Interviews

Julio Bravo and his amazing orchestra

The San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to have many musical talents who have made left this corner of the United States of America at the top. Acclaimed Julio Bravo is one of them and there are many reasons for stating that. Julio Bravo is a famous singer and musician who has been performing with his orchestra in many nightclubs and salsa festivals for quite some time now. He is the leader of the Orquesta Salsabor, which is composed of 12 members whose place of residence is the East Bay. 

This Peruvian says that they are a hard-working group with many decades of experience. He has also said at times that playing with the same people for so long makes a huge difference in terms of sound. In that sense, Salsabor is not unlike other orchestras of its type and time. 

As a child, Bravo already showed a big vocation by the world of music and this is reflected in his appearance on children’s television programmes, school plays and some more formal projects. At the end of the 80s, he came to the United States and it would not be long before he started walking the path still to be followed today. One of his first projects was his incorporation into the Trio Los Chalanes, which led him to become more and more known in the Latin community of his new country of residence. 

One of the events that projected the most his image as an artist was his brilliant participation on the TV show Buscando Estrellas, a contest in which he reached the final and became much more recognized than he already was thanks to his hard work. With the amount of fame he had earned so far, he started taking part in La Orquesta Internacional, with which he performed on countless occasions in various venues in California and had a heavy demand from places that wanted him to perform there. 

A few years later, he made the difficult decision to create his own orchestra which he named Salsabor and with which he remains active to this day. All this time, both Julio and his musicians have earned a reputation for professionalism and quality that would guarantee them the confidence of many festival organizers in night clubs and private events. 

His hard work has made his orchestra one of the most important salsa groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.   

Interview 

We are talking with Julio Bravo, Peruvian artist and leader of Orquesta Salsabor. Good afternoon, Julio. How are you?  

Very good afternoon, Karina. I am delighted to be here. Thank you for the invitation. 

Julio, you had your first contact with music when you were very young in your country. At what age did you know you wanted to dedicate yourself to the musical world?  

I think you are born with that. I think it all started when I was in school. In elementary school, I was always involved in the performances or the school theater. That’s how I think it all started. 

So, from schooling age, you already expressed this interest in the world of music and the arts.   

Exactly. I did not necessarily sing, but we acted and did skits. In my neighborhood, musical manifestations were very frequent. My parents always organized meetings at home and my friends came, and they loved to bring their guitars and the acoustic cajón. There were always meetings at my house or at a neighbor’s. 

Do you think there was something that inspired you?  

In Peru, we have the Creole music genre. Since I was a small child I listened to it at home with my parents. In order to play it, you only need the cajón accompanied by a guitar. In neighborhoods, when there are no guitarists, children have a cajon or they make one in wood. In the 70s and 80s, there was a strong influence from Creole music on radio and television in my country, plus my parents and neighbors liked it. So, seeing all that up close was one of the things that inspired me. 

In 1991, you were on the TV show Buscando Estrellas, since your career took off in many ways. Do you consider that this project changed your professional future?  

That helped me a lot, but it happened when I had barely two years here. When I came from Peru, I did not want to be a great musician or look for work in that field. I came to seek a future in whatever God put in my way and I was fortunate to have music as an instrument to generate work. When I started singing here, on my first week here, I went to sing at a restaurant because some friends took me over there. It was called ”El Chalán” and that’s where I met a group that performed that night and started playing with them, but I would recently arrived, so I had to get a revenue-generating job to pay the rent. I worked construction for about 10 years, but I was finally starting to work in music only on weekends. In 1994, I formed my orchestra after singing in several groups. I did not have such a plan, but the conditions were right and doing what you love does not take much effort because the thing leaves naturally. 

You mean, when you arrived in the United States, you were ready to do other activities and the music thing just came naturally.   

