Search Results for: Celia Cruz

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero

North America / United States / New Jersey

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero hails from Caracas, Venezuela.

Where his father, a respected percussionist in his own right, tutored and encouraged his son to become one of music’s best percussionists.

Luisito comes from a long line of outstanding musicians including his uncle, Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Robert Quintero.

He studied at the respected Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela (The Symphonic Orchestra of Venezuela) and his percussion technique soon garnered attention from his colleagues.

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Luisito joined the popular music ensembles Grupo Guaco and Oscar D’Leon, where he enjoyed worldwide acclaim.

Luisito Quintero has worked and recorded with many of music’s legends including The Rolling Stones, Vanessa Williams, Paul Simon, Santana, Jack De Johnette, David Sanborn, George Benson, Joe Sample, Bill Cosby, the late Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Cachao, Eddie Palmieri, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Richard Bona, Ravi Coltrane, Nathalie Cole, Diana Krall, Giovanni Hidalgo, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Spanish Harlem, Willie Colon and countless others. One of his recent projects finds him as musical director for Louie Vega and the Elements of Life Band, as well as extensive work with Jack DeJohnette’s Latin Project. He has also had the privilege to tour and record with the Tony & Grammy award winning Jazz artist, Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Quintero himself has earned more than thirteen Grammy certificate awards for his participation in numerous recordings.

Luisito Quintero has two solo projects under Vega Records/BBE, entitled “Percussion Maddness” and “Percussion Maddness Revisited”.

Timbalero - Luisito Quintero — Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Scheduled for release in the spring of 2013, his upcoming production entitled “3rd Element”, features guest artists Gato Barbieri, Oscar Hernandez, Doug Beavers, Richie Flores, Steve Khan, Reynaldo Jorge and his cousin Roberto Quintero. Currently, Luisito is the touring & recording percussionist for the legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea and for Spanish Harlem.

Carlos “Nene” Quintero comes from a family of musical prodigies

Carlos Vicente Quintero De Jesús, better known as Nene Quintero, was born on October 21, 1946 in the Caracas neighborhood of Marín (a neighborhood of percussionists par excellence), in San Agustín del Sur.

In a family that has produced several musicians, among them his brothers the former “Madera”, Ricardo and Jesús “Chu” Quintero, who died in the Orinoco tragedy; Rafael who lives in Marseille or his nephews Luisito (the “chamo Candela” of Daiquirí), Robert and Chuíto, who live in New York.

During his adolescence he was in several groups and then he played with Los Dementes, the Venezuelan group Pan suerte de Santana with César Monge (Dimensión Latina) and Alfredo Padilla (La Salsa Mayor), Porfi Jiménez, Frank Quintero and Los Balzehaguaos, Yordano and many others.

Carlos "Nene" Quintero comes from a family of musical prodigies — Carlos “Nene” Quintero comes from a family of musical prodigies

-What would be the five main moments of his career?

Nené lists them:

1- Having worked with people I went to see at a radio station and then I got to play with them. That was in the 70’s, in a place called Playboy in Altamira, with their bunnies and everything.

I worked with Lewis Vargas and Rafael “Gallo” Velásquez on trumpets; Moscatt was the saxophonist; Willy Pérez, pianist; Jorge Romero, bassist of Aldemaro Romero’s Onda Nueva; and Marcelo Planchart on drums.

2- When I heard on the radio a song I recorded with Los Dementes: “Rómpelo”, which was very popular. I saw myself as a very famous person, I was heard on the radio for the first time.

3- When Eumir Deodato came and proposed me to go with him to the United States.

I was not in conditions to go because I was working very well, I was doing a lot of jingles, I had two children who were starting to study.

I was sacrificing something that was taking shape: my family. I told him I could go, work and come back. The surprise was when a letter arrived for a tour of Mexico and the United States.

Deodato is a very kind person, he gives you freedom to work, we communicated in “Spanglish” and “portuñol” and he loved beer.

4- Seeing Celia Cruz when I was a kid in Marin, going to visit friends like Johnny Perez, from Sonora Caracas, and some time later working with her, even in her last shows, in Montreal.

Celia’s birthday was the same day as mine, and she looked older, but as soon as she started the music and said “sugar!” she was different, she was transformed.

5- Working lately with my nephews Robert and Luisito gave me a lot of emotion: The three of us on the same stage in New York with Celia Cruz.

But there are more experiences. Eros Ramazzotti, for example. “I chose to go to New York and Miami when things got tough here. I worked with Gato Barbieri and with salsa people.

