Search Results for: Latin Tribute
Christmas salsa albums to listen to this December
Christmas albums
Christmas is one of the best times to celebrate with family and friends and a very important element of any celebration is music, especially in Latin countries and communities.
Because we are in December, we thought it would be a great occasion to relive some of the most iconic salsa albums of all time with which our dear readers can enjoy this wonderful month at the rhythm of the most joyful Latin music from some of the best exponents of the genre.
Asalto Navideño Vol. 1
This album should never miss in a list of this type and it could not be in another way, since it is part of the incredible path traveled by the New York orchestra Willie Colón & Héctor Lavoe. The material is the group’s sixth studio album and was recorded during the first week of December 1970.
Prior to this, the boom that was taking the orchestra in those years made Jerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco suggest to the artists that they take advantage of the fame they had harvested so far to create an album dedicated to Christmas, which they both gladly accepted.
It is then when they got hands on and invited the talented musician Yomo Toro to participate in the album. The artist was not well known by the fans, but he ended up occupying a very important place in the final result.
Although at first, the material was focused on honoring Puerto Rico, but ended up embracing the Latin community living in the U.S., which had been the main responsible for the strengthening of salsa in the liking of the people and the profit received the Fania Records label.
The album was recorded in the studios of Fania Records in New York and had a total of 12 songs dedicated to the most beautiful time of the year. Aires de Navidad” and ”La Murga” are among the most successful tracks of the album and the most listened to so far.
Nuestra Música
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico never disappoints and certainly did not do it with its Christmas production ”Nuestra Música”, with which it seeks to pay tribute to this wonderful time and put everyone on dance in their homes during the Christmas holidays.
The album was released in 1985, the year in which salsa was going through a very challenging time, since merengue was gaining a lot of momentum, displacing the aforementioned genre to some extent. However, this was no impediment for the orchestra to demonstrate, contrary to what many believed, that salsa was more alive than ever.
The album’s release was surprising as well as exciting for the fans of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, which managed to rescue much of the holiday spirit that was lost and gave life to hits such as ”La Fiesta de Pilito”, ”Desenfunda”, ”Arbolito” and ”No Hay Cama Pa’ Tanta Gente”.
Navidad Criolla
Another great recor production that could not miss in this list is ‘‘Navidad Criolla’’ by La Sonora Ponceña. A very particular and different thing about this Christmas album is that, instead of using the typical Christmas aguinaldos, salsa dura is the predominant genre. However, the vocalists and musicians do their best to maintain the essence of Christmas at all times.
The album was released in 1978 and includes the unmistakable voices of Luigi Texidor and Tito Gómez, who add an exciting and cheerful touch to the music with the power of their vocal cords. In addition to that, Adalberto Santiago and Yayo El Indio participated on backing vocals along with the talented musicians of the group.
The album includes songs such as ”Aguinaldo Antillano”, ”De Noche Buena”, ”Canción de Navidad”, ”Vamonos Pa’l Campo”, among others.
Felices Pascuas
Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz delighted the public during the December holidays in 1971 with this extraordinary musical work with which they conquered the public one of those countless times they did it.
Ricardo delighted the duo’s fans from the piano and musical arrangements, while Bobby was on voice and backing vocals. Both artists were accompanied by Miki Vimari on voice and backing vocals, Ismael Cocolia Rodríguez and Ismael Rivera on trumpet, Manolito Gonzales on bongos, José Hidalgo on conga, Charlie Cotto on timbales and Plito Huertas on bass.
Among some of the best-known tracks of the album, we can mention ”Bomba en Navidad”, ”Mi Niñez”, ”Aguinaldo Navideño”, ”Kyrie Eleison”, ”Sinfonia To Cantata No, 29”, and so on.
Read also: Legacy of the Cepeda family after eight generations
Legacy of the Cepeda family after eight generations
As all our readers may know, this is a space devoted entirely to the promotion of salsa and other derivative styles, but that does not mean we should leave out other Latin genres that also deserve to be promoted and recognized worldwide. Such is the case of bomba and plena, which we are going to talk about in the next lines.
Bomba and plena are two Puerto Rican musical genres that initially became popular at the local level, but little by little, they have received international notoriety thanks to certain groups of Puerto Ricans who have devoted considerable effort to take their culture to as many places as possible in the world. This is how we get to the theme of the Cepeda family and all that its members have done for bomba and plena.
The Cepeda Family
The Cepeda family is a cultural institution that has been given the task of promoting bomba and plena for eight generations, so that they can be heard and danced all over the world. Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles, a professional musician and composer with an extensive career who has left a great legacy thanks to his hard work during his lifetime, which keeps current thanks to his descendants.
