Latin Jazz

15 Panama Jazz Festival

Latin America / Panama / Panama

Once again, Panama makes its appearance beginning the year at the City of Knowledge and Casco Antiguo – Panama Jazz Festival in its 15th edition, thanks to the “Danilo Pérez” Foundation, where it gives us the opportunity to enjoy music in a healthy way, once again becoming the The largest Jazz stage in the Region, where musicians and fans from different countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, USA, Mexico, among others, will participate from January 15 to 20.

Its director Danilo Pérez mentions “From the heart of America to the world” giving us a message, which is not just to make and carry out a festival but to show everyone his dedication worldwide by showing us his cultural project that consolidates creativity, exchange and talent. , with a strong commitment to Panamanian education and social welfare, returns with a strong artistic billboard.

Performing artists include the Wayne Shorter Quartet; Latin jazz legend Chucho Valdés; the Brazilian singer, Luciana Souza; the legendary American pianist, Ran Blake, the master composer and pianist, Bill Dobbins accompanied on stage by the Global Jazz Big Band and the Panamanian cumbia patrons, Samy and Sandra Sandoval. Not to mention that the musical billboard is also strengthened with the participation of Panamanian bassist Santi Debriano along with saxophonist Craig Handy, pianist Bill O’Connell and drummer Will Calhoun, as core members of this musical banquet.

Others that will perform are the Panamonk Revisited trio, made up of maestro Pérez together with the Grammy-winning percussionist, Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Ben Street, who will share this celebration with other renowned ones such as the Italian saxophonist Marco Pignataro and his Almas Antiguas quartet, with the Panamanian saxophonist Carlos Agrazal as a special guest; the Panamanian saxophonist Luis Carlos Pérez, and the famous Pan-African Jazz Project, made up of the Chilean saxophonist Patricia.

Collash of the 15th Panama Jazz Festival

Zárate Pérez, the Panamanian Luz Acosta (voice and bass) and Graciela Núñez (violin) and the Egyptian musicians Hesham Galal and Balquei.

The Global Stage will be back this year, which will be a stage to enjoy in style with bands from different latitudes such as Rubén Amador and Yahuba (Puerto Rico), The Shuffle Demons (Canada), Paulina Pérez and Luna Mestiza (Chile), Josean Jacobo & Tumbao (Dominican Republic), Marco Pignataro (Italy), Yogev Shetrit Trio (Israel), Fundación Armonía Colectiva (Costa Rica), Four On a Swing (India) and Shea Welsh (United States); and Panamanian talents German Pinzón Jiménez, Tambo Jazz Collective, Digger Descendants Calypso Band, Proyecto Shuruca and Pureza Natural.

In addition, there will be highly prestigious educational institutions, Berklee College of Music, Berklee Global Jazz Institute, New England Conservatory, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, New York Jazz Academy and Crossroads High School, which offer great support every year.

And of the institutes that will be: Berklee Global Jazz Institute, New England Conservatory, Thelonious Monk Institute Of Jazz and New Yorl Jazz Academy.

Artists of the 15th Panama Jazz Festival

And the schedule of activities to be carried out are:

Schedule of the 15th Panama Jazz Festival

One of the most important details of the festival is that auditions, countless educational clinics, as well as the VI Latin American Music Therapy Symposium, the I Classical Music Exchange Program and the II Symposium of Musical, Artistic and Cultural Expressions will be held. of Afro-descendants in Panama with the main theme El Calypso:

A unique Latin rhythm being known as an African and Afro-American music that began in Trinidad and Tobago, later being very popular in the highlands of Venezuela, San Andrés and Providencia in Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico and others from the Antilles, where they use instruments such as the stellpan (steel drums), trumpet, trombone, flute, Spanish guitar, electric bass, saxophone, congas, bongos, maracas. This rhythm varies depending on the country where it is performed, giving a unique touch to studying Calypso to all fans or interested in it.

For more information about the Festival, you can contact them through:

WebSite: http://panamajazzfestival.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PanamaJazzFest/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/panamajazzfestival/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PanamaJazzFesti
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +507 317-1466

Marcial Isturiz from Capaya with soneos and melodic phrases and his popular “Agua pa’ los Gallos “Puerto Rico

In 2023 Sergio George, the famous “magician” who produced the artistic career of famous salseros and artists, said that salsa was “dead” and called on new artists to resurrect it and support each other as urban singers do.

