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.
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.
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 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.
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