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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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Gerardo Rosales is the creator and producer of Combo Mundial, Venezuela Masters and Charanga La Crisis

Gerardo Rosales was born in Caracas Venezuela on July 6, 1964. At the beginning of his musical career he was a percussionist for important figures of his country.

He has been living in Europe since 1992, and has taken up residence in Holland, a country that has served as a base for him to project his music around the world.

He has recorded 20 albums under his own name and more than 70 productions with other artists.

Gerardo Rosales’ specialty is creating musical projects in the styles of salsa and Latin jazz.

Gerardo Rosales is the creator and producer of El Combo Mundial, Venezuela Masters, Charanga La Crisis, Our Latin Groove, La Gran Charanga, Son del Sofá, Rítmico y Pianístico, Cachao Sounds and many more.

In his beginnings in his country Venezuela he performed with: Orquesta Café, Orlando Poleo, José Rosario, Canelita, Soledad Bravo, Adrenalina Caribe, Ilan Chester, Cecilia Todd, Víctor Cuica, Alberto Naranjo, El Trabuco Venezolano, Joe Ruiz, Tabaco, Los Satélites, Nancy Ramos, Wilmer Lozano,Watussi, Trina Medina etc.

In Europe he has performed with: The Rosenberg Trio, Saskia Laroo, Hans Dulfer, Benjamin Herman, Peter Beets, Tango Extremo, Drums United, Nueva Manteca, New Cool Collective, Fra Fra Sound, Denisse Jannah, Laura Fygi, Izaline Calister, Metropole Orchestra, Holanda Big Band, Cubop City Big Band, Lilian Vieira, Rolf Sanchez, ChaChaChalina y Maite Hontelé etc.

Gerardo Rosales has accompanied on tours, recordings and performances in Europe artists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Benny Bailey, Paquito D Rivera, Bebo Valdés, Toots Thielemans, Jimmy Bosch, Juan Pablo Torres, Herman Olivera, Oscar D León, José Alberto El Canario “, Andy Montañéz, Meñique, Edy Martínez, Carlos” Patato “Valdés, Conexión Latina, Orlando Valle” Maraca “, Alfredo Rodríguez, Armando Peraza, Luisito Quintero, Ramón Valle, Larry Harlow, Adalberto Santiago, Frankie Vázquez, Oscar Hernandez, Africando, Chamaco Rivera, Luisito Carrion, Jorge Herrera, Edgar Dolor, Dorance Lorza, Luisito Rosario, Watussi, David Cada, and Tito Allen, etc.

The Records of Gerardo Rosales:

2016 Gerardo Rosales “Salsa Vintage” (Download – CD – LP)

2014 Gerardo Rosales “Son Del Sofa” (Single) ITunes

2013 Gerardo Rosales “Síguelo” (CD).

2011 Gerardo Rosales “Chano Pozo’s Music” (CD).

2011 Gerardo Rosales “30 Aniversario” (CD).

2010 Cachao Sounds “La Descarga Continúa” (CD).

2010 Gerardo Rosales “Buscando Chamba” (CD).

2009 Venezuelan Masters Orchestra “Toros y Salsa” (CD).

2008 Gerardo Rosales “Salsa Mundial” (CD).

2007 Our Latin Groove “Bringin’ it All On Back” (CD).

2005 Gerardo Rosales “Mongomanía” (CD).

2005 Charanga La Crisis “Salsa Antigua” (CD).

2004 Gerardo Rosales “Tribute to Fania” (CD).

2001 Gerardo Rosales “La Salsa es mi Vida” (CD).

2001 Gerardo Rosales & Edy Martínez “Rítmico y Pianístico” (CD).

1999 Gerardo Rosales “El Venezolano” (CD).

1998 Gerardo Rosales “Señor Tambó” (CD).

1996 Gerardo Rosales “Venezuela Sonora” (CD).

1992 Gerardo Rosales “Salsa Pa’lante de Venezuela” (CD).

1991 Gerardo Rosales “Salsa Pa’Lante de Venezuela” (33 RPM Vinyl).

Algunos discos grabados por Gerardo Rosales con otros Artista:

Orquesta Cafe “Criollisima” 1987 (Fama) Venezuela ( Salsa )

Joe Ruiz – Javier Plaza – Jose Torres – Gerardo Rosales

Bebo Valdes “Rides Again” 1994 ( Messidor) Germany ( Latin Jazz )

Paquito D Rivera – Patato Valdes – Amadito Valdes – Gerardo Rosales

Conexion Latina – “La Conexion” 1996 (Enja) Germany ( Salsa )

