| DIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS | ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| OCTOBER 2023 FESTIVALS | ||
|
|
|
|
Search Results for: Latin Music
Guantanamo music director, arranger and composer Julio Avila
Julio Avila Cuban Band
The Latin music scene in Canada is growing every day thanks to the large number of artists who have decided to move to this beautiful country to try their luck with their talent. Such is the case of Cuban musical director, arranger, composer and singer Julio Avila and the members of his great band Julio Avila Cuban Band.
Given that we thought his career was very interesting, we decided to contact him to learn more about his work and he was kind enough to accept the invitation. Here are the issues we touched on during this fascinating interview.
Life for Julio in Guantanamo, Cuba
Contrary to the answer we might expect, Julio told us that making music in Cuba at that time was not difficult, as life was not so expensive and the economic crisis was not as severe as it is now.
In his particular case, things were easier because his mother worked in a radio station and his father was a professional musician and the musical director of the popular music group Por Nuestros Campos for many years until he sadly passed away. It was undeniable that art ran through his veins.
His sister Isabelita was also involved in popular music for many years and was even awarded on several occasions at the local Eduardo Saborit Festival. Today she is retired, but she was very successful locally at the time.
Because all the brothers had a penchant for music, they decided to create a group called Los Hermanos Avila until they all went their separate ways and dedicated themselves to their own professions.
Julio considers that today they would not have been able to devote to this branch of the arts due to the political and economic situation that the island is enduring, and he is thankful that it was not so.
According to his words, the money was enough to buy the instruments in those times, but things become so complicated that developing an artistic career in the Caribbean country is much more difficult.
Changüí
Although he says he has played changüí because of his Guantanamo origins, he was never in a group that based its music on this traditional Cuban dance, as the artist has always liked popular music and salsa.
”Changüí is a genre born in the province of Guantánamo that did not get much popularity, but today, it is impressive the large number of young people who play this dance, since they got a taste for it. In spite of all the years after it was created, there are guys who do not let it die, which makes me very happy” said Julio on this issue.
When we wanted to know why he thinks that these young musicians have opted for this genre and not for other more modern ones such as trap or reggaeton, he replied that the latter two sound a lot in Cuba, but there have been music teachers and schools that have not let changüí die. They continue to teach it to their students and promote it whenever they can.
In addition, there are always groups interested in preserving it in time and uniting it with son and other traditional Cuban genres. They even add flutes and violins, which were not present in the original changüí, in order to give it a unique and modern touch.
Academic background
Julio started playing the guitar being a child of five years old, as he had always seen his parents and older brothers involved in everything that had to do with music. Therefore, it all started in a very natural way and basically on instinct. It was later that both he and his siblings decided to educate themselves in order to become more complete professionals.
In Guantánamo itself, he studied at a music school to become a bassist and began working fully on popular music, which had always been to his liking.
With all that gained knowledge, he decided to move to the city of Havana, to get involved in other projects there and to compose his own material.
Since he was 16, he earned a living as a bassist in a popular music group, which activity he alternated with his secondary education. It can be said that this is the formal beginning of Julio’s musical career.
Sonora Universal and Brisas Del Palmar
Before forming his own orchestra, Julio worked with La Sonora Universal and Brisas Del Palmar, which were his first opportunities to shine in the music world.
When the artist was working in a quintet, a trio from the city of Santiago (Brisas Del Palmar) went to a music festival in Guantanamo and thet had the opportunity to meet in a club in 1999. ‘’The musical director of the trio saw us playing and liked the way I played the bass. He told me about the possibility of playing with them, but it did not happen until 2001 when I went to Havana and we met by chance,” Julio said.
After having some time worked with the trio, this musical director met the talented tresista Cesar Echevarría, director of Sonora Universal, who needed a bassist because his stayed in Germany. It was then that he told him about Julio and asked him to see him play, which led them to meet and start working together.
Within a few weeks, Julio was already traveling to Europe with Cesar to tour Germany, Denmark, Holland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. This trip is the one that began to open new doors for him and make him develop as an artist.
Definitive departure from Cuba
When Julio had some time with La Sonora Universal, the director of Brisas Del Mar again asked him to join the group for a tour of Canada in 2005. When he was included, the group went from being a trio to a quartet.
Receptivity from Canadian businessmen was so good that he decided to stay with Brisas Del Palmar permanently until he decided to move from Cuba in 2014 due to the situation which the island was going through.
The latter coincided with the beginning of his love relationship with the Serbian citizen Natasha Marjanovic, who today is his wife, manager of his orchestra and a great life support. It was she who convinced him to stay in Vancouver, a decision he says it was the right one.
