North America

Don Perignon and La Puertorriqueña are prides of Puerto Rico

There are many legendary orchestras in Puerto Rico that may not be widely known to many, but La Puertorriqueña is one of those names that cannot be excluded from the musical history of Puerto Rico and Latin America in general. Today, we were fortunate to interview Don Perignon, leader of the group, so that he could tell us about himself and the orchestra he founded.

Pedro Luis Morales Cortijos, better known as Don Perignon, is a bandleader and timbalero with whom we had the pleasure to talk about his musical background and the Orquesta La Puertorriqueña, which has given him the recognition he has nowadays. Then, these are the most important topics covered in the pleasant conversation we had with the veteran musician.

Don Perignon from La Puertorriqueña — This is Don Perignon, bandleader of La Puertorriqueña

Why the nickname ”Don Perignon”?

When asked about why he is known as Don Perignon, he laughs and says that this is the most frequently asked question he has answered in the past three decades.

It all started because his familly called him ”Perin”. Then, one day, a musician from Andy Montañez orchestra in Miami asked him why he was called that, to which he replied that he has always been called ”Perin” in Puerto Rico. Later, the same gentleman arrived with a bottle of Dom Perignon (a well-known vintage champagne brand) and said that, for him, this young man was a grown man because of how he conducted himself, so from now on he was going to call him Don Perignon.

After that, Andy Montañez took it as a joke and began referring to the musician as Don Perignon, which other fellow musicians began to do, so it ended up being his official stage name.

How did Don Perignon fall in love with music?

Don Perignon told us that the first instruments he liked were the bongo and the conga, but that changed immediately as he knew the timbal, which he felt was more in line with the personality that he projected.

This curiosity for music led him and other teens his age to create an improvised group, while being at the school and studying at the Puerto Rico school of music. It was not a long time that he was in the institution, but it was enough to learn everything he would need in the future. In addition, the style he has nowadays when performing and leading an orchestra was acquired by watching Barry White, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, among other celebrities of the day.

Don Perignon and Andy Montañez — Don Perignon next to Andy Montañez

La Puertorriqueña

Something that Don Perignon wanted to clarify with regards to La Puertorriqueña is that the project did not start in 1975 as we thought, but that the group started with other names until 1987, which is when the artist and his colleagues finally decided to name it that way.

In the early 1970s, both Don Perignon and the rest of his colleagues, in his own words, were ”kids playing at being musicians” who were only interested in playing. However, over time, they started taking things a lot more seriously and decided it was time to pass the baton to someone, so they all took a vote and chose the young man as their bandleader because he was the tallest, had more physical presence and more character.

That responsibility he was given was a training-school for Don Perignon and acquired most of the knowledge he has today about music. Although the group eventually broke up, the artist is proud that his former orchestra fellows have achieved success and obtain prestige in the projects they undertook, which shows that those seeds they sowed at the time have borne fruit. According to him, ”they all achieved their dream thanks to discipline”.

Over time, other musicians joined the orchestra and also did their bit to make La Puertorriqueña what it is today.

Demostrando a Tiempo

Don Peringnon has said that one of the most important features of La Puertorriqueña is to always pay homage to the dancers and of course their latest album ”Demostrando a Tiempo” could not be the exception. Orchestras and Latin artists in general can interpret music in their own way, but a common denominator between all of them is that they will always include the characteristic spice of the dance and that is what we aim for in each of our productions,” said the musician.

It is for this that the artist says that ”Demostrando a Tiempo” is not very different from the rest of the work made by the orchestra, since they have always paid homage to dancers and they will never deviate from that path. What has changed is that the group experienced with much more romantic lyrics than ever and included them in special rhythms for dancers. This makes the production have the perfect fusion of rhythms for those who dance or simply listen.

Another important detail is that ”Demostrando a Tiempo” can also be defined as a mix between tradition and modernity. In this regard, the bandleader points out that, in the early days of salsa, most musicians were self-taught, until conservatories and music schools welcomed salsa, so musicians were better academically trained and new ways of performing and doing things in general emerged. Therefore, Don Perignon and his musicians, who are from the old guard, have had to adapt to the new times, but without leaving aside the essence with which they started their project.

