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Life, Career, and death of Juan Carlos Formell

Juan Carlos Formell

Latin entertainment is in mourning the departure of one of its most talented figures, who leaves a very big void in all his followers and fans. We are talking about former composer, bassist, guitarist and member of Los Van Van Juan Carlos Formell, who sadly departed from this world on Friday, May 26th after a live performance in New York City.

In view of such an unfortunate loss for those of us who have spent years of experience promoting Latin music in all four corners of the world, we consider it appropriate to recall the most important moments in the life and career of this extraordinary artist and all that he contributed to the salsa movement during his lifetime.

Juan Carlos Formell died on May 26th — Juan Carlos Formell died on Friday, May 26th after a live performance in New York City

Story of Juan Carlos Formell

Juan Carlos Formell was born in the city of Havana on February 18, 1964 and was the son of Juan Formell and Natalia Alfonso. He was the oldest of three brothers who would also dedicate themselves to music.

Contrary to what people might think, the fact of belonging to the fourth generation of a musical family and being the son of world famous bassist Juan Formell did not make things easier for him on the path with music. When he was barely three weeks old, he was sent to live with his grandparents in the outskirts of the Havana city.

They were through many financial needs and Juan Carlos himself would admit in an interview years later that other children used to make fun of him for having holes in his shoes, but that did not make him desist from his dreams, far from it. He became interested in music at a very young age, which led him to train professionally at the Alejandro García Cartula Conservatory and the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory.

In the 1990s, he concluded his studies at the National School of Arts in Cuba with almost three decades of life, so he made the decision to move to New York City to fully exercise his career as a musician. Before this, Juan Carlos had already accompanied several jazz orchestras on stage, but Cuban authorities banned him from traveling due to his regular yoga practice (considered subversive in his native country).

Since he could not leave Cuba directly, he had to use a tour with the Rumbavana orchestra in Mexico to cross the Rio Grande in Texas and later settle in New York. His process of adapting to this new country was not easy from any point of view, but it was all so worth it.

From then on, what came was success for the artist. During the course of his solo career, he recorded some five solo albums, one of which earned him a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Traditional Tropical Latin Performance in 2000.

Juan Carlos Formell at PiPiKi Studios — Juan Carlos Formell recording at PiPiKi Studios

Entry into Los Van Van

Los Van Van is one of the most important Cuban musical groups of recent times, which was founded by Cuban bassist Juan Formell, Juan Carlos Formell’s father. After having participated in several son and jazz groups, the musician decided it was time to innovate and change the style he was using until now.

It was then that he decided to incorporate new instruments and voices, which gave rise to a completely different concept baptized as Los Van Van and that gave much to talk about among critics of the time, and for the better.

After a very successful career in the group, Juan Formell died on May 1, 2014 at the age of 71 as a result of a heart attack during a concert in his hometown, Havana.

This unfortunate event is what led his son, Juan Carlos Formell, to join Los Van Van as a bassist. His brother Samuel was on the drum kit and his sister Vanessa was on backing vocals, so it can be said that this was a bit of a family business.

Since that moment, the intense activity that he had together with the rest of the group in performances, concerts and new songs earned him the recognition of the public in a very short time.

In spite of carrying the fame of his father on his shoulders, he did not let this stop him or be a limiting factor for him. On the contrary, he always left his family name and his father’s legacy high.

Unfortunately, 10 years passed before the artist left a huge void among those who respected and loved him.

Juan Carlos Formell on stage — Juan Carlos Formell performing on stage

Death

On May 26 of this year, Los Van Van was performing at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in New York. About 40 minutes after the start of the concert, Juan collapsed on stage in front of all the attendants.

Minutes later, he was aided by ambulances and a fire truck. He was then taken to the nearest health-care center, but unfortunately the doctors could do nothing for him. This is how his bandmates announced the sad news through their social networks.

At the end of the concert, Eduardo Livia himself confirmed the death when he walked off the stage and greatly regretted what happened. The cause of death was determined to be a heart attack and his life came to an end at the age of 59.

After this, the group continued with the rest of the tour they had planned and the performances they had outstanding were in honor of the great Juan Carlos Formell and all that he gave to music during his life.

Francisco Aguabella “El Tamborero de Cuba” Bravo and Virtuoso Percussionist of Afro-Cuban Ritual Music

Aguabella was born on October 10, 1925 and grew up in the drumming tradition of Matanzas in Cuba.

On May 8, 2010, Francisco Aguabella “El Tamborero de Cuba” passed away in Los Angeles, United States. Bravo and virtuoso percussionist of Afro-Cuban ritual music, Latin/jazz and jazz.