I would go back and forth, two months out and back. I was recording with a saxophonist who worked with Eros and, the following year while I was in Miami he called me for a six-month tour.

I said yes, they called me the following year again and I spent three years with Ramazzotti touring all over Europe, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Central America, Mexico and Miami.

-Any anecdotes with Ramazzotti? –

Once on his birthday he rented a track where they raced cars. We were drinking, driving, talking, talking, listening to music and they brought a cream cake for Eros.

At one point when he was very close to me with the cake in his hand, I put it in his face. It was a mess with everyone throwing things and pieces of cake at each other.

But I got the impression that he was upset and I went over to apologize and explain to him that it was something that could happen on any South American birthday, especially with a cream cake. He told me not to worry, that it was fine.

Other jobs came through Ramazzotti, such as with Jovanotti and Lucio Dalla.

-And how was it with Little Louie Vega, one of the producers and DJs of the moment?

-I met him through Luisito. We have been touring Europe, the United States and Japan for the last three years, and we recorded with Pushim, a Japanese woman, a song that was in the Japanese top ten.

Meanwhile, “Nené’s” routine continues to be more international than ever between the United States, Europe and especially France, where he has been working with a group that bears his name: Nequin Group, with whom he recorded an upcoming album.

“Working abroad is like working here, but in another language”, he reflects on the matter and says that he is preparing a method for percussionists to work with their feet as well as with their hands.

Carlos Nené Quintero con mi Signature congas (Roberto Quintero)

-What has seemed new to you lately in Europe or in these parts?

-Those jazz works in which there is no conventional group with drums or bass, like what I did with Gerry Weil and Pablo Gil at the Corp Group Cultural Center.

THE BATICONGA AND THE “MCGIVER SET”.

The baticonga is a hybrid: drums with conga. I use bass drum, hi-hat, cimbals, toms, snare and cymbals of various thicknesses.

It has a special redoblante with a rim that does not protrude from the leather so that it does not bother when hitting it like a tumbadora.

It is an idea that I have been maturing. It was born because of Yordano’s album that made him famous, Manantial de corazón, there I recorded all the percussion and when it was time to play it live we needed a drummer and two percussionists. We got the drummer, but things were missing and I started to add electronic pedals, electronic drums, octapads and to use feet and hands.

Then we did an unplugged set and it had to be acoustic with congas, bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, cymbals.

The McGiver set is a djembe with brushes, cymbals with rivets, a conga that is just like a lid, like a tambourine, and I mount it on top of a snare drum stand and a cowbell. A set that does it all.

SIX INFLUENTIAL PERCUSSIONISTS

Alejandro Blanco Uribe and Airto Moreira: “I saw a lot of Gerry Weil with La Banda Municipal in the 70s and Alejandro as a multi-percussionist with effects and accessories.

That led me to look at Airto’s proposal and to fall in love with percussion at a time when I was playing guitar”.

Trilok Gurtu: “For his fusion of oriental music with rock and jazz. I’ve been hearing him since Oregon, and when I heard him with John McLaughlin on the live album in London my jaw dropped.”

Jack DeJohnette: “As a drummer he has a very floaty groove, he can do with the beats what he wants and the rhythm is always there.”

Tony Williams: “Another drummer. I saw a video that aroused my interest because his technique is like the one I use with the baticonga”.

Giovanni “Mañenguito” Hidalgo: “Since he came out the thing changed, he gave another level to the congas or tumbadoras, with him there has been a ‘before and after'”. – with Roberto Quintero and Luisito Quintero.

Also read: Argenis Carruyo is known in the music scene as “El Volcán de América” (The Volcano of America) due to the power of his voice

Arabella la Sonera Mayor de Colombia in her Callejón on a Sunday in Barrio with Chico Matanza

Born on June 5th, Arabella, “La Sonera Mayor”, is from Bogota, Colombia.

Arabella With her first name “María Margarita Pinillos”, she is an excellent Salsa singer and composer who shined in the 70’s and 80’s with her record productions, whose consecration and fame, however, was not in her native country but in Venezuela.

His Caribbean music song that made him famous was “Callejón” and he stayed in Venezuela for a while.

In 1972 he settled in Venezuela, it was in this country where he managed to strengthen his career and achieve the great success he had, he recorded several albums in the company of great artists of the time. In 78 and 79 he formed a group called “Los Maraqueros”, with which he could freely make the music he really wanted to make, Cuban music of Trio Matamoros and Puerto Rico.

She felt great interest in music from a very early age, however she did not contemplate from that time to make professional music, it was until she was 13 years old that a friend enrolled her without prior consultation in a radio contest of the time called “Orquídea de Plata Phillips”.