Some of its main songs are a new version of the classic ”Soy Tu Ley”, ”A Quien Iré”, ”Sácala A Bailar”, ”Sin Rumbo”, among many others that La Puertorriqueña fans will find in this album.

After a few weeks of its release, critical reception to the album was very positive and Don Perignon trusts that the impact will be greater as days go by.

Young Puerto Rican singer Jeremy Bosch supports the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum

There are many people who believe that salsa is a genre of past generations that does not have worthy youth representatives who stick up for this set of rhythms that has been keeping so many people dancing for so long, but fortunately they are wrong. Jeremy Bosch, whom we had the opportunity to interview at The Johnny Cruz Shw a few weeks ago is a god example of this.

We are honored to know that one of the new sensations of Latin music, specifically salsa, supports one of the most important institutions dedicated to the genre such as the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum, so we want to take advantage to talk a little about the career of this young singer and everything he has achieved so far.

Jeremy playing the flute — Jeremy Bosch playing the flute live

Jeremy’s beginnings in this world

Jeremy Bosch is a singer and flutist born in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who began his journey in the world of music singing and playing percussion in the church on his block while growing up listening to a great variety of artists including Hector Lavoe to Chicago and Tonny Bennett, so he had influences of all kinds.

Not much time would past before Jeremy took achevable steps towards the direction he was meant to take. At only 17 years old, he won a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in the city of Boston, United States, and graduated in 2023, specializing in jazz composition. From then on, what followed for the young artist have been successes and great proposals he could seize.

One of thse things he is best known for is having been the vocalist and flutist of the acclaimed group Spanish Harlem Orchestra, but that has not stopped him from collaborating with great figures in the industry such as musical director and Grammy-winning percussionist Pete Perignon, with whom he recorded the social short called ”Sería Una Pena”.

Johnny and Jeremy — Johnny Cruz and Jeremy Bosch posing for the camera

Jeremy’s professional career

Sometime later, he would have the opportunity to realize one of the most important works of his career, which is the tribute to the late Cheo Feliciano, which was recorded live at the Dizzy Club in New York City and was titled ”The Music of Cheo Feliciano. In addition, the project included Nelson Gonzalez, Johnny ”Dandy” Rodriguez and Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader Oscar Hernandez.

With regard to this great night for his career, Jeremy commented that since his debut both he and arranger and vibraphonist Felipe Fourniel had long time wanting to work on something about Cheo Feliciano and his legacy for a long time until they finally made it. This show was the sign that Jeremy has everything to become an icon of salsa and Afro-Caribbean music in general.

As for his solo career, he has made a few remarkable recordings and one of them was ”Prologo Hoy”, which included the participation of Nicaraguan singer Luis Enrique and Cuban vocalist and guitarist Alain Perez. It is a five-song EP that focuses a lot on Afro-Colombian and tropical music, while including some covers in English such as ”Love Holiday”, which gives a distinct flavor to the material as a whole.

Jeremy and Johnny on the set — Jeremy Bosch and Johnny Cruz on the set of The Johnny Cruz Show

Later on, Jeremy released ”Epilogo: la clave del tiempo”, which includes 11 tracks and is basically a mix of Afro-Cuban rhythms, soneo, urban genres, modern synthesizers, among other elements. The album starts with ”Locura” and continues with singles such as ”Try Again”, ”La Mala”, ”Autopsia” and a few more.

Support for the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum

In the social networks of the director of the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum, Johnny Cruz, there is a clip in which the The Johnny Cruz Show host introduces Jeremy as his special guest on that occasion, promotes the interview with him and describes him as the sensation of the moment. Then, the camera goes n Jeremy’s face, who thanks the invitation with a smile and assures that they both will have a good time talking about his life and career.

