Search Results for: La Sonora Ponceña

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and its role towards salsa

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and Latin music

The Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery is one of those places where every salsa lover in New York should visit since there is plenty to see here. This museum has all kinds of items donated by many renowned artists or relatives of some who had passed away. This collection of valuable possessions has resulted in a set of priceless objects that will bow anyone visiting the facilities of such a special institution out of water.

The Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery, also known as Spaha Salsa Gallery, can be defined as an institution of a cultural nature whose main purpose is to serve as a reminder of how great our culture is, especially our music. Both residents and visitors of East Harlem, New York, can learn about the salsa genre and its roots as long as they desire. All thanks to a lot of tools, information and many initiatives with which those interested will know all kinds of interesting facts about salsa first hand.

Another of the great objectives pursued by this place is the quest for knowledge about Latin music and the artists involved to offer it to anyone who decides to visit its facilities. That is why both its president Johnny Cruz and the team that helps him have been responsible for creating an inclusive and diverse gallery in which you can appreciate how far Hispanic talent has come by the hand of its top stars.

Johnny and Boris — Johnny Cruz and Rubio Boris presenting their show

Role of the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture

The role played by the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture is very important, since these institutions are the ones that manage to arouse the interest of the inhabitants of Harlem and other nearby sectors towards one of the most representative musical genres of Latinity. This has made many other cultural institutions to use this gallery in order to awaken a higher interest in its own activities, which shows extensive cooperation between those who seek to promote anything Latin-related at all costs.

Fortunately, our work is not that complicated to carry out because too many tourists visit New York every day and many of them know that this city was the birthplace of the biggest salsa movement in history, so they are always looking for cultural sports in which you can find information about this set of rhythms and how it emerges in the public arena.

Instruments donated by La Sonora Ponceña — Some instruments donated by La Sonora Ponceña

Who Johnny Cruz is

Johnny Cruz is the founder of the Spaha Salsa Gallery, but there are many other facets by which this talented Puerto Rican is known in the entertainment industry. Cruz is a famous musician and record producer who has worked and make friends with a wide number of artists from all genres, by providing him with the platform to create a true sanctuary for Latin music lovers.

One interesting fact about the museum is that it is located on the plot where a hardware business owned by Johnny’s father used to function, which was made into something completely different thanks to the genius of his son long after. Today, that place contains several of the most invaluable objects in the history of salsa and whose relationship with some of the greatest figures of the genre is legendary.

Link to the official website of the Spaha Salsa gallery: spahasalsagallery.com

By: Johnny Cruz correspondent of International Salsa Magazine in New York City, New York

Lino Roldán “Taino” and his amazing station Radio Brisa Tropical

How Radio Brisa Tropical Started

We meet today with Taino Roldan from the fabulous station Radio Brisa Tropical. Good morning Mr. Roldan, hope you are well.

Quite well, thanks to God. Warm greetings to you from our radio station Radio Brisa Tropical.

How did you start liking broadcasting and how did you know you wanted to get into this?

Whilst resident in Italy, I began my career as a DJ there and in Germany. When I returned to the United States, I started going to all the local stations to have a salsa show. At first, they always replied that they were not interested and the doors were closed to me, but that never caused me a problem. I have always believed that if a door has closed, you have to find a way to enter that world, no matter what. At last, I started working at an AM station where I spent three years and then at a FM station for almost 10 years.

During this whole period, I was studying broadcasting at the local university and playing with the internet. It was by that time that streaming and webcasting, which was in 2005 if I got it right. A friend of mine who was a computer programmer told me that I could broadcast my shows in this manner. I asked him for help, given he was the expert, so we did this and connected. At that time, Facebook or any of those things did not yet exist, but MySpace did. Then we managed to webcast until the streaming service came out from the hand of YouTube and other platforms, and that’s when I opened my accounts in those social networks and created my website.

While I was on FM, we continued webcasting until 2012, which was when I officially left that station. I was on about four FM stations, but on different days in the area where I was. After I stopped working in those places, I decided to keep right here in my own studio and do my show solely and exclusively on the internet and it has been the case until today. It has been 31 years of happiness and here I am still standing.

Lino in his studio — Taino Roldán in his studio, where he webcasts his show Radio Brisa Tropical

We understand that this Radio Brisa Tropical project started in 1991. How was this idea conceived?