This caused commotion and controversy among salseros and made them doubt without a doubt what is the reality that salsa lives and more with the progressive physical departure of emblematic legends who made history in the world, coupled with the proliferation of the so-called “DJ” who multiply many times the nostalgia of the public for living the times of said legends and who became a trend due to this fact. In 2024 we saw how important salsa concerts were held in our country Venezuela where foreigners who had not visited us for a long time did so and so we enjoyed what some call “the last of the Mohicans”, as well as Venezuelans who took to various stages making it clear that, if they continue creating, either by adjusting the sound of the old and modernizing with quality staging or simply delighting with their career and style what they have already established.

We think that there is a lot missing since there is plenty of musical talent and a new generation in every sense, but not who listens to them and supports them, this being a truth bigger than the size of the sun.

After this necessary reflection we want to talk about Marcial Isturiz who was born in the sandunguera town of Capaya, Barlovento in the Miranda State of VENEZUELA, and we put it in capital letters because this “extraordinary sonero who wandered through the streets of Petareña hitting any pot he found in his path, finding out where and at what time the “arayé” was lit, always on the “hunt” for a good opportunity”, a quote was written by Ángel Méndez in his book “Entren que Caben Cien” describing how clear this man has been since childhood in pursuing and having the firm certainty of where he had to go to achieve his dream. He understood, from my point of view, that he who perseveres succeeds and we have seen his professional growth during all these years, thirty years recently completed, being a musician performing several instruments, going on to be also a composer and arranger, accompanying with his voice in duos of consecrated stars and groups, renowned orchestras as well as others not so well known, his voice being a characteristic seal that draws the attention of his followers, a sonero that we can say “gets lost from sight”.

A man who has earned the respect and affection of the public wherever he goes and to name one of the presentations in which he has demonstrated his “people skills”, we had the opportunity to travel and share with him closely accompanying him Sonero Clásico del Caribe in that free event that the Barquisimetanos salseros put on at the end of January 2024 to Ramón Méndez, where by the way Marcial took advantage of the invitation to perform the National Anthem the day before at the Cardenales – La Guaira Game, impeccably. Undoubtedly, that presentation was an omen of good fortune for what would be a year full of success.

Marcial Isturiz began hitting a home run this 2025 by performing on January 5 in Puerto Rico on the “Island of Enchantment”, at the traditional Three Kings Eve dance at the Sheraton Hotel, Convention District, with Don Perignon and La Puertorriqueña, with salsa figures such as Herman Olivera, Pedro Bull, Pichie Pérez, Joe González, Rico Walker, Josué Rosado, Jerry Rivas, Gilberto Santa Rosa and of course our Marcial Izturiz.

We saw him singing choruses with these greats, specifically next to Herman Olivera and Rico Walker waiting for his turn like each of those called to this meeting until Peter Perignon introduced him for the first time with his Orchestra La Puertorriqueña and said that the person responsible for that invitation and presence of our sonero there was his friend Gilberto Santa Rosa.

Briefly, Perignon told the audience that he knew Marcial since he was part of Bailatino and he fell in love with that group, since then he had been following him and now recently in his participation with the Latin Dimension he knew that Marcial with this performance made his dream of being in that country come true.

Saying good night to Puerto Rico he performed the song “La Familia” (authored by José Curbelo and musical arrangement by Louie Ramírez, inserted in the production titled Indestructible by Ray Barretto and his Orchestra in the voice of Tito Alen for the year 1973) with soneos and melodic phrases and his popular “agua pa’ los gallos Puerto Rico” left established what this Venezuelan is made of, acclaimed and congratulated by his peers on stage.

Joy is not enough for what we salseros in Venezuela feel for this representation that should not be overlooked because if there are soneros from Venezuela and with class: Marcial Isturiz is one of them; with his own style and professionalism, this is how our “Mayor of Capaya” was seen next to these greats, comfortable, safe and proudly waving our tricolor wherever he goes.

At Swing Latino we say congratulations to Marcial, keep doing your thing without resting like until now, because later it will be too late:

AGUA PA’ LOS GALLOS y

¡Ponle Sabor!