Of remembered links to Tito Puente’s band, Mongo Santamaría, Cachao López, Eddie Palmieri, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Jorge Santana’s group “Malo” and his own “Latin Jazz Emsemble”.

Aguabella nació el 10 de octubre de 1925 y se crio en la tradición de los tambores de Matanzas en Cuba

In 1953 he emigrated to the United States and settled in California as an olu batá (bata drummer).

Batá drumming is a ceremonial musical style that plays an integral role in the African-derived Santeria religion practiced in Cuba, Puerto Rico and since the 1950s in the United States.

No other music of the Americas bears a more striking similarity to West African music than the batá. Its set of three double cone drums reproduces the Nigerian Yoruba drum set of the same name.

Francisco Aguabella “El Tamborero de Cuba” Bravo y Virtuoso Percusionista de la música ritual afrocubana

Many of the rhythms closely resemble their African prototypes, and the Afro-Cuban language of Lucumí, in which Aguabella sings, is clearly a derivation of Yoruba.

Prior to 1980, Aguabella and Julito Collazo were the only olu batá in the United States who had been initiated into a secret society of drummers designated to perform a very sacred type of batá known as batá fundamento .

The batá fundamento is an integral part of Santeria ceremonies in which an individual’s initiation into the religion cannot be consecrated unless he or she has been presented before this sacred ensemble.

Each year Aguabella builds a shrine for his patron saint, Santa Barbara (Changó), and plays music at a birthday party held in her honor.

Francisco Aguabella “El Tamborero de Cuba”

It’s an all-day celebration for invited friends who are primarily but, not exclusively members of the Santeria sect “Santa Barbara knows it’s her birthday,” Aguabella said, “I know how she feels.

She feels happy if I honor her, I feel bad if I don’t so on St. Barbara’s day every December 4 whatever work I am doing today I don’t do for anyone, I love this saint very much and I promised her I was going to have a party every year.

Se recuerda sus vinculaciones a la Banda de Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Cachao López, Eddie Palmieri, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, el grupo Malo

Although Aguabella is widely respected for his sacred drumming he is also known for his virtuosity in the secular forms of Afro-Cuban music.

Choreographer Katherine Dunham was so impressed with Aguabella’s drumming that she invited him to join her company for tours of South America and Europe.

The most influential of Aguabella’s secular styles is rumba, a complex of several musical genres that evolved in Cuba in the early 20th century.

Rumba was the basis for much of the Cuban dance hall music that in turn helped shape American popular music through dance bands based throughout the United States.

However Afro-Cuban rumba bears little resemblance to the ballroom dance rumba that inspired Francisco. Rumba as Aguabella said is part of daily life for many Afro-Cubans, it doesn’t have to be a special day to play rumba, we could start a rumba here without a drum.

You could play it here or there on the wall, in Cuba rumba is 24 hours a day, we gather in a corner and have a glass of rum…. And someone says: Why don’t we play a little rumba? Some people touch the wall and someone else plays a bottle and maybe takes a cap off the bottle and ‘ca ca ca ca ca ca ca ca ca’ and the Rumba.”

Aguabella’s goal has long been to maintain the integrity of the tradition he so respects, while incorporating it into “crossover” music aimed at a wider audience.

It was his superior musical ability and commitment to tradition that led musicians such as Mongo Santamaria, Malo and Carlos Santana to bring him into their groups.

Aguabella lived in Los Angeles; where he continued to performand exert a great influence on Latin American music.

Afrontilas Music

Mayito Rivera “El Poeta de la Rumba” was the distinctive voice of Los Van Van de Cuba

Mario ‘Mayito’ Rivera is, without a doubt, one of Cuba’s most outstanding contemporary singers.

For more than 20 years he was the distinctive voice and recognizable face of Cuba’s most famous musical group, Los Van Van.

Regardless of the musical genre he performs -rumba, son, salsa, bolero or timba, modern or traditional style, with strength and dynamism or with delicacy and tenderness, Mayito Rivera’s performances, with passages adorned with tremors and coloraturas, are always stellar.

Mario Enrique Rivera Godínez was born on January 19, 1966 in Pinar del Río, a province located in the westernmost part of Cuba and famous for its handmade Havana cigars.

It was there that ‘Mayito’ began his musical training as a child. Later, he moved to Havana, where he studied percussion at the renowned National School of Art (ENA), which he later extended with advanced studies at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA).

After completing his training, which lasted a total of 15 years, Mayito Rivera joined the musical ensemble of the well-known Cuban singer Albita Rodríguez.

Later, he played bass in the Moncada Group, a formation belonging to the Nueva Trova Cubana movement, whose renovating spirit is firmly rooted in traditional Cuban rhythms.

