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.
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.
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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