Rudi Fuesers – Leslie Lopez- Anthony Martinez – Nicky Marrero – Gerardo Rosales

David Rohschild “Looking Up” 1997 (Via) The Netherlands ( Salsa )

Adalberto Santiago – Banjamin Herman – Gerardo Rosales

Leslie Lopez “Bomba Moderna” 1999 (Buitenkunst) The Netherlands (Latin Jazz)

Ramon Valle – Joe Rivera – Nils Fischer – Gerardo Rosales

The Rosemberg Trio “Suenos Gitanos” 2001 (Polydor) The Netherlands ( Latin )

Toots Thielemans – Leonardo Amuedo – Gerardo Rosales

Ronal Snijders “Bijlmerjazz 2004 (Independent) The Netherlands (Jazz)

Randal Corsen – Jesse van Ruller – Gerardo Rosales

Cubop City Big Band “Arsenio 2004 (Tam Tam) 2004 The Netherlands (Cuban)

Lucas van Merwijjk – Edy Martinez – Nelson Gonzalez – Gerardo Rosales

Drums United “World of Rhythm” 2006 (Tam Tam) 2004 The Netherlands (World Music)

Lucas van Merwijk – Nils Fischer – Aly N ‘ Diaye Rose – Gerardo Rosales

Samba Salad – Metropol Orkest “Live Vredenburg” 2006 The Netherlands (World Music)

Herman Link – Dick Bakker – Maurice Luttikhuis – Rita Iny – Gerardo Rosales

Aquilez Baez “ La Patilla” 2007 (Cacao) Venezuela (Latin Jazz)

Anat Cochen – Huascar Barradas – Diego Alvarez – Gerardo Rosales

Maria Catharina “Obsecion” 2010 (Independent) The Netherlands (Jazz)

Adinda Meertins – Thomas Bottcher – Marc Bischoff – Gerardo Rosales

Masalsa “Resurreccion” 2012 (Independent) The Netherlands (Salsa)

Soeshiel Sharma – Ray de La Paz – Marcos Bermudez – Gerardo Rosales

Izaline Calister “Kandela” 2012 (Coast to Coast) The Netherlands (Latin)

Yumarya – Vernon Chatlein – Larc Alban Lotz – Gerardo Rosales

Africando “Viva Africando” 2013 (Sterms Music) France (Salsa)

Boncana Maiga – Oscar Hernandez – Doug Beavers – Luisito Quintero – Gerardo Rosales

Mezcolanza “Headbanger” 2015 (O.A.P Records) The Netherlands (Jazz)

Peter Wenk – Chistof May – David Barker – Mick Paauwe – Gerardo Rosales

Tango Extremo “ Havana” 2015 (JWA) The Netherlands (Latin)

Ben van den Dungen – Rob van Kreeveld – Tanya Schaap – Gerardo Rosales

Orquesta La Potente “ Potente “ 2018 (Independent) Colombia (Salsa)

Coco Ramirez – Guarnizo – Gerardo Rosales

Barry Hay & JB Meijers (Universal Music Group) 2019 The Netherlands ( Pop)

Barry Hay – JB Meijers – Gerardo Rosales

Estrella Acosta “Noche Cubana” 2020 (Independent) ( Cuban) Grammy Nominated

Carlitos Irarragorri – Pedro Luis Pardo – Gerardo Rosales

ChaChaChalina “Mira Antes de Saltar” 2021 (Independent) (Salsa)

Chalina Smit – Dani Brands – Gerardo Rosales

Actuaciones realizadas por Gerardo Rosales en diversos lugares del mundo:

Concerts & Events of Gerardo Rosales:

Poliedro de Caracas: Caracas – Venezuela

Centro Cultural BOD: Caracas – Venezuela

Feria de Cali: Cali -Colombia

North Sea Jazz: Rotterdam – The Netherlands

Toros y Salsa: Dax – France

SOBS: New York – USA

Club Babalu: New York – USA

Expo Sevilla 1992 : Sevilla – España

Festival Latinoamericando: Milano-Italia

Accessible Art Festival: Turquia – Mersin

Bimhuis: Amsterdam – The Netherlands

Melkweg: Amsterdam – The Netherlands

Concertgebouw: Amsterdam – The Netherlands

Paradiso: Amsterdam – The Netherlands

Oosterpoort: Groningen – The Netherlands

Glastonbury Festival: Glastonbury – England

Tabarka Jazz Festival: Tunesia

Music Haal: Berlin – Germany

Las Leyendas Vivas de la Salsa: Medellin – Colombia

Exit Festival: Serbia

La Topa Tolondra: Cali – Colombia

Punto Bare: Cali – Colombia

Cafe Libro: Bogota – Colombia

Bird: Rotterdam – The Netherlands

De Doelen: Rotterdam – The Netherlands

Paard van Troje: Den Haag – The Netherlands

Amazonico:Emiratos Arabes-Dubai

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Jazz, soul and rap singer Danay Suárez has an incredible talent

