Search Results for: Música Latina

Life and career of Ernie Acevedo

Introduction

This will be a very special edition because we are going to talk about one of the most transcendental figures of Latin music of his time. We are talking about bandleader and percussionist Ernie Acevedo, who has been one of the greatest pillars of the Latin music movement in the United States from the very moment he decided to explore this highly competitive area of arts.

Percussionist Ernie Acevedo recording in the studio

Biography

Ernest ”Ernie” Acevedo was born in New York City and his parents were two Puerto Ricans who were making their living in the United States. His family had deep musical roots, which may be why the young man to devote his life to this wonderful world. This artistic side of the family comes especially from his uncles who played Christian music, with the exception of Jason Youvert. The latter played bass for a few groups throughout his career and one of them was Ray Rodriguez & Duro.

While still very young, little Ernie showed signs of getting great skills with percussion, which made his father decide to take him to play with him and even become a kind of manager for his son and many other young boys with dreams of being artists who entertained parties and celebrations of all kinds in the neighborhood where they lived. This group of boys was called Orquesta Combinación Latina, but it was not long before it would be renamed Sonora Amantes and would have an alignment of instruments totally different from the previous one.

Given that Ernie was always sure of following this path, he chose to prepare as best as possible for it, so he studied at Johnny Colon School and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, which contributed enormously to the learing of the musician and would serve him well for what he did next.

The great beginning of the percussionist’s career was given in the 1970s thanks to his collaboration with the famous bongo player Ralphy Santi, a union that represented a giant leap in the carrer of Ernie. After that, there was an endless list of artists who wanted to work with him such as Héctor Lavoe, Johnny Pacheco, Oscar D’ León, Pete ”El Conde” Rodríguez, Larry Harlow, Daniel Santos, Héctor Casanova and many more.

All of this would be the prelude to the creation of Conjunto Imagen, a group that would be of key importance in the good name of Acevedo as an artist.

Conjunto Imagen

In the year 2021, El Conjunto Imagen was founded on May 21, 1989, starting a legacy impossible to omit in the history of Afro-Caribbean music in the United States, Latin America and the Antilles. The main members of the group were coordinating and agreeing for a while to crystallize this idea that was running through their heads for a long time. Among them were Ernie Acevedo, Jose ”Junior” Rivera, Luis Hernandez, Angelo Gonzalez and many others.

These childhood friends always were clear that they wanted to create a highly successful musical group and go that succeed. In the year 2021, they celebrated their 30th anniversary with their 14th record production entitled ”Los Rumberos”, with which this group proved once more they are one of the most talented Latin groups despite the passage of time. This musical work has great names in the industry such as Juan ”Tiny” Colón in the arrangements, Toby Rivera, Guillermo ”El Pulpo” Colón Jr. and Miguel ”El Zurdo” Rodríguez. Luis Arona Junior Rivera, among others.

Record production to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Conjunto Imagen

By Johnny Cruz, ISM Correspondents, New York, New York City

Almost two years of Leon Gast’s departure to another plane

Who was Laon Gast?

On March 8, 2021, we received the deplorable news of Leon Gast‘s death, who was a very notable American film director, producer, cinematographer and editor who was the director of the film based on the Fania All Stars, ”Our Latin Thing’‘. The unfortunate demise occurred when the director was 85 years old and the news was reported by friend and colleague Barbara Kopple.

Given the important contributions made by Mr. Cast offered to Latin music during his lifetime, we did not want to waste this opportunity to pay homage to his work through this material. Next, we will talk a little about his life and everything achieved both porfessionally and personally.

Leon Gast was the creator of ''Our Latin Thing'' — Leon Gast was the creator of ”Our Latin Thing”

A little bit of his beginnings

Leon Jacques Gast was born on March 30, 1936 in New Jersey, studied at Henry Snyder High School and graduated with a degree in Dramatic Arts at Columbia University. During tha time of his life, he worked alongside writer and broadcaster Lowell Thomas in the television series ”High Adventure”, which meant one of his first triumphs at a professional level, but it definitely would not be the only one.

