Search Results for: Flamenco

Juan Karlos Jiménez talks about his orchestra Salsa Nueva Band and freelance career

Los Angeles is an inexhaustible source of Latin talent and this is proven every day with a large number of singers, musicians and groups that give all for all in each of their performances, with which they manage to earn a privileged place in the city and California’s music scene.

On this occasion, we talked with the great Mexican percussionist Juan Karlos Jimenez, with whom we had the privilege of making contact to learn more about his career and contributions to Latin music in US territory.

Juan Karlos’ beginnings in music

Juan Karlos was born in Veracruz, place he describes as ”one of the most salsa-loving cities in Mexico”. The first musical influence in the artist’s life has been his own father, who played a lot of Cuban music of the time when Juan Karlos was still a child, and among his favorite groups and artists were La Orquesta Aragón and Tito Puente.

Of his four brothers, he was the only one who devoted himself to music professionally and wanted to take salsa as a foundation, being something exceedingly rare for a Mexican, since most of the population does not usually see this genre as part of the typical music of the country. However, Juan Karlos also points out that, since Veracruz is located in the tropical part of the country, the city has a lot of Caribbean musical influence. This was one of the reasons that led the artist to become so passionate about salsa.

In addition to music, he also studied a degree in communication and graphic design at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac, Guadalajara. As for the communication part, being a 13-year-old boy, he began working at a radio station, which would be the beginning of interest he would have in the not too distant future for locution in a much more formal way. This led him to work in very prestigious places in Mexico such as Televisa Radio, giving him the necessary experience to know how to handle himself as a musician in relation to the media when he would promote his orchestra years later.

While I was university studying, I worked in a music store and one day I had to serve to the Cuban Afro-jazz singer Rosalía de Cuba, who invited me to attend Cuban nights of which she was part of in restaurants and clubs in Guadalajara. One night, I was encouraged to go and started playing with one of the trios that performed that day and the leader of the group was so fascinated with my skills as a percussionist that he hired me permanently in exchange for 150 Mexican pesos per performance” said Juan Karlos about his time as a student.

He also pointed out that in order to reach such a good level, he took a few classes with the late Cuban arranger, composer and bongocero Adalberto Alvarez, leader of the group Son 14, thanks to whom he was able to play percussion so efficiently.

Today, he exercises his skills as a graphic designer with his orchestra Sangre Nueva Band, since he is the one who creates the album covers, flyers and artwork in general related to his musical project.

Juan Karlos posing — Juan Karlos Jiménez posing for camera

Moving to the United States

When Juan Karlos was just going to form his first band in Guadalajara, he met Maika Miller, who played for the Mexico’s Philharmonic orchestra and would be his partner for several years. Some time after they married, Milka was offered a master’s degree in Los Angeles and asked her husband to go with her, to which he gladly accepted because of the new opportunities he would have in his new home.

A few years later, he retried creating his group in her new city of residence after 15 years of hard work. And while Juan Karlos and Milka are no longer a couple, they continue to be part of the same musical project, which they have baptized Sangre Nueva Band.

However, in order to reach that point, he had to gain a lot of experience playing and perfecting his technique, but fortunately, many groups gave him the opportunity to make a living and be better every day at what he did, such as Conjunto Son 14, Carache, Santiago de Cuba, Rosalía de Cuba, Johnny Blas Y Afro Libre Orquesta, La Orquesta de Yari Moré, Tabaco y Ron, among others.

His first attempt at creating an orchestra was Jazz Son, which he founded with Maika in Mexico with the idea that his music would be based on the fusion of jazz and son, but his plans were postponed with their sudden move to the United States. Finally, in 2009, he managed to found the orchestra he has today, which he called Sangre Nueva Band.

Even so, he never stopped playing independently for other artists such as Gilberto Santa Rosa, Victor Manuelle, Ruben Blades, Cheo Feliciano and many more.

Juan Karlos playing — Juan Karlos Jiménez playing and recording in a studio

Salsa Nueva Band

One of the things that led Juan Karlos to create his own orchestra in Los Angeles was his desire to be the leader of his own project. He says he feels fortunate and grateful to be able to play with other orchestras, but in his own words ”it is better to be the head of mouse than the tail of a lion”. For the same reason, the idea of working in his own business without having to rely on other orchestras or singers was always in his head.

