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DIEGO “EL CIGALA”
The “Cantaor” Of The XXI Century
Flamenco has been his principal victory. Tango his maximum exploration. Salsa his greatest ambition, and Bolero his deepest romanticism. The world has witnessed his talent, Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar or better known as Diego “El Cigala” has immersed us in these torrential musical genres with his masterful voice for 24 years. Each album shows us intoxicating rhythms that introduce you to joy on many occasions, and many others evoke stories of deep melancholy in their unequivocal lyrics.
Diego, a good, upright, and friendly man has lived very hard moments like the loss of the two most important women in his life. Her wife, Amparo Fernandez, a victim of cancer that took her life in 2015 in her home (Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), and a year after lost her mother, Aurora Salazar Motos.
For 26 years, Amparo was his manager, friend, confidant, wife, and mother of his two oldest children (Diego and Rafael). She was always his stick of support even during the worst stage of his career.
Diego El Cigala has always been very familiar, sentimental, and a believer in God. “… My children make me and they will always keep me going, music heals me from the inside, and God accompanies me making everything possible”, explains the nationalized Dominican artist.
A year and a half after these fateful circumstances, the XXI century cantaor resurfaces and rebuilds his life with his current couple Dolores “Quina” and his third son Manuel, who was the product of this relationship.
Quina loves me, I love her, and she understands me like nobody. I have grief and joy every day of my life. I see my children, my wife, my granddaughters and shot forward.”
The Meeting
At the beginning of 2000, there was a meeting. Diego “El Cigala” and Bebo Valdés got together for the first time, and very much in the style of a bridal link, Diego and Bebo created a strong bond of friendship, mutual respect, and professional admiration.
It was an afternoon at the house of musical director Fernando Trueba where they met and did not stop exchanging opinions about flamenco and Cuban music. From there their first collaboration together, three songs from the CD “Corren tiempos de alegría” released in 2001.
Bebo ever transmitted serenity and tranquility to Diego, which allowed them to record two years later Lágrimas Negras, an album with which they won a Latin Grammy Award for Traditional Tropical Album in 2004.
Both artists lived moments of unique and spiritual teachings. Each day Diego regrets Bebo’s physical departure and misses him so much that every day he looks up and sees Bebo saying to him: What’s wrong?
Bebo helped him get to know the Caribbean where he ended up living, helped him transcend flamenco, and learn about other genres. For that, the only way to pay tribute to him was with the sixth track belonging to the Indestructible record production, Fiesta para Bebo, with the special guest, Los Muñequitos de Matanza.
Since Lágrimas Negras, the cantaor of the XXI century has been able to venture into new genres and collaborations, such as the material Cigala & Tango (2010), Indestructible (2016), and his most recent record production “Cigala canta a México” presented in 2020.
El Cigala Indestructible
Since 2016 Indestructible presented the greatest musical fusion of the American and European continent. It was a Salsa and flamenco production that brought together the founders of the Fania All-Stars after 25 years and recalled emblematic songs such as El ratón, Periódico de ayer, Moreno soy, and Juanito alimaña popularized by Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe, among many others.
Diego El Cigala from the gypsy ethnic group grew up in love with this Latin music since his childhood thanks to his father and the great stars of hard Salsa such as Héctor Lavoe, Celia Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, La Fania All-Stars, and El Gran Combo.
This tenth studio album in tribute to his wife Amparo Fernandez, and his great teacher and friend, Bebo Valdés, was recorded in different territories of the American continent, bringing the color and sound of Salsa from each area to this CD. The cities that he visited and captured part of the recording were: Cali (Colombia), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Havana (Cuba), Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), New York (United States), Miami (United States), and Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) where the production ended with the addition of guitar, choirs, cajón, and flamenco clapping.
As part of this fusion of genres, El Cigala had the opportunity to count on the talent of Oscar D’Leon, Bobby Valentin, Larry Harlow, Roberto Roena, Eddie Montalvo, Nicky Marrero, Jorge Santana, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Luis Perico Ortiz, Horacio el Negro, José Aguirre, Diego del Morao, and the percussion group Los Muñequitos de Matanza with whom he created a very special connection because they have a lot of similarity with the culture of his gypsy people, “I love them, no I’ve seen better people with so much heart “, that’s how El Cigala described them.
