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Carlos Molina Jr. presents his book El Legado, 100% real salsa stories

Carlos Molina and El Museo de La Salsa

It makes us very happy to talk today about Carlos Molina Jr. and El Museo de La Salsa in Colombia, place that has become a salsa library with all the information the Latin public wants to get about their favorite artists. The popularity that this proposed reading has achieved is no coincidence, as it compiles the old, the new and the best of our Latin roots to raise anyone interested awareness of it.

Carlos Molina Jr., director of El Museo de la Salsa

Carlos Molina Jr., director of El Museo de La Salsa, knows everything that a proper salsero should know about this beautiful musical genre, since much of his life has been tied to this kind of music and the biggest stars who have excelled in it. Let us not forget that Daniel Santos himself had a chance to hold him when he was just a baby, which says a lot about the path taken by Molina growing up.

This man has so many things to say and stories to tell that he has written a book in which all this data can be read in great detail.

“El Legado”

Molina explained recently that the book arose due to his intention in paying tribute to his father, Carlos Alfredo Molina. He said that he had already worked on a documentary in his honor and wanted to use that same script for a text in which the most important stories of both his progenitor and himself could be read.

Carlos Molina Jr. next to Oscar D’ León

Molina Jr.’s father became known as “El Fotógrafo de La Salsa” in the middle and maintained a close relationship with several of the most famous artists of the genre. Such was his closeness that he even managed to attend many of their rehearsals and forged bonds of friendship that many can only dream of.

It was Molina Sr.’s work as a photographer that allowed his son to create El Museo de La Salsa and turn it into a place of pilgrimage where all lovers of the genre should visit at least once. The room has approximately 700 photographs, which are part of an archive of 300,000 negatives.

Childhood and adulthood surrounded by artists

Molina Jr.’s childhood was definitely not common, as his father’s profession allowed him to stay in constant contact with many big names in the industry. He got to witness a very important number of rehearsals and grew up forming a very special relationship with music.

Johnny Pacheco and Carlos Molina Jr.

He also managed to form the same relationship with several well-known singers, some of whom write the foreword for El Legado such as Willie Rosario, Andy Montañez and Papo Lucca. From the very beginning, the three luminaries maintained a very close relationship with the museum and did not hesitate to participate in the text when asked to do so.

“El Legado” tells completely true stories

The book is already on sale at the Museo de La Salsa, but it can also be found on Amazon, so anyone who wishes to read some of the most important salsa stories ust has to order their copy and enjoy everything the material has to offer.

Molina Jr. also commented that he still expects many more copies of the book to be printed and made available at “la Red de Bibliotecas Públicas de Cali”.

Celia Cruz and Carlos Molina Jr.

By Johnny Cruz, ISM Correspondents, New York, New York City

Wuelfo Gutiérrez López was a brilliant Sonero, “El Ultimo de los Matanceros”

Wuelfo Huergo Gutiérrez López, son of Wuelfo the sailor, was born in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba on September 23, 1942.

The eldest of three brothers, he was from a very young age an enthusiast of dancing, music and singing.

On May 31, 2005, Wuelfo Gutiérrez López “El Ultimo de los Matanceros” passed away.

He was a brilliant Sonero of outstanding participation with “La Sonora Matancera”, Orquesta de Javier Vásquez, “Orquesta Harlow”, and his own group, which he founded in Mexico after settling in this country.

He gave as much luster to his small homeland as to the big one: in the 70’s he was the singer of the famous “Sonora Matancera”, the pioneer of the Cuban ensembles.

At the end of the 50’s he organized together with three other coterráneos, Juan Luis Cobo, Manolito Santos, and Rolando (Rolo, E.P.D.) González, a quartet called “The Fraterns” (Los Fraternos), in the style of the American school of famous quartets like “The Platters”, “The Drifters”, “Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers”, and others that marked a guideline in the history of “Rock and Roll” and the so-called “Doo Wop”, which is a choral sound characteristic of these groups of the decades of the 50s and 60s.

Around 1958, the group appeared in the well-known José Antonio Alonso’s program of the then powerful Cuban television, which was a continuity of “La Corte Suprema del Arte” of the Cuban radio, initiated in 1938, from where great figures of the Cuban music came out. Substantial changes took place in our country and soon after “Rock and Roll”, at least in Cuba, fell into silence.

Wuelfo left Cuba in mid-1961. I did not see him again (although I always knew about him through his brothers Juan and Gabriel) until 1979, when he returned to visit his native land.

