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Yolanda Moreno “the People’s Dancer”

Venezuela has been a Caribbean and South American country that has always shown artistic tendencies among its inhabitants. Dance is no exception here, and one of the great representatives of typical Venezuelan dance is Sixta Yolanda Moreno de Rodríguez, better known as Yolanda Moreno the People’s Dancer” In this article we will talk more about her, keep reading.

The beginnings of Yolanda Moreno’s Career

This great Venezuelan dancer was born on August 6, 1936, in El Guarataro neighborhood of San Juan parish, in Caracas. Her parents named her Sixta Yolanda, a fact that few know unless her life is investigated, but she considered that Yolanda was easier to say and pronounce.

She grew up in a low-income family, but that didn’t stop her from pursuing her passion for singing and dancing. At the age of 13, she joined as a chorister in the musical group “Retablo de Maravillas” created by the Ministry of Labor. In this group she demonstrated her talent for music and a wonderful voice, in addition to fulfilling a childhood dream: «As a child I wanted to be a flamenco singer, I listened to the «Gitana de Color». With this group she met her first mentor, the Austrian dancer Margarita Brenner.

During this stage Yolanda met the one who will be the love of her life, her husband Manuel Rodríguez Cárdenas. To whom she also thanks all the support he has given her throughout her career, to the point of assuring that she would not be the dancer and woman she is today without his total trust and company. Although their relationship was a surprise since the marriage took place when she was only 16 years old.

The foundation of “Danzas Venezuela”

Another of her great achievements with her husband Manuel, is the founding of the group “Danzas Venezuela” in 1962. With it Yolanda manages to modernize the dance and folklore of the country, by changing the image of the dancers with very wide skirts and hair collected, that way they look more refined; she also changed the footwear to give more force to the zapateado.

Although at first these changes were not well received, Moreno with her husband achieved public acceptance, and also captivated the international public. Among the places they managed to visit are: China, Japan, Korea, Hawaii, San Francisco, Washington, New York, Canada, the Soviet Union and Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. One of her special places was Puerto Rico, where she was given her nickname: “La Bailarina del Pueblo” (the People’s Dancer).

She also has great memories of China, especially when she was amazed by the respect for elders and the large number of artistic expressions that exist in this country. «Dance is a permanent job, very pleasant. I work until I am asleep. I got used to hard work, although it hurt, I danced» her words sum up her love for dance and art.

And Yolanda Moreno’s retirement came

Despite the fact that she will always be “The dancer of the Venezuelan people”, Yolanda has accepted that her days on stage are over, this of course does not mean that she won’t continue directing dancers and giving her advice with contributions in choreography. But Yolanda no longer actively follows her career, her big farewell was in 2008 with two performances at the Casa del Artista.

Of course, she has had special appearances like the one she presented in the posthumous tribute to Joaquín Riviera, which was part of the pre-opening of Miss Venezuela 2013. There have been other special events, but none as splendidly as the golden years of his career.

It is more than understandable that Moreno would withdraw from it, at 86 years old she is a woman who since she was a child has given everything to the art and folklore of her country. She also had to bravely face the farewell of her husband Manuel, which occurred in 1991 accompanied by her two sons Manuel Rodrigo and Fernán. It only remains to hope to be able to enjoy a few more years of her great ideas for the preservation, as well as modernization, of the typical dance of Venezuela.

Michel “El Buenon” is a singer, composer and considered the most sought-after salsa singer in the Dominican Republic

On September 7th in the province of Baharona in Batey 7, Dominican Republic, Michel Batista or better known as Michel “El Buenon” was born, he is a singer and composer.

Considered the most sought after salsa singer, he is a man with a big heart and a story worth admiring, because despite all the vicissitudes he went through during his childhood and youth, he became great, as his grandmother Dona Crisiana instilled in him.

From a very young age he attended Sunday school at the Baptist church with his mother Crisiana Abraham, with whom he attended the evangelical church shepherded by herself, where he also sang in the church choir on Sundays.

In elementary school she participated in a music festival where she won first place at only 8 years of age.

Later she competed in a regional festival in the town of Barahona in the radio station Radio Barahona, winning first place at the age of 12.

