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Adalberto Santiago celebrates his 70th Anniversary next March

In this space, we have always worked to pay tribute to the greatest salsa legends and we consider it important that these luminaries feel the love of the public in life. That is why we want to pay homage to the man who has been a great pillar of Puerto Rican salsa as we know today. We are talking about the great singer from Ciales, Adalberto Santiago, who is celebrating the 70th anniversary of his artistic career. Here is a summary of his brilliant career.

Adalberto and Ray — Adalberto Santiago and Ray Barretto in the 1960s

Adalberto’s beginnings in music

The sonero began his career by participating in trios, which he accompanied with his voice, guitar, bass and even his dance moves. This was something very few artists did at the time, which is why this young man drew a lot of attention at that time.

He got to play with Chuíto Vélez and Willie Rosario, but his career really took off when he was given a chance to join the orchestra of Ray Barreto, which is when he managed to internationalize thanks to several albums that continue to be chanted by salsa fans until today such as ‘’Acid’’ or ‘’Rican Struction’’. Then, together with several members of this orchestra, he founded La Tipica 73, which revived Cuban son.

Adalberto as an established artist

In the 1980s, he became part of the orchestra of Roberto Roena and got to perform famous songs such as ‘’Yo tenía una mujer’’. He is also known for co-producing the album ‘’Calidad’’ with his compatriot Papo Lucca, who arranged one of the tracks and was responsible for all the musical direction.

Some time later, he made a new version of the famous album ‘’Sex Symbol’’, becoming successful in countries such as Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. For this recording, the artist had the support of Isidro Infante in the area of production and arrangements. This is considered one of the most legendary musical works of the singer’s extensive career, to the point that many salseros around the world remember it fondly.

Adalberto posing — Adalberto Santiago posing for the camera

During all these years, Adalberto has been the author of a great number of songs for many world-famous albums in which he has participated, either as a bandleader or lead singer. Despite the worldwide fame he has achieved, he always maintains loyalty for his Latin roots and, in his own words, the structure of Latin music is the most appropriate for his voice and singing style.

In addition to that, the artist has always had the capability and experience to move through many Latin genres such as salsa, merengue, pachanga, cumbia, bomba, plena, boogaloo, guaracha, pachanga, among many others.

He has always tried to maintain his physical and vocal discipline to continue giving the best of himself to his audience despite the years.

Celebrating his anniversary

As we said at the beginning, the great Adalberto Santiago is about to celebrate his 70th anniversary as an artist, an event that of course is to be celebrated big.

As a way of celebrating and thanking his public for all the support he has received, the singer has decided to hold a concert at the Lehman University of Performing Arts in New York City, more specifically in the Bronx, on Saturday, March 22 at 8PM.

His fans have remained loyal all this time, so we have no doubt that he and his special guests will make everyone dance, making this event an unforgettable evening.

Peruvian singer Laura Bravo and her multiple projects in the Bay Area

The Bay Area continues to be the source of much talk in the Latin music scene and very talented singer and vocal coach Laura Bravo is the perfect example of that. The young but experienced artist gave us the honor of talking exclusively with us to learn a little more about her ambitious career and everything achieved over the years.

Laura singing live — Laura Bravo singing live during a wedding

Laura’s early interest in music

Laura tells us that she has been interested in music all her life, as her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were always dancing and listening to music at home. In fact, her grandfather had a vinyl record player in which he always played boleros and Peruvian criollos waltzes, which inspired him to bring out his guitar and teach her little 6-year-old granddaughter to play. This led Laura to take a genuine interest in music and participate in events and recitals at school where she could evolve in this area.

On reaching the age of 12, her godfather gave her the opportunity to study music and singing at the Lima Museum of Art, Peru. At that age, she offered small concerts in which she was learning what she needed to pursue a more formal career in the future, something that she would achieve a few years later.

She also participated in a singing contest called ”Codigo Fama” and in some talk shows of the famous host Monica Zeballos on gifted children on Univision.