But because she was not prepared she was disqualified, however as a result she was recommended to participate in the television contest “Michel Talento” the first contest for amateurs of Colombian television. From that contest she went on to be hired at the Tequendama Hotel, the most important hotel of the time, as the first woman to sing vallenatos at the Salón Monserrate with the company of accordionist Ángel Martínez.

Arabella la Sonera Mayor de Colombia in her Callejón on a Sunday in Barrio with Chico Matanza

Arabella’s name was born from the fact that they used to tell her that she resembled a model that visited Colombia who unfortunately committed suicide, her pianist suggested her to adopt that name as her artistic name and she accepted.

Considered for many years as the natural successor of Celia Cruz, and Celia said that Arabella was her successor due to her extraordinary vocal quality.

She settled in Caracas-Venezuela since 1982, obtaining success in Salsa thanks to the advice of the great announcer Phidias Danilo Escalona.

In her beginnings she formed her own group called “Los Maraqueros”, she also recorded with Pacho Galán and with “Los Hijos del Rey” of the Dominican Wilfrido Vargas in which she recorded 4 merengues in a trip she made to the Dominican Republic, Wilfrido himself located her to record with him and they were hits the theme Corazón, Corazón de Julio Iglesia.

Los Armónicos de Manolo Monterrey, Chucho Sanoja y su orquesta, Willy Pérez and with the Megatones de Lucho.

With the groups that accompanied him as a salsa soloist.

It is worth mentioning that the song “Mi Vida es Cantar” immortalized by Ursula Hilaria de la Caridad Cruz, “La Guarachera del Mundo”, the queen of salsa, was composed by Arabella, who gave it to the eternal Cuban and salsa luminary.

For a while she lived in Puerto Rico where she decided to become a musical show businesswoman, with this company she traveled to several Latin American countries with first class singers: Marvin Santiago, Oscar de Leon, Ismael Miranda, among others.

She finally announced her retirement from music after recording “La Musiquita” and “Yo te Vi”. After her retirement she moved to Miami, United States with her daughter, Margarita decided to dedicate herself to take care of her beloved daughter, her home and two cats and two dogs that are her favorites.

DISCOGRAPHY

– Más Allá Del Sabor (1990)

– Mi Son Es Un Misterio (1987)

– Puro Trópico (1987)

– La Musiquita (1987)

– Arabella (1985)

– Sabor Y Raza (1982)

– La Simpatiquisima (1980)

– Encontré Mi Amor (1979)

– Arabella (1978)

– Nelson Martinez y Arabella (1976)

– Nelson Martinez / Arabella Y Su Combo Tropical (1974)

SINGLES & EPs

– I Was Your Hunt (1990)

– Amiga La Vida / Sin Dejarte De Amar (1987)

– Mi Son Es Un Misterio / Mentiras (1986)

– Zape Pa’ Lla / Mentira (1986)

– Mentiras / Panamá (1985)

– Chico Matanza / Nu Sueño Mas (1982)

– Pal Campo/Mucho, Poquito, Nada (1978)

– Hija De Nadie (Flor Del Mal) / Arepas

– Domingo En El Barrio / Chico Matanza

– Mentiras / Espejismo

– Tómame Que Tómame / Con La Vara Que Midas (Take Me That Take Me / With The Rod That Midas)

Source:

William Aramburen Salsa Ephemeris

@arabellalasoneramayor

Also Read: Betsy Colombian Salsa, Bolero and Son Cubano Singer

Roberto Quintero

North America / United Stated / New York

Roberto Quintero, The Master in the Congas, Bongo & Timbales NY

Roberto Quintero was born in Caracas, Venezuela, surrounded by Afro-Venezuelan and Afro-Cuban rhythms and music.

His father, a respected composer, singer and percussionist, tutored and encouraged Roberto Quintero on percussion throughout his adolescent years.

Roberto Quintero comes from a long line of outstanding musicians, including his Uncle Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Luisito Quintero.

Roberto Quintero studied at the Conservatory of Music in Caracas, Venezuela and Sinfonica Orchestra Juvenil from Venezuela.

Besides his skillful Congas work, Roberto is also well known for his work on Bongos, Drum set, Djembe, Timbales and a wide variety of assorted percussion instruments.

He (Roberto Quintero) has played with Dave Samuels, Dave Weckl, Chicago, Gato Barbieri, David Sanchez, Roy Hargrove, David Sancious, Eddie Palmieri, Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haney, Marc Anthony, Timbalaye, Celia Cruz and countless other high-profile music acts in all genres, from symphonic to Jazz, Latin Jazz and Latin House.

Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe here in ISM

Eddie and his story

Latin talent has expanded all over the world to the point that there is a significant presence of these groups in Hawaii. Today we have talked to Eddie Ortiz, one of its leaders, who tells us his interesting story.

Eddie Ortiz, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, began his journey through music when still a child, which led him to become the musical director of one of the main Latin orchestras in Honolulu.

The following are the most salient aspects of his life and musical career.

Eddie and his trumpet — Eddie Ortiz with his trumpet

The Armed Forces and moving to Hawaii

Eddie’s first contact with music was in school, when he began taking trumpet lessons for a few years until he moved with his family to Tampa, Florida, where his life would change radically.

While there, he joined the Navy and served for more than 20 years, time in which the artist took the opportunity to join the Marine band and hone his skills as a musician.

It was in those years he served as a trumpet player and played for several military bands being in the armed forces.

During his military career, he was forced to visit many countries and Hawaii was his last stop. About three years before retiring, he decided to create Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe, a group he still plays with today.

As for Hawaii, he liked the place, the weather and the people so much that he did not want to return to the United States. That was over 27 years in total. He still thinks it was the best decision he could have made personally and professionally.

Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe

Something very interesting about Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe is that they play Latin music, but most of the members are not Latino. The group has people from Japan, China, Portugal and Hawaii. In fact, some of them were with Eddie in the navy and, today, support him in this great project.

A very particular case is that of Cynthia Romero, the band’s vocalist, who was born in Manila, Philippines, and speaks six languages, but Spanish is not one of them. However, she is perfectly capable of singing in that language without any problem, since she practices a lot the songs at the phonic level to avoid mistakes.

Whenever there are original songs, Cynthia usually asks Eddie what a song is about and he explains it to her in detail so she can perform it and live out it properly. She also takes the trouble to translate all the content and learn it to avoid any failure in the studio or on stage.

In the case of the genres, a different level of preparation for each one is always required, so Eddie and Cynthia always rehearse alone at first, while the musicians prepare themselves separately. It is then that they all join together to see how the band sounds as a whole.

Eddie in a studio — Eddie Ortiz playing his trumpet in a studio

Learning from other artists on stage

The members of Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe have had the opportunity to share the stage with Ismael Miranda, Celia Cruz, Johnny Polanco, Tito Puente Jr, Luisito Rosario, and many more. When asked what he and his musicians have learned from these great artists, Eddie replied that the opportunity to accompany these personalities and open their shows have been a blessing and an immense honor.

”Each one of these artists has a very unique style and, whenever we accompany one of them, there are always new things to learn in order to be able to interpret those styles in the future. All of these things that we see in others are incorporated into our own music as we see fit” said Eddie.

The media’s role in his career

With respect to the media, Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe has had a presence in various magazines and channels such as Honolulu Magazine, KS TV, 88 Tee, University of Hawaii Sports Television, among others.

Eddie said they did not expect this media exposure, but it has been very well received. They have been asked to make music for one or two radio stations or channels, which has given them the opportunity to demonstrate their talent and be known among a wider audience.

The best thing is that this gave them the opportunity to explore other genres, as the aforementioned media have asked for pop, traditional Hawaiian music and other genres requested at that time.

Original music and covers

Eddie also told us that his band usually performs live on various entertainment places about four times a week, so they should try to have a repertoire as different as possible every night so as not to bore the audience.

Regarding covers, there are always certain songs that people usually ask for, so the band always takes them into account to satisfy those attending.

They also try to make a balance of all the genres they play such as salsa, bachata, merengue, cha cha chá, cumbia, Latin pop and many more.

Eddie and his band — This is Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe, the whole band

Tours

Although the band’s strength is in Hawaii, their audience is not centred on the island and they have also managed to tour Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and the Philippines. In those places, the reception of the public towards Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe has been phenomenal because there are many lovers of Latin music and culture in general there.

Because of this, these countries usually have relatively large salsa events and festivals where they always take this band and other groups of this kind into account. Of course, they are also supported by dancers and DJs in order to liven up the atmosphere even more.

Eddie remembers attending an event called ”Isla De Salsa”, which featured El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, Juan Luis Guerra, Havana De Cuba and many others. This shows how much Latin music is valued in those places and the large number of followers it gathered.

To end the conversation, Eddie pointed out that they have a large audience in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, so they also have plans and are making the appropriate arrangements to go there soon and meet their fans. They will also perform an anniversary concert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the orchestra and will have Luisito Rosario as a guest.