We are honred to support young talents like Jeremy and, at the same time, to get the same support and love back because that is what salsa and the Latin music scene in general needs, that all those involved join together around it to keep it alive.

Jerry Ferrao says in salsa key: “My life is a drum”.

With a lifetime dedicated to folk music, singer-songwriter Jerry Ferrao has been bringing us some good salsa for some time now. With seven recordings to his credit; Restauración, Esto sí es Navidad, Paisajes de mi Negrura, Puertorican Folkloric Jazz, Tiempo al Tiempo, De Guerreros y Batallas and Desafío, it is clear that the salsa path he decided to take a couple of years ago brought a lot of musical experience, and a very tasty one at that.

Jerry Ferrao afirma en clave de salsa “Mi vida es un tambor”

I invite you to listen to his latest single ‘Mi vida es un tambor’, also available on YouTube:

The track -whose musical arrangement is by Jerry Ferrao and John Rivera Rosa- features the participation of great recording studio musicians, such as: Efraín Hernández on bass; Juan Gómez on piano; Angie Machado, Jaimar Vázquez and Javier Meléndez on trumpets; Benny Marín, Víctor Román and Noel Abel on saxophones; Pedro Dueño on bongo; plus a parade of top-notch guests: Endel Dueño on timbal, Kachiro Thompson on tumbadoras and Luis Aquino, in a masterful trumpet solo. Backing up Jerry Ferrao’s lead vocals, we hear the voices of Flor Angel Guilbe, Wiki Gonzalez and Nandy “El Sinsonte” on backing vocals.

“I do it first out of a desire to explore new horizons. I’ve been in the bomba and plena for many years. I was with La Familia Cepeda for more than 20 years and with Los Hermanos Ayala from the town of Loíza for six to seven years. I was a disciple of the great masters: Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles, Marcial Reyes Arvelo and Tomás Flores, among others. The time has come for me, I am a composer! I have composed songs for several orchestras and folklore groups, it was time to write for myself! I said to myself, I am a composer and singer and I am going to design my own music,” he said.

He lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina while studying cinematography. There, Ferrao sang with the salsa orchestra La Clave Genética. It may have been there that the definitive leap to salsa was conceived.

Following the scourge of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (2017), Jerry dedicated a salsa track titled ‘Retoñando’ (available on YouTube) to the memory of all his compueblanos who left in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Jerry Ferrao relates that he began receiving suggestions for him to record salsa because his voice excelled in that sound. “That must be because I have been listening to salsa, enjoying and appreciating it since I was a child. I have a family of well-known musicians, particularly because they are percussionists, timbaleros, congueros, bongoseros,” he said.

Con toda una vida dedicada a la música folclórica, el cantautor Jerry Ferrao ha estado trayéndonos salsa de la buena

In 2012 he published what could be considered the most important documentary on the history of the Puerto Rican bomba, Ayeres de la Bomba. This document has been praised by prestigious ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, sociologists and researchers specializing in Puerto Rico’s black history. I add with certainty, that our Jerry Ferrao must be considered as the authority on our folkloric rhythms.

Since he was a child, he was influenced by the art of Afro-Antillean roots music, especially salsa and guaguancó. With uncles like percussionists Pedro Dueño, Ángel Dueño and Endel Dueño, nicknamed “Los Hermanos Dueño” in the popular artistic scene, who have been recognized in different parts of the world, mainly by salsa and Latin jazz lovers, it should come as no surprise that Ferrao has grown up immersed in the rhythm and flavor that continues to dictate his creativity.

Determined to focus on salsa, he affirms that his contribution to Borikua folklore was also his musical foundation. “Yes, it is something that lives with me and I will continue to cultivate it in some way. Who knows if in the future I will do my own little things for the public, that I will sneak in some bomba or plena between salsa and salsa. I have been in folklore since I was about eight years old”, Ferrao said shortly before affirming that with the album Desafío (2022), which contains 12 songs of his inspiration, he made his formal entry into salsa. Jerry Ferrao bets on salsa, and salsa fans bet on Jerry. His efforts have not gone unnoticed and as a salsa artist, the excellence with which he has produced his musical deliveries is striking. “I swear it was a tremendous challenge to do all this. For different reasons, the production took about three or four years. All the songs and arrangements are my own, and I don’t even play guitar, although I would love to!” he shared.