Source: Giorgenling Méndez from Swing Latino

Also Read: Salsa at its best, led by the leader of La Puertorriqueña: Don Perignon

So that you know something more about the DJ. Jaime Guanipa, the Vinyl of Salsa

Jaime Guanipa was born in December 1966 in Caracas, Venezuela, originally from Sarria, belonging to the parish of La Candelaria, growing up in two areas in my early years, between Sarria and Alta Vista in Catia, Parish of Sucre, also in Caracas.

His first tangible experience within Latin music called “Salsa” thanks to the Venezuelan “PHIDIAS DANILO ESCALONA” who gave him this label that has immortalized the genre.

For my memory it was in 1973 with the premiere of the film “Nuestra Cosa Latina” and the SALSA Movie in different movie theaters in our city, where through its soundtrack I was impacted, thus generating a definitive taste in the musical field, fertilized by it wanting to be more extensive and thus achieving in subsequent years a broader knowledge within the Latin American Culture in this concept.

Subscriber to absorb like a sponge everything related to the environment and listening to the Radio where greats of knowledge moderated, to which I can name our Venezuelans and experts and moderators in different AM Radio stations for the time in Caracas such as, Phidias Danilo Escalona, Floro Manco, Enrique Bolívar Navas, Héctor Castillo, Rafael Rivas, among other great broadcasters, achieving a very solid understanding within the majesty of salsa.

He was able to define that by 1979, already having the concern to share and make the most of our Latin music heard within parties both family and friends, he made comments and selection of music from the acetate records that were in said meetings, this being a cult for the distinctive passion for what was already defined as the path to being a Salsa DJ in 1982.

Subscribed to technology and the true art of the moment, which is the research, the study of the genre and the credits of his albums, which logically were and are in LP format.

Generating in this way a breeding ground for musical experimentation and selection, it is from this moment referring to the date that my experience and exchange of criteria between friends who throughout these years have followed me and accompanied me within this passion was unleashed, having successes as a salsa musician in extinct venues in the city of Caracas for the years 1985 to 1990.

Then later in 1993, I temporarily retired due to family responsibilities, but without ever abandoning my passion for musicalization and research of the genre both here in my country Venezuela and abroad, by the year 2008, I decided to resume after a very reasonable time my most significant taste for salsa music, by the time obtaining many new bastions but with their due time of seniority within the genre, evolving distinctively in terms of its versatility and exponents.

I would like to point out that for me it is not a challenge, since due to the concept gained and maintained, it has given me a very preferential position within the taste of the salsa dancer and the dancer that I call demanding.

Experience gained due to being surrounded at the right time by great friends who love the salsa genre, many of whom I share today, reason for this and subscribed to current technology and its ease of access makes it possible for me to masterfully give the dancing public what they really want and desire at each meeting, event and party.

Without a doubt, before this I present an interactive referential synthesis of my passage through this exciting world as it is and I define “Salsa Musicalization in the Caracas nightlife. Thank you for your interest in this humble servant.

It is not just a photo with an LP, it is an image with a history, in 1981, I remember when I rode my bike in Sarria and many times in Guaicaipuro, where two friends Sergio and Napoleon lived. The latter had Sansui sound equipment in his house that sounded excellently well, we listened to endless hours of irreverent Salsa full of rhythmic diversity.

It's not just a photo with an LP, it's an image with a story Orquesta La Critica — It’s not just a photo with an LP, it’s an image with a story Orquesta La Critica

One day he said to me “Gordo” let’s go to Paradise and we went to listen to where Oscar D’Leon has his house and they rehearse there, so I told him let’s go and we listened in Machado alley not only to the regular rehearsals of Oscar’s Orchestra but one day in particular it was “LA ORQUESTA LA CRITICA”.

I particularly heard two songs that I remember with great specialness, such as “A EL” and MONTA MI CABALLO, where the quality and function of the ensemble were majestic, full of cadence, exceptional harmonics, the brass voices and the accompaniment between bass and piano were evident.

I remember seeing Larry Machado, Teo Hernández, José “Cheo” Navarro, and Flaco Bermúdez on several occasions during a chronologically dispersed period of time. I never saw Oscar, I never saw this character despite hearing his voice on several occasions.

