Latin Music

El Tresero Moderno San Miguel Perez

Cuba is and will continue to be one of the main cradles of the best artists in Latin America and San Miguel Perez is one of those cases. The producer, composer and singer gave us an exclusive interview to talk about his musical beginnings, his history and what he is currently working on. Don’t miss it!

Tresero San Miguel — This is San Miguel Perez, ”El Tresero Moderno”

San Miguel, El Tresero Moderno

San Miguel is known in his country as ”El Tresero Moderno” (the modern tres player in English) due to the styles he uses when playing. He chose the Cuban tres as his main instrument because it is a very important icon in the music of his country and the one that most represents Cuba internationally,

His first contact with music occurred at the age of 10, when he began studying classical music, but adding the Cuban tres. He followed this same path throughout high school and university until he became part of some Cuban popular music groups such as Los Jóvenes Clásicos del Son and Adalberto Álvarez y Su Son.

Together with the latter group, he released the album ”Respeto Para Los Mayores”, which was very popular at the time. This success led them to collaborate with great orchestras such as Los Van Van, with whom they shared the stage sometimes.

On one occasion, one of the members of Los Van Van took the stage to jam with the guys of Adalberto Alvarez y Su Son, including San Miguel. Seeing the Cuban’s talent and style with the tres, he baptized him with the nickname ”El Tresero Moderno”. This nickname had to do with his playing and the influences that the artist brings to the instrument when making a solo.

San Miguel playing — San Miguel Perez playing the Cuban tres live

Cubadisco

San Miguel was twice awarded with the Cubadisco Award, one in 2011 in the category of Best Tresero and the other in 2013 in the category of Best Traditional Cuban Music. These recognitions were very important for the musician, as the award was the result of a previous contest, which was focused on the work of treseros, singers and pianists from all over Cuba.

The primary objective of this contest was to rescue Cuban music and give new talents a chance to make their art known. Adalberto Álvarez, Frank Fernández, and Mayito de Rivera were part of the contest’s presidency.

Given that San Miguel was one of the winning treseros, the Bis Music label released an album called ”Treseros de Cuba”, material in which the young man was included. This was the album which won the Cubadisco award in 2014.

After receiving both awards, Adalberto Álvarez met up with San Miguel to invite the Cubadisco winner to join his group. He took advantage of the departure of the former tresero in the group to invite him.

Los Angeles

San Miguel’s move to Los Angeles was due to a purely professional issue at first. He went to play with Adalberto Alvarez, Peruvian-American singer Cecilia Noël, her husband Colin Hay from Men At Work and other artists living in the United States. Due to this and other work proposals, he decided to stay in Tampa and, time later, to move to the city of Los Angeles and make it his permanent residence.

It should also be mentioned that many other artists have had to work other jobs outside of music in order to make ends meet, but fortunately this was not the case of San Miguel, who had the opportunity to work only in music and did not need to resort to other activities out of his passion. He has dedicated himself fully to playing, recording and producing music for the past 10 years.

San Miguel won the Cubadisco Award — San Miguel twice won the Cubadisco Award in his native country

Composition, production and singing

Regarding the areas of music in which he has specialized, San Miguel began by explaining that he made a good improvement in composition during the time he played with Los Jóvenes Clásicos del Son. He also learned to make arrangements based on traditional music, something in which the director of the group, Ernesto Reyes Palma, played a very important role.

Regarding production, the artist did not participate much in that area, but he eventually did in the United States. It is in this country that he officially started his career as a soloist, tresero and artist. Three years after arriving in Los Angeles, he produced a first album called ”Un Poquito de Amor” in collaboration with Cecilia Noël and Colin Hay in 2017, which was a great learning experience for him, as he was able to experiment and mix many seemingly disparate rhythms.

Other areas in which San Miguel would like to specialize are sound engineering and remastering, but he is working hard to do so.

Current projects

As for the current projects, he is currently promoting his single ”Besito Bon Bon”, which is the main song of his new album. In fact, San Miguel and his team are planning to give this same name to the whole album. On this occasion, he mixed electronic sounds with traditional Cuban music to give a much more modern rhythm to the traditional genres coming from the island. The album has nine songs, is produced by Jay Carona and contains some collaborations with Cecilia Noël.

