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Asia / April 2024
Lenin Francisco Domingo Cerda, better known as Frankie Dante, the “Underground” and “Irreverent” of Salsa in New York in the 60’s and 70’s.
“Cerda If I were president, if I were a president, there would be no armed forces, wars would end, the boys would go home where they belong.”

Lenin Francisco Domingo Cerda, known as Frankie Dante, was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on September 15, 1945.
He traveled to New York City in search of the sound of the barrio, influenced by Willie Colón and Eddie Palmieri with his Orquesta La Perfecta.
Frankie Dante, always characterized for being an authentic sonero, who interpreted the stories of the Latin barrio.
In 1968 under the label Cotique he appears in the album “Los Coquetones”, where Ismael Quintana also participated, the great influence in his development as a vocalist, this album is produced by Mr. George Goldner.
Cerda records a second production with La Orquesta Flamboyán, entitled: “Different Directions”, following the line implemented by maestro Eddie Palmieri with La Perfecta, where he continues the emphasis on social issues, raised in his first musical work, this time with the production of Ralph Lew.

1970
Launches the album: “Se Viste de Gala”. Resuming his social commitment, he includes the piece “Venceremos”, accompanied by the electric guitar played by Harry Vigianno, who also plays the tres in this production.
In 1972, Frankie Dante is invited by Larry Harlow to produce a new album entitled: “Orquesta Flamboyán Con Larry Harlow”.
Here Frankie achieved hits such as: “La Cuna del Son”, “Yo Te Seguiré”, “Vive La Vida Hoy” and “Presidente Dante”.
The album featured the participation of Larry Harlow on piano and musical production, Ray Romero and Jerry Gonzalez on Congas, Ismael “Pat” Quintana and Milton Cardona on backing vocals.
This album is considered as a recognition of Frankie Dante’s talent when he was asked by the “Wonderful Jew”, Larry Harlow to record together.
Frankie shows all his irreverence by substituting the montuno for a political speech in the manner of a candidate.
As a representative of the Underground current, Dante prefers to perform in a bohemian way in Clubs such as: El Caborrojeño and the Cheetah.
While in these clubs he meets pianist Marcolino Demond and they release the historic album: Beethoven’s V.
One of his best productions was with the extraordinary musician and pianist Markolino Dimond, who had played with Willie Colón, the album was titled: Markolino Dimond Con Frankie Dante Beethoven’s where in addition to his extravagances he imposed a different way of playing.
The album included five compositions by Marcolino Dimond: “Sabrosón”, “Camarones”, “El Quinto De Beethoven”, “Maraquero” and “Ahora Sí”, two songs with reserved author’s rights: “Los Rumberos” and “Yo No Tengo Amigo” and the hit “Porque Adore” by maestro Tite Curet Alonso.

Dante and Marcolino were a duo without precedents, taking into account that both had the stigma of rebelliousness.
The album features Frankie Dante and Chivirico Davila on vocals and Yayo “El Indio”, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez and Ismael “Pat” Quintana on backing vocals.
Other great musicians that participated in the band are Nicky Marrero – Timbales, Bongos; Pablito Rosario – Bongos; Barry Rogers – Trombone; Mike Collazo – Timbales, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera – Bass; Lewis Kahn – Trombone; Reinaldo Jorge – Trombone and Frank Malabé – Congas.
In 1976, again with Marcolino, he released: “Los Salseros de Acero”, in an attempt to reunite the original line-up of Los Flamboyán with Joe “Chickie” Fuentes on trumpet, Ángelo Rodríguez on trombone and Alex Ojeda on timbales, plus the participation of stars of the moment such as: Charlie Palmieri, Tito Puente and Ricardo Marrero, in what was called: Flamboyán All Star Band.