At the age of 26, Mayito was discovered by Juan Formell, the director of Los Van Van, an orchestra that by then had already become a legend. Initially hired to play bass and sing backing vocals, he soon established himself as the group’s lead vocalist.

Over the next 20 years, Mayito Rivera, more than any other musician, put his stamp on Los Van Van.

He burst onto the scene as the representative of a new generation of musicians, and his fresh style contributed to the group’s endurin Singer of the group’s countless salsa hits that were played in the discotheques, he has been nominated twice for a Grammy and won it once.

Mario ‘Mayito’ Rivera es, sin duda, uno de los cantantes contemporáneos más destacados de Cuba

At the same time, he was also working on other projects: in 1999 he released his first solo album, Pa’ bachatear.

Chappotín, in which he transports the past to our days with a brilliant interpretation of traditional Conjunto Chappotín songs.

But Mayito Rivera is not only a singer and percussionist. In 2005, he released Negrito Bailador, his second solo album, produced by the Timba label of the German music publisher Termidor, in which he performs only songs of his own composition.

The music, with a rumbero tinge, is fresh, lively and of timeless quality. Subsequently, Negrito bailador was marketed in the United States under the title Llegó la hora and was immediately nominated for a Grammy in the Best Salsa Album of the Year category.

Mayito Rivera is probably the most requested special guest by other Cuban orchestras; so much so, that in recent years he has sung with almost all of Cuba’s star casts.

Nor has his career suffered any interruptions since he left Los Van Van in 2011: currently, Mayito Rivera tours the whole world relentlessly, giving concerts in countries as diverse as the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy.

The great popularity and multiple talents of this ‘poet of rumba’ are reflected in his performances as guest singer for salsa greats such as Oscar D’Leon, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Issac Delgado, Adalberto Alvarez, Mayimbe, Son Como Son, Timba Live, Pupy y Los que Son Son, Charanga Latina, Havana D’Primera, Tumbao Habana and Elio Reve Jr, to name just a few.

In 2012, Mayito Rivera established himself as a permanent member of Los Soneros de Verdad, the most successful orchestra of the moment dedicated to son and its related rhythms, led by singer Luis Frank Arias.

Two sold-out world tours of three months each in Europe, Asia, Russia and the United States attest to the high quality and great interest in this amalgam of traditional son and the vocal artistry of Cuba’s most dynamic rumbero.

Mayito Durante más de 20 años fue la voz distintiva y el rostro reconocible del más famoso grupo musical cubano, Los Van Van

In 2014, the superstar will be touring with his own orchestra. But before that, from June to September 2013, he will give a series of concerts with Los Soneros de Verdad performing songs from his as yet unreleased album Alma de Sonero.

During this project he will return to his musical roots: son and rumba, bolero and guaguancó, both in their traditional interpretation and in their more modern variants.

The album Alma de sonero includes 11 tracks and will be released in September 2013 worldwide success.

The musicians include Alexander Abreu (Havana D’Primera) on trumpet, San Miguel Pérez on tres and Luis A. Chacón ‘Aspirina’ Bruzón on bongos and cajón.

Website: Mayito Rivera

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna in International Salsa Magazine

Who is Fausto Cuevas

Fausto Cuevas is a bandleader and percussionist from the state of Texas who is currently leading the orchestra Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna, which has been playing in a large number of nightclubs located in the state of California, where Fausto currently resides.

For its part, Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna is a salsa group whose purpose is to take the old Latin genres and provide a modern twist to them. While it is true that their main genre is and has been salsa, its members also experiment a lot with Cuban guaguancó, yambú, cumbia, son, cha cha chá, among others.

We are proud to have such an artist in our June edition and hope that this conversation will grace all our readers.

Fausto’s beginnings in music

Fausto grew up in Brownsville, a village in Texas very close to the southern border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where his father is from. Due to this territorial proximity to Mexico, the artist was always exposed to ranchera instruments and, in particular, drums. The latter would be very important in what would become his professional future.

At the age of 11, he entered the public school system and was assigned to play a snare drum in a symphonic style. It can be said that this is when his fascination for this type of instrument began and continues till this very day.

In fact, Fausto claimed to have not been interested in guitar, piano or bass. He was always very clear that his aspirations were focused on drums, and percussion.

These first steps led him to specialize in playing American music, rock and jazz. Until then, he had not had any contact with Latin or Afro-Cuban music, but that would eventually change.

Moving from Boston to California

Fausto tells us that his biggest dream was always to go to New York, since the music scene was vibrant there at that time, but he could never do it due to some personal issues he encountered, such as the birth of his daughter. This is what made him move to Los Angeles and give up on that dream.