Exactly, I did not come with the desire to become an artist. I studied journalism at university in Peru, but I knew that it would be tough to practice my profession here because of language and immigration status. There were many obstacles that, like every immigrant, I had to learn how to overcome. I came with a degree in Communication Sciences, but I worked construction and did it with pride. 30 years later everything I worked in construction also helped me become a real estate and loan officer. However, I have not been able to leave music as a passion. I can quit jobs that have come my way, but music never. 

Never got to practice journalism in the United States?  

I could never practice journalism, but there were a couple of magazines run by some friends from the Peruvian community and I collaborated with them writing about show business. I also got to interview a couple of artists at that time. When La Orquesta de La Luz came to the San Francisco Bay Area, I interviewed them for that newspaper. I have not worked as a journalist, but I have done many things related to that environment. I have worked in radio and looked for a job at a television channel in my youth. Unfortunately, I did not have migration documents, the Green Card as people call it here. 

How do you think language made things difficult for you at the beginning?  

I always liked English, although I did not know how to speak it. Whenever I listened to songs in my country. We tried to imitate what artists said, but we could not (laugh). Before coming to this country, I decided to have as a priority booking intensive English classes a year before. I mean, every day, I had a two-hour class during the year my departure. That helped me a lot. When I came here, there were some barriers and I did not understand what people were saying, but I managed to learn a lot of vocabulary. Here, each working branch has its own vocabulary. If you work cleaning houses, you are not going to use the same vocabulary as if you work construction or in a store. I do not feel that language was an obstacle for me. I met people who discriminate in the early years, but that has not stopped me from moving forward. I do not think it is a barrier that prevents you from growing. 

What were your favorite bands in English?  

The Bee Gees and I also liked the Beatles. When the Bee Gees and the ”Saturday Night Fever” movie with John Travolta came out, I was about 13 years old and was working on a children’s television programme. On Wednesdays, we sang Peruvian music and played the cajón, but on Fridays, we did dance shows in the clothes of that time with large collars. I worked there for five years and that helped me a lot in my artistic training because it was a wonderful experience. The programme was called ”Villa Juguete”, which had music and dance. That helped me a lot to overcome stage fright. 

What makes Orquesta Salsabor different from other groups in the San Francisco Bay Area?  

I do not know what the main difference is. I think I like to play my original music, but I also know the importance of playing what people want to hear. You can’t just play my original music because I am no longer famous enough for people to know my numbers from beginning to end. For example, Oscar D’ León has more than 50 years in the artistic life and still plays ”Llorarás” every time he comes to the Bay. When people listen to one of those songs, they come out to dance immediately. I think I have the good sense to know when to play the hit songs that I have chosen over the years. I think that is what has differentiated me from other orchestras. 

What do you think has been your best professional decision in your career?  

The best decision I have made was to form my orchestra and it has taught me many things. I was taught to be a manager, a soundman, among other things. If someone new in this world wants to know what steps to take, I can gladly say what not to do to not make any mistakes. I do not think we have made mistakes as an orchestra, since we have always tried to do our best. We have had to travel in a van, in a plane or each in his own vehicle to go to play. The musician moves by the desire and motivation to show the gift which the Lord gave us. The restaurant and record label owners move by the economic benefit, but the case of the musician is different. I think the best decision I have made was to form my orchestra. I think that, if you talk to the musicians I have worked with, they know that, as the leader of the orchestra, I have done the best I could to offer them a good, fun and healthy working environment. 

And the worst one?  

When I started with the orchestra, I wanted to make studio recordings here and I lost a lot of money because the musicians I called to record did not arrive after I paid for the studio. The desire to to record here made me lose a lot of money. And by the way, this was money I was saving for the project, but it was gone away soon enough. That’s where I was recommended to talk to a producer and musician named Oscar Pitín Sanchez. I only knew him by his music, but I struck up a friendship with him. He helped me produce two of my salsa records. Sadly he passed away last year. Then I started getting some experience in the recording studios because experience is needed for everything. In the studios, the thing is cooler because there is no audience to applaud you. On the contrary, you do not want to make any mistakes because everything will be recorded. After being wrong in producing my own album without the required experience, I found a light on the way after a very long tunnel (laugh).  