Another reason why Gast began to be so well known was thanks to his talent for photography, which would begin to be recognized in a number of famous magazines and print media such as Vogue and Esquire. In that regard, the producer began to create covers for the famous Fania All-Stars, which led him to create ”Nuestra cosa latina”. This documentary has been one of the greatest film projects that the filmmaker has carried out and many consider it a very important contribution to the consolidation of salsa as the cultural movement that it would later become.

Many people consider that Gast contributed a lot to the salsa genre as a movement

Our Latin Thing

”Our Latin Thing” is a documentary film that consisted in portraying how the Latin music scene in New York City was like in the 1970s. The material basically focuses on the concert made by the Fania All Stars at the Cheetah nightclub in August 1971. For many, this event marked the birth of the salsa genre as a movement.

The concert attracted two thousand people and resulted in the albums ”Live At The Cheetah Volume 1” and ”Live At The Cheetah Volume 2”, which were very well received by fans of that time. The event was the consecration of the Fania All Stars as one of the most famous musical groups in Latin music history.

In addition to that, Cast accompanied the famous orchestra and many other Latin music artists to Africa in order to record each and every one of their performances during the Zaire 74 Festival.

The film has been taken by many institutions as a reference to continue promoting salsa and music in general from its release to today.

Artwork for ''Our Latin Thing'' — Artwork for ”Our Latin Thing”

Other hits and details about Leon Gast’s life

Another of the biggest successes of this famous filmmaker was ”When We Were Kings”, which was a film released in 1996 and focused on important events for the United States such as Waltergate, the resignation of President Nixon, activism against racism, sports, mythical boxing matches and much more.

Another important project conducted by him was ”Manny”, which was focused on world famous boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s life and his most important moments.

Carlos “Patato” Valdés one of the best percussionists in the history of Latin Jazz.

On November 4, 1926 in the Los Sitios neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Carlos “Patato” Valdés was born. Known as Patato, he is, quite simply, one of the best percussionists in the history of music.

Patato was born into a very santera and very musical family, his father was a tres player of Los Apaches, the port germ of two illustrious sonera groups: the Sexteto Habanero and the Sexteto Nacional.

He learned to play the tres and the botijuela before turning to percussion, first on the cajones and finally on the congas.

He was an extraordinary percussionist of outstanding participation with the “Conjunto Kubavana”, “La Sonora Matancera”, “Conjunto Casino” and the “Orquesta de Tito Puente”, among other groups, both Son and Latin Jazz.

Formed in rumbero gatherings and carnival groups, Valdés became a professional in the early forties, after trying his luck as a boxer and dancer.

Carlos “Patato” Valdés uno de los mejores percusionistas en la historia del Jazz Latino

He played with Conjunto Kubavana, La Sonora Matancera and El Conjunto Casino. He accumulated nicknames: Zumbito (for his performances at the Zombie Club), Pingüino (for a dance he did on television) and Patato (for his small size), and in those days, dedicating oneself to music in Cuba guaranteed hardship. Besides, Patato wanted to experiment and that was not possible playing for dancers or tourists.

In 1954, he emigrated to New York, like his leather friends: Cándido Camero, Armando Peraza, Mongo Santamaría and the pioneer Chano Pozo (murdered there in 1948).

He immediately began working with Tito Puente. His first recording in the United States was the album Afro-cuban, by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, which opened with the intoxicating Afrodisia. Those were good times for tropical music.

He was the first percussionist to improvise “Solos” with 3 or more Congas at the same time. In addition, he was the creator of the “Congas Afinables”, instruments on which he would ride to dance making them sound rhythmically.

Patato Valdes was an excellent musician, an unforgettable person. Nervous and diminutive, he spoke with an impenetrable Cuban accent; he dressed elegantly, hiding the necklaces and bracelets of Changó and other “orishas”. He looked like a living caricature, but when he hit the percussions he became a divine creature: he had power, spectacularity, sense of melody.

