a journalist.  Within journalism, he has excelled in different media.  He says he prefers his facet as a radio broadcaster, a branch in which he decided to specialize since he was a child.  However, Robert has also made a name for himself in the press and has ventured into television. Specifically, his interest in salsa music led him to be the biographer of Willie Rosario, his third literary work entitled Willie Rosario, el Rey del Ritmo (Willie Rosario, the King of Rhythm). His first literary publication was Ray Barretto, Fuerza Gigante and his second was Frankie Ruiz, Volver a nacer (co-authored with Felix Fojo).

A passion for salsa, but first a passion for the radio

Robert says that his first encounter with salsa was inexplicable.  It happened when he was a child by way of the Martínez family, some Caleños who moved in across the street from the Téllez Moreno home, located in a popular neighborhood.  In the mid-1980s, the Martinez family came to live in a neighborhood that did not accept them as noisy, because the Bogotá of that time was very conservative. Bogota belonged to the Bogotanos, and those who came from other parts of the country were in the minority. Robert’s mother went further and said that the Martínez were marihuaneros, not because she saw them smoking marijuana, but because she thought it was too noisy for the tranquility of the neighborhood before the arrival of the Caliños.  Téllez adds: “I was struck by the fact that since they arrived they had parties every weekend; Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There was music all night and they would wake up there. In reality, they were family parties.”.

“Uncles, nephews, cousins and brothers shared that taste for music there. The only thing you could hear was salsa at a time when salsa was not the prevailing thing in Bogotá. That sound attracted me.  That’s where I identify that my passion for this music began. Of course, first came a greater passion, which was the passion for the radio. I connected them very early in my childhood. I was attracted to what I heard. However, my brothers listened to Anglo American music. They heard other kinds of sounds. Break dancing was coming in, American music was invading us. Ballads were what my sister liked; the romanticism of Juan Gabriel, Camilo Sesto and all that kind of music. Vallenato was also listened to a lot, but the only thing that made an impact on me was salsa. As my love for salsa was born without explanation, but it arrived, I romantically say that salsa touched the window of my room, and I fell in love with it. It’s just that the room in the living room where those parties were held faced my bedroom window.”

A potential programmer

At just 7 years old, Robert began to understand the workings of radio as a means of communication and entertainment intuitively. He recalls how for as long as he can remember, he imitated the announcers of the moment, knew to tell the time; maintaining awareness of the time in relation to the songs in the order of radio programming. Sometimes he reasoned and concluded: “that song played a while ago and so he tried to understand everything that was happening on the radio”. However, that station did not play salsa; it played ballads, vallenatos, American music, and other genres. Of course, within the musical environment available, since he was a child he began to understand the style of the whole radio world and there he drew a line of programming. Later, when the Martinez family arrived in the neighborhood, Robert was able to connect the radio with salsa. However, he says, “I didn’t even have a record in my house to be able to have a reference. The arrival of the new neighbors coincided with the arrival of a Caracol FM station called Bienvenida Estéreo, the director was Rodrigo Salazar. Today I understand that Salazar began to program salsa in a city that was not salsa. But he came from Cali and tried to program the first salsa station in Bogotá, on FM”.

At just 8 years old, the precocious programmer had already won a radio contest that consisted of going to the station that sponsored the contest and doing voice-over, presenting songs and having the listeners select the winner. Robert does not remember which song he presented, but he does remember that he knew the station’s slogan, told the time, said his name and went to commercials. With the memory vivid in his mind, Robert adds, “I won because of the confidence I had. The other kids were shy. Many were silent on the air.”

In spite of his young age, with discipline and precision he remained engrossed by the radio, listening to it as if it were a mandatory activity. He knew all the programming, made programming spreadsheets and began to understand how the songs rotated and to memorize the songs that were played in the morning and later played at noon and then at night.

I began to understand everything and to compare different stations. Already with his critical thinking polished in the prediction of musical themes within the programming lineup, he began to participate in radio competitions in which they gave away records on a weekly basis and, “as that was what I wanted, to have records, then I became quite tired”. He continues his story, stating: “I think they already knew me there and I always guessed what the number one song of the week was. Since I had the program listings, it was easy for me”.  That’s how he got his first album: Salsa Fever, (1988, Gunda Merced y su Salsa Fever). But, he had nowhere to listen to it. He put it in his room, looked at it and read that the record had the song ‘La familia’ on it.  He went to a friend’s house to listen to it. After listening to it several times, he returned home and put it away again. Later, that LP gave him entry to the Martinez house, and established him as the DJ of the family parties; at first programming what they told him so that people would dance. About that entry, Robert adds: “Later I learned and I was already programming according to what they liked”. Later, that experience led him to play music at youth parties of the time that were called “minitecas” and to earn his money programming.

At just 14 years old, he went to his first concert, to see Grupo Niche, during the time when Tito Gómez was part of the front. It was also in those days when, in addition to being the Martínez’s DJ, he had already convinced the parents’ association of the public school where he was studying that it was time to create a school radio station. First they gave him permission to animate the breaks that were half an hour. He used the school recorder and placed it in front of the microphones, which were the same ones used for protocol activities. From there, Robert would give the time and announce the songs. Later on, a messenger service was created to guarantee the permanence of his radio functions on campus.

When he finished high school, he went to do mandatory military service in the Colombian army. There he had already defined that he wanted to study Social Communication and Journalism, but he had to go to the army first. Going to the army was not his worst drawback; the real impediment was the lack of money to pay for a career.