Your website and social networks to follow you  

Website: juliobravo.com  

Instagram: @juliobravo_oficial  

Facebook: Julio Bravo Y Su Orquesta Salsabor 

Who is Bill Martínez?

For many reasons, the music business is closely linked to the world of law, because there are many details that artists and their respective teams must take into consideration when carrying out their activities, especially when they travel outside their countries of origin or residence. That is when they should contact attorney William Martinez, who would be happy to help them to complete all required paperwork for this purpose. 

William Martinez, better known in the music scene as Bill Martinez, is an immigration attorney who is also known for organizing musical events in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1970s, which reveals that the relationship between the legal professional and the arts has been very close for several decades now. He is a degree from the University of San Francisco, the same city where he was born, has exercised his profession, and has made his living since then. 

This man has played a very important role in obtaining visas for a fairly large number of artists and their orchestras for a few years, including Juanes, Christian Castro, Mercedes Sosa, Pablo Milanes, Isaac Delgado, Chucho Valdes, and many more. The list of groups that have managed to perform in the United States thanks to Martínez includes Los Van Van, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, The Buena Vista Social Club, Cubanismo, and so on.   

All this without mentioning that the attorney has done a commendable job in helping artists interested in traveling from the United States to Cuba, which is really difficult because of the political, legal, and migratory friction that this implies. Bill demonstrated that it is possible thanks to his efficient efforts with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury. There are many groups that have managed to travel to the island thanks to licenses obtained by the lawyer, as was the case of AudiosLave, a famous Californian alternative rock band whose emergence goes back to the year 2001. In 2005, the group gave a historic concert in which it performed in front of a crowd of more than 70,000 spectators, becoming the first rock band to play live in the Caribbean country. All thanks to the excellent work done by this great professional man of law.   

Another facet of this great American is his role as a producer and manager. As his official website states, he is one of the co-founders of Latino Entertainment Partners together with cultural activist Arturo Riera, with whom he sought to create an organization capable of producing around 50 concerts whose main talents will be Cuban music legends such as N.G. La Banda, Los Van Van, Orquesta Aragón, Los Muñequitos de Aragón, among others. 

This group created by Martinez has also been responsible for producing other musical events that have had the presence of The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Eddie Palmieri, Giovanni Hidalgo, and many others. 

Enlightening talk

Nowadays, he has an extremely busy schedule due to the ravages caused by COVID-19 in terms of immigration with the closing of embassies, flight ban, among other things. Today, he will tell us more in detail about his work and how much it has been complicated by the pandemic. 

Do you only work in the issue of immigration specializing in artists?  

Yes, I only work with artists. Although from time to time I talk to clients about other issues, but I mostly work only with artist visas.  

What is the first thing you check in one of your cases? 

Well, I work with visas as you can imagine. All this depends on two things: luck and credibility. By luck I mean officials, events, and factors for the application. Credibility is also key to all this. We are talking about two visa categories: an O1 visa for a distinguished artist in the field of music or the arts and the P1 visa or P3 visa which can be issued for a maximum of one year, while the O1 visa can last up to three years. The P3 visa is for groups that have performances that serve as a reflection of their own country. Many artists may qualify for this. For example, if we are talking about an artist who has a bachata, vallenato or hip hop repertoire. As long as they are reflections of their own country, they can apply for the P3 visa. The P1 visa and O1 visa require evidence and documentation that proves that the singer is of a high standard and recognized worldwide such as foundations, press articles, among other things. That is what we have to see. You have to prove that the itinerary is credible and this can be done with contracts or invitation letters. If an applicant, cultural center, promoter or agent wants to invite an artist without any shows or contracts, it will not matter if he is well known, because he will not have credibility. On the list of things I need, the first thing I look for is the invitation letter with an itinerary, the story of the artist, documentation, his repertoire, among other things. 

The process also depends a lot on the officer who analyzes the case, am I right? 

