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Review of Rubén Blades’ National Tour

The Ruben Blades concert at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Saturday, November 20th was sensational!  The anticipation of the packed intergenerational crowd to his first visit In 18 years was at a high peak.

Blades wowed the audience with a stunning performance backed by bassist Roberto Delgado’s dynamic Big Band.

Ruben’s powerful voice was as crystal clear as when he started his career with Ray Barretto back in 1974.

Latin Grammy for Salswing!

His set list was a retrospective into his vast and deep repertoire that included his big hits, crowd favorites, esoteric song choices and selections from his Latin Grammy award winning album Salswing!

The musicianship that accompanied Blades was top notch as Roberto Delgado’s crack band were tight, explosive and swinging!

The visuals projected on the huge screen above Ruben were imaginative displaying photo tributes to Hector Lavoe as well as to recently deceased Latin music giants and clever animation that was the backdrop for songs.

This was a triumphant return to the SF Bay Area for Blades who last played a concert here in 2003 at Roccapulco.

He performed for 2 hours and 40 minutes to the delight of the massive crowd.  What a show!!

BY LUIS MEDINA, PRODUCER AND HOST OF CON SABOR ON KPFA 94.1 FM AND SABIDURIA CON TUMBAO ON WORLD SALSA RADIO.COM

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 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 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

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

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Ron Levine

On February 28, 1992, the Queen of Latin Soul and Boogaloo “La Yiyiyi” passed away in New York.

While Curro was scaring the children in the Cartuja of Seville, Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond, a Hispanic neighbor of the Bronx of New York, died at the age of 52, in misery.

A few years earlier she had enrolled in college in order to survive on scholarship money.

 

Maybe when her neighbors heard her talk about limousines, fame, luxury and parties, they looked at her with a knowing look on their faces and played along. There you go again.

But it was true, during the sixties Victoria, La Lupe, also known then as the queen of Latin soul, bragged about being able to spend the twenty thousand dollars she earned per concert on a fur coat.

Long before the invasion of salsa there she was, La Yiyiyi, wandering from bar to bar along 53rd Street, a meeting and exchange place for Latino immigrants in the city of skyscrapers. Busamba’, ‘Boogaloo’, gentlemen.

That’s what it sounded like when Cuba slept with Mexico or Puerto Rico on the stage of any club. Salsa? No, not yet, please. It was still La Lupe’s time.

Yolí Victoria Raymond “La Lupe”

Exiled from Cuba because her singing offended the colonel, she was disputed in her beginnings by Mongo Santamaría and Tito Puente himself, with whom she made perhaps her most interesting recordings. From her first album, ‘Con el diablo en el cuerpo’, she made it clear that she was not going to be just any singer. She captivated the public with her extravagant personality and her madness.

She shrieked, shuddered, pulled her hair, insulted the audience, laughed, tore her clothes in passionate outbursts.

But she also cried and demonstrated her incredible technique when she was asked to sing a bolero. As she sang she lived. Pouring out and enjoying the joy and the sadness.

Then something happened. A new sound began to soundtrack the daily routine of the immigrant ghettos.

A less compromised rhythm that allowed evasion, at least for the duration of the dance, to all the Hispanics living badly in the United States.

Celia Cruz, for better or worse, gave salsa to the world and buried La Lupe in life.

Celia took away her throne and made sure that no one would remember her.

Fame and success is a war and Victoria no longer had the strength to participate in that battle. Her life was an earthquake.

Around that time her second husband began to develop schizophrenia and she decided to take care of her.

After that, little else is known about her until her death.

At the end of the 80’s she converted to the evangelist religion and composed a series of songs that may come to light under the name of La Samaritana.

Although surely her praises to God still sound as warm and sensual as the boleros ‘Orgasmo’ or ‘Puro Teatro’.

La Lupe

The year of her death, her friend Tito Puente and Celia Cruz were offering a conventional Latin music concert at Expo ’92.

Perhaps, at some point, the percussionist remembered when he played ‘Boogaloo’ with the first Latin queen.

As Lupe herself says in her explosive version of ‘Guantanamera’: “Sobre tu tierra divina riega mi voz campesina versos que son como flores, con los más grandes honores de La Yiyiyi, señores”.