When he decided it was time, he had a chance encounter with an Armenian musician who, from the street, saw his congas in the back of his car, asked him if he was a musician and invited him to play at a nightclub next Saturday. By that time, he had managed to gather six musicians playing three congas, a trumpet and a bongo. On the same day, a music entrepreneur asked him to play at another venue, so he ventured to enlarge the group and was asked to name the band, which he called ”Sangre Nueva”.

Today, Juan Karlos is very happy with all the musicians who accompany him on this adventure and hopes that they will stay with him for a long time.

North America / October 2024

CANADA DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
Dirty Martini Oakville 2075 Winston Park Dr Oakville, OntarioN, Canada L6H 6P5 +1 905 829-8400	El Rancho 430 College St Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 1T3 +1 416 921-2752	Lula 1585 Dundas West Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K1T9 +1 416 588-0307
Marlowe Restaurant & Bar 55 York Blvd Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4B 3B4 +1 905-771-8645	Sahara 1855 Dundas St E Mississauga Ontario L4X 1M1 +1 905 282-0316	Smokeshow BBQ & Brew 744 Mt Pleasant Rd Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4S 2N6 +1 416 901-7469
Mangos Kitchen Bar 1180 Howe Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1R2 +1 604 559-5533	Baza Dance Studios 1304 Seymour Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1R2 +1 778-379-2292	Studio Nightclub 919 Granville street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1L3 +1 604 620-6604

UNITED STATES DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS
CALIFORNIA	FLORIDA	ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN	NEW JERSEY	NEW YORK
OHIO	PENNSYLVANIA	TEXAS
VIRGINIA	WASHINGTON

Bolivian guitarist Gabriel Navia and his love for music

We have had any number of Latin music artists of various nationalities in this section, but we are pleased to announce that, for the first time, we will tell the story of a Bolivian who brings pride to his flag with his great talent.

We are talking about Bolivian producer, composer and guitarist Gabriel Navia, with whom we were fortunate enough to talk by Zoom about the most important details of his fruitful career. In the following lines, some of the most important issues addressed in the conversation.

Bolivian guitarist Gabriel — This is Bolivian producer, composer, and guitarist Gabriel Navia

How Gabriel’s love for music began

Gabriel tells us that the love he has always felt for music was instilled in him by his parents, especially his father, who was professionally dedicated to it to the point of having his own band. In the 70’s, Eddy Navia, Gabriel’s father, was in an iconic Bolivian band called Sal Y Andina that played instrumental music, much of which was composed by him at the time.

In his mother’s case, she had a great sense of rhythm and a beautiful voice, so she did her best to make her son learn as much as possible about the fundamentals of music and how to play various instruments. This shows that she was also a key piece in his training as an artist.

Gabriel also points out that, at home, he and his family listened to music of all kinds, but New York salsa was very important in the path the young man would later take.

Gabriel and the charango

When reading a little of Gabriel’s history, we found that he played with his father in the group Sukay, with which he experimented a lot with the charango that, as he explains, is a five-stringed instrument very similar to the banjo. It was the first instrument he played in his life and the one that would inspire him to play the guitar later on.

After his parents split, his father went to live in the United States and met his second wife, with whom he runs Sukay. That is when Gabriel began to visit the country and, soon after, he was playing in a theater for more than 2000 people. Then, he knew that this was what he wanted to devote the rest of his life to.

Gabriel played the charango — Gabriel started his career by playing the charango with the group Sukay

Multi-instrumentalist

While it is true that the instrument for which Gabriel is best known today is the guitar, it is not the only one he is dedicated to.

The artist can be defined as a multi-instrumentalist, that is, someone who plays a considerable number of musical instruments with excellence such as piano, saxophone, quena and many others. ”I have always been curious to learn how to play new instruments and learn new things every day. That’s how I’ve managed to specialize in so many at the same time” Gabriel said about this.

He has become more dedicated to playing the guitar since, during his time with the group Sukay, he had to replace the guitarist who was not available at the time, which makes him feel a special affection for the instrument as he used it.