Always with the same sympathy and friendly and popular simplicity that characterized him.

At that time he had already been with “La Sonora Matancera”; the great singer Roberto Torres, “El Güinero Mayor”, who was leaving his place in the Sonora to form his own group, introduced him to the director Rogelio Martinez, who accepted him immediately.

He remained with La Sonora from 1973 to 1976, with which he visited the U.S.A., Mexico and most of Latin America. He recorded, among sones and guarachas, 20 numbers of diverse musical authors, among them: “Anacaona”, by Tite Curet Alonso; “A Burujón Puñao”, by José Carbó Menéndez; “Así Se Compone Un Son”, by Ismael Miranda; “Muñeco Viajero”, by Carlos and Mario Rigual; and “El Chivo”, by our late compoblano Vinicio Gonzaléz, one of our santiagueras glories, among other authors.

When he left La Sonora due to disagreements with Don Rogelio, he settled definitively in Mexico, which became his second homeland.

In Mexico City he formed his own group, which he named “Sonora Las Vegas”, alluding to the person who made him known as a singer and gave him celebrity, and to his hometown, therefore Las Vegas.

He began to be called “Mister Salsa” working in radio, television and cabarets. He loved Mexico very much; in an interview he said: “because the people are tasty and because I feel at home here”.

In Mexico he married Miss Araceli Zoreda Pérez, from whose marriage there were no children; the union was interrupted by Araceli’s death several years later.

The year 1989 marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of “La Tuna Liberal”, among other names, which achieved notoriety in Cuba and internationally under the name of Sonora Matancera. So that this date would not be overlooked, the notable Puerto Rican journalist, broadcaster and producer Gilda Mirós had the happy initiative to gather all the singers alive at that time who had left their art with La Sonora Matancera.

The event was to be held in New York City. Wuelfo was there singing “Anacaona”, together with a true constellation of stars: Vicentico Valdés, Yayo El Indio, Celio Gonzaléz, Nelson Pinedo, Carlos Argentino, Bobby Capó, Alberto Beltrán, Leo Marini, Albertico Pérez, Roberto Torres, Jorge Maldonado, Daniel Santos, and the greatest female voice Cuba has ever produced: Celia Cruz.

In July 1995 I met my friend again, when Wuelfo arrived from Mexico invited to the celebration of our patron saint, Santiago Apostle, in the halls of the former Radisson Hotel in Miami. Among those present sang Amado Herrera (Maninito), José Antonio García (Chamaco), and Wuelfo. All the santiagueros present recognized our values; among them were Wuelfo Sr. and other close relatives.

I did not see him again until 1999, when a group of santiagueros friends welcomed him to Miami, where he intended to settle down. It was not possible.

Wuelfo’s last recording?

He had spoken to me about sending me his recordings with the idea of getting them to some radio stations so that they would know him, and in turn, to some places where records were sold to see if I would have the opportunity to play his recordings, among them the 14 LPs he had recorded and possibly his last recording, a CD called “Wuelfo Cumbia Del Gato Volador”, which he kindly sent me from Mexico.

He spent long periods of time in Veracruz, where he felt at home and his performances were strongly applauded. To such an extent that the government of the state of Veracruz, in November 2003, offered him a just tribute in the framework of the Festival del Son (first photo, above right). On that occasion he performed with his “Sonora Las Vegas” at the La Reforma Theater and the Atarazanas Cultural Center.

Wuelfo, Lázaro Reutilio Domínguez (son of Celina González and Reutilio Domínguez), and the author meet by chance at the “Palacio de los Jugos” on 8th Street and 143rd Avenue in Southwest Miami.

Like many other singers, he dreamed of spending the rest of his life singing; he wanted to die on the stage. Apparently an oversight in his health was complicated by prostate cancer. We would talk on the phone from time to time and he would show me that he was very optimistic, but he was not. In 2004 he underwent intensive treatment at the Oncology Hospital of the Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI in Mexico City, but the initial illness led to pulmonary complications which in turn caused a stroke that took his life on May 31, 2005.

According to a friend who assisted him until the last hour, it was very sad to see how his life was passing away.

The Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Música had been carrying out activities to collect funds to help him financially.

He was buried in the American Pantheon at 11:00 a.m. on June 1, 2005.

It seems to me very fair to remember this value of ours six years after his departure, remaining in our local history along with other celebrities that also in due time it will be necessary to give them the merit they deserve, not only for future generations to know them, but at present there are coterráneos that for lack of the required information, and against our will, do not know anything about them.