While I was on AM, my show was not called Brisa Tropical, but rather “¿Qué pasa?” There we included all kinds of music and gave cultural news about all countries, since I am in an area represented by all Latin American countries, the Caribbean Centre, South America and Spain. Having such a diverse audience, I decided to talk about all countries and not just mine, which is Puerto Rico. I talk about the important days of all the countries such as independence days and other historical events. I want to make content to entertain and educate the audience.

When I switched to FM, the station where I did my show is called “The Brise” and it played contemporary music in English. So, I sat with a friend who was helping me and it was there when I called my own program “Brisa Tropical”, as it is during that time that we included salsa, merengue, bachata, vallenato and much more.

Thank the Lord and the audience we have, we are more dedicated to salsa, and when I say “salsa”, I am including Cuban son and all these Afro-Cuban rhythms that were called salsa since the 70’s till present. However, we like to include all tropical music, classic as well as contemporary. So, it is at the point now where we have created an international audience, and that’s why it is so important to identify and mention the names of the artists, the orchestras, the composers, the arrangers, the members of the groups. Let us remember that there is plenty of time on the Internet. This is nothing like an AM or FM station that are commercial and you only have to reduce the amount of time. Here, I am the programmer and the announcer.

Radio Brisa Tropical is streamed exclusively on the Internet

You have already told us about the role played by the internet and social networks in implementing your project. So much so that networks have become the main transmission channels of the station. Is the internet the main broadcasting channel or are you still on the radio?

My show is streamed exclusively on the internet. Commercial broadcasters were my beginning, but I am absolutely sure that the future is the internet and I am not just talking about Facebook because this social network is not a music platform. I have my YouTube channel, my Facebook page and my Twitter account, but webcasting has opened the door to all musicians, performers and composers from anywhere in the world. The internet is the future of music. I am dedicated to salsa and Latin jazz, but I usually include other genres that listeners often ask me for, such as cumbia, tropical music, vallenato, etcetera.

In addition to salsa, your station plays other genres such as Latin jazz, vallenato, cumbia and plena. Why did you start this project with salsa as a base?

I grew up with salsa and developed myself as a DJ for many years both in Italy and Germany. Although I used to play everything, when I saw the love of Europeans for salsa on the dance floor, I always decided on it. Salsa has always been my life. I like all positive music, but I will always prefer to broadcast salsa and Latin jazz. Now, if a listener asks me to play a good song that does not have high-flown words or anything, I have no problem with it. Here I have been asked to play even rancheras because I have learned that you never say no to that loyal audience.

You currently broadcast live on YouTube, Facebook and your website. Do you know which transmission channel has a bigger audience?

Most of my audience listens to me through the link to my server and website. Remember that the website has the links to the channel and the other social networks. Through TuneIn, I receive a lot of audience around the world. I also use Live365 because the station pays royalties and I have the license to broadcast legally. The problem is that this platform is not heard in some places in South America or Europe, which is precisely why I also use TuneIn. When I check my content every day, I realize that we have a lot of audience coming from the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Europe and the United States.

Taino Roldán holding a Wito Rodríguez album

Age ranges of Radio Brisa Tropical

Many would say that the genres played on your station are to the taste of an older audience that enjoyed the salsa of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. What is the age range of your station?

According to the demographic information and the comments I am getting, I have seen that we have people from 10 or 11 years old and up. Once, a lady sent me a comment saying that her 100-year-old dad stayed in bed listening to the station and even sent me a picture of him smiling. I’ve also received messages from young people. I would say my demographic ranges from 20 years old and up.

I include classic salsa because many of those performers and bands remain relevant with their legacy despite having passed away, but there are also many salseros from that golden era in the 70’s and 80’s who are still active like Willie Rosario or La Sonora Ponceña. I have a lot of Venezuelan and Colombian friends from Venezuela who always send me music.

I like to balance my way to program. I like to take people back to the 70’s and even beyond, bring them back to the present and explain the ins and outs of a song or album. One of the most important things a broadcaster must do is to mention the artist, the composer, the arranger, the musicians, among others. You have to talk about the piece that is playing and what is behind it.

Tarino next to Willie Rosario — Taino Roldán and Willie Rosario

What you are saying is very important because many times people only focus on the vocalist or leader of a group, but they do not wonder about all the behind-the-scenes work or even talk about the rest of the members, such as the guitarists, the pianists, the arrangers or the musical directors. In that sense, what do you do to disseminate all this information?