Not to mention that some of his instruments were robbed in his native Bolivia and one of the stolen objects was his charango. This event left him so depressed that he put the charango aside for years and devoted himself fully to the guitar, during which time he studied it in detail at a theoretical and practical level. He also began to listen to jazz and flamenco records in which the guitar is widely used, making him experiment with new styles. In this sense, an artist who inspired him a lot was Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia.

Gabriel playing live — Gabriel Navia playing his guitar live

Music education

Gabriel has had the opportunity to study in several of the most important musical institutions in the world, which have been fundamental in the professional training of the artist.

The first thought that came into his head was the Instituto Eduardo Laredo in Cochabamba. He described it as an arts school that has a very traditional style during the mornings, while the afternoons its teachers focus on the musical part. It is here where Gabriel learned all about theory, solfege, harmony, scores and many other important details.

Some time later, in the United States, he entered the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with the famous classical guitarist Scott Tennant. In the same country, he won a scholarship to study some courses at Berklee College of Music.

In Barcelona, he also received a scholarship to study a master’s degree in flamenco at the Conservatori del Liceu thanks to Fundación Carolina, whose main beneficiaries are Latin American applicants without the resources to study there.

”I feel very fortunate to have been able to study in all these institutions which have been very important in my career, but I believe that a musician learns the most important things on stage. You can learn all the theory in the world, but if you haven’t had street experience and gone to practice, you will be an incomplete artist” Gabriel remarked on this subject.

”In fact, I believe that many of the most prodigious musicians in the world have not been trained in academies, but in the streets, because they have had to make themselves from the beginning. Academic education is important, but the main place where music is born is in the heart” he continued.

Navia Productions, LLC

Gabriel had always worked as an independent artist, but there came a point in his career when he realized he needed something more to level up.

Given that the best way to do business in the United States is through registered companies and brands, Gabriel created his own music company which he named NAVIA PRODUCTIONS, LLC, so that his project could be identified with a legally registered entity and avoid any legal problems.

The company was basically created with the purpose of giving a legal basis to Gabriel’s work to stand on, but he still considers himself an artist as independent as the first day.

Nicaraguan singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton in an exclusive interview

Yelba Heaton is a Nicaraguan-born bandleader, singer and guitarist whose strong musical heritage coming from her family has made her have close contact with music since before she could say her first words.

The artist based in The Woodlands, Texas has been kind enough to answer a few questions for us in order to know more about her musical beginnings, the creation of her band, her projects outside of music, among other topics.

Yelba posing for pics — Singer and guitarist Yelba Heaton posing for pictures with her instrument

Yelba’s musical family

For many generations, Yelba’s family had become very popular among her acquaintances for knowing how to carry a tune properly and having some guitarists and pianists in this melodic family tree.

In her case, as she grew older, she and her siblings saw their father constantly serenading their mother and playing romantic boleros on his guitar, so this instrument was a day to day affair for the children. This is how the couple’s children began to experiment with music both together and separately, which little by little sparked Yelba’s interest in this branch of the arts.

This interest reached such a point that both she and her sister Thelma began to compete in every talent show that was held at the school they attended, Yelba played the bandurria and Thelma played the guitar. Both of them were very good with each other on stage and their voices joined together in a very harmonious and pleasant way for the audience that heard them.

When she turned nine, she participated in the tv show ”Junior Patherns”, which was very popular in her country at that time. Already at that time, she showed her great skill as an performer and the way she would follow later on.

As she got older, she began to sing in the church she was attending at the time, but could not start her career formally until she became an adult after her divorce in the United States. This was a very stormy phase of life for Yelba, as she had recently separated from her husband and father of her five young children, leading her to suffer from depression and believe that her life was over. However, it was just beginning.

At the same church, she met another guitarist, who when saw the bad stuff that she had gone through, decided to invite her to participate in an open mic night at a nightclub, which Yelba did not even know what it was at the time. Although she confesses to being extremely intimidated by the great artists with whom she shared that night, it was an experience that she is grateful to have had, as it gave her the opportunity to put aside her sadness for one night and experiment with music like she had never done before.