The images are by Kali Torres

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Career and interesting facts about Venezuelan singer and musician Omar Ledezma Jr.

Venezuelan singer, percussionist and music teacher Omar Ledezma Jr. has already talked to us in the past and has revealed important details regarding his life and career, but this time, our editor Eduardo Guilarte has been in charge of interviewing him and revealing some unknown details about his different facets professionally and personally.

Is such a pleasure to have the chance to talk to one of the most talented Latin musicians who currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and know so many things that the artist had not previously revealed.

Venezuelan percussionist Omar Ledezma — This is Omar Ledezma Jr., Venezuelan singer, percussionist and music teacher

Omar Ledezma’s beginnings in music and childhood

Omar Ledezma Jr. was born on February 17, 1972 in Caracas, Venezuela, and was raised in a very close family that gave him a lot of love and care since he was a child. Both the Ledezma and López families were very important in his growth, but it was from the Ledezma’s that he got his musical vein.

His mother and cousin José Vicente Rodríguez López decided to enroll him in the marching band at the Claret School, where he had his first contact with music by playing the snare drum, an instrument he was first assigned to play. It is also in the band where he started making friends with other teens who were already forming gaitas groups to compete in contests related to this traditional Venezuelan genre.

When he turned 16, he began to participate in these gaitas inter-school competitions in 1987 and 1988. In 1989, he participated in his first big musical event at the nightclub Mata de Coco. Omar assures that this was the official start of his career in a more professional way. A few years later, going hand-in-hand with his father, he began to take a deeper interest in music as a profession and wanted to experiment with other genres such as Afro-Cuban music and Latin jazz.

This path led him to join the orchestra La Charanga Clásica led by Mr. Frank Luzón. While playing there, he met several inspiration timbaleros such as Daniel Cádiz (from the Andy Durán Orchestra).

In parallel with all of the above, Omar was admitted to study in law school at the Santa María University, so he shared his time between his university studies and his professional musical activities. In his spare time outside the university, he played Latin jazz and was formed as a percussionist with his orchestra.

In 1995, Omar graduated as a lawyer as part of the class ”Honor a Venezuela” ranked in 12th place among his classmates. Although today he is not engage in law at all, he considers that having continued his studies was very important to him as a person because he would have a base on which to stand on in case his plans with music fell through.

However, the artist never thought about practicing law, since he was very clear that it would be difficult to do so due to the legal situation in Venezuela, so he continued to focus on his great passion, which was music. Besides, after analyzing it, he decided that he did not have a natural talent for that career.

In parallel, during those years as a law student, he made a trip to Cuba, which he claims changed his life completely. Some friends he made there, when seeing his skills as a musician, told him that he could be studying law, but that his life was and would be music forever.

Omar graduating as a lawyer — Omar Ledezma Jr. graduating from Berkee College of Music

The United States and Berklee College of Music

Just a few years after graduating, specifically in 1998, Omar made the decision to move to the United States looking for new opportunities and describes this trip as an exploring experience because many of his friends, orchestra fellows and acquaintances from the musical environment in general started taking new directions in the mid 90’s. The young man knew he wanted to do the same and chose the city of Boston to settle in at first.

Although he finally moved to Boston in 1998, already in 1997, his mother gave him the idea of going to the United States with an open ticket so he could decide whether to stay permanently or return. In the end, he opted not to use the return ticket and stayed in Boston to try to enter any music school through a scholarship.

After checking several options, he chose Berklee College of Music because it was the only college that allowed him to study composition and arranging as hand percussionist, so he auditioned to be admitted and was selected in the fall of 1999. He obtained a 70% scholarship, but he had to work hard to get the remaining 30%. In that sense, Omar assures that the same school helped him to obtain the corresponding permits to work legally in the country and thus be able to pay the percentage that is not covered by the scholarship.