Facebook: La Lupe

Article of Interest: Markolino Dimond’s voice and his irreverent piano in Funk/Soul & Funk-Disco “The Alexander Review”

News about the live music scene in San Francisco

The Ruben Blades concert at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Saturday, November 20th was sensational!  The anticipation of the packed intergenerational crowd to his first visit In 18 years was at a high peak.  Blades wowed the audience with a stunning performance backed by bassist Roberto Delgado’s dynamic Big Band.  Ruben’s powerful voice was as crystal clear as when he started his career with Ray Barretto back in 1974.  His set list was a retrospective into his vast and deep repertoire that included his big hits, crowd favorites, esoteric song choices and selections from his Latin Grammy award winning album Salswing! The musicianship that accompanied Blades was top notch as Roberto Delgado’s crack band were tight, explosive and swinging!  The visuals projected on the huge screen above Ruben were imaginative displaying photo tributes to Hector Lavoe as well as to recently deceased Latin music giants and clever animation that was the backdrop for songs.  This was a triumphant return to the SF Bay Area for Blades who last played a concert here in 2003 at Roccapulco.  He performed for 2 hours and 40 minutes to the delight of the massive crowd.  What a show!!

Speaking of big shows….Three time Grammy Award Winner Spanish Harlem Orchestra will play a special holiday dance/concert “Salsa Para El Bailador” on Saturday, December 11th, 8 pm at the Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza in Monterey.   Yours truly, Luis Medina  will be your Master Of Ceremonies and DJ for the evening playing 100% Bailable in between the sets.  There are VIP seats and packages still available. There is also an auto caravan coming from San Francisco directly to the concert.  For more information on the concert, caravan and tickets, please visit www.montunoproductions.com or call 510-586-3215. 

I dropped by La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley to catch the livestream of their couch concert starring Santana percussionist Karl Perazo live from their stage on Friday, Nov. 19th.  The web streamed concert was hosted by renowned Bay Area based flautist Miguelito Martinez (Candela) with an intro from La Peña’s Executive Director Natalia Neira Retamal. Perazo was in excellent form on congas, bongos and percussion leading a hot Latin Jazz descarga accompanied by Martinez, bassist Saul Sierra and pianist Julio De La Cruz.  This session was part of an on-going series that is coordinated by La Peña new creative staff Corey Raynor.  For more information, visit www.lapena.org. 

The Cigar Bar, 850 Montgomery in SF’s North Beach will be open to Salseros in December for part of December.  Their lineup includes Orquesta Timbalero Dec 4, Alberto Y La Differencia Dec. 5, Edgardo Cambon y Candela, Dec 10, Josh Jones Latin Jazz Ensemble Dec 11, Latin Rhythm Boys Dec 17 and the last night for Salsa this year will be featuring PMO all star vocalist/percussionist Braulio Barrera’s Somos El Son on Dec. 18.  Cigar Bar will reopen the Latin music nights in early January 2022.

The Seahorse is Sausalito will feature in their Sunday Salsa lineup the following acts: Julio Bravo & Salsabor Dec 5, Edgardo Cambon & Candela Dec. 12, Louie Romero & Mazacote Dec 19 and the Salsa Caliente All Stars with Karl Perazo (of Santana), Gary Flores and Carlitos Franco on Dec. 26.  The Seahorse will also be starting off their Salsa Saturdays with Rene Escovedo on Dec. 4th. For the rest of the Sat schedule, visit sausalitoseahorse.com.

More news

The Ramp, 855 Terry Francois in SF will continue Salsa under their weatherproof tent on Saturday afternoons beginning at 5 PM featuring Pepe Y Su Orquesta Dec. 4, trumpeter Julius Melendez All Stars Dec. 11, Eric Rangel and Orquesta America, Dec 18 and a special Thursday with Julio Bravo and Salsabor on Dec. 23rd

Space 550 at 550 Barneveld, SF has opened its doors again to Friday Salsa dancing featuring Somos El Son Dec 3, Orquesta Borinquen Dec. 10 and their last event for 2021 featuring N’Rumba on Dec. 17th.  The Friday Night happenings will resume on Friday, January 14, 2022 with Borinquen.  The Saturday nights have resumed with Bachata Takeover Saturdays featuring Bachata in the main room and the other rooms featuring Salsa and Bachata.

Kimbara 3380 19th Street at the site of the old big room of the former SF Bissap Baobab location is now featuring Suzy Q Wednesdays every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month.  This night brought you by the Producers of I Heart Mambo and the SBK Congress feature Salsa Congress style DJ’s and live bands such as VibraSON on December 15th. 

Peninsula/South Bay’s long-running established Salsa Club Alberto’s, 736 West Dana St in Mountain View offers Salsa on Tuesday and Friday nights featuring dance lessons by Pantea with DJ and live entertainment.  Their weekly calendar includes Tango on Sunday, Bachata on Wednesdays and Rock En Español on Saturday nights….Cascal Restaurant  located nearby at 400 Castro Street, Mountain View offers live entertainment on Fridays through Sundays with great ambiance, tasty Spanish cuisine and the sounds of Edgardo Cambon and LaTiDo on December 3, 4 and 17th. 