In conclusion, an anecdotal experience that I will never forget, since it is not only having a record, but the history and the experience that it contains, which is what remains and is transmitted, the passion and the good fellowship before the Demanding Dancer, I hope you liked this little anecdote that I share with you, dear friends. Demanding, I hope you liked this little anecdote that I share with you, dear friends.

Dj. Jaime Guanipa Since 1982

Caracas – Venezuela.

Jaime Guanipa passed away in Caracas on February 27, 2023.

Excellent Venezuelan music lover, researcher, disseminator and DJ of Afro-Caribbean music.

I contribute in a simple way the best of the true art of entertainment and salsa music in the city of Caracas-Venezuela.

Also Read: “Djane Shina” a passion turned into reality

Papo Vázquez the Pirate & Troubadour of Our Latin Music

Papo Vázquez Enjoying the Bell.

Angel Vásquez, “Papo Vásquez”, was born on February 24, 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

By age 15, Papo Vázquez was playing with local American bands in Philadelphia and accompanying guest artists such as Eddie Palmieri.

At just 17, he moved to New York and was hired to play for trumpet player Chocolate Armenteros’ band, and soon began playing and recording with other top artists on the salsa scene such as The Fania All-Stars, Ray Barreto, Willie Colón, Grupo Folklórico Neoyorquino, Eddie Palmieri, Larry Harlow, and Hector Lavoe.

Vazquez also became a key player in the burgeoning New York Latin jazz scene of the late 1970s, performing with Jerry Gonzalez, Hilton Ruiz, and more.

He began his studies with Slide Hampton, eventually recording and performing Slide Hampton’s World Trombones.

Papo Vázquez Photo by Ernie Gregory (Gone but not forgotten) Thank you Ernie!PV

A Grammy-nominated trombonist, composer, arranger, NEA Master Artist, he has a 50-plus year career in jazz, Latin and Afro-Caribbean music.

Musical Director of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Orchestra, (NYC/WABC) 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

Commissioned by Wynton Marsalis to compose music for Jazz and Art series, conducted and performed with the J@LC orchestra, CD release August 2019 New York Pops Education, Board of Education certified, 2018 and 2019

New music commissioned for Afro Latin Jazz Alliance for the “Nueva Música” concert series.

Nominated for Grammy for Papo Vázquez’s Mighty Pirates, Marooned/Isolated, 2008

Born in 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, although his early formative years were in Puerto Rico.

He went on to play and/or record with jazz luminaries Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra, Chico O’Farrill, Ray Charles, Slide Hampton’s World of Trombones, Jerry Gonzalez Fort Apache, among many others. By the age of 22, Vazquez had traveled the world.

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours 2023

Vázquez was deeply moved by jazz from a young age. His appreciation and knowledge of indigenous Caribbean music provides him with a unique ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms with the freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz.

Beginnings

After spending his early years in Puerto Rico, he grew up in the heart of North Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community. He purchased his first trombone from a friend for $5 and joined the elementary school band.

At the age of 14, an uncle recommended him to a local salsa band, where he met trumpeter Jimmy Purvis. Purvis inspired Papo’s lifelong passion for jazz by giving him two records: J.J. Johnson’s Blue Trombone and John Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard. By 15, Vazquez was performing with local Latin bands in Philadelphia and accompanying visiting New York artists such as Eddie Palmieri.

He was a founding member of Jerry Gonzalez’s Fort Apache and Conjunto Libre, as well as the popular Puerto Rican Latin fusion band Batacumbele.

With Batacumbele he performed, composed, arranged and recorded several albums from 1981 to 1985. Upon his return to New York, he joined Tito Puente’s Latin Jazz Ensemble, traveling with them as principal trombonist and touring Europe with Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra.

Leader, Composer and Innovator.

Vázquez has always been deeply moved by jazz, and specifically cites the music of John Coltrane and J.J. Johnson as having influenced him most. In addition, his appreciation and knowledge of the indigenous music of Caribbean peoples gives him a unique ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms, specifically those of Puerto Rico, with the freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz.

During his time in Puerto Rico with Batacumbele in the 1980s, he began experimenting with “bomba jazz,” a fusion of jazz and traditional Puerto Rican bomba. In 1993 he recorded his first album as a leader, Breakout. He continued to collaborate with a variety of Latin Jazz artists, contributing Overtime Mambo to Hilton Ruiz’s Manhattan Mambo and Contra Viento y Mareo to Descarga Boricua, Vol. 1.