I like reading a lot. If I am going to talk about a specific artist, I will look for who he is, what his trajectory is, how his beginnings were, what he did, what he is doing now. Of course, I have never included any personal data. This is very important to me because this helps the artist to sell his stuff. When there were a lot of record sales, I had the habit of checking the back to read the liner notes of that artist. That information is very valuable to me because that is what I use to inform the audience unequivocally.

From what you have told me, you have been working exclusively on the Internet for many years. Did you do it before or after the pandemic?

I had already been webcasting my program on the Internet for many years. In fact, I have been doing it since 2012. Thank goodness, the pandemic has not affected me in any way. My wife and I have taken care of ourselves and followed the sanitary rules, but this situation has not affected our work. On the contrary, I am here before the microphone in my studio while I speak and play music every day in the morning. It may also happen that I bring my laptop to a remote location and air the show from there or through my cell phone. I have done a lot of interviews during all this time because I like it so much.

What other projects or shows are you carrying out?

I have discovered that I can do a show about music, but without playing music. Sometimes I do it, but this is not my usual due to the issue of copyright with Facebook. I have a show called “Hablando de Salsa” and I am proud of it because it has been very successful. I am doing this project with Eduardo Saya. The show is entirely about salsa and we broadcast it every Wednesday at 6 PM CST. There, we always choose a different subject to be tackled every day.

Taino Roldán and his wife Carmen Roldán

Link to the Facebook page of Taino Roldán: Taino Roldán

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and its role towards salsa

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and Latin music

Role of the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture

Who Johnny Cruz is

Link to the official website of the Spaha Salsa gallery: spahasalsagallery.com

By: Johnny Cruz correspondent of International Salsa Magazine in New York City, New York

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and its role towards salsa

Spanish Harlem Salsa Gallery and Latin music

Role of the Spaha Salsa Gallery in the dissemination of Latin culture

Who Johnny Cruz is

Link to the official website of the Spaha Salsa gallery: spahasalsagallery.com

By: Johnny Cruz correspondent of International Salsa Magazine in New York City, New York

Salsa fantasy, a concept of the Salsa designer Ron Levine

Album covers can express the technological and social advances of different epochs through indirect means.

“Salsa Fantasy” is a term coined by journalist Pablo Yglesias to describe a concept that artist and illustrator Ron Levine wanted to implement when he started creating various album covers for Latin music in the 70s. He was primarily intended to propose a style that could compete directly with the creations of the prosperous American industry.

This article presents the reasons why Ron Levine decided to set out on on that journey. To that end, we have drawn on an interview conducted by Pablo Yglesias in 2011 in which, in addition to his interesting anecdotes, we are being offered a glimpse of a retrospect of all his work, going through his work with the Sonora Ponceña in which he had the opportunity to develop his style.

Album cover design, Fania Records, illustration, Pop Art, La Sonora Ponceña.

Introduction

Album covers can express the technological and social advances of different epochs through indirect means (Rondón, C., 2008), (Figueredo, M., 2010). The interesting thing about this is that the relative precarious situation in which salsa album covers were designed and the marginality expressed in many cases by the lack of resources with which they were created.

Jerry Masucci’s Fania Records was really focused on supporting that nascent number of singers of Latin origin.

Many of those covers created were concepts on which certain issues closely related to the songs or what the singer wished to express were handled.

In most cases, staging and photography were resorted to express certain ideas related to migration of Latinos in the U.S. and others of social order that prevailed in the lyrics of the songs (Yglesias, P. E., 2005).

In this way, various artists became directly or indirectly involved in the making of their album covers; one example of this are Eddie Palmieri’s album covers where a set of simple but forceful photos and the good mastering of typography can be appreciated (Yglesias, P. E. ,2005).

Although there existed a number of non-Latin graphic designers and artists who engaged in Latin music in the United States during the 70s and 80s, the team formed by Ron Levine and Marshall Lee was the most visible of Salsa in New York.

The two artists, both iconic and revered, worked for Jerry Masucci at Fania Records where Levine created many of Fania’s best known and appreciated covers.

Salsa wonderful photos of Lee would be part of a comprehensive separate study, what interests us in this article is to show the work developed in Ron Levine’s work as a graphic designer and artist.