This small biography is not even remotely all that can be known and said of Wuelfo, because there are stages unknown by the writer, who urges those who know and wish, to make their contribution to know much more of our singer friend, who had the honor of going down in posterity, perhaps without him thinking about it, for having sung with that great musical group that was and is La Sonora Matancera.

This work would not have been possible if he had not had the help of Dr. Héctor Ramírez Bedoya. Héctor Ramírez Bedoya, Colombian anesthesiologist who helps many to mitigate their ills through surgery in his native Medellín, but who as a musicographer, and from the presidency of the Corporación Club Sonora Matancera de Antioquia, has had the merit of having written the “Historia de la Sonora Matancera y sus Estrellas”, a book of the same title published in 1996, which is considered the greatest work ever written about the dean of the Cuban ensembles.

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Severino Ramos, the true architect behind the legendary group “Sonora Matancera”

From 1940 to 1957, he was in charge of the arrangements, rehearsals, repertoire, hiring of the vocalists and that very particular sound, so imitated but never equaled that the “Dean of the Conjuntos” possessed.

All that sonority is due to this pianist, composer and arranger born in Matanzas, Cuba, on June 2, 1903.

Severino Ramos Betancourt was born on June 1, 1903 in Matanzas, Cuba. He was a composer, pianist, orchestrator and arranger, one of the great Cuban musicians, he worked as pianist and arranger in the Conjunto Sonora Matancera, later he founded the Sonora Cubana.

Since he was a child, music, musicians and instruments were his passion. In his family, grandparents and uncles, had to do with the bungas of Matanzas (a bunga was a small group that included piano, violin, clarinet and flute). As a child he met Cheo Jiménez and Eduardo Betancourt, trombonist of Miguel Failde’s orchestra.

Later he went to Havana where he worked successively as a tailor’s assistant, insurance collector, doorman in a cabaret, traveling salesman, substitute musician in theaters, radio stations, and a thousand other occupations that appeared along the way before becoming a professional musician, during that time he received lessons from Felix Covarrubias.

Sonora Matancera

Severino Ramos joined the famous Conjunto Sonora Matancera in 1942, as a pianist, after unsuccessful attempts to occupy positions in the Sexteto Mikito (later Conjunto Casino), replacing Enrique Rodriguez, and in other Havana groups.

Severino’s character does not go with the style of intense and nocturnal work of the group, presentations in radio stations, dances (preference of Rogelio Martínez its director), contracts in La Tropical, Cabaret Tropicana, regional Centers: Asturian Center, Galician Center and trips to provinces; so he decides at the request of the director of the Sonora to look for another pianist for the group and he stays to make the arrangements, rehearsals, preparation of repertoire, etc…, From that moment on, the star of the Conjunto Sonora Matancera really began to shine in the firmament of popular acceptance.

He became, in keeping with his calm character, an orchestra man performing all these tasks and some others, such as visiting radio stations, theaters and other places to obtain contracts for the group.

The fruits contributed by Severino Ramos between 1940 and 1957 are of extraordinary value, perhaps what makes his work more visible are his arrangements and the preparation of the regular and guest singers that accompanied the Sonora such as: Bienvenido Granda, Daniel Santos, Myrta Silva, Celia Cruz, Leo Marini, Bobby Capó, Nelson Pinedo, Estanislao Laíto Sureda, Carlos Argentino and Celio González, among others.

After the Sonora Matancera

The last days of Severino Ramos in favor of Cuban Music were as musical director of Radio Progreso since 1957, when he left the Sonora, simultaneously with the prolific and very important work at the head of the many record labels he created.

After 1959, in that first decade, 1960, many record labels emerged in Havana, plus those that came from before and he multiplied himself making arrangements, forming momentary groups, forming groups to accompany Orlando Contreras, Blanca Rosa Gil, Orlando Vallejo, Ñico Membiela, many more. He formed the Sonora de Severino Ramos and helped create the Conjunto Caney.

The following is a small sample of songs that were arranged by Severino Ramos for the Sonora Matancera:

El Tíbiri Tábara with Daniel Santos

Qué corto es el amor, with Mirtha Silva

Burundanga, Yerbero Moderno, Tu Voz, Luna sobre Matanzas, with Celia Cruz

Who will be? With Nelson Pinedo

Yo no soy guapo with Vicentico Valdes

Sujetate la lengua, with Bienvenido Granda

Aunque me cueste la vida, on the 19th, El negrito del Batey with Alberto Beltrán

El gallo, la gallina y el caballo with Manuel Licea

Piel Canela with Bobby Capó

Maringá, with Leo Marini

Who will it be? With Nelson Pinedo

Las Muchachas, with Carlos Argentino

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Severino Ramos died in Havana on November 2, 1969.

