Latin America

Fanny Almenara better known in the salsa environment as “La Sonera del Callao”

Sonera of Callao, who maintains an impeccable musical career, loving music and recording numerous songs as a soloist and with various singers of first order of the Afro Latin Caribbean genre.

The salsa singer named Fanny Almenara, better known in the music scene as the Peruvian Sonera, was born in Callao, daughter of Don Hector Almenara and Carmen Barreto, the second of 9 siblings.

Fanny studied singing thanks to her mother, she met the best teacher, Mrs. Ana Maria Parodi and entered music at a very early age in the lyrical genre.

Juan Canevello: Percusionista, Antonio Cartagena: Cantante, Fanny Almenara: Cantante y Oscar Huaranga Bajista y Productor Musical

Her salsa collector father made her listen to the best of the best exponents such as Justo Betancourt, La Lupe, Candido Fabre, Benny More, Ismael Rivera, Los Papines, Irakere, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, etc.
At the age of 16 she fell in love with the genre called salsa and had the honor of singing with Junior Gonzales for the first time and alternated Grandes with Peruvian Orchestras such as Peru Salsa de Beto Villena, Las Estrellas de la Máquina de Boris Gómez, HIt Parade Latino del Callao, La Nueva Generación de Franco Crovetto.
She was chosen as the best new voice of the salsa genre in the 80s.

La cantante de salsa llamada Fanny Almenara mejor conocida en el ambiente como la Sonera Peruana

She made recordings for different groups, and also recorded an unpublished song of her own entitled “Yo te Espero”.

Between the 70s and 80s came to Peru Las Leyendas Latinas with Ray Barreto and Adalberto Santiago, gave him the great opportunity to sing with them Quítate la Máscara.

Then with Linda Caballero (lLa India), the song Mi Primera Rumba, then with the pharaoh of salsa Oscar D’ León the song Toro Mata, also with the great Hermanos Lebrón the song sin negro no hay guaguancó.
With the owner of Soneo Carlos “El Cano” Estremera the theme Ámame en Cámara lenta, with Frankie Vázquez the theme Cuarto de Tula, with Yolanda Rivera the theme Rumba en el Patio, Vity Ruiz brother of Frankie Ruiz the theme La Cura, with Aldalberto Santiago the theme Nadie se salva de la rumba.

Primera sonera del Callao, que mantiene una carrera musical impecable

And so with her imposing voice Fanny captivated the attention of the greats of salsa, representing Callao and for which the people of Chalaco named her “La Sonera del Callao” (The Sonera of Callao).
For her vast artistic career she was awarded by different musical associations and by the company Pilsen Callao.
(H3) Asocosalsa Peru (Tite Curet Ceremony, Hector Lavoe Bust, Charlie Palmieri and 25th anniversary of artistic life (Okonkolo Association).
Fanny Almenara, continues her impeccable musical career, loving music and recording a song entitled Amor de Mis Amores, salsa version with the Orquesta Ng del Callao director Franco Crovetto.
Although she was in a halt due to the pandemic, she recorded a Challenger “El Virus Se Mata Con Musica” invited by a Cuban musician, which was also recorded by Cuban artists in different parts of the world.

After her voice reached Cuban websites such as “Benny More” “Un Millón De Adalsoneros” “Al Son Del Pinar Del Rio” she was invited to the “Son 8 de mayo” days led by the gentleman of the son Adalberto Alvarez.
Then she also recorded a song written by the King of merengue Milly Quezada “Gracias A Ti” dedicated to those who are always on the front line as doctors and nurses in the Covid 19 and the last thing she has recorded the production of the song La Sitiera Tribute to the diva of Cuba Omara Portuondo in which in that production participated Nelson Gonzales in the tres: Eddie Montalvo on congas, Nohelia Zambrano on violin and Luis Perico Ortiz on trumpet.

Website: Fanny Almenara Oficial

Yaroldy Abreu Robles is one of the talents of the new generation present in Cuba

Yaroldy Abreu Robles was born on February 22, 1977 in Sagua de Tánamo, Holguín, Cuba.

Excellent percussionist and arranger. Among the many talents of the new generation of Cuban experts in Cuban rhythms of French-Haitian origin and knowledge of Afro-Cuban folklore, Yaroldy is an imaginative and expressive percussionist, with great technique and virtuosity, with an original style.