Throughout his career he played an important role in carrying on the legacy of high quality in the design of album covers initiated by Izzy Sanabria, Walter Velez, Charlie Rosario and other artists and illustrators in the 60s and early 70s.

Below is a review of Ron Levine’s work and some aspects that led him to develop a style so particular that, still today, is applauded by many designers, artists and illustrators who have been involved in the art of creating album covers.

Levine’s childhood: from drawing horses to Ronald Stuart art school Levine was born in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Long Island at six years old. His maternal grandparents were Scottish Protestants; his maternal grandmother was Theodore Roosevelt’s nurse in a moment of her life (“She was a big burly woman with hair like sheep,” recalls Levine)

Her paternal grandparents were Jews from Poland and Russia. Her mother, who was born in Glasgow, converted to Judaism when she married her father. She attended art school and, besides being a housewife, she used to work in a professional photo studio and was an expert in dyeing and painting backgrounds oil colors in black and white photographs for weddings.

Her father worked in a textile store and had a knack for textile marketing and fashion in Manhattan.

Levine spent his childhood playing with drums, Jewish folk dances and horse riding. Drawing horses fascinated him and he was obsessed with science fiction illustrations such as Flash Gordon, Disney cartoons, superhero comics, horror and fantasy.

By the age of eight, he was longing to work for Walt Disney; at school he was irreverent in art classes, preferring to draw horses, fantasy characters or Flash Gordon, rather than those boring still life, fruit bowls and colour cards that were classroom exercises.

He motivated himself by drawing fantasy and beautiful horses. Despite his poor grades, his parents knew he had talent, so they encouraged his artistic skills knowing that his career in the arts may not be very financially feasible.

To him, music was a passion almost be likened to painting. Levine formed a band called “The tensions” in which he played drums. He was also the lead vocalist of another band called “The New Rock Workshop” and its members toured and recorded for several years in the 60s.

In addition to playing and singing in those bands, Levine began studying at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where he took classes in a 4-year programme. There he reclaimed his passion for drawing the human figure.

At the age of 20 Levine settled permanently in Manhattan anstarted his professional career as an artist. He could not finish the last quarter of his studies, but through a professor he was able to make contact high-profile graphic artists such as Paul Davis, Milton Glaser, Chwast Seymour and Lubalin Herb. After a while he landed a job making magazine covers and also with the famous creative director Tony Palladino with whom he learned various tools of the trade.

In these early works, as may be noted, photography was used as an element of graphic expression, combining some illustration and staging. It was a work concluded between Levine and Lee.

After the first six years, Levine was already doing most of the work for Fania All-Stars together with Lee.

At the same time, Sanabria was occupied with Latin NY magazine, which was a very influential publication for Nuyorican popular culture.

Levine comments that he felt part of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Lo Mato.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Jhonny Pacheco has a respect for his illustrations, because Levine also knew about music. However, he says he took a crash course and went from knowing absolutely nothing about Latin music to witnessing its history — The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Jhonny Pacheco had respect for his illustrations because Levine also knew about music.

However, he says he took an intensive course and went from not knowing anything about Latin music to witnessing its history and evolution in the front row.

After that, he worked for some albums by Rubén Blades in which he began experimenting with portrait photography, which was a realistic interpretation from photography.

Lo Mato

Despite the pleasant working atmosphere, Levine had some conceptual discussions with Masucci related to logos and title sizes in typefaces. — Lo Mato

Despite the pleasant working atmosphere, Levine had some conceptual discussions with Masucci in relation to logos and title text sizes in typographies, resulting in controversial results in some cases.

Since Latin music was marginalized for many years, the designs of the 60s and 70s used a shoestring budget, considering that Fania All-Stars was neither Columbia nor Atlantic Records, for many of the typographies almost everything had to be created manually and with basic techniques such as the use of masks, photocopies, adhesive tape and rubber cement.

In this way, there was a lot of handmade work in which Levine’s photos were taken to the extreme. All the lines were done by hand and then tinted with rapidograph pens. Levine says that some of the typographies created had no concept behind them, however, illustration to produce a quality product take a long time.

Creativity was blooming as was humor. Many musicians used to dress up in costumes and pose with girls.