When we asked him if he still wanted to live in ”The Big Apple”, he told us that he had already found his place in California and his career had already taken root in this part of the United States.

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna was created in a very particular way. One day, Fausto received a call from the department at Berkeley that does concerts for the Boston community and was asked if he had a salsa band to play at the Tito Puente Latin Music Series. He said yes to everything, although he had nothing prepared at the time.

What he did have was a group of friends who were related to music and happened to live in Boston. They were all so well-suited and had so many plans that things worked out in an extraordinary way. That was 25 years ago and they have stayed together to this day despite the obstacles.

Relationships with other artists and genres

Fausto Cuevas Y La Moderna have performed and toured with stars such as Marc Anthony, Jose Alberto ”El Canario”, Celia Cruz, Julio Iglesias, Santana, Tito Nieves, Tito Puente Jr., Stavie Wonder Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, among others.

One thing that Fausto feels he has learned from these artists is to be identifiable as a Latino in American genres. He says it is very interesting to create things, always identifying with Latin rhythms when playing soul, R&B or pop.

Having had so much contact with all these musical luminaries has helped him to rediscover himself and be much more creative when mixing Latin and American elements. In this sense, knowing the roots of the genres he plays has helped him a lot to know how to link both worlds.

It is precisely the knowledge of these roots which has made Fausto Y la Moderna stand out among other Californian groups.

Future projects

As to future projects, Fausto Y la Moderna plans to release a few singles this year and record the rest of the album in order to release the whole album in 2024.

He also pointed out that he is about to release an album with Gonzalo Grau Y La Clave Secreta, another group in which he is also involved, so he invites everyone to listen to his music through networks and digital platforms.

Héctor “Rudy” Regalado and his great career

This is Rudy Regalado

Héctor ”Rudy” Regalado was a Venezuelan artist born on January 29, 1943 in the 23 de Enero parish, Caracas, and died on November 4, 2010, in Las Vegas, United States, at age 61 as a result of pneumonia.

For a great part of his life, he devoted himself to being a brilliant bandleader, composer, percussionist and musician who had a very prolific career with more than 50 years of duration. At that time, he made an endless number of tours and was a very important member of the Orchestra El Chicano, which was very famous in those years.

Rudy Regalado was born in Caracas and died in Las Vegas

Youth

As a teenager, a young Hector began playing drums and timbales in the city of Caracas. The years were not many when he adopted the nickname “Rudy Regalado” as his artistic name in honor of the former Cleveland Indians’ player.

When he decided to embark on a career as an artist, he moved to Puerto Rico in 1963 and began to delight the public of San Juan in various nightclubs of the city. Along with these concerts, he was professionally formed at the Pablo Casals Conservatory of Music.

In 1970, he moved permanetly to Los Angeles and united his talent with local groups before becoming part of El Chicano that same year.

Career with El Chicano

One of the most important details to mention about Rudy Regalado’s career is his participation as a member of the band El Chicano, which was always dedicated to mix rock, R&B and jazz. He remained in the group for 12 years and recorded about five record productions which included songs such as “Viva Tirado” and “Tell she’s Lovely”.

The orchestra also created the song used for the television series “Baretta”, which was broadcast from 1975 to 1978.

Rudy Regalado with the rest of the members of El Chicano

All Star Band

In 1983, he formed his own orchestra “All Star Band” with an outstanding group of musicians from Los Angeles with whom he toured a lot of countries such as the United States, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and many more. A short time later, its members decided to change their name to “Chévere”.

Almost a decade later, Rudy Regalado impressed the whole world when millions of people witnessed his timpal solo in the World Cup closing ceremony, alongside Kenny G and Whitney Houston.

A few years later, the artist toured Japan in the company of maestro Tito Puente, with whom he demonstrated his great skills as a percussionist and his high musical level.

Mr. Duran, host of The Mr. Duran Show, and Rudy Regalado

Other musical works

In 2008 he reunited with “El Chicano” for a reunion tour, which highlighted the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival at the Golden Gate Park Music Concurse in San Francisco. That same day, its former members played together for the last time at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, resulting in a historic evening in which feelings were close to the surface.

During the course of his successful career, Regalado collaborated with different and important figures of the musical environment such as: Quincy Jones, Rubén Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Cachao, The Zawinul Syndicate, Paquito D’ Rivera, Willie Colón, Oscar D’ León, Alphonse Mouzon, Caravana Cubana, among others.

Rudy Regalado dedicated his life to music and to represent the name of Venezuela in every stage that enjoyed his talent, standing out in the music scene for his vibrant performances with the timbales, also for his prolific compositions and the dedication to his work.

If you want to know more about this Venezuelan icon, you can wrtite to his daughter Norka Tibisay Regalado and get more info about him.