After sitting down with her guitar and performing ”Besame mucho” to the audience that night, having heard those present applause and ask for more songs made her be truly happy and blissful. Immediately, she knew she wanted to experience that feeling again and again.

After her divorce, music brought Yelba back to life

Formal beginning of Yelba in music

That same night that Yelba performed at that venue, Jeremy Garcia, a flamenco guitarist accompanied her with his instrument and resulted in a beautiful combination of melodies that left all those present delighted, including the owner of the place, who proposed to both of them to make a paying gig for next Saturday, to which they replied ”of course”. That was how Yelba, Jeremy and bongo player Benny Rod (Yelba’s friend from church who joined later) started their paid musical careers as a trio.

Over time, the three artists caught the attention of critically acclaimed guitarist Mark Towns, who invited Yelba to sing with him at an event in Clear Lake and also gave him some copies of their CDs. Towns was a key piece in the formal creation of the band and the trust that she was gaining to sing in public.

Over the next few years, she was performing at larger and larger events and learning all she could about clave, song forms of various genres, stage presence and other important aspects of her nascent career.

Creation of Yelba Variety’s Band and Latin Fire

Although Yelba, Jeremy and Benny were already a trio, they still could not find a name that perfectly defined what they stood for, but that changed when one day they performed songs Yelba had learned to sing on her father’s knee when she was little. That night, everything went great and they received very positive feedback from the audience and the media who covered the concert.

As a result of this performance, a reporter from the Houston Chronicle wrote an article about the band in which he was very complimentary about their show and described what he saw that day as ”Latin fire”. The first line of the article said that: ”Latino fire is what I heard last night…”. Yelba liked this opinion so much that she decided to baptize her band as ”Latin Fire”.

Such was the impact this report had on her career that the Nicaraguan still keeps a copy of it and can be found on her website to this day. This was undoubtedly a very important event for her and her band mates.

Yelba and her husband — Yelba next to her husband and part of her band Roy Heaton

Yelba as a wedding planner and motivational speaker

Just like Yelba performs very well in music, she has also found time to work as a wedding planner, a hobby for which she found out she is talented. The artist has assisted numerous marriages with minimum budget, but with her help, she was able to achieve great things with very little money. This is how she has made engaged couples ask for her help and she is always happy to collaborate with them.

Another area in which she works on very well is motivational speaking. She found out she had a talent for this while doing her master’s degree in finance and learned to move in the corporate world, which gave her the necessary experience to address an audience properly. In addition, her career as an artist requires her to sing, play and dance in front of crowds, which also gives her the confidence she needs to speak to all kinds of audiences at a given time.

Without a doubt, Yelba Heaton is a multifaceted Latina who leaves our culture on high and we are proud to have had her in this edition of International Salsa Magazine.

Oskar Cartaya “My Music, My Friends, My Time” He counted with the collaboration of illustrious friends such as Eddie Palmieri, Giovanni Hidalgo, Dave Valentín and Justo Almario.

Friendship and personal relationships seem to have always played a key role in Oskar Cartaya‘s recording career.

This was demonstrated Cartaya in his first recording, “My Music, My Friends, My Time” (2004) in which he had the collaboration of illustrious friends such as Eddie Palmieri, Giovanni Hidalgo, Dave Valentín and Justo Almario.

Bajista, arreglista, compositor y productor neoyorquino de nacimiento y bayamonés

This is also demonstrated by the second one, “Lifetime Friends”, which he co-led with trumpeter Humberto Ramírez and which was chosen as one of the best Puerto Rican productions of 2015.

For the bassist, arranger, composer and producer – born in New York and raised in Bayamon – connections with other people are a vital element for the development of any musician.

Those connections coupled with the tenacity Cartaya has always shown to continually improve himself as a musician allowed him to be part of the legendary progressive jazz-rock group Spyro Gyra for five years, produce albums for Willie Colón or Herb Alpert, and play with a long list of stars including Jennifer López, Christina Aguilera, Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, Tito Nieves, Tania María, Arturo Sandoval, Steve Winwood and Randy Brecker, among others.