After completing her education, Laura moved to the United States when she was 17 years old, since she had many relatives living in California and already planned to move there at some point. That is how she, her parents and sister had been getting all the important immigration paperwork done for about ten years until they met all the requirements to be able to travel. In that state, her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents were already waiting for her and welcomed her immediately after arriving in the country.

Laura and Ray — Uncle Ray and Laura Bravo from the duo Laura & Ray

Current groups

Laura is currently involved in a cumbia band known as La Explosiva Sonora MX, with which she recently played at Giants Stadium in Oracle Park while supporting her local baseball team. The band also has a large presence at events and private parties where it makes attendees dance to their happy and catchy tunes.

In addition to that, she also has her own acoustic duo called Laura and Ray, a project she has with her uncle for the past two years. With him, she has taken over the Summer Nights and Orchard Days at the famous Filoli Country House.

All this without mentioning that he has also been collaborating with the orchestra VibraSÓN for some time with great musicians such as Jake Jacobs, Manny Martínez, Luis Morales, Carlos Caro and many others.

Marco Diaz Y El Tren

Collaboration between Laura and the group Marco Díaz y El Tren started thanks to a mutual friend, percussionist Julio Pérez. Marco Diaz and Laura coincided in the same orchestra and he invited her to sing with his own band in a small concert at the San Jose Flea Market, which represented a first test for her in the group and was very successful.

The singer says she has so much fun playing with the guys, which she considers a very important part of the work she is doing with them. ”The guys are all extremely professional and it is an honor for me to be able to share this experience with them. I always learn a lot from Marco Diaz, Saul Sierra and Julio Perez’‘ said Laura about Marco Diaz and El Tren.

Although Diaz, Sierra and Perez have been playing together for many years and Laura was the last to arrive, they have all been able to mesh with each other without any problems and hope to stay together for many years to come.

Laura and Marco Diaz — Laura Bravo playing with Marco Diaz Y El Tren

The NAAM Show

Laura discovers her participation at The NAAM Show as a wonderful experience. At the time, she was collaborating with a local cumbia band called Sonora San Jose, which was invited to attend the event in the 2022 edition.

She says it was not easy to get to the event venue and she and her colleagues stayed in an Airbnb during those days. She remembers with a laugh how she would wake up the other guests with her vocal warm-ups very early in the morning to be ready for the show.

Sonora San Jose was the first group to perform at 11 a.m. and its members shared with many other very professional musicians from whom they learned a lot.

Genres Laura has worked with

Laura is well known for working with salsa, merengue, cumbia, rock, pop and many other Latin genres. The reasons why she has been so concerned with covering many genres is that she likes to nurture from the energy of all kinds of people and reach as many audiences as possible.

”I’ve been a person who has said yes to many things. Whenever the opportunity to learn a new genre presents itself, I take it without thinking” says Laura about her musical styles.

Laura Bravo is an artist who is always open to try new things and does not limit herself to what she already knows, which has been a big part of the key to her success. It is a pleasure to have talked to her and we invite you to listen to what she has to offer in all her projects.

Laura at The NAAM Show — Laura Bravo at The NAAM Show

North America / February 2025

Directory of North American nightclubs
CANADA
ONTARIO		VANCOUVER
UNITED STATES
CALIFORNIA	FLORIDA	ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN	NEW JERSEY	NEW YORK
OHIO	PENNSYLVANIA	TEXAS
VIRGINIA	WASHINGTON DC

Saxophonist and flutist Dave Victorino talks to International Salsa Magazine

Dave Victorino is a saxophonist and flutist who plays various Latin genres such as salsa, Latin jazz and swing in the city of Los Angeles, California. The American musician has been kind enough to talk exclusively with International Salsa Magazine about various topics, including his beginnings, current career and existing projects. We hope that our esteemed readers will like the details of this conversation.

Saxophonist Dave — This is saxophonist and flutist Dave Victorino

Young Dave’s beginnings in music

Dave recalls that his taste in music led one of his cousins to give him a flute so that he could start playing an instrument and see what happened. However, over time, the young man preferred the saxophone, which he found he liked much more at the time. He reckons that his interest in music began when he was just a 12 or 13-yeard-old.