Those skills made him an ambassador of Afro-Cuban rhythms in the jazz world, although he will also go down in history for his extraordinary rumba recordings.

In 1956, Patato appeared in the film Y Dios creó a la mujer, teaching the dances of his homeland to Brigitte Bardot. A great moment, although an implacable Guillermo Cabrera Infante criticized the actress’s movements: “she seems to commit suicide by dancing a cross between mambo and chachachá, a really toxic cross between mambo and chachachá”.

A flexible musician, Valdés sounded as comfortable playing with Machito’s big band as with Herbie Mann’s group. However, he felt indebted to the “rumba de solar” and in 1968 he recorded a revolutionary album with his friend Eugenio Arango, alias Totico.

The exuberant Patato & Totico had genuine Havana flavor, but enriched the basic percussion instrumentation with Cachao’s contrabass and Arsenio Rodriguez’s tres.Patato expanded the creative possibilities for percussionists by playing with three or more congas.

He also made their lives easier by developing a tunable conga: fed up with the traditional method (heating the leather over fire), he installed a metal hoop and keys for tensioning.

Carlos "Patato" Valdés — Carlos “Patato” Valdés

The LP company mass-produced his model, which was to become the standard for conga players. To promote it, he formed the Latin Percussion Jazz Ensemble with Tito Puente, Jorge Dalto and Alfredo de la Fé, among others, an orchestra that would end up becoming Puente’s big band in the early 80s.

It was during this period with Dalto that the album we have chosen for today began to take shape. It was titled “Patato, Master Piece” and it synthesizes all of Patato’s genius.

“Masterpiece” is an album that travels first class through tango, jazz, descarga, guaguancó and bolero, always in a masterful way and with a luxury crew made up of names like Jorge Dalto, Artie Webb, Michel Camilo, Jerry and Andy González, Nicky Marrero, Ignacio Berroa, Joe Santiago, Néstor Sánchez, Vicentino Valdés, and Sabú Martínez, among others.

The Art of Flavor.

Unfortunately Dalto had already passed away when in 1993 the project was released by the venerable German label Messidor, the same label that had already financed some impressive sessions of Patato with Mario Bauzá or Bebo Valdés, with whom he would later record the famous El Arte del Sabor.

In fact, the great Argentine pianist had to be replaced for the last recording sessions that were made 6 years ago since his illness was too advanced, but he left us some incredible arrangements that were kept in the great majority of the themes.

Dalto left us in 1987 when he was only 39 years old. His replacement was nothing more and nothing less than a very young Michel Camilo.formed by 9 cuts among which we especially want to highlight the huge versions of Cute and Nica’s Dream, Masterpiece is an essential album for all lovers of Latin-jazz with capital letters and that is why we wanted to share it on a day as special as today.

Already recognized as a legend, Patato became more visible in the last 25 years: he had his own band, Afrojazzia, although The Conga Kings, with Cándido and Giovanni Hidalgo, turned out to be more popular.

The Conga Kings Giovanni Hidalgo, Cándido Camero y Patato Valdez

He even made his way onto the modern dance floors, with a remix of San Francisco tiene su propio son. Just as he was returning from playing in California with the Conga Kings, his breathing began to fail.

The plane he was on had to make an emergency landing in Ohio to admit him to a hospital. The 81-year-old percussionist, a heavy smoker, was on his way to his beloved New York, but he would never get there. According to his relatives, he held out until December 4, the day of Santa Barbara, the Afro-Cuban equivalent of Changó, when the cables and tubes that kept him alive were removed.

Valdés died in Cleveland, USA, on December 4, 2007.

Fuentes: http://www.herencialatina.com/Patato/Patato_Valdes.htm

Imágenes: Martin Cohen de Congahead.com

Carlos “Patato” Valdés

You can read: Irakere was a Cuban group that developed an important work in Cuban popular music and Latin Jazz under the direction of Chucho Valdés

Edgar “Balín” Ocando Venezuelan percussionist musician based in Mexico

Edgar “Balín” Ocando, Venezuelan musician born in Caracas in the parish of El Recreo, specifically in block 7 and 8 of Simón Rodríguez.