Beginnings of Julio Avila Cuban Band
It all started when Julio needed a pianist for Brisas Del Mar and hired Ernesto Benitez, who, once in Canada, told him that he was not going back to Cuba. That is when he saw the opportunity to start creating his own orchestra from himself and this musician.
The next to be included was percussionist Norman García, with whom Julio and Ernesto formed a trio and began performing at festivals until Isidora Bosanovic, singer and his wife Natasha’s niece, arrived. Her case is very particular because she did not speak Spanish, but she learned it so she could sing in the orchestra. Today, she speaks and sings in Spanish very well.
Finally, the band included Denis Barzaga, another musician originating from Guantánamo, who currently lives in Spain, but when required, travels to Canada to play with the orchestra in Vancouver.
Recently, kettle – drum player Julio Paredes was included to replace Barzaga, who was unable to travel for the time being.
Read also: Puerto Rican singer and talented sonero Charlie Maldonado
Argenis Carruyo is known in the music scene as “El Volcán de América” (The Volcano of America) due to the power of his voice
Carruyo He was born in Maracaibo on August 22, 1953 at the Chiquinquira Hospital in Maracaibo, located in the same sector where he grew up.
Argenis Carruyo he had the good fortune of being a neighbor of Los Blanco, who 12 years after his birth hired him as an instrument picker, an experience that served to awaken in him the love for music, a feeling that was nurtured when he discovered in him an unmistakable talent to make singing his life support.
“The Volcano of America” because the power of his voice makes the senses of those who have the opportunity to listen to him rumble; so sings Argenis Carruyo, from Zulia, who from a very young age began to demonstrate the vocal quality that characterizes him.
He has stood out as an interpreter of the gaita zuliana and during the 1970s and 1980s belonged to the Dimensión Latina.
The 80’s was a very busy decade for this multifaceted character; he sang with Orlando y su Combo, and did a duet with Ender Carruyo in the orchestra “Los Hermanos Carruyo” and then again with the Super Combo Los Tropicales, until 1985 when he decided to found his own group called “Argenis Carruyo y su Orquesta”.
He began his musical career with the youth group Los Larkings. Later, he was part of Los Juglares and Los Casinos.
In 1973, he joined the ranks of Súper Combo Los Tropicales and in 1977 he was recruited by Dimensión Latina, with whom he sang until 1981. Later he joined the group Los Melódicos.
During the 1980s he had an intense artistic activity in which he sang with Orlando y su Combo, duetted with Ender Carruyo in the orchestra Los Hermanos Carruyo, worked again with the Súper Combo Los Tropicales and, in 1985, formed his own group: Argenis Carruyo y su Orquesta.
Sabor a Gaita:
Apart from his work with rhythms such as guaracha and salsa, Carruyo has also performed the gaita zuliana.
The Volcano of America has not only stood out among the great interpreters of the Caribbean for playing rhythms such as the guaracha, he has also honored his land by making famous great gaita compositions.
During his time in the genre he worked with groups such as El Número Uno, Rincón Morales, Guaco, Los Morillo and Gaiteros de Pillopo.
He owes part of his fame to the gaita, because the Zulian melody accompanied him on stages and still accompanies him in his veins as it does to anyone who appreciates being a worthy Maracaibero.
During his artistic life he has received numerous recognitions, as well as the publication of a book with his biography.
In 1975 he won the Festival de Cantantes y Compositores Zulianos and has received the Mara de Oro (1993, 1994, 1995) and Gran Cacique de Oro awards as best singer, the Gran Aguila de Venezuela as best singer and dance orchestra (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001), and the Catatumbo de Oro as best popular singer (1993) among others.
His orchestra received the Orden Ciudad de Maracaibo in its first class as best dance group.
He has performed in the most important nightclubs in Maracaibo, the country and abroad, alternating with the most recognized figures of the song, which is why he is considered one of the most genuine interpreters of tropical Caribbean genres in the Zulian region, such as salsa, guaracha, cumbia, merengue and bolero.
With a prolific career of more than twenty-five years that has served to demonstrate his talents as a vocalist and his own characteristic style, which gives him his most authentic identity.
Argenis Carruyo, with pride from Maracaibo, proclaims that he owes to Zulia the success and fortune that always accompanied him since he discovered the enormous talent he carried in his blood, his homeland became his main fan, to Maracaibo he owes his life and to its inhabitants the affection and the memory that will always keep him alive through his songs.