Among the songs on the album were “Ciencia Política” by Frankie Dante and “Chupa El Pirulí” composed by the wonderful Ciego Arsenio Rodríguez.
That year he published his seventh album “The Flamboyán All Star Band Frankie “Be Bop” Dante”, also recorded for Cotique Records, which included songs such as: “El Pipón”, “Son Retozón” and “Mumbo Jumbo”, compositions by Frankie Dante himself and a version of the song “María Cervantes” by the Puerto Rican Noro Morales.
Sonny Bravo, Norberto Cruz and Marty Sheller participated in the arrangements; Charlie Palmieri – Arrangements and Director and Mr. Ralph Lew as Producer.
The album also counted with the participation of other great musicians of the salsa movement such as: Leopoldo Pineda – Trombone, Ray Maldonado – Trumpet, Frankie Malabé – Congas, Orestes Vilató – Timbales, Ronnie Cuber – Sax and Flute, Willie Colón – Chorus and Tito Allen – Chorus.
One of Cotique’s recordings was entitled “Frankie Dante and his Orquesta Flamboyán Best Foot Forward”, a compilation album with Frankie’s hits such as: “Paz”, “Los Rumberos”, “Presidente Dante”, “Venceremos” and the well known song “Yo Te Seguiré” written by the great Catalino Tite Curet Alonso.

His last recording appearance would happen in 1979 with the release of “Los Rebeldes”, where he decided to name his group: Frankie Dante Y Los Rebeldes.
This album has songs such as: “Los Congresistas” by Frankie Dante, a version of the song “Semilla De Caña Brava” by Cuban Luis Martinez Griñan “Lily” and “Vuelve El Rumbero” by Puerto Rican Johnny Ortiz.
Also participating in the recording were: Sal Cuevas – Bass, Louie Cruz, Marty Sheller, and Louie Ramirez in the Arrangements, Alberta Dering – Artistic Director, Ralph Lew as Producer and Milton Cardona as Musical Director.
Dominican Frankie Dante developed his musical career in New York City, where he died of cancer on March 1, 1993.
Dante, emulating his compatriot Johnny Pacheco, settles in the city of skyscrapers and takes with his “precursor” lyrical talent in terms of social conscience in salsa. With good artistic sense he perceives that the sound of the neighborhood and its hurtful musical style will be the main axis of the new concept that is born in the land of Uncle Sam.
“He recognizes in the almost adolescent Willie Colón a style to follow, he is enormously attracted to that “sour” way of arranging the songs, the maestro Eddie Palmieri and his Orquesta La Perfecta (already in full swing) also influence the young Dante as well as Ismael “Pat” Quintana’s way of interpreting, a style that Frankie incorporates immediately in his first production in 1968 under the Cotique label (Ref. CS-1043) titled Los Coquetones”.
Sources and Bibliography:
Julio Vilchez and his orchestra conquer Miami
Peru continues to give us something to talk about thanks to all the salsa talent coming out that country in recent years and today we had the opportunity to talk with one of them, which is the producer, composer and singer Julio Vilchez.
After we communicated with Vilchez via email and WhatsApp to schedule an interview, we have managed to have a great conversation in which we knew a little more about the artist’s beginnings in this fascinating world that is music.

Childhood and musical roots in the Vilchez family
It is not surprising that Vilchez took that parth of life considering that his father, Juan José Vilchez Sanchez, was a talented actor, comedian and professional dancer who carried music in the blood and ran some of the most famous salsa clubs in the city of Lima, which served as a stage for important national and international groups and singers of all genres.
Having referred with admiration to his father because of all that he achieved in life thanks to music, he assured that music definitely ran through the veins of his family and had always been a very important part of his childhood and youth.
Seeing all this, the years were not many when Vilchez became interested in musical instruments such as maracas, the bongo bell and the güiro, which led him to participate in groups such as Raíces, La Fragua and Soy Calidad.
Salsa and other genres
A large majority of Peruvian artists whom we had the honor to interview have typically ventured in Peruvian Creole music before getting involved in salsa, but not Vilchez. In fact, he pointed out to us that his country was heavily influenced by Cuba musically speaking and there used to be a time when groups from the island visited Peru such as La Sonora Matancera and Los Compadres. Peru also received influence from Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, although to a lesser extent.
The artist also remembers that, at home, he and his family always used to listen to Venezuelan singers and orchestras such as La Dimensión Latina, Oscar D’ León, Luisito Quintero, Nati Y Su Orquesta, among others. In the case of Puerto Rico, of course Vilchez and his family used to listen to La Fania All Stars.

