September

American composer, producer, and musician of Colombian descent, Julian Silva, offered us a very pleasant conversation in which we touched all kinds of topics related to his career and the group he currently leads, Orquesta La Excelencia.

The artist has been received by any number of international markets and has been responsible for sold-out tours and performances in more than 16 countries in total, so we are honored to have spent some time with the musician and heard what he has to share with us.

What inspired Julian to get started in music?

Despite not having any family musicians, Julian emphasizes that his father used to play and sing with his brothers as a hobby, but what they did was not professional at all. It was mere entertainment. Due to this deep love for music, he would always listen to all kinds of artists, especially salseros, with his kids while they were young, which sparked Julian’s desire to learn to play.

That was how the young man born in Cali, Colombia, and nationalized in the United States, began playing guitar at the age of 11 and formed a small group with some friends in trio format. He also wanted to learn to play wind instruments such as the saxophone and trombone, as well as percussion. He also took other music classes in high school, but after that, all he learned by ear and practice. The same thing happened when writing and composing music, for which he did not need any formal training to help him with that.

Music and Psychology

After graduating in psychology from Louisiana State University, Julian moved to New York, as it was in this city that he could truly discover his Latin roots through art. It is worth noting that, thanks to this knowledge acquired during his university education, he has been able to combine the two careers he is passionate about.

After completing his undergraduate studies, he also finished a master’s degree in music therapy, which is why he defines himself as both a professional musician and a music therapist. In other words, he uses music to help people, especially children and older adults, improve their physical and emotional health.

One of the things that inspired him most to use music as a form of therapy was his own experience as an immigrant. As a child who had recently arrived in Louisiana and did not speak English, he found it very difficult to connect with others because of the language barrier, so he started using music to achieve this.

First professional opportunities in music

While Julian was still in Louisiana, he noticed that there were not many Latinos in that state, but there was a fairly large group of Hondurans and Dominicans, so merengue was quite popular in that area. That was not what the young man was looking for, and many of these merengue groups, due to lack of experience with the genre, did not want to accept him, so he was always very clear that he wanted to start his own band to avoid such problems.

That was how, at just 17 years old, he had his own band and played at various venues across the United States, until he finally had to go to Austin, Texas, where they opened for Larry Harlow and his Latin Legends Band. It was that day that he had the opportunity to meet Harlow himself and timbalero Chino Núñez. During his talk with these stars, Julian shared his intentions to develop his career and Harlow and Núñez advised him that, if he truly wanted to play salsa and be successful, he had to move to New York, which he finally did after graduating from college.

Orquesta La Excelencia

While it is true that the official founding year of the band La Excelencia was 2005, it was in 2001 that he arrived in New York with a group he already had (Los Calientes del Son) which had previously been signed by a record label and was in the process of releasing its first album. However, the terrible and world-famous events of September 11th caused tourism to plummet dramatically and force New York’s arts to make a temporary stop. It is worth adding that reggaeton and bachata started to gain immense popularity, leaving salsa in oblivion.

The facts described above caused the record label to leave off the album until conditions improved. In 2004, seeing that the situation never changed, Julian decided to deviate from his contract, form a new group he named La Excelencia, and create what he himself called “salsa with a social conscience.”

Since he did not know many experienced musicians, he recruited young aspiring musicians, some of whom had not even finished high school. At that point, he started writing more seriously, composed his first song, “La Lucha,” and faced one of the biggest challenges his fledgling orchestra would encounter: anonymity. He nor his bandmates were not at all famous because they had not studied with great musicians nor had any relatives with connections in the industry, which made everything much more difficult for them.

As they were gaining more and more recognition, they released albums such as “Salsa Con Conciencia,” “Mi Tumbao Social,” and “Ecos del Barrio.” In 2012, they took a break because the guys wanted to focus on their own careers, other projects, and starting families, but they were never completely apart. They got back together between 2018 and 2019, when they released their fourth album, “Machete,” which would be released in March 2020. However, fate surprised Julian again with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although worried, they did not let the circumstances get them down and went ahead with the release so that people could enjoy their music from their homes during quarantine, which worked out pretty well in numbers and popularity.

Today, La Excelencia consists of Julian himself, bassist Luis Orona, pianist Willie Rodríguez, and singer Gilberto Velázquez.

Read also: Hector Rivera ‘‘Riverita’’ tells the story of how he created Riverita Y Su Orquesta Noche Caliente