He studied music at the José Reyna school located behind the same building where he lived, he also studied at the Conac de Sarria with maestro Orlando Poleo.

In his childhood he met with friends who had the same restlessness and passion for music, getting together every weekend to make noise as the neighbor said to the one who had to endure the music end after end.

As a result of these rehearsals he ended up in a group with which he began his music career and received his first professional payment at the age of 14 with the group Ases de la Gaita, a group formed by childhood friends in order to get away from drugs, which for the 80s was very strong.

Edgar “Balín” Ocando músico percusionista venezolano radicado en México

In high school he joined the ranks of the Venezuelan Children’s Choir under the direction of maestro Raul Cabrera. During his time in the choir, the son of Professor Cabrera, known as Raulito, formed the salsa group Sabor Latino and became part of it.

Coming from a musical family, he always looked for a way to be close to his uncles Rafael and Yelitza Sivira, who were singers of the Polifónico Rafael Suarez and always looked for a way to be present in the rehearsals.

Yelitza Sivira was the one who took the responsibility to take him and he only sat and watched how they vocalized with the piano with the help of the director Maria Cabrera. It was then when they created the Polifónico Infantil Rafael Suarez and he became a baritone.

Already in adolescence at the age of 17 years old, he started working in a bank through a scholarship granted by the institution Insbanca, and while working, the Coral del Banco Italo Venezolano was created, thus participating in bank choral meetings, it was then that he returned to music as an instrumentalist when he saw in a newspaper advertisement that they requested a drummer to be part of a group of bagpipes, for which he went to the audition where there were countless drummers and of which he was left with the position thus becoming part of Estrellas de la Gaita.

The following year he was invited by a friend to join the group Santoral of Freddy Rangel, arriving to record for the first time in Requena Studios, the following year in full rehearsal with Santoral I was called to join the group Los Caracuchos of Joseito Rodriguez, forming part as a drummer for 2 years and recording in Manoca Studios, it was then where he enters the percussion workshops of the Biggot Foundation with the teachers Alexander Livinali and Williams Troconis.

He was in the ranks of important Venezuelan groups and orchestras such as Los Caracuchos, Catatumbo, Los Casanovas, Melody Gaita, Sabor Latino, Orquesta La Moderna, etc.

In 1999 he changed course and moved to Mexico where he has participated as a percussionist and backing vocalist in groups such as Cokodrilos, Kumbia Kings,

Sonora 100% Dinamita, Alicia Villarreal and today he has his own orchestra called Rumba Latina de Venezuela, which he formed in 2005 and has opened concerts for great international figures such as: Oscar D’ León, Willie Colon, Víctor Manuelle, Porfi Baloa y sus Adolescentes, Nigga, etc.

As well as Mexican artists such as Julión Álvarez, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Mariana Seoane, El Grupo Pesado, Germán Montero, El Poder del Norte, Emilio Navaira among others.

Integrated by musicians of different nationalities from Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and hand in hand with our representation office and record label Indepe Music, we will continue to bring our music to more and more people in every corner of the country.

Edgar Ocando Manager

Phone (52)-8132179324

Email: [email protected]

Edgar Balin Ocando

You can read: Anacaona The Cuban Female Orchestra

Know The Best Latin Music Events In Spain During December

This month of vacation, you will have the opportunity to experience incredible concerts and festivals

In December, great festivals are celebrated in Spain that last from the beginning of Advent until New Year’s Day. Moderate, non-intrusive décor is ever-present in public spaces and homes during this exciting time of year. A wide range of music that goes from the traditional Spanish melody to Latin music (Salsa, Bachata, and Reggaeton) popular among the youngest will disperse throughout the Iberian country, and here I have summarized everything for you.