The case can be approved at first, and then, when it goes to the consulate, you have to get lucky with the official who does the interview. You have to be lucky with the USIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and with the second step which is the interview at the consulate. You also have to get lucky with people who do the interview, as it can be someone flexible who understands the situation very well or, in the opposite case, someone who had a bad day and will always say no.   

Is it sufficient for one of those steps to fail for the visa not to be approved? 

That is right, I have the same experience as any applicant and we use all our tools for this situation. It is like a puzzle where we have to see what works. Sometimes, we have even to ask for help from congressmen for this. This has happened to me both as a lawyer and as a producer.  

What was the most complex case in your career? 

It was my first case in 1993 with the Cuban group Mezcla. We did a festival in San Francisco called El Encuentro del Canto Popular in which we had a representation from each country in Latin America and the Caribbean. Then, we took the risk of inviting a group from Cuba, which was the group Mezcla, a rock band that used elements of Santeria. Like I said, there are two steps to obtain a visa: the application with USIS and the interview with the consulate after approval. In the case of Grupo Mezcla, the application was approved in the Immigration Service and then the members did their interviews in Havana. Subsequently, the case began to collapse until the head of the State Department for Cuban Affairs called me and told me that he had the file in his hands and that the group could not enter the country. When I asked him why, he said they were Cubans and that is all I needed to know. We made a claim in federal court, but we lost the case. Two years later, the state department’s attorney basically said they could do whatever they wanted without justifying anything. However, some time later, the Bill Clinton administration accepted that there is value in having exchanges with Cuba and, little by little, they opened the doors to allow entry to other Cubans like Changuito El Timbalero, Irakere with Chucho Valdes and Los Van Van. COVID-19 complicated everything and has had a great impact in each case, but things calmed down a bit and now artists are allowed to enter if they provide proof of their vaccination or PCR test.  

Which are the nationalities The United States denies visas most often? 

It is definitely Cuba because every Cuban has to ask for his or her interview in a third country and sometimes we are in contact with the consulates in advance to request permission to doing the interview there. Mexico is usually plan B, but sometimes we ask the consulate to allow a Cuban citizen to do an interview in their facilities. It may happen that they say that they do not accept applications from a third country. It also happens that two weeks later another consulate accept the interview without any problem. Each consulate has its own answer as to the availability and access to their system. Now we are asking for visas for Cubans in Mexico DF. I can say that Middle Eastern countries, Korea and Cuba are the most complicated places to apply for visas. 

You have also taken U.S. artists to Cuba and other complicated countries, could you tell me a little bit about that? 

Well, I participated in several exchanges with Cuba. The best known was Puentes Musicales in 1999 in which we presented 45 well-known rock artists. In 2005, we presented the rock group AudiosLave. I also worked as a lawyer in the production of the group Broadway and that was historic. It was a very important album in the history of rock and it was all done in Havana. I had a documentary on HBO about this event in Havana. We have plans to do other recordings with Broadway in Havana in the future. It is almost impossible to do exchanges of this magnitude these days owing to restrictions related to COVID-19. 

How much has COVID-19 complicated things? 

It is easier now. COVID-19 had a big impact at all levels. An application at USIS (the first step in the process) was impossible because their officials were not in offices as in the past. They were at home, so we could not do anything like as the past when we could go to an office. It was much easier to resolve situations, issues with identity and documentation. When officers are not in offices, they cannot go to the other buildings. They have to call from home to ask about applications and communication is not as effective. It is easier to resolve situations like that by being in the same building and coming face to face. COVID also has an impact on the number of people who are working in the consulates. The less people who work, the less it is possible to change dates when needed. However, the situation improved in contrast to the last year, so there is hope that some things will get back to normal.

Link to its official website: https://www.billmartinez.com/

What Orquesta La Moderna Tradición is

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición has been one of the most legendary groups of Cuban music in its entire history. It is a group whose members are based in San Francisco, California, and consists of 11 members who play different genres such as danzón, timba, guaguancó, cha cha chá, son, rumba, charanga, among others. They also mix in elements from American jazz, violins, and Afro-Cuban rhythms.    