He then migrated from the south to the city of Santo Domingo, where he began singing in bars, nightclubs and hotels like the Sheratton, Napolitano, El Embajador.

In addition to the resorts Talanquera, Casa de Campo Sosua, Puerto Plata, among others.

At the beginning he was part of the Tabú Combo, a group from Puerto Príncipe based in New York City, recording hits such as “Inflaciones General”, “La Llave”, “Relimen” and composing the song “Apipi”, known in French and in Spanish as “El Jardinero”, which he recorded with his friend Wilfrido Vargas.

He would later be part of Johnny Ventura’s orchestra for 5 years, from 1982 to 1987.

He recorded the song “Tuyo Más Que Tuyo” by Bienvenido Fabián, then he joined again the Tabú Combo Superstar orchestra with Adolfo Chanci, its director.

In 1995 he went solo and recorded his first salsa CD titled “Amigo De Qué”, which was played all over Latin America, occupying for 12 weeks the first place of the radio station La Mega in the city of New York.

Later he released his second album “Brujería”, and seven others: “De Ahí Nadie Como Él” (2001), “100% Sabroso” (2002), “Llego Michel El Buenon” (2005), “Víveme” (2005) and “Extrañándote” (2005), which contained ballads interpreted in the rhythm of salsa in the style of “El Buenon”, this production has unpublished songs of Michel himself such as “Que Te Vaya Bonito” and “Yo Que Me Lo Creo”.

Throughout his career he has been winner of the Casandra Awards 2005-2006-2007 and nominated in 2008 and 2011.

Among his languages interpreting songs are English, Portuguese, Italian, Papiamiento, Creole, Spanish and French as he did in the song “Se Finit” by Charles Asnabul and the song Wonderful World in tribute to Mr. Luis Armstrong.

In his repertoire of the most outstanding songs in 2008 are “La Primavera”, “Cuando Los Sapos Bailan Flamenco”, “La Playa”, “Víveme”, “Tú Ni Te Lo Imaginas”, “Hoy Daría Yo La Vida”, “Me Has Echado Al Olvido”, “A La Primer Persona” and “Wonderful World”, all with hits and diffusion in all the radios and discotheques of his country.

Among his most outstanding albums in the last ten years are “Extrañándote”, “Todo Terreno”, “Estilo Y Conciencia”, “Arriba Siempre De Pura Sangre”, “Reserva Especial Impecable”, “El Insuperable De La Salsa” and “Claro, Fino, Nítido, Control Total”.

Throughout his career he has traveled to all of Europe, the United States, the Lesser Antilles, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Mexico, Curacao, La Reunion, Tahiti, Africa, Japan, Dubai and Colombia, the latter was where he recorded the video clip of his song “Maldito El Tiempo” written by Alexander Pires.

Michel “El Buenon”

You can read: Génesis de la Salsa, su esencia, características, ritmo, historia y expansión

Cuba Will Be the Protagonist at the Music Meeting Festival

Nijmegen is the city that will host this musical meeting with “Cuba Al Revés” as the main theme

Music Meeting Festival was organized in Concertgebouw de Vereeniging and Stadsschouwburg Nijmegen until 2003

This year Latin America will invade the 37^th edition of the Music Meeting Festival with Cuban music from Saturday, June 4^th to Monday, June 6^th at the Park Brakkenstein facilities. This park can accommodate 12,500 visitors and is in the Nijmegen city in the province of Gelderland. Nijmegen has more than 170,000 inhabitants (2015 data provided by the UN) and is very close to the border with Germany.

This festival in the Netherlands will have as its main theme this time Cuba Upside Down. In this event, around 30 concerts will be presented with the participation of established artists and new promises from the Cuban music scene, Spanish, and Brazilian.

Regarding the main theme of this edition, the Dutch trumpeter and Artistic Director of the Music Meeting Festival, Maite Hontelé, pointed out: “I would like to have been born in Havana, to have grown up with Son, Mambo, and even the beginning of Cuban Salsa modern, Timba. But I grew up in Haaften…although almost every day, I listened to Cuban music on cassettes and played it on my trumpet.”