Producer Adrian Goddard’s Jaffe Events continues to keep busy into the holidays.  They will celebrate with a Fiesta Navideña on Saturday, Dec. 11 from 3 to 7 pm. Featuring an afternoon of Salsa, Timba, Bachata, Reggaeton and more by DJ’s including Walt Digz, Tony O and Pablo at the Mars Bar, 798 Brannan SF.  Jaffe Events is also presenting Feliz Año Nuevo 2022 on New Years Eve with DJ’s spinning Reggaeton, Salsa, Latin Hits, Cumbia and more at the BEI Hotel, 50 Eighth Street in San Francisco.

On New Year’s Eve, the renowned Salsa orchestra Grupo Gale from Colombia will headline at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.  The event will also feature DJ Tony O, DJ Bosco and DJ Franklin.  The event will also feature International music in their second room. For more information, go to eventbrite.com, ticketsparaticom or call 415-424-8809.

The Marriott in San Mateo will feature 6 rooms featuring live music by Julio Bravo and Salsabor, Amor Do Samba with Brazilian Drummers, Orquesta N’Rumba, Orq Revelation and 10 DJ’s playing hits, Reggaeton, Bachata and Salsa.  Free beer offered from 8 to 11 pm. For ticket info, visit www.marriottliveparty.com.

There will be a New Years Eve Descarga 2021 featuring Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba music at 1824 Hillsdale Avenue in San Jose.  This bash will feature a tribute to the legendary all-star timbalero Louie Romero who will be performing with Orquesta Salson, Dance performance by John and Liz of Salsamania Dance Company,, DJ music will feature WorldSalsaRadio DJ’s El De La Clave SF and DJ Boricua, dancer Kathy Reyes will be hosting the bachata room and more!  For tickets, go to eventbrite.com

Be sure to check out my radio programs “Con Sabor” every Saturday evening 9 to 11 pm on KPFA 94.1 FM/kpfa.org and “Sabiduria Con Tumbao” every Wednesday evening 5 to 7 PM PST on WorldSalsaRadio.com.

Until next time, Ciao 4 now!!!

This is the report last month: NOTICIAS CON SABOR- SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA/NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

BY LUIS MEDINA, PRODUCER AND HOST OF CON SABOR ON KPFA 94.1 FM AND SABIDURIA CON TUMBAO ON WORLD SALSA RADIO.COM

News about the current music scene

As every month, we bring to you all of the entertainment news related to Latin music and the current situation of its most important exponents in order to keep all our dear International Salsa Magazine’s community of readers informed, which is always very aware of the latest news. 

Today, we are going to talk about two beloved stars who have left Latin music at the top because of their great talent and perseverance they have shown during their artistic careers. It is always an honor for us to be aware of all their projects and make them known through this platform.   

A new book by Sophy Hernández 

Famed Puerto Rican singer Sophy Hernández has published a book about her life entitled Sophy de Puerto Rico: Desde lo más íntimo (El poder de luchar para triunfar). In this material, the artist reflects on all she has lived through to become the person she is today and unburdens herself to certain difficult details in order to be able to forgive herself. Likewise, she also talks about some unprecedented details of her family and personal life that have not been previously shared.   

Sofia Hernandez Font (her birth name) recently commented that she has spent many years going through places that were very important to her during her childhood, so that she could begin to rehash as many details as possible about what she has been through in the town of San Sebastian, where she spent most of her years as a child. It was precisely there that her passion for music was born, which would become her career as an adult. Sophy seeks to motivate any young person who reads the book in the future to achieve their dreams despite the circumstances. 

After she has presented the book, the singer expressed that the work has served as an outlet for her, since she was able to describe on the pages those painful moments through which she passed, but at the same time, to forgive those who caused them. She also talks about the extramarital affair that her mother (black) had with a married man (white) and how she made his way up and get ahead. 

Luis Perico Ortiz’s new recording production   

Puerto Rican trumpeter Luis Perico Ortiz has recently announced that he will be recording his latest album with some very special guests. After more than a decade staying away long from the stage and dedicating to teaching, the artist has revealed that he will get back to the recording studio to record his latest album with several hugely successful singers such as Milly Quezada, Domingo Quiñones and Tony Vega. Due to the friendship that binds him to the aforementioned stars, the material will be called Sigo Entre Amigos, like the first promotional single.   

Ortiz commented how happy he was with the reaction of his friends at the moment of proposing to work with him on the album. He said that Quezada, Quiñones and Vega did not even let him finish talking and were made available to whatever he needed. 

As for the musical aspects of the album, Perico has made it known at least six of the songs will have the typical style of the salsa singer’s other works, but three others will be based on the big band concept. 

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