His interest in the saxophone began with a friend of his mother’s who was a teacher of that instrument, so he was the first to teach him how to play it properly and, even after so many years gone by, he continues to remember everything he learned with him.

Education

Dave graduated with a degree in music education from Cal State Los Angeles and assured us that one of his greatest mentors there was saxophonist Barney Martinez, a very important figure in Latin jazz at the time. This was a time of great learning for what was to come professionally, and that knowledge continues to help him a lot.

He also studied with other important music teachers and professors who complemented his musical training almost perfectly.

What has Dave learned from his greatest collaborations?

Throughout his career, Dave has collaborated with groups such as The Henry Mora Big Band, Temptations, Al Viola, Fred Ramirez, Little Anthony and The Imperials and many others. Obviously, all these personalities have had something important to teach the musician when sharing the stage with him.

Dave refers to Henry Mora as one of his greatest mentors in this whole process, as he had much more experience than the artist, so he had a lot to learn and imitate from him.

Each professional experience is one more step on the road to excellence that Dave and any artist looks for in his work, which is achieved through practice and spending time with more experienced teachers.

Dave playing — Dave Victorino playing the saxophone live

Great inspirations

When we wanted to know Dave’s greatest inspirations, he could not help but first mention the group El Chicano, with which he played in the early 1980s. One of its founding members and singer Bobby Espinosa, who showed him some recordings of the Fania All Stars and Johnny Pacheco while playing one of the best solos Dave had ever seen. In fact, the artist considers Pacheco his favorite flutist from the very moment he first heard him.

He also commented that he really likes the way Stan Getz, a Californian saxophonist whose main genres were jazz and pop, played.

How his love for Latin music was born

Dave’s first contact with Latin music was with the group El Chicano, but then came other groups that playing genres that caught his attention.

For several years in the 1980’s and 1990’s, he played in a park three times a week and, on those same days, a DJ would play music by Johnny Pacheco himself, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and other salsa groups. He became so fascinated with everything he heard that, little by little, he began to transform his repertoire into one that also included salsa and Latin jazz.

Initially, he only cared about playing this music without understanding the lyrics, but then he began studying and learning a little Spanish to get a better performance in his work. However, he assures that this detail has never posed a problem or a limitation to get good performances in Latin music.

Dave and Barbara — Dave Victorino playing with singer Barbara Reed

Music Classes

Another interesting thing about Dave is teaching. He currently teaches saxophone, flute, clarinet and piano to a good number of students, who have taught him the virtue of patience and determination to always learn something new.

His students are of different ages and he teaches various levels.

Dave and Anthony — Dave Victorino playing with saxophonist Anthony Gil

También lee: Eddie Muñíz continues to head Swing Sabroso

Damian Ballester and the transformations of Cuban Folk Dance

Latin America / Cuba

The relationship of Africa within the musical and dance culture in Latin America is notorious when we see the cultural expressions of the peoples of this continent, it is easy to see how similar they are, the use of percussion is one of the most relevant topics, in itself a mixture of cultural customs, religion, musicality, dance, in itself all the elements of the black race.

America, one of the main destinations of the ships with black slaves from many areas of Africa, caused our culture to be armed with a bit of each custom, therefore, we can say that in America there is a bit of each African people, this relationship of variety of slaves focused on dividing the forces of the race so as not to make it powerful, divided languages, customs, words and religions only left the marginalized population to communicate through percussion, an element that made the system improve at times of understanding within the fences where they lived.

Due to the above, African religions and customs are born in Cuba but, adopted by those already existing on the island, this combination gives us a rich variant of movements from three continents, Europe through Spain and Africa in all its splendor.

To clarify some topics of the folklore of the Caribbean island and its current dance transformations, we had to contact a great teacher, Damian Ballester, director of Iya Aye, one of the best folklore groups on the island of Cuba, to speak with this professional of the dance is necessary if we want to obtain real information about Cuban traditions, a great teacher who has left his teachings in many Spanish-speaking countries, among which Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and now in the United States stand out…

we begin by greeting him and opening a pleasant conversation, to which we got an original response “Greetings acere, what was it”, calling him opens up a range of questions on the subject in question, here is an extract of the most common doubts generated around the relationship with salsa, its festivals and diffusion in the world.