The artists from the Afro-Caribbean Island that will converge at the Music Meeting Festival 2022 are:

Alain Pérez with the Orchestra demonstrates the origin and future of Cuban music

The musical genius in the Salsera scene, Latin-Jazz and Flamenco, Alain Pérez will take the stage on Sunday, June 5th at 11PM for an improvisation party at the Jam. This show will last 50 minutes. Alain with the rhythm section of his orchestra will establish the basic rhythm to which countless musicians will join and improvise, bringing special guests for that day. Who are they? They are still a surprise.

After 24 hours, Alain Pérez returns to the stage, but this time with his young Orchestra for the closing day. They will perform for the first time on Monday, June 6^th from 8:40PM to 10:50PM. Alain with this band of young Cuban artists brings a sound in which traditional Cuban music is intertwined with modern Jazz and Funk.

The same way will also join this celebration of Afro-Caribbean music Osain Del Monte with a group of young percussionists, singers, and dancers. They will recreate during their musical act a traditional cult with initiation rituals to be members of a secret brotherhood. This one-hour act will take place on the first day of the festival, on Saturday, June 4th, starting at 5:30 PM.

Likewise, Music Meeting Festival will feature the percussionist and singer Brenda Navarrete as a special guest in several musical presentations. Brenda has trained in Batá drums and has belonged to Latin Jazz bands such as Joaquín Betancourt and Alain Pérez, as well as in the Interactivo group, where Funk and Ska melodies are mixed with Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Cellist Ana Carla will also be brought to this stage of the festival. She will be on Sunday, June 5^th from 8PM to 8:40PM. Her third studio album is Bahía and has influences from Cuban Son, Tango, Samba, Bossa Nova, Jazz, and even the classic French Chanson. She currently is touring for South America.

Ramón Valle, Marialy Pacheco, Rolando Luna, and Ivan “Melón” Lewis

Joining this constellation of established and emerging Cuban artists on Sunday, June 5^th, starting at 2PM, is the Ping Pong Piano project. This 50-minute musical project brings together the following virtuous of this instrument: Rolando Luna, Marialy Pacheco, Ramón Valle, and Ivan “Melón” Lewis, the latter winner of the Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for his album Voyager in 2021.

The starting point of this “four-sided” meeting is spontaneous. It consists of placing two grand pianos on stage and letting four stellar pianists converse musically. There will be friendship, rivalry, confrontation, and harmony putting aside their impressive resumes.

“Marialy Pacheco is a concert pianist known for her duets with Omar Sosa and her contagious rhythmic interpretation. Grammy winner Ivan ‘Melón’ Lewis counters this with almost mathematical precision as the founder of modern Cuban Salsa, Timba. Ramón Valle swings across styles and feels best when given the freedom to let his Cuban heritage hang over the music. The quartet of star pianists is completed by the whirlwind Rolando Luna, one of the most important Cuban pianists of the last ten years, who became world-famous for his work with Omara Portuondo”. Fragment extracted from the Music meeting Festival 2022 website. www.musicmeeting.nl

Likewise, the band El Comité will be present (Saturday, June 4th, 10:30 PM – 11:30 PM), the Son Bent Braam orchestra (Saturday, June 4th, 4PM – 5PM), African electronics, percussion from Brazil with the duo made up of Oleg Fateev & Simone Sou, and the New York afrobeat represented by the musical group from Brooklyn, Antibalas.

This interesting congregation of artists will be completed by the Spanish trombonist Rita Payés, one of the emerging artists of the new era of the Catalan scene.

Tickets for the three days of the Music Meeting Festival in Nijmegen are €80 at the box office. It costs €34 daily, and for those under 16 who want to attend, the admission is free.

La Muñeca de La Salsa is here with us again

La Muñeca de La Salsa or La Chica del Bling

For the second time, we have here Puerto Rican artist Almodovar. She is a salsa singer and other genres, composer and dancer. Pleasure to meet you, Melina, how are you doing? Glad to have you here.

Thank you, Karina. Thank you for the time and I’m super pumped to be here with you for international salsa magazine (laughs).