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This is Roger Danilo Páiz Pérez from Danilo Y Su Orquesta Universal

Why is he called Danilo?

We will start a conversation with bandleader, percussionist, and singer Roger Danilo Páiz Pérez. Pleased to meet you, how are you doing?

I’m fine thanks, Karina. Sitting here and ready to be interviewed by your magazine. I have a lot of information about what has happened in my life being a musician here in the Bay Area since the 70’s.

Danilo on guitar at one of his frequent restaurant performances

You are Francisco Pancho Perez’s grandson. Did your grandfather serve as inspiration for the path you would take in music?

Definitely he did. I remember being about four or five years old when I used to hear my grandfather play with his big band, which was composed of 15 or 14 musicians. I always listened to them practicing in our house and started dancing, so my grandfather used to call me cha cha chá. It was a great inspiration for me.

He played music similar to American jazz, and that’s where the inspiration for the music I play today comes from. The salsa that I write is inspired precisely by that kind of jazz.

Where does the name Danilo come from? Also, why is your orchestra called Danilo Y Su Orquesta Universal?

I have to make it clear that Danilo is my middle name since I was born. This is not a nickname as many believe. Some people even think that I have changed my name, but I didn’t. Roger Danilo Páiz Perez has always been my name.

Everyone called me Roger Páiz in the past, that is to say, people called me by my first and last name. In fact, when I played with Rubén Blades in 1989, the album we recorded has me in the credits as Roger Páiz. But when I founded my own orchestra in the 1990s, I thought Danilo was better suited to Latin music, so I started using my middle name to call my orchestra Danilo Y Su Orquesta Universal.

The word universal comes from the fact that I am a Buddhist. I practice the religion of Nichiren Daishonin (monk in Buddhism from Japan in the 13th century and founder of the branch of Nichiren Buddhism) for more than 30 years. That word is widely used in the Buddhist scriptures, and I am very involved in that.

Roger Páiz getting ready to hit with Josh Jones’ band

Your country of origin is Nicaragua. Is Nicaraguan salsa similar to Californian salsa? Are they different? Do you combine them?

Since I was very young, I listened to a lot of Cuban orchestras. I remember my dad tuning in to Celia Cruz, La Sonora Matanzera, among others. From that experience, I picked up all those things since childhood.

Here in the United States, the style was much more modernized. However, I grew up listening to El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and many other orchestras in the ‘60s and ‘70s. My biggest inspirations were Héctor Lavoe, Oscar De León, Rafael de Jesús, Cheo Feliciano and many others from those years. I paid a lot of attention to how they sang and the melodies that they used.

What Danilo has learned from his musical references

You have made contact with Latin music stars such as Ray Barretto, Rubén Blades, Benny Velarde Y Su Super Combo, Andy Narell, Ray Obiedo, Cheo Feliciano, Oscar De León and many others. What did you learn from all these musical references?

For example, I shared a gig with Cheo Feliciano in Puerto Rico while I was with Rubén at a concert. (Luis Enrique was actually at that concert as well.) Cheo taught me how to phrase with the clave, since this is a very important detail in singing Salsa.

In the case of Héctor Lavoe, I learned a lot from the melodic part. When he sang, the melody was very interesting and appealed to me a lot.

Another singer I liked a lot was Rafael de Jesús, because his style tended to sound like jazz. Sometimes he sang some lines that sounded very jazzy, but he never lost his style as a Salsa singer. That’s one of the main things I liked about him.

Another singer I liked a lot was Rafael de Jesús because his style tended to sound like jazz. Sometimes he sang some lines that sounded very jazzy, but he never lost his condition as a salsa singer. That’s one of the main things I liked about him.

Danilo y Su Orquesta Universal at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2019

Did he receive academic training in music?

I took classes in Oakland, California, learning music theory, piano, singing, and much more. These studies helped me a lot to better prepare myself musically speaking.

Studying music is important because it enhances the way you perform, sing, and play on stage. That’s when people can tell whether you are a musician who has studied and analyzed music. I’ve met musicians who learned everything by ear and they never progress to the next level.