Greetings Prof. Damian, grateful for your receptivity, we want to give information to our readers about the relationship of Cuban folklore within our world, Salsa, to begin with, what is defined as Cuban Folkloric dances?

Grateful for the opportunity and sure, that if we report on the case, folk dances are nothing more than the set of cultural goods or phenomena that constitute a cultural complex with manifestations of all aspects of popular life. It is the sum of the manifestations acquired by experience, by inheritance, by tradition, by the satisfaction of biological or sociological needs, among other things. This lasts through several generations and almost always undergoes transformations.

They will get compound terms in the word folklore, which speaks of people or people, popular knowledge, together with the popular knowledge of the people. It is a very long topic, because I should talk about so many things about my culture, better let’s leave the definition until here and thus add flavor to the interview.

Much better, we continue then, do African dances have any impact on Cuban folk dances?

Yes, of course, it is the root, the exercise of dance has always characterized my land and has suffered the same processes of contagion and transculturation between the ways of dancing of the colonizer and the styles introduced by African ethnic groups since the 16th century, in fact, the colonizers brought romance, active in the Cuban countryside for several centuries, with its couplets and their ways of singing and founding alegrías, while the black slaves included their ancestral rites, their drums, and their particular sense of rhythm and movement. bodily.

Given this brief explanation, we can say that not only dances of African origin contributed or influenced Cuban folklore, we can say that there is also an incidence from Spain, France and the Caribbean, but its main axis was born from the Spanish and the African.

We know the extent of Cuban folklore, for how long should a person prepare to be called a professor in this branch?

First of all, to carry the name, whether it is a teacher or instructor of Cuban folklore genres, there are two factors that are very important, the first is study, since Cuban folklore is made up of a very wide range of genres divided into different styles, I could mention some examples: Peasant, popular, Afro-Cuban and Franco-Haitian folklore.

Within the styles of peasant folklore, examples could be given of the Cuban zapateo, the ripiado parakeet, the chidonga, the hawk, the caringa, the son montuno, among others.

Within the styles of popular folklore, the Complex of the rumba, the mambo, the chachachá, the danzón, the dance, the pilón, the congas and the comparsas, the casino can be mentioned, within the Afro-Cuban folklore the Bantú cycle can be mentioned, the Yorubas, the Arara, the Abakua, within Franco-Haitian folklore we can mention the French tomb, the Haitian merengue, the gaga, the vodu among others, if I continue we will not finish today. (laughs to close)

Of the folkloric dances, which are the most outstanding or spread worldwide?

It could be said that there are several, examples are the popular folkloric ones, one could say the casino, the mambo, the chachachá, the son, the rumba complex, that the latter people tend to say are African or Afro-Cuban dances, that have African influence does not mean that they are classified within Afro-Cuban dances because this genre emerged in Cuba, was used as an object of protest against the government of that time and was eradicated in the essence of Cuban. In the same way, the one that has had the most impact and remained in the whole world are the Yoruba dances or dances of the orishas.

Should we open another interview to just talk about the many genres that the island embraces, what institutions correctly form the folkloric traditions in Cuba?

There are many institutions in Cuba, from the community point of view what is named in Cuba as amateur dancer are the community projects and actions that are nothing more than groups created in the communities, all of these supervised technically and methodologically by specialists from the houses of culture of each area by provincial and national methodologists governed by the Ministry of Culture.

From a professional point of view, there are art schools such as the ENA (NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART) and the ISA (SUPERIOR INSTITUTE OF ART) all governed by a logical curriculum organized by specialists and connoisseurs of the genres.

Other institutions that could be mentioned, is the little school of the national folkloric group of Cuba with 56 years of creation in charge of rescuing and safeguarding the traditional Cuban musical and dance traditions.

Wao, Enough, Do you know if there is any similar institution in the world?