Melina Almodóvar is a salsa singer, composer, and dancer

Why do they call you La Muñeca de la Salsa or La Chica del Bling?

La Chica del Bling comes from maestro Bobby Cruz, who did a song with me in 2016. We made a recording that was called Salsa Factory Bunch. He wrote that song specifically for me, which was called El Bling. That’s how he starts calling me La Chica del Bling and, as there are so many people who know the trajectory of Mr. Bobby Cruz, those who know that he wrote the song for me identify me as La Chica del Bling. That is something very special for me, since he is one of my salsa icons from day one.

In the case of La Muñeca de La Salsa, when I moved here to Miami, I was looking for a nickname similar to El Caballero de La Salsa or El Niño Bonito de La Salsa. Seeing how my name is like that of another renowned singer in Puerto Rico Melina Leon, I wanted to find another name that would identify me and noticed that many Latino men called me muñeca (doll in English). That’s how I came up with the name La Muñeca de La Salsa.

Your family has always been closely related to arts. Your father was a singer, your mother was a dancer and your grandmother was an artisan. What did you get from each of them?

That’s an excellent question. I’m often asked that, but not that way. My dad was a bolero singer and like ballads and old music like Camilo Sesto, and it was thanks to one of his songs that I was named Melina. He also liked Marco Antonio Muñiz and all the singers from that era. He would go to bars to sing until five in the morning and he used to take me to these gatherings in Puerto Rico. He always had his guitar in his car and was invited to parties to sing because he did it for free.

My mom was a flamenco dancer, she studied dance all her life and wanted me to dance too. So, she put me in jazz ballet classes since I was little. I studied with a lady whose name was Sophy Sanfiorenzo, who was also Chayanne, Ricky Martin, and Los Menudo’s teacher of that time. She was very well known in the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Dancing was something secondary for me, but my mom wanted me to take it more seriously. At the end, we made a deal and agreed that I would study salsa and Caribbean dancing.

My grandmother always wanted me to be an artist and pushed me to be what I am today. She does a lot of crafts such as sculptures and paintings. I didn’t inherit those skills (laughs). My aunt is an architect and also paints very well, while another aunt is also very good with crafts. My family is very artistic and I followed that road.

Melina Almodóvar is very proud to be boricua

Her referents

I understand that your grandmother gave you some cassettes with songs by Celia Cruz and Rubén Blades, did these artists influence you or were there others?

My grandmother gave me a Rubén Blades CD and my aunt was the one who introduced me to salsa music thanks to her taste for this genre. Most of the family liked bohemian songs made by Pedro Flores, Rafael Hernández, Bobby Capó, Sylvia Rexach, among others. My grandmother and the rest of my relatives liked bolero a lot. In my case, I like bolero very much and I have done concerts dedicated to this genre, but what moves and motivates me is salsa.

You always listened to tropical music as a kid in Puerto Rico, but I understood that I was cut out to sing salsa when started studying it and understand it deeply. In high school, I came to sing pop, jazz, country, merengue, bachata and many other genres. However, salsa is what I like the most.

You described your move from Puerto Rico to Memphis as a culture shock. What was the most shocking thing about that time?

It’s one thing to move from Puerto Rico to Los Angeles or New York or Florida where there are a lot of Latinos. When I moved, I was very young and went to live in the southern United States, where they listen to country and blues. For me, the most shocking thing was the culture. In Puerto Rico, everyone talks on the front doors and there was a lot of closeness. When we moved to Tennessee, we didn’t know anyone, so we had to start creating a new life and finding our way in this new city.

Melina Almodóvar performing at North Beach Bandshell

You were part of Orquesta Caliente. According to many, that was the first successful Latin salsa orchestra in Memphis. What do you think was the formula for success of this orchestra?

It was a combination of many things because I have been part of many groups and tried to organize orchestras in different places. After that experience, I tried to start an orchestra in Nashville, Tennessee, for a while and tried to start another one in Atlanta, Georgia.