Omar also told us that it was his friend Gonzalo Grau who helped him do the demo with which he auditioned to enter Berklee and it was a song of his own titled ”Cacao”. Today, he assures that that recording gave him one of the greatest opportunities he has ever had in life, which was to study there. He spent a total of four years studying in that institution and graduated in 2003.

During his undergraduate studies at Berklee, Omar had the option to study business and intellectual property and his lawyer’s training made it easier for him, but he defines himself as a ”natural born performer” and his life was the stage, so he did not see himself stuck in an office solving cases.

One of the first jobs Omar had in Los Angeles was replacing the singer from Johnny Polanco’s prestigious orchestra and that one that helped him take that place was Ray Barreto’s flautist, the late Artie Webb. The concert was held at the Mayan.

Omar playing the conga — Omar Ledezma Jr. playing the conga in a live performance

Family

As to the family part, Omar told us that he had married his wife Jennifer Radakovich about seven or eight years ago, but they have no children for the moment. This is because they are still analyzing their opportunities to settle permanently in the state of California, so he assures us that they are still building their future as a couple and as a family.

Jennifer’s family comes from Serbia and settled in Detroit, Michigan. They had to leave their country, which was then the former Yugoslavia because of the war that went on in the territory at the time. In fact, at a family reunion, his in-laws told him that his wife’s father arrived in the country on the boat anchored in Long Beach, California, The Queen Mary.

Pacific Mambo Orchestra

Omar Ledezma started his journey with Pacific Mambo Orquesta practically since its foundation in October 2010, when he started playing at Café Cocomo. Santana’s timbalero Karl Perazzo, who was already included in the lineup of the venue, proposed him to go to this place to play as a percussionist on Monday nights. The problem was that there was no money to pay him for the moment.

That’s when the directors of Pacific Mambo, Christian Tumalan and Steffen Kuehn, proposed to the owners of Cafe Cocomo to give them some space to have band practice. These Monday meetings ended up being paid rehearsals open to the public in exchange for 10 dollars a night. This lasted some years in which the 20 members of the orchestra were in charge of developing much of the repertoire that has made them famous internationally.

About this time, Omar said that, on several occasions, he and his orchestra fellows sat down to talk about the continuity of the band owing to the lack of money. The wonderful thing is that everyone always voted in favor of their stay in the group despite the adversities. According to the Venezuelan musician, it was this hunger and desire to succeed that made the orchestra what it is today.

Omar, Eric, Karl, and Edgardo — Omar Ledezma Jr., percussionist Eric Rangel, music producer Karl Perazzo, and bandleader Edgardo Cambon

These efforts worked and Pacific Mambo Orquestra managed to win their first and only Grammy so far in 2014. That year began with the orchestra’s appearance in one of the main banners of the iTunes page for a little over a week, which gave them a lot of popularity at that time and was not common for Latin artists and groups.

That same year, the group began touring with Tito Puente Jr. in August and were so successful that Omar and five other members of the group decided to begin campaigning for that year’s Grammys via e-mails to all the members of the jury promoting their latest album. Then, on tour, they received the news of their nomination (the second of Omar’s career), but they did not think they would win.

Much to the surprise of Omar, in January 2014, he received word that Pacific Mambo Orquesta won its first Grammy in the category of Latin Tropical Album of the Year. This event changed the lives of everyone in the group to the extent that large media outlets started looking at them. One of them was world-famous Billboard magazine, which published a piece talking about the band and its talents.

It is important to stress that, although it was an experience the musician will never forget in his life, he is aware that this is in the past and has to look ahead and focus on his future successes. At this moment, Omar and his companions are focused on making up for time lost during the pandemic and performing all the activities that confinement prevented them from doing.