In 1999, he released a live recording with a number of leading New York Latin and jazz artists, including bassist Andy Gonzalez, saxophonist Michael Brecker, among others. The release of Pirates & Troubadours At the Point, Vol. 1 was followed the next year by At The Point, Vol. 2.

Mighty Pirates Troubadours Songs del Yucayekepor Papo Vazquez — Mighty Pirates Troubadours Songs del Yucayeke
por Papo Vazquez

This project evolved into the Pirates Troubadours, an “Afro-Puerto Rican jazz band” that includes musicians such as Roberto Cepeda of Puerto Rico’s Familia Cepeda folklore group, Milton Cardona and Anthony Carrillo on percussion, and John Benitez, among others. The group performed at festivals around the world and released Carnival in San Juan in 2003, followed by From The Badlands in 2007.

Interest grew as a composer.

He was the first artist to receive a composer commission (Iron Jungle) for the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, then a resident orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

His first classical composition, Palomita Suite Afro-Caribeña which to date was the first time Bomba y Plena had been performed with a Chamber Orchestra, was commissioned by the Bronx Arts Ensemble and premiered at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture in the Bronx in 2004.

In 2007, on a commission from the Bronx River Arts Center, he wrote Sube el Río (River Rising) for its Mighty Pirate Orchestra for its 20th anniversary concert “Bronx River Sounds.”

Discography

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours – Capítulo 10: Breaking Cover, Picaro Records 2020
Cuarteto Papo Vázquez – GV J.S. Bach, Picaro Records 2017
Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours – Spirit Warrior, Picaro Records, 2015
Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours – Oasis, Picaro Records, 2012
Papo Vázquez The Mighty Pirates – Marooned / Aislado, Picaro Records, Nominación al Grammy 2008
Papo Vázquez Pirates Troubadours – From The Badlands, Picaro Records, 2007
El Niño Josele – 2011
Tego Calderon – The Underdog / El Subestimado, Jiggiri Records, 2006
Shakira & Wyclef Jean – Tema de la final mundial de fútbol (“Bamboo”), 2006
Ray Barretto – Normas rican-ditioned, Zoho Music, 2006
Los Pleneros de la 21 Para Todos Ustedes, Smithsonian Folkways, 2005 – Nominación al Grammy,
Bebo Valdes – Bebo de Cuba, Calle 54, 2005 – Grammy, Mejor Álbum de Jazz Latino
Papo Vázquez Pirates Trovadores – Carnaval en San Juan, Cu-Bop Records, 2003
Wayne Shorter – Alegria, Verve, 2003 – Grammy, Mejor álbum instrumental de jazz
Jack Bruce – Sombras en el aire, Sanctuary Records Group, 2001
Freddie Cole Rio de Janeiro Blues, Telarc
Chico O’Farrill “Carambola” Fantasía
Banda sonora de la película Mo ’Better Blues de Spike Lee
Papo Vázquez “Piratas y trovadores – En el punto Vol. I” Cubop
Papo Vázquez “Piratas y trovadores – At the Point Vol. 2” Cubop
Milton Cardona “Cambucha” Clave americana
Arturo O’Farrill “Bloodlines” Fantasy
Chucho Valdés “All Stars Bronx Lebanon New Directions Project” RMM
“Jammin ‘in the Bronx” Papo Vázquez Band, Chucho Valdes & The Machito Orq RMM
Chart Busters con el Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lenny White, Hiram Bullock, Craig Handy, Papo Vázquez, et.al. Chico O’Farrill Fantasía “Pure Emotion”
Steve Berrios Fantasía del “primer mundo”
Descarga Boricua “Descarga Boricua” Tierrazo
Dave Valentin “Tropic Heat” GRP
Juan Luis Guerra 440 “Fogarate” 440
Papo Vázquez “Breakout” Timeless
Ruben Blades “Amor y Control” “Antecedente” & “Caminando” Sony
Hilton Ruiz “Manhattan Mambo” Telarc y “Hands on Percussion”
RMM Tito Puente “Fuera de este mundo” Tito Puente “100” RMM
Jerry Gonzalez Fort Apache Band “Obatala” “Live in Berlin” Enja & “Ya Yo Me Cure” American Clave
New York Latin Jazz All Stars “Feliz Navidad”
Bobby Valentin “Presenta al Cano Estremera” – Bronco Records
Batacumbele “Con Un Poco de Songo” & “En Aquellos Tiempos” Tierrazo
Ray Barretto “Ricanstruction” Fania
Slide Hampton “Mundo de trombones” WEST54
Chico O’Farrill “Calle 54”
Fania All Stars “Habana Jam” Fania
Willie Colon & Ruben Blades “Siembra” Fania
Willie Colon y Celia Cruz Fania
Héctor La Voe “De Ti Depende” – Feliz Navidad, Fania
Mon Rivera “Vuelvo a Vivir” Fania