Yaroldy Abreu Robles es uno de los talentos de la nueva generación presentes en Cuba

A member of a new batch of Cuban percussionists, he stands out for his genius and mastery, to hear him play is an enjoyment for the senses.
He radiates vitality and joy, his hands seem to fly and at the same time caress the drums causing a magical and contagious effect on those who listen to him. He is currently one of the members of the Maestro Chucho Valdés Quintet.

He grew up in an environment rich in traditions and with his grandmother he learned about the activities of Tumba Francesa de Bejuco.

This is an association of solidarity that preserves and enhances the folklore of French-African-Caribbean origin through cultural recreational meetings, and especially the celebrations organized by the slaves of Haiti.
He is not a great connoisseur of the Yoruba culture, he is not a believer, but he feels attracted by the symbolism and the music of the magic Afro-Cuban religious cults.

He began studying guitar as his first instrument at the Casa de la Cultura. Then at the age of nine he began classical percussion at the Escuela Vocacional de Arte de Holguín and in 1996 he entered the ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte) in Havana, where he graduated in 2001. Sound in the whole range of percussion of academic character and those of the Afro-Cuban tradition.

Yaroldy Abreu Robles Pintura por la Artista Inés Garridos

The first band where he played was called Son de Sagua, in which he played guitar with a mixed repertoire. His debut was with percussion, bongo in several groups and then with a wider range of instruments.

He began working with the group Piapá, doing experimental percussion, and a classical percussion quintet.

Also with dance music groups such as Pupy and Los Que Son Son and others. In 1997 he became a professional with Maraca and Otra Visión internacional, in 2000 he joined Irakere and in 2001 he joined the quartet of Chucho Valdés, the great protagonist of Cuban music in the last forty years as composer, director and discoverer of talents.
Among the young Cuban percussionists who continue to renew the grammar and pronunciation of the Afrolatino tumbadora in jazz, one of the most influential names is the thirty-one Yaroldy Abreu, whose point of reference is the work of the great immortal masters such as Chano Pozo, Tata Güines, Mongo Santamaría, Jorge “El Niño” Alfonso and Miguel “Angá” Díaz.

Discography in which he has participated
Yaroldy Abreu Robles

Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura – New Cuba Sound Año 2009

Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura 2010

Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura Remixed 2010

Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers 2013

Women in music: Carmen Laboy tells of a full life, without regrets

Talking with Puerto Rican saxophonist Carmen Laboy is so pleasurable that it becomes a therapeutic experience for the listener as she leads the musical journey that has become her working life.

The enthusiasm with which she talks about her work is contagious. With that effervescence that characterizes her, for thirty years she balanced her work as a teacher with artistic contracts that led her to perform on countless stages. As an educator, until her retirement in 2012, she headed the Music Department at Columbus High School in New York. As a musician she remains active and current, accompanying when hired and conducting when it is her turn

Talking with Puerto Rican saxophonist Carmen Laboy is a pleasure.

She began her story by holding up a book of photographs while laughing out loud at the images that show a life surrounded by music greats at countless concerts.

Neither at the age of nine when she began taking private piano lessons, nor at the age of twelve when she auditioned for a place at the Escuela Libre de Música in her native Ponce, did she imagine that thanks to music she would travel the world accompanied by her inseparable baritone saxophone. Today she reflects and reports a full life, with no regrets.

Graduated from the Interamerican University of San Germán with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Performance, she obtained her Master’s degree in Music Education and Orchestration from Herbert H. Lehman College in the Bronx, New York; but not before having been awarded a scholarship as an outstanding student by the Vienna International Music Center in Austria.

The woman in music Carmen Laboy gives an account of a full life, with no regrets.

The saxophonist Pete Miranda also connected her to the New York music scene when orchestras on Puerto Rican soil denied her a place because she was a woman, forcing her to leave the island that taught her to love the music she continues to treasure and share with the world.

She decided not to comment on this unfortunate rumor. She preferred to thank that from then on she has not ceased to make music with large format orchestras (big band), delivering Latin music. Colleagues such as Tito Puente, José Madera, Eddie Montalvo, Jimmy Delgado, José Alberto “El Canario” and Frankie Morales have allowed the maestro to play her instrument while accompanying them or when she assumes the musical direction, as the case may be.