The beginning of this orchestra’s story goes back to 1996, since they started to perform throughout the United States to bring the best of traditional Cuban music to every corner of the country and transport Cuban immigrants back to the Havana’s streets and clubs during the 50’s. All the success accumulated allowed them to perform at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, the Lincoln Certer and many other venues of high prestige.    

Recently, Orquesta La Moderna Tradición once again displayed their talent at Yoshi’s, a jazz club and restaurant located in Oakland, California, whose reputation in the San Francisco Bay Area is not up for discussion. Our editor Eduardo Guilarte was present at the show to cover the details of the event, which left all those present in awe.  

Conversation with Tregar Otton, founding director of the orchestra 

Based on the above, we talked with Tregar Otton, founder, director, composer, and violinist of the group. This talented musician, born in the Marshall Islands and raised in Texas, started to learn about classical music from an early age and joined the Berkeley Symphony while he still was a teenager. By the 1990s, this musical promise worked as a regular part of Virgilio Mart Y Sus Majaderos, La Tipica Novel and the Charanga Orquesta Broadway. 

By the year 1995, Otton founded Orquesta La Moderna Tradición with Roberto Borrell. At the beginning, the group started to become well-known for its soft sounds of Afro-Cuban charanga, which are accompanied by a set of wind instruments and violins that give a unique touch to this group’s music. 

Today, we have the welcome presence of the musician to talk about each and every one of the issues raised in this brief review and anything he wants to reveal to our dear readers. It is such a pleasure to have you here today, Tregar. How are you feeling?  

I am fine here near San Francisco. Good to see you today.

Very good, Tregar. You got started in the world of music at a young age. Could you tell us a bit about your beginnings? 

I started playing violin when I was four years old and my family had a violin teacher as a neighbor. My parents did the laundry for all our neighbors, so we met her and she ended up giving me classes every day. After that, I studied a lot of classical music, bought music when I was about 20 and fell in love with it because it used the violins differently from classical music. I really enjoyed playing dance music because the connection with the public is quite different from that of classical music. In the case of classical music, many people get bored, but Cuban music and salsa music make a much more direct connection to the audience. There is nothing like playing for a floor with dancers. 

We understand that you were born in the Marshall Islands, but grew up in Texas, is that correct? 

Yes. After my dad married my mom, they both moved to Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, in the middle of the Pacific. After that, I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, till I was 13 or 14 about when I moved to California.   

I asked because it is very interesting how you set your eyes on Cuban music despite your origins. Where does this interest in Cuban music and the rhythms you play come from? 

For the same reasons I play dance music. It caught my attention when I heard Charanga de La 4 or one of these New York bands. I was impressed that violins were part of the percussion and were making repetitive sounds with the refrain and the son montuno. We are more part of the rhythm section than the melodic section in many of our songs. We can dance while we are on stage. I was also impressed by the improvisations of Cuqui and Alfredo de la Fé. I had many Latin friends I met in college while learning Spanish because no one in my family spoke it. 

How did Orquesta La Moderna Tradición come about and who joined you in its foundation? 

I was working with a group. I was in New York, where I was playing with the Broadway Orchestra and the Orquesta Tipica Novel. I was very lucky to have been in that city because I got to know many veteran musicians in the 80’s like Renato Valdés, Virgilio Martí, and Adalberto Santiago. I visited a Cuban friend from San Francisco named Fito Reinoso, who had a group called Ritmo Y Armonía and he visited us here in New York. I was tired of the cold in New York, so I decided to go to San Francisco, where Tito and I had the idea of creating a group. It was there that I met a great drum instructor and dance teacher Roberto Borrell, who joined us to found Ritmo y Armonía. After two years, we had to be apart, but Roberto and I still wanted to play danzón. At least here in the Bay Area, it is very difficult to get singers. The ones we have are good, but there are not so many. So, we planned to make a danzonera or danzón group. When the orchestra began to work, we only played danzón songs, rehearsed every week and did many tours with this musical genre because there was a boom with swing dancing and dance music during the 40’s. So, we were surfing that wave. So, we were surfing that wave and doing collaborations with swing groups because it was older music. Danzón is a very rich genre, but it is no of interest to many people because they do not know how to dance it, so we started expanding our repertoire to include more modern and dance music. We still play danzones, but only two per set. There are still musicians from the original group in the orchestra including Michael Spiro. Roberto went to Peru about a decade ago, so Michael and I stayed with the group and invited Eduardo Herrera, who is a singer born in Caracas, Venezuela, to perform with us. We expanded the repertoire by doing the best we could with my own creations. Let’s remember I am the arranger of the group, so I do some songs and we have one that is included in the new recording in which I wrote the music and maestro Carlos Caro from Cuba added the lyrics. 