Formal beginnings of Julio Vilchez in music
In the neighborhood Vilchez and his family lived in, the singer made friends with other local boys and met up with them to sing in a completely amateur way. In addition to that, he liked to participate in school talent shows, in which he delighted the crowd performing songs from Oscar D’León, Rubén Blades and Willie Colón.
After attaining the age of 17, he began working alongside his father in the business of running clubs, which gave him the opportunity to spend time with the members of the orchestra La Progresiva del Callao, who performed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in one of those places.
Since Vilchez loved to dance and the orchestra focused a lot on its choreographies, the young man identified himself a lot with the group and began to learn the steps the singers performed on stage. One day, the boys saw him dancing and invited him to sing with them in one of their shows, in which he danced very well, but he did not sing in the best way. For this reason, he got the opportunity to stay permanently in the orchestra, but only as a dancer for the moment.
Over time, he was grabbing experience on stage and getting over stage fright until he managed to keep up with the rest of his orchestra fellows with the passing of days.

Vilchez’s time in Venezuela
Vilchez made friends with a group of Venezuelan musicians who accompanied Oscar D’ León in one of his concerts and invited him to travel with them to Venezuela because they wanted him to be part of the sextet they were going to create, which was meant to perform at a tavern in Caracas.
Seeing that things were going well in Venezuela at that time, Vílchez decided to accept the invitation and immigrate to the South American country to try his luck. Once there, he spent a lot of time alone because the boys from the sextet traveled a lot, something which took advantage to get to know other groups, one of them being La Selecta de Cúa. One day, Vilchez was walking down the street and heard this orchestra rehearsing, but it needed a singer. That is when Vilchez proposed himself as an option, was admitted and worked for about two years in this orchestra.
Although he did well in Venezuela, he ended up returning to his native country because he missed his homeland and his father could not get used to having him away, so he packed suitcases and decided to return.

Life in the United States
One of the songs he released in 1995 led him to make a video clip, which started to become very popular on music channels and shows, giving him the recognition Vilchez aimed for so long.
Since things were not going as he expected on his solo career, he joined the Orquesta La Novel to continue working on music for the next two years. Although his name was not as well known as Vilchez needed it to be, his song was still sounding loud internationally for quite some time, which led him to receive a proposal to perform eight shows with his orchestra in the United States in 2000.
When Vilchez and the rest of the musicians traveled to Miami, about nine members of the orchestra received proposals to stay in the country and decided to accept. It was there where the artist gathered his courage and says to himself ”I’m staying too”. That was over 24 years ago now.
At that point, the Peruvian had to look for other musicians to replace the others in order to finish the concert tour they had scheduled. It was then when he contacted José Alberto ”El Canario” through a Peruvian colleague of his to use his band for the remainder of the tour and so he did. Vilchez did two or three shows with this band and stayed in Miami from 2001 to 2004.
Given the lack of musical proposals, he spent a few years in New York, but returned to Miami some time later to work both with music and with a business sector linked to gastronomy, since living only from music is complicated. In addition to that, his children live in Miami and he wanted to spend more time with them, so this was also a powerful reason to return.
Read also: Argentine-American composer and guitarrist Alejandro Meola kindly talked to us
Nahití Ortega. Dance is her Passion and Life
Latin America / Venezuela / Caracas
Nahiti Ortega, is a Venezuelan with exceptional talent, more than 25 years as a performer of traditional Venezuelan dances, this time International Salsa Magazine has the privilege of conversing with this artist of international stature.
She began her Dance studies in the Popular Culture workshops of the Bigott Foundation, taking classes in different regions of the country.