Indestructible, nominated for the Latin Grammy for Best Tropical Album in 2018, represents the immortality of Salsa, the essence of the Afro-Caribbean rhythm that endures in the Latin roots of the new generations although it no longer has the same boom that is enjoyed between the period from 1970 to 2000.
Salsa was in the 70s a way to confront racism and xenophobia that Latin Americans were experiencing in the United States. That unites Salsa with gypsy music and the gypsy people, who have also experienced these prejudices”. Diego “El Cigala”
Willie Colon’s in Concert – Mexico City, Mexico 2021
The 50th anniversary of Willie Colón’s musical career will be celebrated in the National Auditorium in Mexico City.
William Anthony Colón Colón Román, better known as Willie Colón, was born in New York City, United States on April 28, 1950, his passion and dedication were highlighted in the salsa genre, being a salsa musician, singer, American composer of Puerto Rican origin which gives him a special touch, since salsa is characterized by the abundant use of percussion (clave, maracas, conga, bongo, tambora, cowbell, among others). This is inherited from the African musical influence mixed with jazz, which permeated the Latin American Caribbean since the colonial times and gained high popularity in 1960 for being the novelty of the moment in the lowest and highest society, starting in New York with Dominican singer Johnny Pacheco.
In the case of Willie Colón as a musician, he has been characterized by the fusion of rhythms such as son, mambo, guaracha, cha cha cha, guajira, Colombian cumbia, rumba, Venezuelan joropo, among others; He was also known as the master trombonist, blended various Caribbean African, and urban rhythms, formed one of the most important teams of Latin music of the seventies with vocalist Hector Lavoe and is considered one of the pioneers in the development of the genuine salsa movement in the late sixties and the early seventies.
His music, which has been a great influence on modern Latin Jazz, because it reflects a traditional lyrical rhythm and generates the goodbye and the hope as he was forced to leave his country to settle in the United States, and during his musical career, he got 11 Grammy nominations and received 15 gold and 5 platinum records.
It is worth mentioning that Willie Colón is one of the few artists who have worked with several well-known artists on the international scene in his entire career, some of them are: Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentin, Reynaldo Jorge, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and David Byrne.
With the arrival of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in late 2019, the world changed drastically everyone, including artists of which many have remained quarantined and others have been promoted on social networks or online events to avoid catching this dangerous virus. Now in 2021, the quarantine has relaxed and we have managed to keep a highly effective biosecurity system to be able to do certain witnessing activities such as events and/or musical concerts.
So if you want to do something different during this quarantine, buy your ticket for the Willie Colon concert to be held on June 18, 2021, which promises to be a unique spectacle at the National Auditorium in Mexico City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his career in the world of music.
The National Auditorium is known for being an entertainment center located on Paseo de la Reforma Avenue in Colonia Chapultepec (a neighborhood in Mexico City) where a variety of musical events are held to promote musical talent in general and to be an appealing tourist point for culture.
the organizers that boast the salsa event confirmed to us that “With his retirement still far from his list of priorities, Willie Colón is ready to go to Mexico again.” And if you want any news, we inform you that the artist is also currently engaged in writing his memoirs and producing emerging salsa groups, so we will be able to delight in the knowledge acquired by the salsa master Willie Colon soon.
Buy your ticket through the various websites:
- https://www.songkick.com/concerts/39730937-willie-colon-at-auditorio-nacional?utm_source=53907&utm_medium=partner
- https://www.stubhub.com.mx/boletos-willie-colon-mexico/ev1103843
PIETRO MINGARELLI
To The Beat Of The Latin Rhythm
He made Latin music his lifestyle. He fused the art of contemporary dance with the Caribbean rhythm. He made the national and international stages his home and the Salsa artists his true friends. He is a professional dancer, composer, and director of online programs. In each dance, he reflects his style… He is elegant, passionate, classic, and unstoppable. This is how Pietro Mingarelli shows himself.
More than 40 years of experience summarize a series of national and international triumphs. At 5 years old Pietro was already seen as one of the best dancers in Italy. His beginnings were in ballet, Jazz, tap (Tip-Tap), and contemporary dance, achieving third place in his first competition with only 5 years old, among a group of 500 couples with competitors up to 12 years old, which allowed him to stand out from his first presentation.