”Alma Del Barrio” celebrates 50 years of operation

The United States has a great number of Latin music radio programs that always sought to promote the best of Latin talent through their frequencies and one of them is ”Alma Del Barrio” of the well-known radio station KXLU, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Against all odds, ”Alma Del Barrio” celebrates five decades on the air after all the effort of its hosts and the team involved in such a noble and necessary feat. We say ”against all odds” because it is not common that projects submitted by university students did not used to last long and ended up being replaced by programs of the same style.

In addition to the above, decades-long programs usually have a single host and comfortable time slots each week. However, ”Alma Del Barrio” was the exception to this rule and, today, continues to prove that limits can be overcome.

Founders of Alma Del Barrio — Founders of ”Alma Del Barrio” Steve Lopez, Enrique ”Kiki” Soto, Gustavo Aragon, Eddie Lopez, and Hector ”La Voz” Resendez

Beginnings of ”Alma Del Barrio”

After so long, ”Alma Del Barrio” has remained up to date and continues to keep people’s taste.

Its main founders were Enrique ”Kiki” Soto and the late Raúl Villa, who at the time were two young students with many ideas and eager to achieve interesting things. The program was aired for the first time in 1973. A few years later, Hector Resendez, a freshman in college, contacted Enrique and Raul in order to write an article about this new radio show, but it would not be long before he joined the main founders in the project they were developing.

Three years later, in 1976, student at Loyola Marymount University Eddie Lopez joined the program on the third anniversary of ”Alma Del Barrio”, show in which he would spend the next 46 years bringing the best Afro-Cuban music to the audience every Sunday between 2pm and 6pm.

On a number of occasions, Resendez said that ”Alma Del Barrio” was not created to be hosted by great famous personalities, but by dynamic young people who wanted to be part of a small team that was just starting operations.

At the beginning, the new hosts only had one hour of broadcast time to show what they were made of, but at the same time, they did their best to get more airtime and have more presenters in the program. They wanted to include a not very popular genre on the station at that time, which was salsa, something totally innovative for the station.

In those years, salsa was understood as that set of genres coming from Afro-Cuban music and the novice hosts thought it would be a fine attraction to the Latino communities of Los Angeles. That set of genres came from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. This is when record labels and music promoters renamed these rhythms as ”salsa” in order to make it easier for programs and hosts to identify the music.

Eddie Lopez in Alma Del Barrio — Eddie Lopez working on the radio station

‘’Alma Del Barrio”’ programming

The traditional programming of most of the stations consisted of jazz, rock and classical music, but then salsa was incorporated thanks to the increasing popularity that this genre was gaining.

One thing Resendez said is that one of the most famous rock groups was Santana, so the announcer and the rest of his cabinmates were surprised that the musicians of the band knew so much about Afro-Cuban music in terms of percussion. Let us remember that the popular song ”Oye Como Va” was written by ”El Rey De Los Timbales” Tito Puente a decade and a half before the band recorded it.

This union of rock and salsa was what gave the hosts the confidence to use trendy Anglo-Saxon genres as a means to promote Latin music.

On top of that, the guys were clear that jazz fans would be receptive to Latin jazz, since great jazz musicians like Dizzy Gallespie hired Cuban percussionists in their orchestras. If on other stations, this music was successful, ”Alma Del Barrio” was no exception. Fortunately, they were not wrong.

Current logo of ”Alma Del Barrio”

Last years of “Alma Del Barrio’’

During the last years of ”Alma Del Barrio”, the program team has made great efforts to join and create links with the community, whether it would be through sponsorships, advertisements, public services, donation campaigns, among other things.

Through all this community service they offered, they also made their own work known and many listeners began to enjoy this great team’s talent while listening to good music and varied programming.

The program has also been and is part of great annual and historical festivals such as the Salsa Fest. This day is always reserved for the audience to share with the new and old hosts of ”Alma Del Barrio” and many of the station staff, who always spread their enthusiasm to those present with their good energy.

”Alma Del Barrio” and its hosts have brought joy to their followers, but there have also been some sad moments. One of them was the death of DJ Eddie Lopez in January 2023, leaving a great void in the station and the hearts of those who faithfully followed his career through the KXLU circuits during the last decades.

