The lobby of the Centro de Bellas Artes in Caguas served as a prelude to the concert, entitled Tocando y contando historias (Playing and telling stories), for which we came to enjoy “Perico” and his guests. Mario Ortiz, Jr. brought together a dozen trumpet players (Luis Figueroa, Richie Segarra, Roby Texeira, Rafael Lebrón, Kevin Ibáñez, Ricardo Marrero, Kenneth Torres, Rubén Días, Ricky Zayas and Simón Rivera) to pay tribute to Luis “Perico” Ortiz by performing his most emblematic solo: ‘Coro Miyare’.
Once in the concert hall, the child trumpeter Daniel Torres (whom Perico predicted would be his successor) and Luis “Perico” Ortiz kicked off the concert with a fun trumpet correspondence. The musicians, turned into actors, shared with us the scene in which we saw Luis “Luisín” Ortiz as a child, playing ‘Quítate de la vía Perico’ with his trumpet; introduction that gave way to the custodian of Ismael Rivera’s legacy (“Moncho” Rivera) to sing the emblematic theme to which “Perico” owes his nickname, while the audience enjoyed images of “Maelo” on a giant screen. The short film defined how “El Sonero Mayor”, personified by “Moncho” told “Luisín”, that from that moment on he would be called “Perico”.
Moncho also interpreted ‘Bilongo’, a song in which Richard Carrasco stood out on the bongo after the saxophones made themselves felt with forcefulness. “Perico” also claimed his turn with the trumpet solo that preceded a resounding “Buenas noches” in the voice of the virtuoso trumpet player.
The orchestra was integrated by: Luis “Perico” Ortiz on musical direction; Yturvides Vilchez, Jan Duclerc and Rolando Alejandro Lora on trumpets; Rafy Torres, Jorge Díaz, Randy A. Román, Mario Alonso Ángel Marulanda on trombones; Roberto Calderón on baritone saxophone, Luis Daniel Valentín Muñiz on tenor saxophone; Antonio Luis Orta and Luis Fernando Hernández on alto saxophones; David Marcano on timbales; Gadwin Vargas Vélez on congas; Richard Carrasco Ayala on bongo; Juan Manuel Rivera Colón on piano; Carlos Luis Martínez Peña on bass; Henry Santiago and David Carrero on backing vocals.
Then, Henry Santiago received the microphone to sing ‘Tres grandes amigos’. For the song, which refers to Tito Rodríguez, Tito Puente, and Machito; “Perico” introduced “Manolito” Rodríguez and Arianelys Ortiz Cruz, a blind autistic timbalera player.
He was followed by Norberto Vélez, who performed ‘Julián Del Valle’ (1978, Súper salsa) and ‘De patitas’ (1979, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, One of a kind) – songs of great vocal and interpretative difficulty, popularized by the unmistakable voice of Rafael De Jesús – with his usual sympathy. Nor-Bert once again demonstrated his powerful voice, and was matched by the saxophones, whose forcefulness did not diminish the power of Vélez’s voice.
“La India” arrived with her usual energy to interpret ‘Químbara’ and “Manolito” did his part singing ‘La Reina es la rumba’, in company of “La India”, alternating on the soneos.
Coro Miyare” made use of Richard Carrasco’s unbeatable performance in the bongo solo with drumsticks -which had been popularized by Roberto Roena-, followed by the crushing solo by “Perico”, the piano solo by Juan Rivera, the conga solo by Gadwin Vargas and the timbales solo by David Marcano.
The highlight of the concert was Gilberto Santa Rosa’s brilliant renditions of ‘Atrevida’ and ‘Planté bandera’; recorded and immortalized by Tommy Olivencia’s La Primerísima, to which Santa Rosa briefly belonged.
After the intermission, as a tribute to the “Niño bonito de la salsa”, “Perico” invited Tony Vega to the stage to perform ‘Así se compone un son’ and ‘Borinquen tiene montuno’, the latter adorned with an elaborate trumpet solo by “Perico”.
“Perico” brought Gerardo Rivas to the stage to perform ‘Río abajo va’ (1985, La vida en broma), popularized in the voice of Domingo Quiñones. Gerardo explained that he had accepted the invitation to participate in the concert without knowing which song he was going to sing, in a clear allusion to the vocal difficulty of reaching Domingo’s vocal register. Gadwin Vargas sprinkled the theme with a conga solo with a mozambique beat, very well achieved. Gerardo’s second song, ‘Perico lo tiene’, brought to the stage the cacique of the Rivas dynasty (“Jerry” Rivas, singer of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico) on the tres and Richie Bastar (bongos player of La Universidad de la Salsa). While Bastar took over on the bongo and the bell, Richard Carrasco took over the güiro. At the end of the intervention, “Jerry” asked for a round of applause for the mulato mayor, Don Rafael Ithier, who was enjoying the concert with all of us who were there.
Then, “Perico” dedicated ‘Perfume de gardenias’ to his mother; a speech that was enjoyed with an instrumental prelude performed by “Perico” and a great vocalization by “El Caballero de la Salsa”.
Next up was Rubén “Panamá” Blades, who received a standing ovation from the audience. This made visibility difficult, although it did not affect our enjoyment of the audio. Blades was in charge of the big hits ‘Plástico’ and ‘Pedro Navaja’ (1978, Siembra). During ‘Pedro Navaja’ Gadwin Vargas replicated the conga sound that Eddie Montalvo immortalized on the recording.
The stage was full when all the guests arrived to perform ‘Como vivo yo’, after Perico announced with a trumpet solo the song that would end the show.
As Luis “Perico” Ortiz said, the vote of love and confidence that we witnessed there will be remembered as an unrepeatable evening, which detailed what has been six decades of impeccable career that the trumpeter, composer, arranger and music producer has achieved.
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