For the next 10 years, he continued his dance studies and participation in couples’ championships with his sister, partner, and dance partner, Daria Mingarelli, with whom he won 10 national championships.
In the mid-80s, without forgetting the rigor and discipline learned in his dance studies in Europe, he finds himself for the first time on a journey of no return to what would be his true passion, the Salsa. During a trip to Puerto Rico, he was able to establish the click with the Latin culture and one of the main and most representative rhythmic movements of it.
Between participation in a lot of festivals including the Bacardi International Dance Festival, which years later its format would become Congress, Pietro had the opportunity to establish professional alliances with the Arthur Murray Dance Center Academy (Puerto Rico) where he began to teach by Mambo. During that time, the Mingarelli brothers attended local patron saint festivals that would introduce them to the Caribbean idiosyncrasy, to the cadence of the salsa rhythm that is not found in the academies, that it is not possible to have it without feeling the music from the heart and connecting the feelings, which has no other name than what we know as the “El Sabor de la Calle”.
By the beginning of the ‘90s, Pietro had a consolidated career on the island of enchantment, dancing together with Daria for different local Salsa orchestras. From 1994 to 1998 the brothers were the official dancers of Gilberto Santa Rosa “El Caballero de la Salsa”, who see them dance and immediately add them to his work team. They were the protagonists of his Video “No digas Nada y Baila”, recorded in Old San Juan on the Calle del Cristo in 1997, and participated in the “Show de las 12” one of the most popular programs in the country in the presentations of the Salsa singer.
Instructor of Instructors
From the age of 15, Pietro born in Alessandria was emerging as the instructor of the instructors of Caribbean dance in Italy. As early as 1995 he was the co-founder of one of the most renowned schools in Turin, Salsa Manía, with franchises in Germany and other European countries.
Since 2000 he has been one of the annual organizers of world championships with live orchestras, such as the Italian Amateur Federcaribe Championship and the World Championship in San Marino.
As a visionary, he created the online program “Dance Revolution” that combines the training technique of a professional dancer with the “Son” (rhythm) of the street. Each class is live and personalized. This course of various levels teaches you the basic characteristics of Puerto Rican Salsa, teaching culture, and the differentiating way from other courses is the use of instruments played live to adapt the assistant’s ear for a safe and perfect entry into the dance.
The “Mingarelli Style” dance school with the slogan “From the Neighborhood to the Academy” took hold of Italy and the teaching system based on the combination of mastery of technique, a rhythmic execution of Puerto Rican Salsa, and an instructional mechanism that isn’t only based on the counter but the rhythmic sound of Salsa, it’s the current teaching method chosen by most of the best teachers from different salsa academies in the country.
For years, Pietro has been doing altruistic work with his sister, collaborating with associations of children with Down syndrome, deaf, dumb, and blind children to give free lessons, achieving an excellent level of performance among children with these special conditions.
Latin Beat
The Salsa dance professional, Pietro, masters several musical instruments: the Piano, the Conga, and the Percussion, the latter two he learned and mastered during his trips to Puerto Rico.
This knowledge laid the basis for the creation of his orchestra Pietro Mingarelli and his Generation 73 at the end of 2015. The name of the orchestra was given by the year of birth of each member of the orchestra, coinciding in the year 1973. This orchestra varies from 9 to 11 musicians on stage depending on the space. They have performed to 3000 people in discos and dance halls in the cradle of Italy, Turin.
At the same time, Pietro Mingarelli has composed more than 20 songs, including 9 of them in his digital record production ” Hecho en Cuba”, where the Romantic Salsa single “Volveré otra vez” stands out, “Caldero” (more danceable) dedicated to the renowned Cuban Timbalero Juan Carlos Calderin, and “Mi cubana salsera” lyrics inspired by his wife Yusely from Guantánamo – Cuba, among many others.
Currently, “Alma en Pena” is his most recent single released in 2019 that you can enjoy on digital platforms and will be part of the new CD that Pietro will bring us with famous international Salsa artists … Maybe, Gilberto Santa Rosa could be one of his vocalists… We will wait to see what this excellent pioneer of Salsa in Italy brings us very soon.