Paquito D’Rivera supports the salsa museum

There have been many legends of whom we have spoken in this section of International Salsa Magazine and today it is the turn of the bandleader, composer, clarinetist, and saxophonist born in Havana, Cuba, Paquito D’Rivera.

Today, we want to dedicate the following lines to one of the main references in Cuban music and everything he has contributed to the Latin music scene, which is growing every day in the United States.

Paquito smiling — Paquito D’Rivera smiling for the camera

Paquito’s beginnings in music

Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras, who is artistically known as Paquito D’Rivera, was born in the city of Havana, Cuba and is the son of orchestra director and saxophonist Tito D’Rivera, from whom he inherited his great artistic vein and love for music.

At just five years old, Paquito began studying music formally and, two years later, he was already performing on stage in front of large audiences, which prepared him for what he would do as an adult. That same year, Selmer (a musical instrument company) hired him, which was a very important step in the boy’s path to becoming an artist.

A few years later, he performed at the National Theater of La Habana, which was a very important moment for the young man, who shortly after began studying at the Havana Conservatory, where he specialized in areas of music such as clarinet, composition and harmony.

His first media appearance was during his debut in the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, an event that was nationally televised so that the whole country could appreciate the talent of the young choir boys.

A year later, when he was only 18 years old, Paquito and Chucho Valdés founded the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, while working for the Orquesta Nacional and the Banda del Ejército Cubano.

Paquito playing — Paquito D’Rivera playing the saxophone

Some time later, he founded the Orquesta de Música Moderna with some of his colleagues at the time, and then created the group Irakere, which integrated jazz, traditional Cuban music, classical music and rock in ways never seen before. Together with Irakere, he toured Europe and the United States and earned several Grammy Award nominations.

Leaving Cuba

Like so many Cubans, Paquito became tired of the situation experienced by the island and knew he had to make a final decision on the subject. He took advantage of a stop in Spain and sought asylum at the American embassy in the European country. Once in the United States, his process of adaptation to his new country of residence was not easy, but there were artists who gave him a lot of support such as Mario Bauza, Dizzy Gallespie, David Amram, among others.

It did not take him too long before he earned the love and respect of many members of the jazz music community. His place in the Latin music scene was consolidated thanks to his first two solo albums called ”Paquito Blowin” and ”Mariel”. His popularity was also benefited from a Time magazine article that talked about his great work and his appearance on the famous ”Sunday Morning” show.

He also collaborated with artists such as Artur Sandoval, Michel Camilo, Bebo Valdés, Claudio Roditi, among others. He also participated in the founding of the United Nations Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera Big Band, Paquito D’Rivera Quinquet and many other groups.

More recently, in 2027, he was in Europe with the Orquesta de Valencia at the Palau de La Música promoting ”The Elephant and The Clown” of his own.

Paquito and Johnny — President of the Spaha Harlem Salsa Museum Johnny Cruz and Paquito D’Rivera

Paquito and the Spaha Harlem Salsa Museum

In December 2023, Paquito visited the Spaha Harlem Salsa Museum to see the huge collection of personal items belonging to world-renowned Latin artists and, once there, he expressed his surprise at the large number of items that both stars and their families have donated to the famous museum.

In a post by Johnny Cruz, the museum’s president, on his Facebook account, Paquito said he was very impressed by all the items housed in the institution while supporting the work done by the museum’s staff and expressing his admiration for the effort devoted to the collection.

¡Attack Sergio! Unbreakable: A fun read because of the contradictory content

I placed the order online on October 25, 2023. By return email, I received confirmation of payment and a promise to receive my copy the following week.

However, after several days I received a delay notification from the supplier. It was understandable that an artist of Sergio George’s stature would trigger interest in acquiring the work that promised to tell his story, perspective and opinion on the music industry. Exactly on November 25, 2023, the order arrived.

¡Attack Sergio! Unbreakable: A fun read because of the contradictory content

As a reader, I was deeply disappointed with the content of the “book”. Attack Sergio! Unbreakable falls short of being an autobiography. I would classify it as a self-help book with little depth, no substance.

Writing a book requires literary knowledge, basing the content on rigorous research and stating the data with mathematical precision.