Of course, there were also things I learned on the stage, in the studio and in rehearsals. I’ve unified all this knowledge to do my job to the best of my ability.

I saw that you have some dates to perform in the Bay Area and other places, can you tell us a little bit about that?

In 1995, I got the opportunity to take a group to Singapore (to be the house band at the Hyatt Regency Hotel). What I did was to find the best six musicians who could play the music I was asked to play. We rehearsed, traveled to Singapore, and stayed there about three months, all expenses paid. It was an amazing experience and I was honored to present my music in that country.

Danilo with Tito Puente, Jr.

What about your current performances?

We just played at La Peña here in Berkeley. It was really good, a lot of people showed up there and they recorded the whole show. Fans sent me some videos as well, so I have to start editing them.

We also played at The Ramp, El Rio, The Turf Club, Kimbara, among others. Coming up, we will be playing at the Cigar Bar.

Let’s talk about your latest album Perseverando.

I decided to call this album Perseverando because of my experience of overcoming the difficulties of maintaining a music career.

Turning to Buddhism, the word perseverando is very important, because life puts barriers in your way and you have to persevere to overcome them. It was common for record labels to say that they were saturated and couldn’t sign me, but I kept writing and recording original music despite the difficulties. The first album is called Vivencias and the second one is called Avanzando. They are titles that have had a lot to do with my life experiences.

I made a video for one of the songs on this álbum, Rumberos de la Bahia, which is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z3E7K_5SLJo

What other projects do you have pending?

I’m thinking about putting out an album that will be a combination of songs that have not been released yet with some remixes of songs on my albums. Although a dream of mine is to be nominated for a Grammy, that is not why I créate music. Music is my life and my passion.

Cover of the album Perseverando

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Joseíto Mateo “They call me the Negrito del Batey, because work for me is an enemy”

Joseito was a consecrated Dominican merenguero who began his career in the 1930’s, better known as “El rey del merengue, El diablo Mateo”.

As a child he learned to sing and dance. He sang at the “Fiestas de la cruz” and at wakes, since at that time the deceased were prayed to with songs.

Mateo began his career as a singer during the 30’s, a period in which he was gaining the public’s favor.

Some time later he was requested by the record label “SEECO” to join the cast that in Havana would record with the Sonora Matancera.

Those were the years of the Trujillo Era in which Dominicans required an exit permit to travel abroad.

At first, this document was denied to Joseito.

As a consequence, in Havana, once the record was contracted and the pieces that would be part of it had been selected, including “El negrito del batey”, Joseito’s place was taken by the Dominican singer Alberto Beltrán, who was known since then by the Cuban public as “El negrito del batey”, instead of his true inspirer.

He was born on April 6, 1920 in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic).

In one of his later trips, he decided to stay in Cuba to sing in CMQ, together with Celia Cruz and La Sonora Matancera, a very popular group at that time.

After the assassination of Rafael Trujillo on May 30, 1961 and the end of his dictatorship, Joseito decided to try his luck in Puerto Rico.

In 1962, Joseíto participated as vocalist in the first tour of the “Gran Combo” to Panama, to promote the album ‘El Gran Combo con Joseíto Mateo’.

There he met the young singers Pellín Rodríguez and Andy Montañez, who ended up replacing him in the Puerto Rican group.

“El Gran Combo was very good to me, I adapted to sing plena, bomba, guaracha, boleros, but then I had to return to Santo Domingo to clear my name.

They were falling behind all those who were with Trujillo, and in the Republic they said I was a spy and was on the run”.

Mateo’s professional work has spanned more than 70 years and constitutes an important reference of the Dominican musical culture.

He was nourished by the roots of merengue and became a singular exponent of it. His innovative style was characterized by a stage participation enriched by his particular way of dancing and singing.

Some of his best known songs are Madame Chuchí, Dame la visa, La cotorra de Rosa and La patrulla, among others. Joseito is known as “El Rey del Merengue” (The King of Merengue).

On November 11, 2010, Mateo was recognized at the 11th Latin Grammy Awards with the Latin Recording Academy’s Musical Excellence Award for his contributions to Latin music.

He retired in 2001, close to his 82nd birthday and after recording 50 “elepes”.

Joseíto Mateo passed away on June 1, 2018 at the age of 98, due to leukemia. He spent his last days in the Hospital de las Fuerzas Armadas.

Source:

https://www.buscabiografias.com/biografia/verDetalle/8662/Joseito%20Mateo