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Search Results for: Los Angeles
California Directory / 2024
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 2410 San Ramon Valley Boulevard San Ramon, CA 94583 +1 925 560-6556 |
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 510 Embarcadero West Oakland, CA 94607 +1 510 238-9200 |
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Large projects of Mexican pianist and composer Irving Flores
It is always a pleasure for us to talk with important figures from the Latin music industry in the United States and today it was the turn of the incredibly talented producer, arranger, composer and pianist Irving Flores, who has been kind enough to connect via Zoom and talk a little about his career and personal life.
After the usual greetings and introductions, Irving started talking about what inspired him to get started in music which, in his case, was his father.
Irving’s father as a source of inspiration
Irving’s first important contact with music was his father, who was a professional saxophonist in the 60’s and even worked for a big band in Tamaulipas, Mexico, the artist’s native country.
He was his first musical maestro and the one who helped him take his first steps in this complicated world, to the extent that Irving also started playing the saxophone encouraged by his father. The young man always wanted to learn how to play piano, but the high level of salinity in the city of Tampico damaged this type of instruments. It is then that he chose the organ which, being electronic, withstood the weather conditions, but he never discarded the instrument he was most passionate about.
Once he began his career as an orchestrator and arranger, he was exploring all wind instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone and string instruments such as the guitar. He played the saxophone professionally for some years, studied at the National Conservatory of Music and received private music lessons to strengthen his knowledge.
Roles as a producer, an arranger and a composer
So, as was the case with many other Latin musicians, Irving perceived music as a job in which experience has been much more important than the academic part. In fact, he told us that, as a child, he saw his father sitting writing music and making arrangements, which led him to imitate him and do the same.
When he has beraly 15, he was perfectly capable of arranging at a professional level, an experience that served him well in Mexico City when dealing with the best composers of his native country, such as Luis Demetrio, Vicente Garrido, Eugenia León and maestro Armando Manzanero. He was also Paulina Rubio’s musical director for many years.
For years, Irving spent three or four days each week in a studio, which gave him the necessary experience to prepare for what was to come in his professional future.
San Diego
Irving married a U.S. citizen and had a daughter with her, which made it much easier for him to get a visa to travel to the United States. After he split up with his wife, he specifically chose the city of San Diego because his daughter lives here and he wanted to see her grow up.
Although that was the primary reason for his move there, he immediately noticed that there was much scope for him to work on his own stuff and make many contacts. One of them was Dave Scott, thanks to whom he was able to write music for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
The artist assures that, regardless of the place he used to live, he never lost his way and never stopped learning everything he could about music.
One of the greatest experiences he had in this city had to do with taking the place of Oscar Hernandez in the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. It turns out that Hernandez lost his luggage and passport on a flight, so someone had to take his place in the concert the band would have the next day in Mexico City. It was then that Gilbert Castellanos recommended Irving for this task.
Hernandez and Irving met, each one put their terms and reached an agreement. The founder of the orchestra bought the artist a plane ticket and went to assume the role of pianist that Hernandez could not take that night and the result could not be better. Since then, Irving and the orchestra has been on excellent terms and both he and the world famous pianist became good friends.
Working for great artists
According to Irving, one advantage Latin musicians have is that they are able to play all styles of music, which gives them a greater range of action compared to other artists. We are also influenced by Latin music, Afro-Antillean music and Afro-Cuban music. These elements help us a lot to do our job. American musicians tupically specialize in a single context or genre, but Latinos don’t have those limitations,” Irving said on the subject.
Although the pianist specializes in makings arrangements for jazz, the above mentioned shows that he is perfectly capable of entering any other genre, which has led him to work with great artists with many styles.
One of the most interesting cases was Luis Miguel. One of his most important producers, Alejandro Carvallo, spent some time in Los Angeles, where he and Irving met and forged a friendship. That is how he started writing arrangements for ”El Sol de Mexico” and had a very good experience working for him and his team.
In the case of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, a composer working for the institution (and Irving’s friend) named Dave Scott needed an urgent arrangement at that time, but they did not have the budget for the relevant work. So, he asked Irving what they could do, to which he replied that he needed a few days to write a new arrangement. The following two weeks, the pianist had no time even to sleep, but he achieved the goal and wrote ”A Tribute to Frank Sinatra”. According to Irving himself, this has been one of the most important projects he has had in his entire career.