The cover of the text is appropriate for the trajectory of the artist who is the subject of the text. However, the data on the cover that assures that he is the winner of 19 Grammy awards contradicts the text. Specifically, on the third page of the introduction it says that he is the winner of 18 or 19. Evidently, the recently launched book should not be taken as a reference for a subject of such seriousness.

From the legal page it is clear that Sergio George is the author and that Janice Rodriguez was in charge of editing. Sadly, the work lacked editorial care, which detracts from the literary value of what is presented. There are many expressions that seem to be literal translations from English and that do not necessarily maintain the idiomatic integrity of what the author wants to express. Now, if that were the case, you should stop counting the missing and extra accents.

Having said that, I am going to manage my criticism, since space is limited and the idea is not to write another book about the “book”. Certainly, in the world of the versed salsero, of which I am one, the most awarded producer in Latin music has a great story to tell. But his literary delivery fell short. I understand the intention to approach his complaint as a self-help book. But that grand intention also failed.

I read in each of the 128 pages discontent, loathing, complaint, frustration, resentment and wounded self-esteem. Objectively, you have to read carefully to see that what he claims to do is the opposite of what has brought him so much controversy.

In his usual combative style Sergio George launches harsh criticisms of salsa artists. Resentment has won out over objectivity. Each blow takes away the value of his exposition, until it becomes the outlet that we all need to have at given moments.

Of course, emotional maturity is what prevents one from publishing matters that should remain in the privacy of conversations between the affected parties.

With a high sense of arrogance, characteristic of narcissistic personalities, the author accuses the “great salseros” of having murdered salsa because of their ego, pointing them out as the culprits of the death of the “musical genre”.

This becomes another of the great contradictions of the text. At times he claims that salsa is not a genre, but on multiple occasions he refers to salsa as a musical genre. On the other hand, he says that salsa is in danger of extinction shortly before assuring that it is dead. His point of view in that sense is not clear either, although he does state near the end that there is a legacy that does not die.

This is the contradictory nature of the reading, whose common thread is the attack. That may be the origin of the idea of the title, although at first glance one might think that “Attack Sergio!” is the repetition of the battle cry that invites him to attack the piano, while he prolifically produces music.

I believe in the evolution of the species and I see that the adaptations through which salsa has gone through are similar to the genetic modifications necessary so that, within each species, the fittest survive.

The text has several anecdotes. However, due to the lack of details, these do not add value to the construction of the history of salsa. In some of them, the names of certain characters are not mentioned. I guess the author did not want to enter into a request for relays or preferred not to risk dealing with legal controversies.

With so much that Sergio George has contributed to the history of Latin music, it is a mistake that the book has not been given more structure and objectivity.

Sergio George has been a cornerstone in the history of Afro-Latin rhythms and is the owner of a brilliant musical career that has made many shine. But to that exposure, the text does not do justice either.

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

In the early 1970s, the American social landscape was dominated by the Vietnam War and the birth of several protest movements advocating for equality, justice and the defense of human and civil rights, and from sing sing a historic concert.

In the midst of all that collective turbulence, Eddie Palmieri and his orchestra were giving free rein to their social rebellion with a sweeping musical proposal.

But Palmieri’s rebelliousness was not only reflected in his music, but also in his decision to take his group’s sound to atypical and controversial scenarios that would attract the attention of the authorities.

By the beginning of 1972, Eddie Palmieri had already performed in some correctional institutions, including the Louisville Correctional Facility and the Attica and Rikers Island prisons in New York, but the pianist wanted something more.

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

In those days, a good friend of Eddie Palmieri was incarcerated in the sinister and historic Sing Sing Correctional Facility, also known as Sing Sing Prison, infamous for the reputation of its inmates and for its executions with electric chairs.

It was at that moment that the idea of an unprecedented performance at the facility was born.

Palmieri’s group was not only the orchestra of choice for Hispanics, it was also favored by the majority of African-Americans in the Latin dance world, and at that time the prison population at Sing Sing was composed mostly of Hispanics and African-Americans, so the stage was perfect.

However, it was not easy to perform a concert in a maximum security prison like the dreaded Sing Sing Prison.

However, at the request of Eddie Palmieri himself and with the coordination of Roulette Records and the prison administration, the performance took place on Wednesday, April 12, 1972.

By the beginning of 1972, Eddie Palmieri had already performed in some penitentiary institutions.

Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Correctional Services prison in Ossining, New York State, United States. The name comes from the original name of the town of Ossining.

It was the third prison in New York State, built in 1825. The state legislature allocated $20,100 to purchase the Silver Mine farm. The prison was to be self-supporting and not require a state budget.

Elan Lynds, a jailer at Auburn Prison (New York’s second prison), brought 100 convicts from Auburn to the new prison and employed them for its construction.

Harris A. Smiler was the first person executed by electrocution at Sing Sing on July 7, 1891. From 1914 until 1971, only the electric chair at Sing Sing was used for executions.

On January 8, 1983, more than 600 inmates in B Block started a riot, taking 17 officers hostage; it ended 53 hours later.

Sing Sing in popular culture

Near the end of Herman Melville’s short story Bartleby, the Scribe, it is mentioned that Monroe Edwards died of tuberculosis in Sing Sing Prison.

There is a song called La cárcel de Sing Sing, written by Bienvenido Brens, which tells the story of a prisoner in this jail who was sentenced to death for killing his wife and her lover. The song was made famous by José Feliciano. It is also performed by Colombian singer-songwriter Alci Acosta.

In addition, it was performed live by the band Corizonas (union of Arizona Baby and Los Coronas) in their live album “Dos bandas y un destino”.

There is a song by the salsa group Conjunto Clásico on the album El panadero released in 1986, called A los muchachos de Sing Sing, which has a message of encouragement to convicts.

There is a song by the French-Tunisian singer-songwriter (Michel) Laurent entitled Sing Sing Barbara, from 1971, which tells the story of an inmate who sends desperate messages of love to his wife from this prison.

There is a song by the Madrid group Los Nikis entitled Diez años en Sing Sing, which also gives title to the tribute album to that group.

There is a song by the Basque group Sorotan Bele titled Sing Singatiko Folk & Rolla.

In 1932 the film Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing was shot, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis. The film is based on the book of the same name by Lewis E. Lawes.

In the film Constantine, and in the official Constantine comic book, John Constantine is seen to use the Sing Sing prison chair to connect to hell.

In the film Citizen Kane, protagonist Charles Kane threatens his political rival, Jim Gettys, to send him to Sing Sing, when Gettys informs Kane that he will publish his affair with Susan Alexander in the newspapers if he does not withdraw from the election.

In the film The Pilgrim, Charles Chaplin plays the role of a convict recently escaped from prison, who, when he is at the train station, moves his finger without looking over the board of destinations to choose one at random and falls on Sing Sing, so he repeats the process again when he realizes his unfortunate choice.

In the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Holly Golightly periodically visits inmate Sally Tomato at this prison.

In the movie and musical The Producers, the main characters stop at the same prison and create a musical called Prisoners of Love.

In the video game Driver Parallel Lines, the protagonist spends 28 years in Sing Sing.

In the ABC television series Castle, Sing Sing is cited during an episode of the fourth, fifth and eighth seasons.

In the film noir movie Odds Against Tomorrow, Johnny, the character played by Harry Blafonte, says, “I know they changed his color when they rehabilitated him in Sing Sing.”

In the AMC television series Mad Men, Sing Sing is quoted during an episode of the third season.

In the series Breakout Kings, prisoners are transferred to Sing Sing for their help.

In the song Báilalo como tú quieras, by artist Tego Calderón, the phrase “If rapping was a crime, I’d be in Sing Sing!” appears.

In the horror movie saga Maniac Cop, cop Max Cortell is killed in Sing Sing prison by inmates and is resurrected in the form of a “maniac cop”.

In the Netflix series The Punisher, Arthur mentions to Billy Russo having been imprisoned 10 years in Sing Sing, in episode 4 of the second season.

In the novel “The Ppsychoanalyst” by John Katzenback published in 2002, the Sing Sing prison where a man served six months is named.

In Georges Simenon’s novel The Hound Dog starring Commissar Maigret, one of the characters spends several years in Sing Sing prison.

In the comics “Mortadelo y Filemón”, by cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez, when a character has done something barbaric, he is sentenced to Sing Sing prison and appears with the typical black and white striped prisoner’s suit, chopping stone with an iron ball chained to his leg.

In the series Law and Order the Sing Sing prison is constantly mentioned.

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