When he married Caridad Brenes Caballero, he involved her in all his artistic activities and became a fundamental support for the musician in his work. The lady became a professional bomba and plena dancer, costume designer, and choreographer, which made her shine with her own light in every project directed by her talented husband.
During his career, Don Rafael created several musical groups and, over the years, he and his wife involved their children and other family members to collaborate in what would become a renowned family business.
One of the artist’s greatest achievements was the development of a cultural movement around the rescue and preservation of local traditions related to bomba and plena, which were thought to be lost. He was also decorated with the Smithsonian Institute’s National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his contributions to music.
All this legacy remained in the hands of Don Rafael’s family and one of the first to do something about it was his son Modesto, who founded the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Don Rafael Cepeda in Santurce, Puerto Rico. This institution was created in order to teach bomba and plena in the areas of dance and percussion.
Those who would follow these steps would be Margarita ”Tata” Cepeda, granddaughter of Don Rafael and Caridad, and Barbara Liz Ortiz Sanchez, great-granddaughter of Don Rafael and Caridad. Margarita currently runs the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Doña Caridad Brenes de Cepeda and her daughter, Barbara Liz, runs the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda in the state of Florida. It was precisely the latter with whom we had the pleasure to talk about this project and the plans she has for the future.
Barbara Liz from the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda
Barbara Liz belongs to the seventh generation of the Cepeda family and her children, who also dance bomba and plena, would belong to the eighth generation. She says that each family member has tried to endorse Don Rafael’s legacy in their own way. In her particular case, she has spent five years running the Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda in Florida, which she decided to baptize with his mother’s nickname, which is Tata, to pay tribute to her in life.
Although the operation of her school and his mother’s are different, they usually work together in cases that require it. For example, if for some reason a student cannot pursue his education here because he is going to Puerto Rico, he can continue studying at the school located on the Island of Enchantment without any problem.
”We didn’t have a curriculum or educational program to follow to teach bomba and plena, but my mom was responsible for creating one so that we could teach dance and percussion with a clearer methodology,” said Bárbara Liz.
As a result of Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Rican families went to live in Florida due to the loss of their properties and material things, so the students of the school in Puerto Rico became able to enroll in the Florida school instead. It can be said that they are sister schools working together towards the same goal.
Percussion and dance in bomba and plena
Something Bárbara Liz wanted to highlight about this point is that many girls are enrolling in her school to learn to play percussion, something that did not happen very often.
At other times, it was believed that percussion in bomba and plena was exclusively for men and dance for women. In more conservative versions of these genres, women only sang and men were responsible for dancing and playing instruments.
That has been changing over time. Nowadays, there are many guys who are setting their sights on dancing and many girls are having an interest in the percussion part. Every day, the female part is becoming more and more relevant in the different areas of bomba and plena.
In addition to all this, the institution’s teachers also teach quite a bit about the emergence and history of these two genres, so that their students are not just dedicated to playing and dancing, but also know the origin of everything they learn now.
Differences and similarities between bomba and plena
When we wanted to know a little about the differences and similarities between bomba and plena, Bárbara Liz explained to us that both genres were very different from each other. The rhythms, the instruments used and the ways of dancing have many differences in both.
In the case of bomba, this is the oldest musical genre and dance in Puerto Rico and is born from a barrel-shaped instrument, which is one of its most representative elements. It is also known as the ”first sung newspaper”.
Similarly, it is the dancer who sets the pace for the percussionist, not the other way around. The musician should be guided by the footsteps of the dancer, which often gives rise to completely new rhythms.
Plena was born a few years later with certain variants of bomba and is called the ”second sung newspaper”. It was plena that inspired several of the Cepeda family members to create their own groups such as the Grupo Gracimá (a variant of bomba), which originated in the school owned by Margarita in Puerto Rico.
In contrast, Bárbara Liz named her professional group Kalindá in honor of one of the most popular variants of bomba.
Tributes
Something that makes Bárbara Liz very proud is that both she and her mother had the opportunity to go to the Smithsonian National Museum in March to pay tribute to their ancestors and the genres that her great-grandfather promoted so much in life.
At the time, Don Rafael donated some items related to bomba and plena such as barrels, a güiro and barrels However, some bomba costumes were missing to complete the collection, which were given by Bárbara Liz and Margarita to be exhibited in the institution, so anyone interested in learning more about Puerto Rican genres and musical culture can visit the place and cherish these valuables.
Read also: Yani Borrell ‘‘El Elegante de La Salsa”
José Hildemaro Hugas Amarista “El Sonero del Amor” from Venezuela to the world
José Hildemaro Hugas Amarista, better known artistically as “Hildemaro, El Sonero Del Amor”, was born on November 10, 1957 in Caripito, a city in the eastern Venezuelan state of Monagas.
He is a Venezuelan singer-songwriter whose interest in music began at a very young age, participating in various children’s programs on the radio station in his hometown and in Maturin, the capital of the state of Monagas.
