North America

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

The now Doctor of Music Willie Rosario managed to fill a Puerto Rico Coliseum, with a capacity of 18,000 people, for the celebration of his 100th birthday. The production of the concert ensured that the musical proposal kept the audience dancing and singing along. It was no surprise that the “Choliseo” turned into a gigantic dance floor.

Fiesta de bailadores el concierto para celebrar los 100 años de Willie Rosario

Vocalist “Chamaco” Rivera was in charge of the performance of Willie Rosario’s orchestra’s first hit. Chamaco”‘s announcements alluded to the parallel of the Barrio Obrero, between our “santurcino” neighborhood of Borinquen and its namesake, located in Cali, Colombia.

Then came the current front of “the band that delights” to perform a selection of the group’s countless hits. The first turn went to José Luis De Jesús “Papa Chú” with the impeccable interpretation of ‘Ojalá que te vaya bonito’. At one point, when the song called for a duet performance, José “Machete” Díaz was the accompanist.

Smiling and with his voice cracking with emotion, Rosario greeted the audience, shortly before saying: “Thank you very much for coming this far” and giving entrance to “Manolito” Rodriguez, handing him the timbal. “Manolito” took the helm of Willie Rosario’s orchestra during several songs to which the young timbalero and musical director imparted his own tempo.

‘Anuncio Clasificado’ and ‘Cha-cha-ri-chá’ were heard in the voice of “Machete”, ‘Échame la culpa a mí’ and ‘El callejero’ in Erick Robles’ interpretation, and ‘Preparen candela’ with “Papa Chú” leading on vocals. Juventud del presente’ was heard in the voice of Rodriguez himself, who showed off his skills as a timbalero, director and singer, while dancing in choreography with the members of the vocal front.

During the segment in which “Manolito” led, the child Gerardo Gabriel Rivas entered into an explosive duel of timbales, corresponding with who, at the time, was acting as director. Humberto Ramírez interpreted the song ‘Míster Afinque’, which he composed and arranged in 2023 in honor of Rosario and which is part of the production Better Days.

At about ten o’clock at night, the birthday boy took over the orchestra to “continue in afinque”. With the “afinque”, came the main course of the concert, for which “El Rey del ritmo” arrived on stage this time accompanied by the duo composed by Gilberto Santa Rosa and Tony Vega.

Gilberto looked impeccable both in his vocal role and in his staging as he performed ‘Babarabatiri’, ‘Obra sellada’, ‘La mitad’, ‘Me tendrán que aceptar’, ‘Botaron la pelota’ and ‘Changó ta’ bení’. During the delivery of this last song, Santa Rosa was accompanied by a corps of veteran dancers, among them the always remembered “Mike” Ramos, known within the Palladium Mambo Legends and within the Mambo Aces as “Mambo Mike”.

Tony Vega was in charge of the interpretation of ‘Mi amigo el payaso’, ‘Busca el ritmo’, ‘A toda Cuba le gusta’, ‘Arrepentíos pecadores’, ‘El flamboyán’ and ‘El timbal de Carlitos’. Gilberto and Tony were able to transport the audience back to the days when they shared the hits of maestro Rosario’s orchestra, singing ‘Gracias mundo’ and ‘Lluvia’ as a duet. The team that shaped the centennial celebration of the successful bandleader paid attention to every detail of the presentation to make it a historic, unforgettable and unrepeatable one.

Willie Rosario, Tony Vega y Gilberto Santarosa

The detail that “El Caballero de la salsa” imparts to each of his concerts, highlighting each of the artists in the audience also took place in this event. The list of colleagues invited to the concert included Choco Orta, Luisito Carrión, Domingo Quiñones, Moncho Rivera, Ismael Miranda, Bobby Valentín, Jerry Rivas and Chucho Avellanet.

Although it is known that it is impossible to include all the hits of such a great career in three hours of concert, the selection of the repertoire was accurate and forceful. At almost 100 years old, bandleader Willie Rosario proved once again that, with his usual affinque, he continues to lead the salsa dancer’s favorite orchestra.

Also Read: Déjalo, the latest track by Pedro Conga y su Orquesta Internacional

Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo supports the Spaha Harlem Salsa Museum

At the Spanish Harlem Spaha Museum we always welcome the best of Latin music and, on this occasion, we could not stay behind, so we are glad to have had the opportunity to share with one of the best percussionists of the moment, Pedro Pocholo, who has a very interesting career that we will review below.

Pocholo signing his album — Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo signing a copy of his album ”A Guapetear” in 2022

Who is Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo? How were his beginnings in music like?

Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo is an important producer and percussionist who has made a recognizable name in the Latin music industry thanks to his participation in some of the most critically acclaimed salsa and jazz orchestras.

In music, it all started for him at the young age of 13, which is when he began playing with Ismael Miranda, representing the formal beginning of his professional career as a teenager. His efforts fortunately paid off, since a few years later, he was playing with Andy Montañez.

In 1988, he joined Johnny and Ray’s group, causing him move to New York City, a place that gave him the greatest opportunities he would ever have in the artistic area. He became so well known for his skills as a percussionist that he was sought after by many artists to play with them such as Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe, Andy Montañez, Tito Rojas, Tito Nieves, José Alberto ”El Canario”, David Pabón, among many others.

Pocholo playing the cowbell — Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo playing the cowbell in his studio

Important things Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo has done in his career

Pedro ”Pocholo” lived many peak moments in the musical aspect, but without a doubt, the possibility to play to former presidents Bill Clinton and Al Gore with Celia Cruz and ”El Rey de Los Timbales” Tito Puente has been extremely important to his prestige as an artist, so he just went for more and more.

This performance would not be the only collaboration he would have with Puente, as he also joined his talent to that of the timbalero in the DVD entitled ”Live at Manhattan Center” and traveled with him, The Big 3 Orchestra and Jimmy Bosch’s group to several countries in South America, Central America and Europe.

Sometime later, in partnership with vocalists Carlos Santos and José Peña, Pocholo formed the group Madera Fina, with which he and his two fellow musicians managed to place some hits such as ”Guarimbo”, ”Palo de Son”, ”Desde Que Te Casaste”in very good places on the charts. They also went to Puerto Rico to promote the group and seek the support of local media such as La Mega 97.9 FM, being this radio station very important in the dissemination of these musicians’ work.

Thanks to the experience gained from belonging to Madera Fina, Pocholo was more than ready to face bigger musical challenges, which led him to take on the creation, production and percussion of Boricua Legends, which has become one of the most popular New York orchestras of the moment.

One of the best years of Boricua Legends was undoubtedly 2015, which was when it released its own version of ”Si Por Mi Llueve”, a song that was part of the world-renowned Cheo Feliciano’s repertory. He also took second place in the GenGenSalsa Top 70 chart and eighth in the LatinosUnidosOnline chart.

Pocholo performing live — Pedro ”Pocholo” Segundo during a live performance

Pocholo supports the Salsa Museum

As many other Latin artists, Pocholo also supported the Spaha Harlem Salsa Museum and was a special guest on The Johnny Cruz Show to talk with the host and director of the museum, who was very pleased to welcome him on his show.

In a video uploaded to Johnny Cruz’s social networks, the host can be seen introducing his guest and saying that they would talk about a number of very interesting topics, such as the beginning of his career, the founding of Boricua Legends and much more. Then, Cruz asks Pocholo to greet the audience and the musician, who was decked in a grayish suit and pink shirt, invites people to tune in to the show and assures them that they will talk about important things such as Latin music in New York and Puerto Rico.

Finally, Johnny closes by saying that viewers can enjoy the show from 3:30pm to 4:30 every Saturday on channel 67 and says goodbye with the song ”La Fama” by Héctor Lavoe playing in the background.

Nicaraguan singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton in an exclusive interview

Yelba Heaton is a Nicaraguan-born bandleader, singer and guitarist whose strong musical heritage coming from her family has made her have close contact with music since before she could say her first words.

The artist based in The Woodlands, Texas has been kind enough to answer a few questions for us in order to know more about her musical beginnings, the creation of her band, her projects outside of music, among other topics.

Yelba posing for pics — Singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton posing for pictures with her instrument

Yelba’s musical family

For many generations, Yelba’s family had become very popular among her acquaintances for knowing how to carry a tune properly and having some guitarists and pianists in this melodic family tree.

In her case, as she grew older, she and her siblings saw their father constantly serenading their mother and playing romantic boleros on his guitar, so this instrument was a day to day affair for the children. This is how the couple’s children began to experiment with music both together and separately, which little by little sparked Yelba’s interest in this branch of the arts.

This interest reached such a point that both she and her sister Thelma began to compete in every talent show that was held at the school they attended, Yelba played the bandurria and Thelma played the guitar. Both of them were very good with each other on stage and their voices joined together in a very harmonious and pleasant way for the audience that heard them.

When she turned nine, she participated in the tv show ”Junior Patherns”, which was very popular in her country at that time. Already at that time, she showed her great skill as an performer and the way she would follow later on.