Sources:

Textos www.jazzismomedellin.com

Also Read: Eddie Palmieri brought salsa for the first time and live from Sing Sing Penitentiary in New York

His father’s love for music rocketed him to stardom

Latin musicians with interesting stories to tell keep coming out and today it was Colombian singer-songwriter Marcel Portilla’s turn, who has been kind enough to talk to International Salsa Magazine in order to find out more about his career in the United States after leaving his native country in search of a better future, such as millions of artists who had made the same decision.

Marcel next to Wendy — Marcel Portilla next to the singer of his band Wendy

The beginning of Marcel’s taste for music

As we were reading in Marcel’s biography, his father, Don Gerardo Portilla, played a very important role in the taste he picked up for Latin music. When we wanted to know this from his own mouth, he was delighted by the question and told us that his father used to collect music of all kinds, whether Latin, classical or from anywhere in the world. In fact, inside his business, he had a small music room where father and son passed the time and listened to all the music Gerardo had there.

They first listened to one artist and then quickly moved on to the next one as they chatted animatedly, which usually took all day. These interactions obtained a very young Marcel love music in its various genres, including Colombian folk music and the very famous trios of that time.

Gerardo generally gave Marcel a number of cassettes to choose from that day, so that is what they listened to. This great music collector was not a professional musician, which his son Marcel found very strange given his sensitivity to this branch of art. However, his grandfather, whom he would never meet, was a trumpet player.

One of his favorite groups was the Trio Matamoros and, whenever the family went for a ride, they used to listen to their most successful songs as they approached their destination.

The singer affirms that these years were the best of his life and conserves the best memories of his childhood with much affection and many of them were shared with his beloved father.

Marcel singing — Marcel Portilla Band singing live some years ago

Professional start in music

By the time he was still in Colombia, Marcel was a fan of all kinds of music and spent many hours stuck at house playing, rehearsing and listening to every single detail of the artists of the moment to try to imitate them as best he could. He also had a best friend who loved to sing, so they got together regularly to practice amateurishly. One of his favorites at the time was Jerry Rivera.

Sometime later, when he moved to the United States, specifically to New Jersey, he attended college and belonged to the institution’s choir, with which he had a performance in a large stadium. This was the first interaction he had with the public, with what he felt absolutely comfortable.

When he finished his studies, he went to North Carolina and met a guitar teacher and producer, with whom he spent a lot of time learning vocal technique, music writing and many other things for several years. After having achieved a certain level, this man made him decide to form his own band, as he saw him ready for it.

Since Marcel had no experience at all in the subject, he had no idea how to start and where to get musicians, so this teacher started to connect him with people he already knew. In addition to that, the artist got to work by his own means and published an ad in which he requested the service of musicians to join his group, which attracted a drummer who met with Marcel and they discovered they had the same vision of music.

It was truly through this same drummer that he managed to have communication with many other musicians until October 2010, when he could complete his band with about 11 members and make his first rehearsal. This is how Marcel Polilla Band was finally born and is currently integrated by Ecuadorian guitarist Jorge Lord, Dominican bassist Carlos Baez, Venezuelan drummer Alejandro Galarraga, Peruvian percussionist Raul Verano and Dominican singer Wendy.

Marcel and his band — Marcel Portilla and the rest of his band at the Harrah’s Cherokee NC 2019

What Marcel appreciated the most to music

Marcel told us that what he thanks most to music is the diversity and culture that he has learned around this time. He also emphasized that he does not limit himself to salsa, but to any genre or country from which what he likes comes.

In addition, he enjoys being able to mix all kinds of rhythms and seemingly different genres and thus create new things that have never been done before.