It also conducts courses in other international dances such as: African, Colombian, Cuban, Argentine, Dominican, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, among others.
She expands her knowledge by taking other workshops on dance accessories, body expression, rhythm, dance analysis, theory of popular culture, anti-stress elements of music and singing, vocal technique, artistic makeup, stage costume design, organization of special events, corporate image, online tradition, training of teletrainers, pedagogical resources of a virtual classroom: moodle among others.
Augusto: What does dance mean to you personally?
Nahití: Dance is life…
Life begins with a dance, since we are conceived, we dance when a child is inside his mother’s womb, when the earth turns on its own axis, when the waves of the sea reach the shore, when the wind blows and moves the leaves of the trees… in all those movements a beautiful dance is produced, as well as life itself.
“The Dance is so important that the celestial heroes created the world with the power of the dance, and the whole earth is the magical work of the first dancers. The very existence of human beings is the result of the dance. Therefore, dancing is ensuring the continuation of existence” (Morela Maneiro)
For me, dance is a way of life that connects me with the depths of my being and allows me to undress and show myself as I am. My movements are the physical expression of everything intangible that happens to me. By moving I highlight the relationship I have with myself and with my surroundings.
Augusto : Is there or was there any guide that inspired you to this art?
Nahití : My father has always been my inspiration and my guide; Since I was little I always wanted to dance, one day he asked me, do you really want to dance? and I said yes, it was then he who took me by the hand to study dance and introduce me to this wonderful world.
Throughout my career I have had incredible teachers, which I must mention Professor Freddy Medina who, due to his discipline, demand and dedication, I learned to differentiate and perform a large part of our traditional dances and Omar Orozco who taught me that dance, beyond if interpreted, it serves us for life itself.
Augusto: Name me the best anecdote in your career, nationally and internationally
Nahiti: Hahaha… Woow! Throughout my career I have had many anecdotes, I can tell you a few:
One of the ones I remember right now was in a presentation with Master Cheo Hurtado where I had to show the difference in the execution of the Venezuelan Joropos, when I got to the dressing room and took out the costumes I realized that I had two shoes on the same foot, namely; I had two right shoes, you can imagine my frightened face, after this I had a fit of laughter and my friend Rossmary Rondón, also a dancer, seeing the situation and my reaction, asked me if I was crazy, why was I laughing?…
? and I replied “because I still have to solve it and I don’t do anything to bother myself”. Finally I danced with my two identical shoes and nobody noticed that detail, only she and I knew. And everything went well.
Another was on a long tour of Asia, we were in Korea and we did 3 shows a day, I remember that on the third of the day we did the monkey dance, in this piece we invited the public to join in, in the performance we threw ourselves on the ground and then we couldn’t stop quickly due to fatigue and it made us laugh a lot, the public had to act by imitation and since they didn’t know what was happening, they ended up getting our laughter.
Augusto : Was your father an influence on your work?
Nahití : Undoubtedly yes, I greatly admire my father, he is a great artist one of the best in his style, he has always been a reference in the musical field, I have learned that with discipline, perseverance, dedication and love for what you do you can achieve the proposed goals, my father currently has more than 50 years of uninterrupted artistic career, which shows that his formula works.
Augusto : Tell us a little about your career as a teacher
Nahití : In my classes I usually teach the origin of the dance to be worked on, the main body movements, basic steps and choreographic sequences, depending on the level, as well as breathing and physical preparation for each dance. I also introduce the student to the personal search so that he can achieve his own style and projection.
Augusto : We express, how was your work as Artistic Director of Vasallos de Venezuela?
Nahití : I like to stimulate the members mentally, we create a world together with some characteristics and rules. For me, each body has a story to tell, each one has particular movements acquired through their experiences that they can contribute, so I try to find ways in which the members can identify with the motivation, get involved and feel willing to propose. What I seek is to find during the process, movements that adapt to what I propose.
I also like to work a lot on muscle memory through repetition, to make the movements non-robotic. We work deeply, the gestures and the staging is important for each one to take out and project their personal style.