The rejection to which she was subjected, which at first glance seems to have been a stroke of luck, did not divert her from her goal. On the contrary, she found in it the strength to blow in other lands. More than five decades of musical work at the helm of her baritone saxophone with the orchestras of Tito Puente, Machito, Ray Santos, Joe Cuba, Frankie Morales, Tito Rodríguez, Jr., The Big 3 Palladium Orchestra, Kit McClue Big Band and Harbor Conservatory Latin Band; as well as having accompanied Choco Orta, Paquito Guzman, Andy Montañez and Cano Estremera -among others- attest that her priority has always been to remain active in the music scene; this while wearing the same uniform as her male counterparts, be it a tuxedo or a tie. Among musicians, Carmen Laboy lets the music do the talking, far from worrying about her gender.

Bella Martínez
Writer, Researcher in Afro-Caribbean music.

Miguelito Cuní recognized among the best soneros of Cuba

Miguelito Cuní. Pinareño recognized among the best soneros of Cuba, who shared the stage with Benny Moré, Arsenio Rodríguez, Félix Chapotín, Richard Egües, Enrique Jorrín, among others.

Miguel Arcángel Conill, better known as Miguelito Cuní (Pinar del Río, May 8, 1917 – Havana, March 3, 1984), was a Cuban music singer. He was one of the emblematic voices of Cuban son in the 1940s and 1960s.
He was born in Pinar del Río, the westernmost province of the island of Cuba, into a humble family.

Miguelito Cuní Pinareño reconocido entre los mejores soneros de Cuba

During his school days he dedicated himself to the exercise of minor trades to help support the family. In 1932, at the age of fifteen, he began as a vocalist in the group “Los Carameleros”.
Soon after, he was the vocalist of Septeto Lira, Septeto Caridad and other groups in his province.
In 1938, already in Havana, he joined Arsenio Rodríguez’s group, and also worked actively with the orchestras “Melodías del 40” and Arcaño y sus Maravillas, making recordings and performing live and on the radio.

During the forties he developed an intense artistic life, he lived two years in Panama and in 1949 he settled in New York, as director of the orchestra of trumpeter Félix Chappottín.

He worked with Cuban music icons such as Beny Moré and in 1956 he traveled to Caracas to work with the “Bárbaro del Ritmo” with the group “La Tribu”. In 1960 he returned to New York, where he made several presentations, including the famous “Palladium”.

He returned to Cuba in 1966 where he founded his own group.
He participated in the film “Nosotros, la música” and other documentaries.

Some of the melodies that reached popularity in his voice were Con maña se rompe, No hay amor sin caridad, Viejo Socarrón, Nos estamos alejando, Canallón, Quimbombó, Yo sí como candela, Ay qué Canuto, Ya tú ves campeón, Cuento na’ ma, Mi son, mi son, mi son, mi son, Alto Songo, Canto al monte, Cuchillo para la piña cubana, Sacando palo del monte, Camina y prende el fogón, Rompe Saragüey, Convergencia, La protesta de Baraguá, Todos bailan con la guajira, Cárdenas, Guachinango, El carbonero, among others, most of them recorded with the group Chappottín y sus Estrellas, a group with which he achieved great projection and in which he sang until his death.

In his last recording he interpreted the bolero “Lágrima” from the long-playing record entitled “De nuevo Arcaño”. His last trip abroad was to Mexico in 1982.

Composer

Besides being a singer, he ventured into the world of musical composition, of his authorship are cited: Congo africano, Ay mamita!, Batanga africana, A bailar con la guajira.
Sones montunos from the late 1950’s, the boleros: Lloró Changó, Toque santo, Las ansias mías, A ti, Benny Moré.
And the guaracha “Esto no se ve”, among other titles.

He died in Havana on March 3, 1984, three months after his dear friend and companion of countless days, Félix Chapotín, who had passed away on December 21, 1983.

Tribute

Miguelito Cuní was admired by all those who knew him, highlighted by all his friends and close ones as a man of excellent human qualities, in homage to his trajectory the Commander of the Revolution, Juan Almeida composed the lyrics “Este son homenaje”, which was interpreted by the singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés.
In the artistic field, he deserved the recognition of his colleagues and thousands of admirers, and in the personal field, those who treated him remember him as a man of impeccable words and good speech, Miguelito Cuní was a true Creole gentleman.

Source: Ecured

How Jacira Castro and Salsa Power changed the Latin music scene

How did Salsa Power start?

Latin culture, specifically the musical part, has had a large group of unconditional allies who have promoted it worldwide through their work and platforms, being Chilean-American Jacira Castro one of the best known. Jacira is a salsa casino-style salsa teacher and web designer who had the dream of spreading the typical rhythms of our countries, but she did not figure out how until she came up with a revolutionary idea: Salsa Power.