In 1970 he won the first “Festival De La Canción Inédita” held in Caripito.
Then he moved to Carúpano, where he began to sing with different musical groups of that city, such as “Los Bravos” and “Soles De Media Noche”.
Later he was called by the “Combo Melorítmico” of Maturín, where he stayed for a year. He always wanted to sing in the capital.
In 1976 his dream came true when he was called to be a part of the Front Train Orchestra “Los Satélites”, for seven (7) months, the proposed goals began to be different and began to work to achieve them. In 1979 he joined the “Orquesta Ideal”, with which the song “Contigo Besos Salvajes” was played all over the country and was successively imposed among the first places.
In 1981 he joined the “Supercombo Los Tropicales” of Maracaibo, then the “Noche Caliente” orchestra and later the “Porfi Jimenez” orchestra.
In 1985 he joined the orchestra of Renato Capriles: “Los Melódicos”, which gave him the greatest and best experience, given the popularity, prestige and discipline imposed by its director.
In 1986, as a soloist, he recorded his first LP of tropical music under the name “El Jr. de la música tropical” for the record label “Sur Americana del Disco”, , with the name “El Jr. de la música tropical.”
In December 1987 he received a wonderful offer from the record label “Top Hit (T.H.. ) and in 1988 he records his first LP, as a “sensual salsero” for Venezuela, titled “Amanecí Contigo” under the pen of José “El Flaco” Bermúdez, who is also the creator of the style that pushes him towards the international market, where all his songs hit with great acceptance and have his greatest impact in Peru (his second home as he usually calls it), starting his successful career as “Hildemaro, El Sonero Del Amor”.
In 1989 he recorded his second LP entitled “Sin Tabú”, which went gold a few weeks after its release, and this album took him back to Peru, where he is considered one of the main idols of Salsa Sensual. Panama, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, United States, Europe (Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Switzerland, among others), Asia (Japan), among many other countries, have joined his successful career.
In 1990 he recorded his third album called “Romantic and Sensual”, consolidating himself as one of the best voices of Latin American and Caribbean Salsa, qualities that were also reflected in his fourth production entitled “Lo Mejor De Mí” in 1991.
In 1993 he recorded his fifth album under the name “Al Natural”.
In 1994 he was invited to participate in the recording of the album “Con Ganas” by the Cuban Issac Delgado, where he performed a duet of a song composed by José L. Cortes called “Que Pasa Loco”, which quickly became an international success and took him to other latitudes.
In 1995 he released his sixth production with the title “Lo Que Siento”. One year later he signed a contract with the Mexican label “Balboa Records”, where he recorded the album “La Mejor Salsa Con Hildemaro”.
In 1999, he was invited by the Venezuelan group “Melody Gaita”, along with other artists, to record a tribute song to his friend and colleague Oscar D’ León.
In 2001, “Orquesta La Constelación” decided to record an album with several artists, in which he participated with two (2) songs (Peruvian waltzes), “Cuando Llora Mi Guitarra”, in duet with Andy Montañez, and “Jamás Impedirás”, which allowed him to sound nationally and internationally.
In 2002, he is called by another Venezuelan group “Pajarito Vola Show”, along with other artists, this time to participate in a well-deserved tribute to Betulio Medina. In 2002 and 2003 he burst in the national and international radio stations with two (2) singles “Corazón Loco” and “El Celular”.
In 2016, he begins to sound again in the radio stations with the song “Que Voy a Hacer Sin su Amor”.
In addition to his talent to sing Salsa Romántica, he is recognized for his interpretation of the Bolero. And on stage he has shared the stage with artists of the stature of: Oscar De León, Tito Rojas, Tito Gómez, Paquito Guzmán, Andy Montañez, Maelo Ruiz, Viti Ruiz, Gilberto Santa Rosa, David Pavón, Ismael Miranda, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Tony Vega, Nino Segarra, José Alberto “El Canario”, among many others.
Among his many facets is his love for sports, especially volleyball, which he has practiced since he was very young. He is an honorary member of the FUCUFOCA Foundation, which has been responsible for the organization of the Festival de la Canción Inédita de Caripito for fifty-one (51) years. Faithful collaborator of the Friends of Palencia Foundation and sponsor of several institutions.
Through his foundation HH Productions, he has carried out social actions such as Collaboration in the construction of the Virgen del Rosario Church in Caripito;
Donations of medicines and food to the needy, assistance to sports teams with equipment and clothing, organization of charity concerts and support of the “Amigos de la Palencia” Foundation.
Through his foundation HH Productions, he has carried out social actions such as Collaboration in the construction of the church “Virgen del Rosario” in Caripito;
Donations of medicine and food to people in need, help to sports teams with equipment and clothing; Realization of benefit concerts and concerts of popular attraction in collaboration with the end of year festivities of his hometown.