Cuban talent for the world

Danay Suárez (https://www.facebook.com/danaysuarezoficial) is a Cuban jazz, soul and rap singer who has achieved a lot of international notoriety in recent years thanks to her talent and dedication in each of her musical works. We are honored to talk to her and this is what we asked her:

Danay Suárez has given concerts in many cities of the United States and Europe

Questions for Danay Suarez

I have been able to see that you are a self-taught artist. Would you say that your musical progress was to do with ear or do you already have any formal education related to music?

I was trained as a lyric singer by one of the most important musical theater companies in Cuba (Opera de la Calle). My training involved rhythm, harmony, music theory and acting classes. Most of my musical progress is to do with living my career, improving my thoughts, stage, recording studios, reaching culture, entering various musical genres and meeting and collaborating with musicians from around the world.

You’ve gone into jazz, soul, reggae, traditional Cuban music and hip hop. However, it can be said that you started with socially conscious rap and were even called “The queen of Latin rap”. Did you experiment with all these rhythms and genres at the same time or in stages during your career?

I sing several genres because I am not static or orthodox, creativity inspires me, I need to move my ideas and explaining them with rhythm is a great and good challenge. Which is why I combine the freedom delivered by jazz gives to move the words and the possibility afforded by rap to create a speech with creating pleasant and danceable moments, perhaps alluding to reggae because this genre allows you to intellectualize while dancing. I listen to a lot of music and think I might go to new places and be inspired by new sounds.

Danay Suárez has been known as The Queen of Latin Rap

We saw a spectacular video of you singing your song “Yo Aprendí” with The Kennedy Center Orchestra. How can two seemingly different genres join in something so special? Tell us how was that experience, how they became interested in you for that project and how these musical elements came together.

I don’t think two different genres came together, my arrangement for the symphony was very similar in its harmonic and melodic base. Making art and taking all the things we do to a level of excellence is what makes the worlds integrate and complement each other without being forced. For me the symphony is the complete picture, I place a high value on my words and I think many of them are divinely inspired, visual, parables, timeless most of the time. Sometimes I feel that only a symphony can support them at the highest level. Living my lyrics as I have imagined them is a dream come true, a dream fulfilled I want to repeat many times.

You have made music for Netflix and already some video games. How did they come to you? Why do you think they became interested in your music?

Together with my publishing company Kobalt Music, I was given proposals on synchronizing such as these video games, series, and some offers I’ve refused because I belive that they do not build anything of value that can be linked to the message of my songs. You never know what makes people connect with my music, but they can be the rhythm, the word, or the artist.

This Cuban singer has made music for Netflix and video games

Last year, you released your album “Vive”, which is very different from what you have been doing and come any closer to Christian music.

“Vive” is a thoroughly evangelical album because it was born in a period of deeped intimacy with the Lord, all my work is partly biographical and a portrait of the moment I’m living or I got over it, so I can already it. Those who know my work can see the sincerity through the music of each stage I’ve lived. At the end, the most honest approach I can offer to my music is my own testimony.

You have been in the United States and several European countries. How has been the responses of your music been in all these places? How are you perceived there?

The reception has always been extraordinary, people cry at my concerts and I know it’s because they listen to any advice that can transform their lives, they have a vivid and real moment, which is sealed with values that make good. That motivates me to always bring life to my people with the songs, I know that there is a thirsty world from which I’ve been part and that’s why I do not take lightly to make music, I do not even treat it strictly as a business. What I do is I finance my music through other businesses to allow me do things correctly. In the case of the non-Spanish speaking public, my answer is that music is a universal language that is felt and enjoyed in the same way when it’s genuine.

Danay Suárez next to Colombian singer Juanes

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Businessman, producer and broadcaster Jimmy Castro promotes his Ritmo Caribe Promotions Radio

Jimmy Castro and his radio station Ritmo Caribe Promotions Radio

We had the pleasure of interviewing businessman, producer and broadcaster Jimmy Castro, who started his radio show “El Toque Latino” on radio station WTCY 1400 AM from 1998 to 2002 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He then worked as a producer on “The Latin Jazz & Salsa Show” in Richmond, Virginia on station WCLM 1340 AM between the years 2008-2014. He eventually launched his own online Radio station Ritmo Caribe Promotions Radio in 2018 through the link www.ritmocaribepromotionsradio.com. Here, listeners can find salsa, Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music.