A Ritmo de Salsa…
A Ritmo de Salsa is his most ambitious program created in 2020. Its original name was “Aventuras en Ritmo de Salsa” and it would be broadcast from a cruise ship for one of the main television stations in Italy. However, it cannot be carried out due to the arrival of the Covid 19 Pandemic.
However, this program did not remain in the drawer, it was launched online through its platform “Dance Revolution” and its first episode arrived in March 2020, surprising its audience with interviews with friends and great personalities from the Salsa world, among which stand out: Gilberto Santa Rosa, Charlie Aponte, Willie Rosario, and Bobby Valentin.
This successful program is 1 hour long; however, everything can change depending on the interviewee. One of the cases was the interview with César “Pupy” Pedroso (The Van Van´s Pianist, arranger, and composer) that lasted 3 hours, while 1 hour and 30 minutes was the duration of the program of the guest Alfredo de la Fe, Cuban violinist -American, who has shared the stage with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and other great personalities of the Salsa´s first line.
Each interview is loaded with history, anecdotes, mini-concerts, and learning tips that have helped these famous artists to successfully manage their instruments and their careers.
You can see new episodes of A Ritmo de Salsa on Sundays in premiere at 8:30 PM… And for this month Pietro brings us to the “Sonera del Mundo”, Aymée Nuviola. You don´t miss out on all the fun!
Let us remember the Puerto Rican Catalino Curet Alonso.
Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso was born in the town of Guayama, Puerto Rico on February 12, 1926, the son of an orchestra musician and a seamstress. He was just two years old when his parents separated; his mother and sister moved to Barrio Obrero, Santurce, with his grandmother, who was responsible for his upbringing. He also received his primary and secondary education.
Life in the neighborhood and his experiences there influenced his music. He studied music theory and solfeggio with professor Jorge Rubián, at the same time as growing up with other Latin music great legends such as Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, and Daniel Santos.
After graduating from high school, he began studying journalism and sociology at the University of Puerto Rico. For more than 20 he worked for the U.S. Postal Service and, at the same time, he was composing songs. In 1960 he moved to New York City, where he worked for the newspaper “La Prensa” as a sports journalist.
In 1965, Alonso met percussionist and salsa singer Joe Quijano, who committed one of his compositions entitled “Efectivamente” to record for the first time. In 1968 and 1969 he composed songs expressly for La Lupe such as “Carcajada final”, “Puro teatro”, and “La Tirana”.
In the early 1970s, “Tite” got into the salsa movement led by the label of Fania Records in which he became the composer of the greatest classics of the genre.
Alonso composed more than two thousand songs, such as “Anacaona”, “Periódico de ayer”, “Lamento de Concepción”, “Las Caras lindas”, “Juan Albañil”, “Mi triste problema”, “Tiemblas”, “Plantación Adentro”, “De todas maneras rosas”, “Marejada feliz”, among many others.
Alonso’s compositions were interpreted by the greatest singers and groups in the Latin American music industry: Joe Quijano, Cheo Feliciano, Celia Cruz, La Lupe, Willie Colón, Tito Rodríguez, Héctor Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Tito Puente, Ismael Miranda, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentin, Marvin Santiago, Justo Betancourt, Willie Rosario, Pete “Conde” Rodríguez, Andy Montañez, Rafael Cortijo, Tommy Olivencia, Frankie Ruiz, Rubén Blades, among others. Tite” Curet Alonso is considered the most important composer of salsa music in his country and Latin America of the 20th century.
Catalino Curet Alonso left a son, Eduardo, and a daughter, Ilda, as well as several grandchildren. He maintained a fruitful loving relationship with Norma Salazar, an excellent Puerto Rican exponent dedicated to working with children, literary work, craftsmanship, and dance with traditional Puerto Rican rhythms.
She knew quite a lot about Tite’s efforts because she knew full well that beneath that face, that unbreakable smile, and that ever-present hat, there was a man permeated by great emotions, a loving discourse with a political edge, and she kept vigil with a man responsible for his work.
Catalino Curet Alonso died in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., on August 5, 2003, at the age of 77, as a consequence of respiratory involvement which caused him a heart attack.
His remains rest in the Santa María Magdalena cementery of La Perla in Viejo San Juan. “La Perla, where patriots are buried”. His tomb is close to those of Rafael Hernández, Pedro Flores, and Daniel Santos.