American Citizen
In the year 2021, Irving became an American citizen, which is certainly a great honor for anyone who lives in that country and also a great responsibility. The artist seems to know this very well.
When we asked Irving about this topic, his answer was not so much based on the artistic aspect, but on everything that involves the acquisition of citizenship as a Latino. In this sense, the artist emphasized that the cultural and even judicial environment in which we grew up in most of our countries are completely different from those of the United States, so adapting to this country is a real challenge, but well worth it.
In his case, the pianist also says that he was as disciplined as possible in each of his decisions to be able to get to the point where he is now. In that sense, he has always done his best to exercise his career as a musician with excellence, but always respecting U.S. laws at all times. He said this because he knows many talented people who were unfortunately imprisoned or deported for making mistakes in this regard.
On the same subject, he also said that it is very important to follow the rules for American society to accept you as a member and give you all the opportunities you are given as a citizen with all the letters.
Musically speaking, having a U.S. passport has provided him with the possibility to travel and tour anywhere in the world without any problem, which is extremely important for the growth of an artist’s career.
Musical history of Roosevelt Cordova ”El Presidente de La Salsa”
Just as the case of Cuba and Puerto Rico, Peru has also given birth to many salsa exponents worthy of being highlighted and one of them is the talented Roosevelt Cordova, artistically known as ”El Presidente de La Salsa”.
The sonero has a very interesting career behind him, so we decided to contact him and know a little more about his personal and professional life. Roosevelt responded by thanking us for the opportunity and finally, we were able to agree on a day and time to talk about issues of interest around his figure.
His taste in music since he was a child
As has happened with many other salseros, Roosevelt also fell in love with music when still a child, but without knowing at the time that this is what he would dedicate his life to later.
He always saw his family enjoying music at amateur level, which awakened in him a taste for this branch of art. However, his journey in this world did not begin with salsa, but with Peruvian waltzes and Creole music. It was not until he turned 17 that he became interested in salsa because an uncle of his signed him up for a contest called ”Buscando Un Sonero”, taking third place among 84 participants in total.
Thanks to his performance in the contest, he was proposed to join the orchestra Camagüey, but his father refused because of all the excesses that an artist must face and he considered that his minor son was not ready for that. On the contrary, he preferred his son to be interested in other activities such as sports and leave music for later.
In addition to this, the great references in which Roosevelt was inspired to follow his path have been El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Willie Rosario, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Héctor Lavoe, La Fania All Stars, among others.
Roosevelt in Los Angeles
It wasn’t until Roosevelt, at the age of 25, left for the United States that he could pursue his dreams and become the artist he dreamed he would be.
He did not initially plan to devote himself to music, as he simply wanted to progress in life like any other immigrant, but it was not long before he decided to take the bully by the horns and return his great passion. It is then when he recorded an entire Peruvian Creole music album, but soon left this genre to return to recording salsa.
This is how he began to seize every opportunity to participate in salsa orchestras to gain experience little by little.
The first group he belonged to was La Sonora Santiaguera, which he joined in 1998, but from then on, there were many others with which Roosevelt learned much of what he knows today as an artist.
One of the most important orchestras he belonged to was Johnny Polanco Y Su Conjunto Amistad. After all the experience gained so far, Roosevelt was encouraged to personally look for Johnny to talk to him at El Floridita, where El Conjunto Amistad performed weekly.
The artist told the leader of the group he was a singer and wanted a chance in his group. After hearing him sing with his musicians that same night, Johnny invited him over to his home to give him a cassette with all the songs he had to learn to work formally with them. Two weeks later, he was already making his debut with Johnny and El Conjunto Amistad. His entry into the group coincided with the farewall of the lead singer, something that was just perfect for Roosevelt.
Other groups
After leaving El Conjunto Amistad, Roosevelt continued his career and joined Ángel Lebrón y Su Sabor Latino, with whom he recorded a full album. Some time later, he joined Guapacha Latin Jazz led by the Venezuelan Gil Tower, with whom the Peruvian has an excellent personal relationship, despite having separated professionally.
In 2011, he became part of Conjunto Oye, which Roosevelt thinks is the best moment of his career because he was able to be himself within the orchestra and express his art with independence, something difficult in his previous groups. It was here that he had the growth he really needed to get ready and to take up greater challenges in the future.