When I was 17 years old, I was called and asked if I knew how to sing salsa, to which I replied yes. That’s when i was given a cassette tape with several songs made by Tito Puente, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, among others. I went home and started writing the songs down letter by letter to learn them by heart and audition for the orchestra. That day, I realized that all the musicians were American and extremely talented. I was 17 years old at the time and had no idea who I was playing with, which led me to look up their histories and they were really well trained and talented. Almost all of them were professors at the University of Memphis at the time, but they wanted to form a salsa orchestra.

So, we started playing in different places. Given that there was no internet and no social media, we had to create our own flyers by hand, make copies, go to the houses and put up them there. The first day we played, not a lot of people showed up, but it was a good start for us. After three months, not one more body fitted there.

For me, it was a beautiful experience because we started playing everywhere and were at plenty of festivals in South Florida. We were so into what we were doing and all the members wanted the music to work out spectacularly, so we were united in a common objective. I think that was the key to our success.

Tell me about the Hollywood Salsa Fest

We have been doing this festival for about seven years now and it was a dream come true because I never thought there would be more than 10,000 people there for throughout the day. It is a culmination of all the work we have done since I came to Miami. It was a great achievement.

This Hollywood Salsa Fest of this year included Maestro Charlie Aponte, Timba Live, Salsa Ballet de Cali, Maestro Bobby Cruz, Tito Puente Junior and many others.

Melina Almodóvar next to Oscar D’ León

The Tempo Latino Festival is Back

The major European festival of Latin and Afro-Cuban music will present Los Van Van, Pacific Mambo Orquestra, Interactivo, and Minyo Crusaders (H2)

The benchmark Festival of Latin and Afro-Cuban music in Europe, Tempo Latino, resumes its activities after the forced cessation of its activities for two years due to the Pandemic.

From Thursday, July 28^th to Sunday, July 31^st, on the main stage Les Arènes, the whole family, heterogeneous public, and inveterate traveler will enjoy the performances of Los Van Van, Pacific Mambo Orquestra, and Interactivo, as well as an exceptional set & exclusive presentation on Saturday, July 30^th at 11 PM of “Con Tumbao All Stars” with the winners of Best Traditional Tropical Album at the Latin Grammy 2021 for their album “Chachachá…Homenaje a lo Tradicional”, Issac Delgado and Alain Pérez, as well as Oscar Hernández, Robby Ameen, Tony Succar, and many more.

Minyo Crusaders rediscovered the songs associated with the working classes.

The festival to be held in Vic-Fezensac, the heart of the Gers de Gascony department (France), will open its doors on Thursday, July 28^th, with Tempo Latino Social Club on the stage of its satellite “Geo-rhythmic” Conga with a special performance by the Tokyo band, Minyo Crusaders.

This Cumbia band with a Japanese identity aims to make reversals between the traditional and foreign rhythms. Guitarist Katsumi Tanaka was in charge of bringing together the twelve musicians to perform these magnificent melodies with a fusion of the Caribbean (Reggae, Cumbia, and Cuban Salsa), Africa (Afro-Blues, Afro-Funk, Ethiopian rhythm), and Asia (Thai Pop) after of the Fukushima accident in 2011. The ticket for this show costs €15.80, and the opening is at 6 PM.

Pacific Mambo Orchestra is the only active Latin Big Band on the West Coast of the United States.

Continue on Friday, July 29^th with the concerts of the Pacific Mambo Orchestra and Los Van Van together with the Cuban trumpeter, composer, singer, and leader of the band Havana D’Primera, Alexander Abreu.

The first orchestra to perform at the festival in its twenty-eighth edition at 9 PM will be the Pacific Mambo Orchestra. This North American band, a winner of the Grammy Award in the category “Best Tropical Album” in 2014, is the revival of the Latin sound of the Big Bands of the 40s with the combination of Mambo, Pop, Cha Cha, Timba, and Bolero. Pacific Mambo Orchestra founded 12 years ago by the Mexican pianist Christian Tumalan and the German trumpeter Steffen Kuehn has collaborated with renowned artists such as Carlos Santana, Poncho Sánchez, Pete Escovedo, and Arturo Sandoval.