The Conga Room closes its doors, but says goodbye in style

Recently, we learned some unfortunate news for the Latin music scene and the community in general and it is that The Conga Room, one of the most important nightclubs in Los Angeles, will close its doors this March, which has shocked those who used to frequent the cheerful and colorful place to forget their everyday problems for a few hours of dancing.

This great place was opened in 1999 by businessman Brad Gluckstein thanks to the support of leading figures in the entertainment industry such as businesswoman, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, actor Jimmy Smits, actor Paul Rodriguez and actress Sheila E.

Although it first opened its doors on Wilshire Boulevard in 1999, it was moved to L.A.A. LIVE about nine years later. After the change of venue, there were personalities interested in investing in The Conga Room due to the great project it represented at the time, such as rapper and member of the Black Eyed Peas William Adams (better known as will.i.am), actor of Puerto Rican descent Amaury Nolasco, former basketball player Baron Davis and former basketball player Trevor Ariza.

It was these great figures in music, acting and sports who made The Conga Room one of the most recognized meeting places for Latin music fans and its greatest exponents.

Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez at The Conga Roo — Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez celebrating The Conga Room’s 20th anniversary some years ago

The achievements of The Conga Room all these years

During the years following as of its reopening, The Conga Room became an iconic place for music lovers and contributed greatly to the development of the Latin music and cultural scene in Los Angeles.

During 25 years of operation, it has not only brought the best singers and DJs from California and the United States in general, but also managed to create a lively environment composed of all kinds of cultures that transcended musical genres, to the point that there were people of all nationalities dancing to the same rhythms without any problem, proving once again that music is a universal language we can all understand perfectly.

And speaking of music, its little stage witnessed more than 500 live shows that included big stars such as Celia, Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colón, Tito Puente, Ocar D’ León, Tito Nieves, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Carlos Santana, Elvis Crespo, Los Van Van, Buena Vista Social Club, Alejandro Sanz, Juanes, Fito Paez, Jerry Rivera, Eddie Santiago, Tony Vega, Zacarias Ferreira, Invasión Latina, Andy Montañez, Atercipelados, Aleks Syntek, Beto Cuevas, among many others. As for newer idols, The Conga Room has also received Ivy Queen, J Balvin, Maluma, Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi and many more.

It should also be mentioned that; while The Conga Room’s approach is to promote salsa, merengue and bachata; the nightclub is not limited to Latin genres. In fact, there have been great performances by rock, hip hop and R&B artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Justin Timberlake, Avicci, Snoop Dog, Ed Sheeran, Andy Grammer, Jamie Foxx and on and on.

This shows that The Conga Room was not limited to the original concept of its founders, but sought to go above and beyond to increase its assistance every day. Its management knew how to reinvent itself in spite of trends and circumstances, which is why it managed to survive so long.

Oscar D’ Leon at The Conga Room — Oscar D’ Leon performing at The Conga Room

The Conga Room’s definitive closure and farewell show

The Conga Room was inaugurated with music, so it must also say goodbye with music, so it will offer a private concert this March 27th featuring famous personalities who will meet at the club that day to say goodbye in style.

The main star of the event will be the renowned Puerto Rican singer Gilberto Santa Rosa, who will be one of those responsible for livening up the night for the show attendees with his greatest hits. Likewise, the host will be Jimmy Smits and he will be accompanied by Paul Rodriguez in the hosting of the show, who were bot very important in club maintenance for so long.

As for the reasons for the closure, founder Brad Gluckstein has issued statements saying that the ravages of the pandemic, the few events at the convention center and the difficulties in booking national artists with AEG Live (a company focused on the production and promotion of musical events) have made the business model of The Conga Room no longer viable in today’s economy. Not to mention that cost of living, inflation and high interest rates have changed the priorities of potential consumers.

However, despite the sadness that Gluckstein and the rest of those involved in the Conga Room project have, the businessman pointed out that not everything related to this mythical place will be forgotten, since Conga Kids, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting the social-emotional well-being of children through dancing, will continue to operate as before. This beautiful sister project of The Conga Room will keep its doors open despite the setbacks for the sake of the kids.