He has always given value to new talents, helping them in their first steps with his advice and teachings, such as Angel “Tu Angel”, Hildemaro Jr. “La Continuación”, Gilberto Hugas, among others.
Between the years 2022 and 2023 he will celebrate his forty (40) uninterrupted years of artistic life, with a long international tour in countries such as: Colombia, Bolivia,
Peru, Panama, United States, Canada and Europe. He is now promoting the songs “Si Tú Te Vas” and “Amigos Especiales” from his new production, which he is preparing with his inseparable director and producer, José “El Flaco” Bermúdez.
Also Read: Carlos “Nene” Quintero comes from a family of musical prodigies
Leo Pacheco Sonero del barrio and beloved example of father and friend was lead vocalist of the Orquesta Renovación under the direction of the tumbador Nico Monterola.
On May 17, 1948, Alejo Veliz Pacheco was born in Las González, Miranda State.
Under the musical influence of his father, an outstanding Afro-Venezuelan drummer, his debut as a professional took place in 1973, when he became the lead vocalist of the Renovación, after the departure of Orlando Castillo “Watussi” to the orchestra of Porfi Jiménez.
An advanced group, which emerged on February 6, 1973, under the musical influence of Harlow y la Perfecta, became the ideal competition to the “Galician” Dimensión Latina.
Under the direction of tumbador Nico Monterola, La Renovación, despite not having much luck, presented in its ranks timbalero Alfredo Cutuflá, (great Venezuelan timbalero, with a brilliant career in France), then Cheo Navarro (Director of Bailatino), the future trombonists of Oscar D’ León, the Piñango brothers: Nené and Taito.
This is the first recording for the album of La Renovación, one of the best Venezuelan salsa groups of the 70s. La Renovación since its foundation had in its ranks a select group of musicians that in the future would make a brilliant career in our salsa, needless to say that this group in its different stages has always tried to maintain a very fat and hard sound in the style of the good bands of New York”.
This LP gathers many good songs but there is one in particular that I like very much and it is “Guaguancó a Barlovento”, authored by Orlando Watussi, who was also founder of this group, but he left before the recording of this first album.
Rafael García on bass, Félix Suárez “Shakaito” (future director of the Bronko), Hungria Rojas (later Oscar D’ León’s bongos player) and the vocalization of Leo Pacheco, who recorded with them, (5) Cinco Producciones: Echa Pa’ lante (1974); Llegó la Renovación (1975); Pare Cochero (1975); Lo máximo es Renovación (1976) and A todo el mundo le gusta (1976).
Due to some problems he left La Renovación and went on tour to Colombia with Nelson Henríquez, commitments that prevented him from joining the newly formed orchestra of Oscar D’ León, who observed in Leo his great conditions to do the chorus and second voice, (as a substitute for the work done by Wladimir Lozano in Dimensión Latina), and in a nightclub, Oscar told him: “Leo was looking for you, because the two of us, for whatever comes out …”, “here there is nothing else…”, “here we are going to bust everybody…”.
In fact, after Rodrigo Mendoza’s departure in March 1977, the band replaced him thanks to Leo Pacheco’s very special timbre to do the chorus and second voice, with some songs that served as witnesses, such as the unforgettable: Juramento, Fuego de Amor, Capullito de Azucena, Cruel Desilusión (Con la Crítica de Oscar), among others.
The last days of May 1977, the breakup of Oscar D’ León’s Salsa Mayor is announced, where the bassist-singer in record time reassembles his orchestra dismantling the Renovación itself, while Leo Pacheco, together with the timbalero Alfredo Padilla, Henry Camba, William Puchi, Miguel Pacheco, José “Pipo” Pérez form: “Nuestra Orquesta La Salsa Mayor”, with whom he recorded three anthological albums: De frente y luchando (1978); Strong & Hots (1979); Sello de garantía (1979).
He continued his musical activity in the following years with La Crítica, Combo Venezuela and other groups.
“There was a lot of history left to tell, impossible to tell in this opportunity for reasons of space, although we hope it will be the beginning of a series of works on Venezuelan Salsa, which unfortunately we begin with the sad news of the death of Leo Pacheco, who left us with the fullness of his vocal cords and strength, which impressed the doctors on the day of his death when he resisted 8 hours with a heart attack while driving home in Ocumare del Tuy in his native Miranda state”.
For July 2023 the Lutier, Percussionist and friend Maestro Nico Monterola made a well-deserved tribute with a single titled:
“Tribute to Leo Pacheco”.
Sonero of the neighborhood and beloved example of father and friend.
Source: Jose “Cheo” Guevara of Asocosalsa 74
Also Read: “Canelita Medina” Caribbean popular music loses one of its best exponents