Before applying for the army he sold everything, even his records. He later regretted it, although the money came in handy to survive in the army from 1992 to 1993. He served days after Pablo Escobar’s death. While in the army, he did not stop listening to the radio, nor did he stop listening to salsa. In order to have access to the radio, he was designated to carry and maintain the communications radio and to prepare the sergeants’ reports. As a reward, he was allowed a transistor radio to listen to commercial radio. That radio wave accompanied him in the army and that is how he learned of Hector Lavoe’s death on June 29, 1993.

Eventually, in January 1994, he began studying at the Colegio Superior de Telecomunicaciones in Bogotá, and was also employed full time at the Luis Ángel Arango Library.  On Fridays and Saturdays, after his shift at the library, he would go to El Canelazo to program music until 3:00 a.m.

Once graduated from the Superior College of Telecommunications, the recent graduate was disappointed at not being able to enter the media because he did not have a referral. Later on, a client of the men’s fashion store that Robert managed, more out of necessity than for pleasure, recommended him to Gilma Camelo de Tobón, who gave him his first opportunity in the radio. About this, the journalist says: “she gave me the opportunity to enter the radio without having a name, without being anyone, without having had any experience working in the booth”. This is how Téllez entered Radio Capital that first of three times, in 1999. In his first on-air program, hosted by Henry Segura, Téllez was in charge of programming and news reading. In his second contract, in 2001, he programmed the station, but this one was boleros. Eventually, Robert took over the station, turning it into a 100% salsa station, 24 hours a day.

Already with the maturity of one who can choose his functions, Robert has dedicated himself to interviewing salseros. “That’s what I started to like more than the programming itself and they say that what I do best is the music programming, but interviewing is where I think I add the most to salsa and the media (…) because I am original, because I already have a method that works well for me. Some people want me to share my interviews in order to plagiarize them”, says Téllez, who remembers having made his debut as an interviewer with Ismael Miranda in 1998.

In the editorial field, Téllez was founder and director of Sonfonía magazine.  Sonfonía was first a portal that was managed as a virtual magazine and then went to paper, to which Robert adds: “It was an economic failure, but we did it”.

From there it went to Superestación Salsa, which is an important brand within Colombian youth radio and was a milestone in the 80s. Under the brand, Superestación rock, Superestación ballada, super pop station and super vallenata station were created. Within that conglomerate, Robert came to be the founder of Superestación Salsa under the online radio system, as director of that salsa concept.

In 2012, he accepted to be the manager of singer Miles Peña, and successfully represented him for a year. However, in 2013, when he accepted a contract with Radio Nacional de Colombia, he had to terminate his representation agreement with Miles.  Of course, they are still linked by a great friendship that survived beyond that artistic representation agreement. And as for his imprint on Radio Nacional de Colombia, for nine years he directed and hosted the weekly program known as Conversando la salsa con Robert Téllez. In that space, in which more than 400 unpublished interviews were published, hundreds of key figures in the musical memory of salsa were made known. There at Radio Nacional de Colombia he also maintained a podcast, entitled Cronología de la salsa as well as La salsoteca, digital content produced specifically to interact with salsa fans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today he is an advisor to a Christian radio station, Ambiente Estéreo, of which he was director a few years ago. Before directing it, he had a program entitled Salsa de verdad. In that space, in which he listened to salsa dura, he even programmed non-Christian artists who have recorded songs with a biblical message.

According to Téllez, his greatest professional achievement has been to write the biography of the longest-serving salsero who remains active playing his instrument and directing the oldest salsa orchestra in the salsa scene. In addition, as a result of that work he achieved a close relationship with Dr. Willie Rosario, adding: “that has no comparison”. Robert is welcome in Willie’s home, and often shares phone calls in which he is free to talk about any subject, including politics and religion. These are privileges he is humbled to receive, which he insists have come about because of the publication of the literary work. Regarding this achievement, Tellez shares with us: “Having the privilege of being the biographer of maestro Willie Rosario represents the pinnacle of my work as a researcher and journalist. It is an honor that transcends into a deeply rewarding and enriching experience. The opportunity to delve into the life and work of such an emblematic figure in the world of Latin music as Maestro Rosario has been a fascinating journey, full of invaluable discoveries and learning. Robert was recently invited by the Senate of Puerto Rico to be t Robert Téllez M.’s musical knowledge has been requested and published in prominent media such as Revista Nómadas, – a scientific publication, with an interdisciplinary approach and monographic character. – of the Universidad Central de Colombia. He has also collaborated with Latin Beat Magazine, Agencia EFE, Semana Magazine, Caracol Televisión, El País de Cali Newspaper, El Heraldo de Barranquilla, El Tiempo Newspaper and El Espectador Newspaper, among others.

Full time and overtime -because his days are approximately 12 hours working for the responsible documentation of salsa- he is a repository of stories that nurture what he has aptly called the memory of salsa. Currently, he is building a comprehensive project and, as he says: “I believe that this will be published, but we will disclose it in due time”.

The second edition of Willie Rosario, El Rey del ritmo is the second work that author Robert Téllez M launches in collaboration with Be more. The first was the translation of Ray Barretto, Fuerza Gigante (Unos y Otros Editores, 2016) under the title: Ray Barretto, Giant Force (Be more, 2021), which won a silver medal for best translation from Spanish to English in the 23rd International Latino Book Awards.

For me as an editorial leader, the publication of this work is of utmost importance not only because my roots, like those of maestro Willie Rosario, come from the Center of the Universe, as Coamo is known, but also because I am passionate about the cultural and historical context in which salsa has developed as an artistic and sociological movement. For my work team, it is a priority to disseminate the memory of salsa with the responsibility and scientific precision with which history is written.

Also Read: A party of dancers at the concert to celebrate Willie Rosario’s 100th birthday