Salsa Power was born in 1999 as part of an initiative created by Castro and graphic designer Julian Mejia, who practically became her partner until the moment when the page stopped working. From that year on that the dance instructor began to generate contacts and develop human networks with people inside and outside the world of music, especially from the salsa genre. A particularity of this system devised by Jacira was that it was fed by the information received from people from anyqhere in the world about everything related to concerts, festivals, press conferences, autograph signings and much more.

Jacira Castro - Salsa Power — Dance instructor and web designer Jacira Castro – Salsa Power

How did this project work?

Thanks to the technology that was advancing little by little in all this time, there were many more contact ways and social media came along to facilitate these activities. The website grew to such an extent that it came to have more than 300 correspondents in over 60 countries, many of whom did not even have professions or occupations related to music, but wanted to strive to make the initiative successful and Latin artists and orchestras have a dependable space to promote their work.

Contrary to what many readers may have thought, everyone involved in this project never received a single cent or publicity in return for all the work being done. In fact, it was Jacira herself who had to pay for all the expenses related to Salsa Power such as plane tickets, travel, lodging, food, wardrobe, among other things. Not to mention the website maintenance and other hosting costs for the domain to work properly.

Fortunately, all that effort and money were worth it because Salsa Power rose to become the largest salsa website on the internet and a true reference for any independent media planning to do anything remotely like that. Much of the fruits harvested by this beautiful project can still be found on the internet and consist of articles, interviews, event coverage, videos and many other things.

The name Salsa Power was so respected that you could not talk about the Latin salsa scene in the United States without mentioning it, especially in South Florida, a place where competition for the first places was at its higuest. This competition was not only between artists and musical groups, but also between media, associations and academies, triggering some inconvenience and regrettable situations like the one experienced by Jacira and Julián a few years ago.

Jacira paid for all the expenses related to Salsa Power

Controversies

Jacira has had run-ins with some important personalities of the Latin music community in Florida because of her political positions, which went against the current of a large number of Latin artists and dancers at that time, especially those who are part of the Cuban exile. Her attitudes towards the political situation in Cuba have been highly controversial, mainly those related to the U.S. economic embargo on the Caribbean country and the limitations on free cultural exchange between both nations. Both Castro and other leaders of the entertainment industry were opposed to the decades-old blockade, which has been maintained until today.

This caused the dance teacher to make some enemies in the Miami music scene, which led to the hacking of Salsa Power with the caption ”This is a communist website” in big red letters along with a message whose author calls Jacira ”communist” and ”pro-Fidel Castro”. Obviously, she got worried and immediately called Julian to bring down the page.

As they began to diagnose the issue and its possible causes, they concluded that those responsible were part of an association composed of a dozen dance schools in Miami and its sorroundings called Salsa United. Around the same time, this organization had just created its own website, which published content very similar to that of Salsa Power, so much so that its principal spokesperson Jolexy Hurtado and Jacira came to have some arguments and run-ins due to how much alike the interviews were in both websites. The conflict reached at such a level that Jacira states that Hurtado told her she was messing with the wrong guy.

Undoubtedly, this whole situation was a big headache for the web designer, but has never let any of this daunt her or make her feel inadequate. On the contrary, she has grown before adversities and has faced them with the gallantry that has always characterized her, since she knows what her work is worth in terms of quality and globality.

However, there comes a point when the effort and time invested are not enough, so it is time to be realistic and assume that everything has its end, as the great Héctor Lavoe would say.

Jacira and Larry — Jacira Castro with producer, composer, and pianist Larry Harlow

Farewell to Salsa Power and Jacira’s current life

After 22 years of operation of the Salsa Power project, many of the correspondents who provided information for the page got married, had children, studied, moved and pursued other professional opportunities that did not allow them to continue their work. For the same reason, Jacira had no choice but to terminate the project that was her life for more than two decades and publish a farewell message thanking all her readers for their support over the years and assuring that she will continue to travel and enjoy salsa and dance.

In spite of abandoning her duties as administrator of Salsa Power, the great impact of the Chilean-American’s work on those who have come to know her and collaborate with her cannot be denied. On her LinkedIn profile, there plenty of favorable reviews about her professionalism and commitment in every activity she makes.

From International Salsa Magazine, we wish her the greatest success in every project she undertakes and that she enjoys all the stages that are to come.