For 2023 Argenis was specially invited to participate in the excellent group Quintero’s Salsa Project – Tributo A La Dimension Latina directed by New York based percussionists Luisito Quintero and Robert Quintero.
Luisito Quintero grew up in the Latin and African percussion tradition. His father is as percussive as his uncle Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Roberto Quintero. He became a member of the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, but soon joined ensembles such as Grupo Guaco and El Trabuco Venezolano and toured with Oscar D’León.
He then moved to New York, where he met Latin jazz musicians like Willie Colon, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz worked. He then turned to the fusion of jazz, funk, salsa and African music and played with George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Ravi Coltrane and Toshiko Akiyoshi, but also with pop musicians such as Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony. Louie Vega produced his first album with him.
Quintero’s Salsa Project – Tribute To The Latin Dimension
Tracks: Ya Tu Lo Véras; Sin Tu Cariño; Cara de Guabina; Sigue Tu Camino; Irimo; Dulce Cantar; De Quintero a Dimensión; Ahi Nama; Te Conocí; Parampampam; Arroz Con Manteca; Frutas del Caney.
Musicians: Argenis Carruyo; Jimmy Bosch; Marcial Istúriz; Roberto Quintero, Luisito Quintero.
Record labels in which Argenis Carruyo has participated.
Top-Hit (TH), Maracaibo Record’s, Argenis Carruyo, Discos VRZ, SonoVen Records, L. G. Record’s C. A; iMusician | EDGARSARMIENTO, Palacio, among others.
Sources:
La Buena Musica: Argenis Carruyo
La Salsa es mi vida: Quintero´s Salsa Project – Tributo A La Dimension Latina
Also Read: Víctor Porfirio Baloa Díaz, more commonly known as Porfi Baloa
Latin America – August 2023
“Canelita Medina” Caribbean popular music loses one of its best exponents
Canelita, the Venezuelan sonera, died on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. It was recently announced that the singer had to undergo surgery to implant a hip prosthesis.
The 84 year old artist was the mother of Venezuelan interpreter Trina Medina.
Rogelia Medina, popularly known as “Canelita” and nicknamed by the media as “La sonera de Venezuela” and “La sonera del Caribe”, leaves today at the age of 84 after having delighted the Caribbean and her country like birds, with all the strength of her tenderness.
Songs such as: “Tanto, tanto, tanto” “Besos brujos” “Lágrimas negras” among others will remain forever in our hearts.
She had an unmistakable voice, both for her timbre and her sweetness, for that particular way of intoning with such a sweet strength, because she never wanted to impose herself. She was always herself, with a gift for people, and a truly unforgettable charisma.
What Venezuela, the Caribbean and Latin American popular music have just lost is not little, because she also represented effort, prudence and that femininity that dictated a lesson, even in the choice of her repertoire.
Life
She was born on March 6, 1939 in La Guaira, in the central Venezuelan coastline that she truly loved. Whether it was in the area of El Playón, near Caraballeda, or in the town of Anare or towards Catia de la Mar, Rogelia experienced the joy of the sea air and the way of being of those born on the coast, with drums, joy, cadence and music always. They have their own codes.
She is not the most Cuban of the Venezuelan women, as some media erroneously affirm. No and no. She is the greatest Venezuelan interpreting the Cuban son and much beyond, because she interpreted other Caribbean and Venezuelan genres with extraordinary solvency.
She always knew, and soon the rest of her countrymen knew, that she was born to sing. The musical environment at that time was not very favorable for women, much less in son or guaracha. Like many other women in Venezuela and the Caribbean, she started on the radio.
This is what she told researcher Jairo Aponte, from Puerto Cabello. When asked about her first contact with show business, Rogelia answered: “It was because of some friends I had who knew that I liked to sing. There was a program on the radio station Ondas Populares called Buscando Estrellas (Looking for Stars) and they insisted.
They encouraged me so much that I went to the program. The first time I was bleeped, the audience bleeped me, but the second time in the same program the accompanying orchestra was the Sonora Caracas and they suggested me to rehearse before competing again.
Then, hidden, we rehearsed “Saoco” sung by Celia Cruz. I returned the following week and won the contest, and best of all, from that moment on I stayed with the Sonora Caracas, with whom I stayed for eight years”. It was 1957.
In 2022 a tribute was made to him at the Museum of Afro-American Art located in San Bernardino, Caracas. Trina Medina, Betsayda Machado and Juan José “el Indio” Hernandez participated in the meeting.
Peace to his soul, God receive you in a beautiful place.
Great you are Canelita.
When it comes to compositions, Luis “Tata” Guerra is widely known internationally
Read Also: Trina Medina