Subsequently, he was called to work in the covers of La Sonora Ponceña given that the aesthetics of this orchestra’s pieces were in line with his expectations about fantasy illustrations.

La Sonora Ponceña.

Many of the covers created by Levine and Lee challenged the concept of the Latin identity’s representation, this can be better seen in the LP’s created for La Sonora Ponceña from Ponce, Puerto Rico.

The record label Fania Records offered that differentiation to new musicians, giving them the opportunity to say something interestingusing their covers. Sanabria had already begun to develop a concept, but were at the hands of Lee and Levine that a classic representation of the style based on comic-inspired illustrations, some humor and Pop Art was truly shown.

Ruben Blades.

Ruben Blades With Strings

In this way, contextualized ideas and stories were developed; an example of this is a cover that shows a representation of the conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon in full body armor (and somewhat incongruous with the use of a sweater — Rubén Blades With Strings

This is how contextualized ideas and stories were developed; an example of this is a cover where a representation of the conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon in full body armor (something incongruous with the use of a sweater), a guitar on his shoulder, a maraca in one hand and a parchment in the other one.

When Levine took charge, there was some controversy concerning how the group should be represented; however, Levine was quite good in the eyes of the fans.

Given that they felt the story needed to be told in some way and the problems and artistic freedom so important to salsa in the 70s were illustrated with authencity through his creations.

These creations that came out from an initial idea of Juan Ponce de León’s representation mutated and became the issue of many album covers that not only told fantastic fictional stories related to music, but also changed the traditional image of the Latin album.

Sonora Ponceña albums (Musical Conquest – Back to work).

Sonora Ponceña Musical Conquest

Despite the success of Levine’s work with the public, Sanabria, who always tried to remain within the limits of Latin culture, criticized him precisely for distorting music and its culture.

Sonora Ponceña Back to work

However, Levine defended his idea by saying that Latin music and its artists very good music), had not received before the support as is provided to American music and artists. Given that Levine had been linked to the creation of covers for rock bands, he always felt that the quality of Latin music covers was very poor due to the low budget.

Sonora Ponceña albums (Determination – Night Rider).

Sonora Ponceña Determination

In this way with his fiction proposal, Levine put Latin music on a par with some American artists who had recognition (Boston, ELO, Earth, Wind, Fire, Kiss and Yes).

Levine believed the covers should reflect the image of success. Fortunately, he had the support of Masucci, who, motivated by Levine, invested more money in the covers using the same premise.

Sonora Ponceña Night Rider

With his proposal for the covers, Levine wanted to show that Latin music was part of one of the biggest music scenes in the world.

He remarked that each of the covers had the same standard of treatment as a work of art; it was worked with great care and detail.

Finally, the last cover created by Levine for La Sonora Ponceña was made in the digital age – On Target (1998). There is a kind of hybrid between samurai and barbarian, with certain influences of the aesthetics of video games, fast-moving typography management with a flatter illustration but with a three-dimensional look.

The CD was released the year after the death of Masucci.

Sonora Ponceña On Target.

Conclusion

The concept proposed by Ron Levine allowed to explore from creation not only the various ways of making known a musical group, but also the establishment of a style that spread among the public to such an extent that his work on each cover is recognized as a work of art at present.

Mongo Santamaria

On the other hand, he was a pioneer of a style with which Latin music was not initially identified in its beginnings (fiction illustration, Pop Art, humor.) Yet, despite economic constraints, he designed several album covers with the best quality, they are even on the same level as those created on American record labels with higher budgets.

Notes

1 Member of the Research Group Camaleón.

2 Member of the Research Group Palo de Mango.

3 Music festival, art and Hippie congregation; held on 15, 16, 17 and the early morning of 18 August 1969, in Sullivan Country, New York.

References

Figueredo, M. (2010).

Album cover design in the 1970s.

Creation and Production in Design and Communication [works of students and Graduates] Nº 35 (2010). pp 99-102 ISSN 1668-5229 99

Rondón, C. (2008).

The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City The University of North Carolina Press.

Cocinando. Fifty Years of Latin Album Cover Art.

New York: Pricenton Architectural Press.

Received: June 30/ Approved: November 28, 2013.

For Santa Maria’s bongo album Afro-Indio, Levine produced a masterful watercolor of ritual imagery focused on African culture.

https://nexus.univalle.edu.co/index.php/nexus/article/view/747/870