As she got older, she began to sing in the church she was attending at the time, but could not start her career formally until she became an adult after her divorce in the United States. This was a very stormy phase of life for Yelba, as she had recently separated from her husband and father of her five young children, leading her to suffer from depression and believe that her life was over. However, it was just beginning.

At the same church, she met another guitarist, who when saw the bad stuff that she had gone through, decided to invite her to participate in an open mic night at a nightclub, which Yelba did not even know what it was at the time. Although she confesses to being extremely intimidated by the great artists with whom she shared that night, it was an experience that she is grateful to have had, as it gave her the opportunity to put aside her sadness for one night and experiment with music like she had never done before.

After sitting down with her guitar and performing ”Besame mucho” to the audience that night, having heard those present applause and ask for more songs made her be truly happy and blissful. Immediately, she knew she wanted to experience that feeling again and again.

After her divorce, music brought Yelba back to life

Formal beginning of Yelba in music

That same night that Yelba performed at that venue, Jeremy Garcia, a flamenco guitarist accompanied her with his instrument and resulted in a beautiful combination of melodies that left all those present delighted, including the owner of the place, who proposed to both of them to make a paying gig for next Saturday, to which they replied ”of course”. That was how Yelba, Jeremy and bongo player Benny Rod (Yelba’s friend from church who joined later) started their paid musical careers as a trio.

Over time, the three artists caught the attention of critically acclaimed guitarist Mark Towns, who invited Yelba to sing with him at an event in Clear Lake and also gave him some copies of their CDs. Towns was a key piece in the formal creation of the band and the trust that she was gaining to sing in public.

Over the next few years, she was performing at larger and larger events and learning all she could about clave, song forms of various genres, stage presence and other important aspects of her nascent career.

Creation of Yelba Variety’s Band and Latin Fire

Although Yelba, Jeremy and Benny were already a trio, they still could not find a name that perfectly defined what they stood for, but that changed when one day they performed songs Yelba had learned to sing on her father’s knee when she was little. That night, everything went great and they received very positive feedback from the audience and the media who covered the concert.

As a result of this performance, a reporter from the Houston Chronicle wrote an article about the band in which he was very complimentary about their show and described what he saw that day as ”Latin fire”. The first line of the article said that: ”Latino fire is what I heard last night…”. Yelba liked this opinion so much that she decided to baptize her band as ”Latin Fire”.

Such was the impact this report had on her career that the Nicaraguan still keeps a copy of it and can be found on her website to this day. This was undoubtedly a very important event for her and her band mates.

Yelba and her husband — Yelba next to her husband and part of her band Roy Heaton

Yelba as a wedding planner and motivational speaker

Just like Yelba performs very well in music, she has also found time to work as a wedding planner, a hobby for which she found out she is talented. The artist has assisted numerous marriages with minimum budget, but with her help, she was able to achieve great things with very little money. This is how she has made engaged couples ask for her help and she is always happy to collaborate with them.

Another area in which she works on very well is motivational speaking. She found out she had a talent for this while doing her master’s degree in finance and learned to move in the corporate world, which gave her the necessary experience to address an audience properly. In addition, her career as an artist requires her to sing, play and dance in front of crowds, which also gives her the confidence she needs to speak to all kinds of audiences at a given time.

Without a doubt, Yelba Heaton is a multifaceted Latina who leaves our culture on high and we are proud to have had her in this edition of International Salsa Magazine.

Founder of Yambu Productions and host of ”Alma Del Barrio” Guido Herrera-Yance

Singers, dancers, musicians and artists in general are usually the first thing the public sees during any type of event, but very little is spoken about the companies, producers and promoters that are in charge of managing all the logistics behind these shows, so we wanted to talk to Guido Herrera-Yence, founder of Yambu Productions, which is an important music production company based in Los Angeles, so he could tell us a little about all these subjects.

Guido working at KXLU 88.9 FM — ”Alma Del Barrio” host Guido Herrera-Yance working at KXLU 88.9 FM

How Guido Herrera-Yance started in the world of music as a radio host

Many years before Guido even thought about the idea of forming a company, he began to establish himself as a radio host on the popular public radio station KXLU 88.9 FM, specifically on the show ”Alma Del Barrio”, which is about to turn 51 years on the air in October. In Guido’s case, he has been hosting the show for more than 30 years, bringing the best Latin music and artistic news to all his listeners.