Salsa singer Yiyo Sarante will offer a concert in Girona for the first time at the Euphoria nightclub

In Girona (a province located in the northeast of the autonomous community of Catalonia), the Dominican singer Yiyo Sarante will make his first appearance on December 2^nd in the spaces of the Latin disco Euphoria https://www.facebook.com/EUPHORIALATINAGIRONA/?ref=page_internal (Sala Univers, Girona, Carrer del camp de les lloses, 8) at midnight to present his most recent singles Quiero Perderme Contigo, Llorarás, Eres Pasado, Demonio y Prohíbeme Verte as well as his greats classics Pirata, Maldita Primavera, Tierra Mala, Nos engañó a Los Dos y Tres Semanas. Tickets are already available and range from €30 (online) to €40 (box office). The minimum age to access this event is 18 years.

This same day (Friday, December 2^nd) the Sevillian exponent of Bachata Dani J will give a concert in Madrid as part of his Abraxas Dancing Tour to celebrate the season. This concert will take place at the Cervantes Complex (Highway M206 Torrejón at Km 2.6, M-206, Km 2, 600, 28890 Loeches, Madrid) at 1 AM, and its doors will open at 10:30 PM with a workshop, followed by an hour of social dance to then continue with the concert, and close with the second social dance until dawn. Tickets can be purchased from €15 by clicking here. https://complejocervantes.com/

The workshops, parties, and socials will be held at the 8 Tiempos Dance School

The third event that I bring you will take place in Zaragoza, the largest city in the autonomous community of Aragon in the northeast of Spain. The Zaragoza Dance Festival is a three-day celebration of tropical dance immersion with more than 30 Salsa, Bachata, and Kizomba workshops with great artists from Europe and Latin America in two simultaneous rooms, two nights of partying from 11 PM to 6 AM with DJ Tevez (Spain), DJ Sergio (Spain), DJ Shark (Cuba), DJ Antony Tarraxa (Italy), and DJ Enzo (Spain), as well as the concert of the world star of the song DANI J on Saturday night. The festival will take place from December 16^th to December 18^th at the facilities of the 8 Tiempos dance school located at C. de Tomás A. Edison, 9, Zaragoza. The full pass for the I Zaragoza Dance Festival which will welcome thousands of fans from different corners of the planet can be purchased through its official website. https://lasalsadelbaile.com/zaragozadancefestival

Following the same trend in festivals this season, the Winter Bachata Festival stands out. It is an annual event that is organized in Gandia city, province of Valencia. This seventh edition features local dance professionals who will help hone the skills of amateur dancers. All this by the hand of DJ Miguelón, DJ Salva, and DJ Yago who will animate with their mixes the daytime and nighttime workshops as well as the parties and social dances that will start at 11:30 PM until 3 AM. In this field dominated by Latin dance professionals, you will have the opportunity to attend and meet new friends. Winter Bachata Festival https://lasalsadelbaile.com/winterbachata will take place from December 8th to December 11th at the Hotel Gandia Palace (Carrer de la Rioja, 41), and the ticket costs €45.

Seats will be assigned in order of entry of reservations. If necessary, tables will be shared

Finally, in this list of the best Latin music events in Spain that will make you live an unforgettable experience during this beautiful time of year, I bring you the Terra show with an international cast made up of almost 50 artists who will be in charge of guiding a trip around the world very particular that will surprise and show the spectator all the artistic richness with the main performances by the New Bambú Orchestra, the Christmas carols by candlelight with the tribute to Il Divo, and the singer Ami Tapper, who will accompany the spectators during this journey with musical themes that have become universal classics. In addition, award-winning magician David Climent, comedian Titto Lester, aerial contortionist Sharyn Monni, Kimberly Lester with the number of “sand art” and circus artists Sandy, Samantha & Jastin Monteiro Vassallo will perform.

On Sunday, December 25^th (New Bambú show and tribute to Il Divo + gala dinner: €70), Saturday, December 31^st (show + gala dinner: €185) and Thursday, January 5^th (show + gala dinner: €64) are the dates to enjoy this amazing show by Terra at the Benidorm Palace concert hall www.benidormpalace.es located at Avenue Severo Ochoa 13 in the city of Benidorm, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe and the Second city in the world with the highest number of skyscrapers per square meter.