Although rhythms like danzón are not so popular, did you feel the acceptance of the public? 

There were many people who knew danzón who began to notice that it was a very interesting genre due to the presence of the violins. As Roberto Borrell is a dance teacher, he teaches many of his students how to dance danzón, which is not easy because they should be affixed on each turn they have to make according to the sounds of the instruments.   

Can you go from one genre to another in the same song? 

Yes, we do that a lot. On our new album, we have rhythms with batá drums from music of Santería, which we use for our danzón songs. It sounds complicated when I explain it, but it is easy at the time of listening to it. 

What makes Orquesta La Moderna Tradición different from other Latin music groups in the United States? 

Well, I know no other group that plays danzón or charanga. There are two genres of popular dance music in Cuba that come from son montuno, which uses violins and flutes. In the case of charanga, the musicians use violins and flutes. Since the 70’s and 80’s, charanga is now no longer heard in the United States. In Cuba, neither do you hear danzón much. We are a group that has so many danzones in the repertoire. There are not too many groups that play cha cha chá. Me being an arranger, I try to create cha cha chá songs that are not copies of what was played by Orquesta Aragón and other bands in the 40’s and 50’s.   

Given that music has evolved so much, what reaction do you perceive from the young public when you play charanga, cha cha chá, danzón and other rhythms? 

Interesting question. For young people who do not know and are not salsa fans, our music sounds like salsa because it is difficult to distinguish the genres without knowing them well. However, I work as a music teacher and I have many groups of children, in which there are many salsa fans. They listen to Ray Barreto, Willie Colón, and Hector Lavoe. They also like charanga and understand it well. However, I think danzón is more difficult because it has to be a reflection of what people are feeling in their culture. Cha cha chá is simpler and innocent, but danzón is finer and refined. I think music can influence people and play its part in changing the direction of their culture. 

Can you tell us a little bit about your performance at Yoshi’s? 

Because of COVID-19, for a year and a half, we could not do anything. We could not even rehearse until the vaccine came on the market. We got this date with Yoshi’s because we have played there many times before as well as Yoshi’s in San Francisco. So, they gave us a date and we had the support of local DJs like Luis Medina, Chuy Varela and Jose Ruiz. We also made use of social media to promote us, sell our CDs and attract people to our shows. The staff of Yoshi’s was impressed because it is rare that a local band has been able to sell so many tickets. We were very excited to see so many people loving us and showing how much they love music. We have a large audience that is very loyal to us and has been going wherever we perform for over 20 years.  

What are your future projects? 

We get everything ready for the repertoire of the new album. When I was in New York, I was working with Juan Carlos Formell, Juan Formell’s son, who is the bass player and took over his father’s position in Los Van Van. I was one of the first people he met here in the United States and we became very good friends. Then he told me that I could arrange any of his songs without any problem, so I have about four or five of his songs ready and some others that I have not finished yet. We have enough material to make at least two albums, but it is very expensive. One could only cost us about $15 to start with. 

Your social networks or websites  

Official website: www.danzon.com  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OrquestaLaModernaTradicion  

Bandcamp: https://orquestalamodernatradicin.bandcamp.com/album/encantado-2