The also producer confesses that he did not really like locution and that he was simply in the right place at the right time, resulting in the career he has built in this type of media. What it does say is that he was a frequent listener of several radio shows and a voracious music collector, which led him to meet certain personalities who saw potential in him to belong to ”Alma Del Barrio”. When a show was opened, he was the leading candidate for the job and accepted immediately.

Guido did not have any kind of experience in radio, but his employers trained him and taught him everything he needed to know to carry out his tasks properly. 30 years later, Guido is still one of the main hosts of the show and a reference in terms of Latin music radio.

From radio to event production

In 1995, one year after having joined ”Alma Del Barrio”, a friend told him that Chucho Valdés was going to the United States after many years and proposed him to make a show together with the artist as the main attraction. When Guido accepted, they began to look for artists to accompany the Cuban that night and some of them were Alex Acuña, Justo Almario, Luis Conte, among others.

The results were so good that Guido was left with the desire to keep experimenting with this field of the industry, so he continued to produce events of all kinds on a small and large scale since that year.

As the years went on, he realized that he would need a bigger and more elaborate structure if he wanted to continue to work on this, so the idea of founding a music production company began to take shape in his mind.

Guido and Chucho Valdés — Guido Herrera-Yance next to Cuban bandleader and pianist Chucho Valdés

How Guido created Yambu Productions

On the creation of Yambu Productions, something that Guido highlighted is that, in the United States, ”everything must be done very formally”. In light of the obligation to declare the income from his musical activities, Guido saw the need to create a company that would facilitate the procedures related to taxes and issues of this sort in order to cover his back.

Regarding the name ”yambu”, the businessman was inspired by a song by the Cuban popular music singer Carlos Embale, who was one of his favorite artists, so he wanted to honor him in that way. Taking this detail into account, it is not surprising that Cuban music and its exponents play a fundamental role in the events and groups that Yambu Productions seeks to promote, but it is not limited to nationalities or genres.

The company has set up events for Los Papines, El Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, Chucho Valdés, Los Van Van, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Tito Nieves, José Alberto ”El Canario” and the list goes on. Guido is very proud that Yambu Productions was the one that produced the only concert given by Los Van Van Van and El Gran Combo in the United States, which was in the year 2029. He says he is a fan of both groups, so this was a dream come true for him.

Upcoming Yambu Productions Events

This year, Yambu Productions was about to hold the Cuban American Music Festival on 2 June this year, but it has been suspended due to multiple factors, but the main one is that Guido feels that many things have changed in the entertainment industry after the pandemic such as demographics and the public tastes. This has caused the producer to rethink many things, as he is not quite clear what will be the path to follow by the company, so he prefers to wait.

In addition to the above, Guido is focused on his own restaurant that opened just six months ago and needs to dedicate all his time and effort to this new project, so it is very possible that the previously festival will be back better than ever for the year 2025, when he will be clearer about what he wants to do with this event.

However, he said he does not want to be away from live music, to which he attaches a great deal of importance in his work, so with the support of one of the most important jazz clubs in California, Catalina Jazz Club, he rolled up his sleeves and organized the Salsa Meets Jazz Concert Series for 26 April this year (at the time of publishing this article, the concert must have taken place). In this way, Guido wants to recreate that golden era of Latin jazz and salsa in New York, but in his own way.

The Salsa Meets Jazz Concert Series is expected to pay tribute to a different artist who has contributed to these genres each edition and this year it was the torn for Tito Puente. In addition, Catalina Jazz Club proposed Guido to hold events of this type several times a year, so tribute concerts to Ray Barreto and Andy Gonzalez are also scheduled before 2024 is up. He maintained a close friendship with both musicians, especially with Gonzalez.

Guido and Alfredo de La Fe — Cuban violinist Alfredo de La Fé next to Guido Harrera-Yance in front of Sabor! Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken, a venue in which Alfredo would perform some hours later

How are the logistics behind a Yambu Productions event?

When Guido plans to hold an event, the first thing he should do is to find a venue that complies with the requirements for the type of show he plans, analyze the costs involved, find the best talent for the show, hire sound engineers, recruit the people who will be in charge of the logistics part, among other things. It is an arduous work of at least six months before the event takes place.

An example of the above is the Cuban American Music Festival, which has always been held in May, so he should start organizing and planning for it since November or December of the previous year. This in order to have every detail ready on the day of the festival and to avoid any unforeseen problems that could put those involved down.

On this subject, Guido said he feels lucky to be able to have so many friends in the world of music, to stay on ”Alma Del Barrio” for so many years and to know people like Nelson González, Johnny ”Dandy” Rodríguez, Genaro Rivera and many others who are always ready to come to Yambu Productions events without even asking about payment, since they know that Guido and his company are very responsible about these issues.