Augusto: Do you have future projects?
Nahití: Many projects, tours, concert that I won’t tell you details for cabal hahaha…
Augusto : Explain your experience as manager of Coco y su Sabor Matancero
Nahití : It is really wonderful, seeing how successful my father’s career has been and now his Manager, it is a great commitment, all the years of experience in the artistic world made me worthy of this responsibility. In this short time we managed to record his new record production entitled “Con Todo” in which we managed to bring together great artists such as: Mariana “La Sonera”, Wilmer Lozano, Rodrigo Mendoza and El moreno Michael, and we have already visited several countries for its promotion. , United States, Chile, Peru and Panama, we have just performed a concert in one of the best venues in Venezuela, just as we performed its baptism.
Nahití Ortega, has a long history at the National and International level, has an extraordinary personality that transmits joy, good vibes, harmony, feeling for what she does that comes straight from the heart, taking into account her particularity and professionalism of the teachings of her dad.
He began his activities in the field of Popular Culture by participating in the Agrupación la Patria y su Gente led by Professor Freddy Medina for three years; In 1994, she participated as a special guest of the Agrupación Autochthono de la Vega in the “Barcelos Festival”, belonging to the CIOF – UNESCO circuit, in the countries of Portugal and Spain.
In 1995 he joined the group with Venezuela directed by Professor Oswaldo Lares in which he worked for four years, participating in the “Caribbean Festival 95” in the cities of Cancun, Cuzumel, Playa El Carmen, State of Quintana Roo – Mexico, in 1996, he carried out the Afro-Venezuelan percussion workshop in the Popular Culture workshops of the Bigott Foundation, dictated by Professor Jesús Paiva, with a duration of three years.
She participated as a dancer in the Oscar D´ León video clip “Mírala Como se Menea”, as well as in the Venezuelan film “Juegos Bajo la Luna”, directed by Mauricio Walerstein.
In 1995 he joined the group with Venezuela directed by Professor Oswaldo Lares in which he worked for four years, participating in the “Caribbean Festival 95” in the cities of Cancun, Cuzumel, Playa El Carmen, State of Quintana Roo – Mexico, in 1996, he carried out the Afro-Venezuelan percussion workshop in the Popular Culture workshops of the Bigott Foundation, dictated by Professor Jesús Paiva, with a duration of three years.
She participated as a dancer in the Oscar D´ León video clip “Mírala Como se Menea”, as well as in the Venezuelan film “Juegos Bajo la Luna”, directed by Mauricio Walerstein.
In the teaching area, he has taught traditional dance workshops at a national and international level.
As well as accessories for dance, body language, dance therapy, clothing, basic stage makeup, artistic makeup, staging, among others.
Among the institutions in which he has given workshops we can mention some such as: Popular Culture Workshops of the Bigott Foundation – Venezuela University of the Arts in Lima – Peru.
Simon Rodriguez University. Nucleus Barquisimeto -Venezuela
She has done work as a dancer, choreographer, image consultant and producer for various groups.
In 1993, he joined the group “Vasallos del Sol” of the Bigott Foundation under the direction of Professor Omar Orozco.
In 2000 she joined Danzas Itanera, as a dancer, costume designer and image consultant for the group.
He has shared the stage with artists such as: Serenata Guayanesa, Un Solo Pueblo, Francisco Pacheco y su pueblo, Simón Díaz, Cruz Tenepe, Vidal Colmenares, Cristóbal Jiménez, Gurrufio, El cuarteto, Caracas Youth Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Armed Forces , Coco y Su Sabor Matancero, Oscar de León, Guaco, Invisible Friends, Aquiles Báez among others.
He has toured the entire national territory, appearing on countless stages with participation in international festivals. In 2009, she participated as a dancer and workshop facilitator at the X Meeting for the promotion and dissemination of the intangible heritage of Ibero-American countries “Fiestas and Rituals” in Lima, Peru. Currently Manager of Coco y Su Sabor Matancero and dance and artistic director of the Vasallos de Venezuela group.

Photos courtesy of Nahití Ortega