Currently, this Latin Big Band performs on the West Coast of the United States with elite musicians from the Bay Area, and their repertoire is in English and Spanish. Their third album “The III Side” (2020) fuses the traditions of the Mambo of the 50s with the musicality of the moment. This Latin Big Ban considered one of the best in the United States will also is at the prestigious San Francisco Annual Jazz Festival on Wednesday, June 8^th from 7:30 PM to 9 PM. Address: Miner Auditorium, 201 Franklin Street, San Francisco (EEUU).

“Legado” is an album in homage to the legacy left by maestro Samuel Formell.

The second orchestra is to take the stage on Friday at 11 PM and will be Los Van Van with their special guest Alexander Abreu. The emblematic Cuban music orchestra will celebrate its more than 5 decades of history.

Los Van Van known by many as the “Rolling Stones of Salsa” was founded in 1969 by bassist and composer Juan Formell, a legend of Cuban music, who accompanied by José Luis Quintana, known as “Changuito” and César “Pupy ” Pedroso, invented the “Songo”, a Cuban rhythm predecessor of the “Timba” or “Salsa Cubana”, which generated the “Salsa – Son” with a Cuban sound that has made generations dance.

In 2018, they recorded their first record production “Legado” since the physical departure of Juan Formell in 2014. This tribute album has 14 songs with 3 new versions of the international singles Te extraño, Por qué lo haces y Amiga mía.

On the third day of the Festival, Saturday, July 30^th, the Latin sound will be awakened by the performances of the Interactivo group and the exclusive presentation of “Con Tumbao All Stars”. On Sunday, July 31^st, Tempo Latino will close its doors on the Les Arènes stage with London Afrobeat Collective and Alain Pérez & La Orquesta Bassiste.

Most of the members of Interactive are representatives of currents such as Nueva Trova, son, and Cuban jazz.

The avant-garde collective, Interactivo, is one of the most representative bands of the current Cuban generation and will take to the Tempo Latino stage at 9 PM.

This emerging orchestra of international stages brings together the most brilliant and eclectic composers and producers in Havana. Each member contributes their specialty: Timba, Funk, Jazz, Hip Hop, Rock, Rumba, traditional Cuban music, and Soul for a result of great richness, where individual originality, musical creativity, and avant-garde ideas enrich the group.

London Afrobeat Collective has hypnotic flashes and powerful percussive beats.

Similarly, the addictive London Afrobeat Collective has been offering festive music based on Jazz, Funk, Rock, Dumb, and African Vibes for ten years. Its international DNA made up of nine members from England, Italy, France, Congo, Argentina, and New Zealand with the powerful voice of the Congolese singer Juanita Euka has made its rhythm addictive music with powerful and committed messages. The London-based band will open the night of concerts on Sunday, July 31^st at 9 PM.

Alain Perez and the Bassiste Orchestra will offer a mixed show of Salsa, Son, Timba, and Latin Jazz

This musical evening ends with Alain Perez, bassist, singer, arranger, and who composes his orchestra of 13 young musicians on stage to offer a mixed show of contemporary Cuban Salsa, Timba, and Latin Jazz. His talent has given him wonderful experiences with internationally famous orchestras and musicians such as Los Van Van, Irakere, Issac Delgado, Paquito D’Rivera, and Celia Cruz. Always accompanied by his elephant-headed cane, in homage to Cuban musician Benny Moré, Alain has been influenced by flamenco through his work with Cuban artist Paco de Lucía.

The versatile artist born in Havana was twice-nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Music Album with “El alma del Son, tribute to Matamoros” (2015) and “ADN” as Best Salsa Album. (2017).

El Cuento de la Buena Pipa (2020) is his most recent record production, and you can enjoy it on the main stage of the festival at 11 PM.

You can get the tickets for Tempo Latino 2022 on their official site http://www.tempo-latino.com/ for a four-beat tempo. The Tickets for the four nights of concerts are €86.70.

And while you wait for the Tempo Latino Festival (28th edition) you can enjoy its free predecessor event Clutcho at La Grainerie this May 4^th. This place is emblematic of the circus and itinerant disciplines that take place with a large space that involves a large open-air square, and a performance hall with a capacity for 230 people through an “interior street” that serves for creative studios and workshops.