In the world there are countless schools that are training dancers with the Cuban style and technique, whether they are Cuban or foreign teachers, but nothing like the preparation of art schools in Cuba that work with a logical and well-prepared program, in some schools around the world it could be said that they do not work under a logical methodological program for the teaching of these genres due to the commercial and monetary part, unfortunately there are many dedicated to commerce, to money and not to the necessary dedication.

This dissemination has been achieved while respecting the roots and traditions of the farmers? The root? The original essence?

Unfortunately, it could be said that a good diffusion of Cuban genres worldwide has not been respected or achieved, of 100% of the performers, it could be said that only 10% are protecting Cuban traditions, it is sad to say, but trade and populism it is destroying the folklore of an entire country.

Have these changes in traditions positively or negatively impacted Cuban culture?

First of all, traditions do not change if they are not passed down from generation to generation. In terms of their impact, I see it negatively because the dissemination that is taking place is incorrect and worst of all, there is no organization, which was of Cuba, can follow up on the program that is being given to Cuban genres, in itself, many see the commercial and hence they do not care about the poor distribution of what is taught.

What is the reason that so many dancers seek to perform Cuban dances? It is notorious to see it at festivals and congresses.

There are two very important factors: 1 Cuban music, which has been evolving in an incredible way, fusing Cuban rhythms within its repertoire, and the other factor is not because I am from Cuba, Cuban folklore could be said to be the most complete genre available. world level from the point of view of dance, is that it has a history, virtuosity is varied, it could be said that it is well complemented, due to its complexity and interpretive difficulty, it is what attracts attention, additionally, salsa comes from us, from these roots is born what now wants to be denied.

Teacher and the Cubans? Have Cubans spread their dance correctly?

It could be said that the vast majority of Cubans have disseminated the genres well, why do I say that the vast majority?

Because there is another small group that deforms it, money changes everything, foreigners think that all Cubans They dance, it has happened that they say Cuban and quickly you think he is a dancer, he knows everything, he is good, and no, that is not reality, one thing must be clear about being an opportunist, not a dancer, being a dancer by hobby and another is being one by profession or for being a teacher.

There are Cuban teachers who are hurt by the deformation that is happening with what has been studied so much, but there are others who only care about getting paid and do not care if their students do it well or badly.

How has the interpretation of Cuban roots impacted the so-called Salsa Casino in the world? Has the original and real spread of traditions been respected?

Look, since Cuban music began to evolve inside the casino, it began to undergo a series of transformations from movements to choreography due to the musical style that Cuban orchestras began to spread, known as TIMBA, which was well accepted by the public, If we talk about the impact from the traditional point of view, it could be said that there is no original interpretation of the Cuban roots because they are not executing a specific traditional genre, but rather what they are using different styles of the traditional folk dances that all this could be called Variety.

Have Cuban music and dance festivals or congresses devoted time and effort to improving these transformations? Have they worried about minimizing the damage?

In most cases, very few, first of all, if it is a competitive event, the organizers make the mistake of hiring unqualified personnel to evaluate genres of Cuban origin, and that is where the serious faults come from. There have been cases where there are groups , couples or soloists who perform a good technique within normal limits and the jury evaluates for a taste problem if they see it as beautiful and give it less points, or disqualify it, it is not about beauty, it is about correctness, the organizers should be more careful about these things.

What recommendations would you give to our dancer readers on this controversial topic?

The dancer must be clear about four aspects that are fundamental to his artistic life and entire career: dedication, love of dance and, most importantly, study.

Do only what you love and you will be happy, the one who does what he loves is blessedly condemned to success, which will come when it should come, because everything that should be, will be, and will come naturally.

Let’s spend time respecting the roots and cultures of peoples, and above all, let’s take a good look at who we entrust our desire to learn, there are thousands of ways to learn correctly, everything is in the research, knowing who we contact and why There are hundreds of excellent instructors in the world, not to mention the many means of learning today.

I invite you to learn a little about this and other topics, I have a virtual classroom where I teach a lot of the theoretical and practical content online, I do it through the son rumbero academy and its virtual classroom format, follow the @sonrumbero accounts on Instagram and Facebook.