Producer, promoter, and broadcaster Jimmy Castro

Here is our conversation:

You founded Ritmo Caribe Promotions in 1998. What made you found this company and why focus on setting up festivals and concerts?

I started the company as a DJ Record Pool called Caribbean Rhythms Record Pool in 1996 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. I began meeting many of the artists that I was receiving music from, who began asking me if I would bring them to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to perform. That’s when I changed the company name to Ritmo Caribe Promotions, and produced many concerts and festivals there featuring artists to include Larry Harlow, Tito Puente, Cano Estremera, Hector Tricoche, Van Lester, Miosotis, Edgar Joel, Yomo Toro, Eddie Palmieri, and more.

Why focus specifically on salsa, Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music?

I used to promote more genres when I began such as Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton, and Mexican but as the years went on it began getting more difficult because I was receiving so much music but I had a limited staff to and wouldn’t be able to focus on so many artists. I decided to limit it to the genres I had the most experience in.

Jimmy Castro while leading his old show “El Toque Latino”

I knew that Ritmo Caribe Promotions has co-produced songs by several well-known artists. Let’s talk a bit about your role as producer and record label.

Throughout the years, I have always dreamed of producing a Salsa song with my company. In 2020, I had the opportunity to co-produce my first Salsa song with JA Creations entitled “Mariana” by Colombian Salsa vocalist Jaime Andres featuring Frankie Vazquez “El Sonero del Barrio!” Since then I have co-produced 3 more Salsa tunes, “Nuestro Camino” by Leonardo Garcia featuring country vocalist Cat Beach, Max Rosado, and special guest Nestor Torres, “Mi Motivo” by Leonardo Garcia featuring Grammy nominated Miss YaYa, and “Lo Afortunado Que Soy” by William Mendoza’s Latin Heartbeat Orchestra featuring Cuban vocalist Amauri Menocal. Finally, on August 15, 2022 I will be releasing my first Salsa tune as Executive Producer entitled “Historia de Un Amor” featuring a vocalist from The Netherlands, Julie Huard.

What leads you to launch your own online radio station in 2018?

I started in radio broadcasting in 1997 with my own radio show called “El Toque Latino” on a commercial radio station, WTCY 1400 AM in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was on the air for 5 years. I then moved to Richmond, Virginia where I worked as a producer on The Latin Jazz & Salsa Show on WCLM 1450 AM / WHAP 1340 AM for 8 years. I was also the entertainment producer for 10 years for the annual Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival, with The 15th Annual Latin Jazz & Salsa Festival scheduled this year on August 27th, in which I will be bringing headline artist Herman Olivera.

Finally, in 2018, I no longer was interested in working on everybody else’s radio station, and decided to launch my own 24/7 internet radio station, Ritmo Caribe Promotions Radio, where I am able to program exactly the way I want to. www.ritmocaribepromotionsradio.com.

Jimmy Castro with the “King of Timbales” Tito Puente

You have also produced theatrical plays and film productions. Give us more details about that.

The play I am most proud of was produced by my company Ritmo Caribe Promotions and Yamile Music (Los Angeles) entitled “Melena: A Cultural & Musical Journey into my Afro-Cuban Roots” which was the true story of Afro-Cuban latina percussionist Melena, and her journey from Cuba and becoming one of the best female percussionist in the world. You could check out the play in 3 parts on YouTube by searching for “Melena: A Cultural & Musical Journey into my Afro-Cuban Roots (Part 1, 2, and 3).”

You also receive music in mp3 format from the audience to place on the station. What basis do you have for choosing between the tracks you receive?

I accept music from artists from around the world, again Salsa, Latin Jazz, and Afro-Cuban music, and I listen to all the music I receive and focus on the quality of the production, ensuring I receive mp3/wave along with the album cover image, and last but not least the music has to be GOOD! I also send it to many Salsa dancers who I am connected with to get their opinion on the tune.

What you can say about your show “El Toque Latino”? How has this show changed with the passage of time?

I mentioned “El Toque Latino” in a question above, however, this show is no longer on the air. Now, it is only “Ritmo Caribe Promotions Radio” 24/7 at www.ritmocaribepromotionsradio.com.

Jimmy Castro with Puerto Rican salsa singer Cano Estremera

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