Solo career
The information we found about his solo career revealed that Roosevelt went solo in 2019, but he corrected us by saying that, in reality, his first solo album ‘‘Un Nuevo Cantante” was recorded in 2018, which is when he really decided to open paths on his own.
Although he says he is grateful to all the bands he has played in, he also adds that there comes a point in life where every artist wants to build his own path when he already fulfil the conditions for that. In his case, he already had experience in singing, composing and creating useful contacts, so he gave himself the opportunity to try. The best thing is that his wife supported him at all times and, today, she continues to be his rock in whatever he sets out to do.
He also noted that he dreams of having his own orchestra someday and that it is important to have dreams in order to get where you want to be.
Roosevelt Cordova ”El Presidente de La Salsa”
When we wanted to know the origin of his artistic name, he laughingly told us that it is all abut his first name. Let us remember that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President of the United States and his last name coincides with the singer’s first name.
When someone approached him to ask for a picture and asked his name, he said he had the same name as former U.S. President Roosevelt. Since this situation constantly repeated, his wife proposed him to use this to create a stage name for himself. That is how ”El Presidente de La Salsa” was born.
Llegó La Navidad
Currently, Roosevelt is currently promoting his new Christmas song ”Llegó La Navidad” of his own authorship. The idea of composing the song came from his wife and daughter, who insisted that it was time for him to release music written by himself.
So, he started the writing with the chorus and, from there, continued with the rest of the song. This is a technique he uses regularly when composing, as he ensures that people always remember the chorus more than the rest of the lyrics, so he always strives to have a catchy chorus that stands out in the public’s mind.
Read also: We bring trombonist Félix O. Rodriguez from Santurce to ISM
Poncho Sanchez visited us at the Salsa Museum
Like every month, we are going to dedicate this edition to a very special name in the Latin music scene and it is about the extraordinary percussionist and conguero Poncho Sanchez, who has given us the honor of donating some of his congas and the suit he wore during the Grammy Awards to the Spaha Salsa Gallery Museum.
In gratitude to such a generous act, we want to dedicate the following lines to his brilliant career and everything he has contributed to Latin music with his work and talent.
Poncho’s beginnings in music
Pablo Sanchez, better known as Poncho Sanchez, is currently a percussionist and salsa singer who leads a renowned Latin jazz and Cuban music band. He became such a talented artist after a long journey in the difficult and competitive music industry.
Poncho is the son of two Mexicans from different cities who had eleven children, the musician being the youngest of them all. From a very young age, he developed an intense love for music, which led him to learn to play instruments on his own.
Although Poncho was born in Laredo, Texas, he spent all his childhood in Los Angeles with his family. In that place, he began to have a lot of contact with American jazz, Latin jazz and soul. During his adolescent years, his musical tastes were dominated by artists such as Mongo Santamaría, James Brown, John Coltraine, Miles Davis, among many others.
When he decided he wanted to take music up professionally, he began to teach himself to play the congas, guitar, drums, timbales and flute. This is how he was preparing for what was to come in his professional life later on.
When he reached adulthood in his twenties, he was playing in various dance clubs for a while, until finally he got Cal Tjader and his group to notice his talent and invite him to join them.
Today, Poncho is very grateful to Cal and said that he learned a lot from him during the time he was in the group. In fact, he even recalled in an interview that he gave him some lessons just as he was a teacher and Poncho was a student. This, in order to be on par with his bandmates and be able to put on a good show to the public.
Poncho as a soloist
In 1980, Poncho finally managed to form his own group with which he began to carry out certain projects, although he had not completely departed from Cal’s band. In fact, the conguero worked with the musical director till the end of his days in 1982.
Just a few months later, he signed with the Concord Records label to release his first official solo album, which he titled ”Sonando”, marking the beginning of a partnership that remains intact to this day. So far, Poncho has some two dozen recordings with Concord.
Following decades of starting his career, Poncho saw his dreams become a reality when he won a Grammy for ”Best Latin Album” in 1999 thanks to the Latin soul album he had recorded at the time. That’s when the artist finally felt that everything he had worked for in the previous years had paid off.
As for his latest album called ”Trane’s Delight”, Poncho seeks to pay homage to the artists who have inspired him and helped him develop his own art, as he considers that these personalities have been a fundamental basis for his growth as a music professional.