How talent is selected for events

”Everything falls on me. I believe that I have the capacity, knowledge and experience to know what the public wants. It is for the very reason that we will not be making the Cuban American Music Festival this year, since the pandemic changed everything in the industry and I have to accept that what sold yesterday is not the same as what sells today” said Guido when asked how he chooses the talent he wants for his shows. He also added that ”I’m still debating with myself on which way to go with the company after quarantine”.

What Guido will never do is let go of live music because, in his words, ”it feeds his spirit”. As long as he is dedicated to music production and Yambu Productions is still operating, live events will always have a highly important place in the activities carried out by the company.

Guido and Poncho Sánchez — Guido Herrera-Yance next to conguero, Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer Poncho Sánchez

Grupo Batachá, Houston’s Premier Latin band

Latin talent has been spreading across the United States over the years and every day more salsa bands and orchestras are becoming better known in states where we never would have imagined before. Such is the case of Grupo Batachá, known as ”Houston’s Premier Latin Band”, which is established in the state of Texas and whose director, Oscar Larrañaga, was kind enough to give us some minutes of his time to answer some questions regarding his career and the group lead by him.

Oscar, Founder of Batachá — Oscar Larrañaga, founder of Grupo Batachá, playing the güiro in a concert

Oscar’s beginnings in the music world

Oscar has told us that as a child he always knew he was meant to devote himself to music. Even since he was in preschool, he showed signs of how would be his future in music by showing interest in certain instruments and styles.

The musical figure who has inspired him most in his family was his great-grandfather, who was part of a philharmonic. Oscar heard many stories about the musician, the way he played and how good he was at what he did, which led his great-grandson to want to be like him someday.

It should be noted that, at all stages of his formation, he never obtained any academic training related to music. Everything he knows about the job he has learned on his own through constant practice and attention to everything he wanted to emulate.

However, it was in 1990 that his career officially began many years later in the United States. It was there when he finally decided to create a project with a few musicians he began to perform at Latino family events such as weddings, quinceañeras, birthdays, among other events. This gave him the necessary experience to know how an orchestra works on stage and, of course, fitted for what was to come next in his career.

Oscar in a performance with Batachá — Oscar Larrañaga showing the stage where Grupo Batachá would perform that day

How Grupo Batachá began

Oscar revealed to us that Grupo Batachá was founded in 1997 in Houston, Texas, and made up of the artist and four other members who joined him at that time. They all decided together that Oscar was the best choice to lead the band and chose him as their director, a position he still holds today. Many members have come and gone, but he has always managed to ”keep the ship afloat” at all times despite the changes.

He explained to us that the name ”batachá” is a term that comes from Cuba and its literal meaning is ”fun times”. In addition, when he was in his early twenties, Oscar met the members of a group with the same name in Guatemala and liked it very much from the first time he heard it. For him, ”batachà” is synonymous with fun and having a good time, things he sees represented in his work with the band. That is why his album is called ”Batachando” and would be something like ”disfrutando” in Spanish.

Languages played by Grupo Batachá

While it is true that Grupo Batachá makes music in several languages such as Spanish, English and Portuguese, Oscar wanted to make it very clear that everything he and his bandmates do is aimed at salsa influenced by the typical Cuban flavor that comes from drums and Yoruba culture, elements that are primarily handled in Spanish. This is why the main language of the group is and will continue to be Spanish.

In terms of clave, it is much easier for the group to get into the correct rhythm in Spanish for what we have explained above. For the same reason, English, Portuguese and any other language are not a priority for Batachá at this time.

Batachá is influenced by the Cuban Flavor — Grupo Batachá’s music is influenced by the typical Cuban flavor that comes from drums and Yoruba culture

How Grupo Batachá manages its performances

During the band’s 15-year trajectory, Grupo Batachá has performed at more than a hundred weddings, quinceañeras, birthday parties, anniversaries, corporate events, among others. In each and every one of these performances, Oscar and his bandmates have always stood out for their professionalism and great musical quality, so they have no problem to obtain contracts and clients of this kind very often.

As for the method the band uses to select their clients, there is not much to explain. Oscar simply gives priority to the client who agrees on a date first and then tries to reach an agreement with the one who makes his request later, although he emphasized that this does not happen very often.

About this, he said he feels very lucky to bring joy to different types of public with what he likes more than anything in the world, which is music. It makes him really happy to be able to live from what he loves and, by extension, to transmit that same happiness to those who have the opportunity to attend one of his shows.