To all of them he has lent the sound of his electric bass, able to insert itself with total naturalness in modern jazz, Cuban rumba, Spanish flamenco or Brazilian cadences, but without ever losing its funky essence, which gives rhythmic impulse to the musical genre before him. For Cartaya, music is not a profession, but a passion of life.

That passion manifested itself at a very early age, when he told his Cuban-born father that he wanted to be a musician when he was just 10 years old. He completed his initial studies at the Escuela Libre de Música de San Juan, which he remembers with pride and affection.

However, he has affirmed that his first real musical school were the records of Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe, which he listened to at full volume in his room.

At the Escuela Libre de Música he was able to meet teachers and classmates who today are great masters of Latin music and colleagues of his, such as Humberto Ramírez himself. He also studied at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.

Cartaya recalls that, although he studied chamber music in school, his real passion was Latin music…until he discovered jazz, thanks to an album by the great bassist Stanley Clarke. A new world opened up to his ears.

“I found a freedom in jazz that I didn’t find in Latin styles,” the musician said in an interview. “In salsa, for example, the maximum is when you are playing as part of a unit. Unlike jazz, whose pinnacle is when all the musicians improvise and go crazy playing, but everyone knows what they are doing.”

At 18, Cartaya moved to Los Angeles, where he began studying at the Musicians Institute of Technology. There he practiced for 15 hours a day, a devotion that brought him his first recognition: being accepted as a professor at the prestigious institution, two years after graduating from it.

However, his restless spirit and continuous desire to improve led him to make what he has described as the best decision of his life, moving to New York City. In the Big Apple – the place many consider the jazz capital of the world – he had the privilege of playing and recording with the late Argentine pianist Jorge Dalto; with Willie Colón and Rubén Blades; Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and Dave Valentín.

“I learned a lot, matured and saw firsthand what it was like to be on my own,” the bassist said in an interview about this period of his life. “If the opportunity was going to be given to me, it wasn’t going to come to my house. I would have to look for it.” And so he did.

At that time he also had the opportunity to meet the late rock icon Prince, at his Paisley Park, Minneapolis studios, and to become a member of Spyro Gyra. By being accepted into that group over 10 other bass players auditioning for the position, Cartaya realized that success belongs to those who work hard and have faith in themselves.

“I was able to show a lot of people that there’s nothing worse than feeling bad about yourself if you don’t try,” he said in an interview. “All the nights I played for free or for five bucks to earn a chance were well worth it.”

In 1997, the bassist produced the “Passion Dance” recording project for veteran trumpeter Herb Alpert, an experience he has described as a new learning experience in his career, as well as a chance to expose himself to a wider audience.

“My Music, My Friends, My Time,” released in 2004, is a fusion of Latin, Brazilian, American and Flamenco rhythms that was very well received by critics.

“I wanted to do a project that would fill that gap that exists between Latin music and the world. I truly believe that the world needs to know that Latin musicians can do countless things within music, without throwing away their roots,” Cartaya said of the recording.

“Lifetime Friends,” produced alongside Ramirez, was described upon its release in 2015 as “an album of a cohesive and jubilant band,” in which all participating musicians – representatives of the new jazz generation in Puerto Rico – have a chance to stand out. “It’s the album we always wanted to make… to describe almost 40 years of friendship,” Cartaya and Ramírez indicated.

In 2017, Oskar presented the production “Bajo mundo” in tribute to the great Cuban bassist Israel “Cachao” López. This intense, exuberant album, with a multiplicity of rhythms, colors and guest musicians was distinguished as one of the most outstanding productions of the year by the National Foundation for Popular Culture.

It also won a Latin Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album.

Source: Rafae Vega Curry

National Foundation for Popular Culture

“This biography is part of the archives of the National Foundation for Popular Culture. In our interest to disseminate knowledge about our great figures, it may be cited as a basis for research studies or as an assignment for pedagogical purposes, as long as credit is given to the Foundation and its author, if indicated. All rights reserved. The reproduction of the same in any printed, technical or mass media, with or without commercial purposes, is not authorized without prior written request to the Foundation and its consequent approval”.

Also Read: “The Sun of Latin Music” the first Grammy Award for Salsa Eddie Palmieri’s historic album