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Héctor Martignon has been one of the most sought-after pianists on the Latin jazz scene in New York

New York based-, Colombian born Hector Martignon has composed, orchestrated, produced, performed and recorded music in a wide spectrum of genres, from Classical and Crossover, to Jazz and World Music, to Rock and Pop.

His five albums as a leader, two as co-leader (MOZART’s BLUE FANTASIES and BACH’s SECRET FILES) as well as his work on over a hundred albums, scores for five feature films, three Broadway Musicals and multiple other projects, showcase his wide-ranging area of expertise.

At Mozart Studios recording Carlos Jimenez’ second CD, + Ruben Rodriguez + Vince Cherico. A pleasure!

After several nominations as a sideman, two of his five solo CDs were nominated for a GRAMMY Award (REFUGEE, 2008, and SECOND CHANCE, 2010).

He arranged and performed parts of the score of Ang Lee’s OSCAR-nominated movie EAT, DRINK, MAN, WOMAN.

His first professional recording was at age 18 (Mikis Theodorakis’s “Canto General”) while one of the most recent was on legendary rock band CHICAGO’s latest production, the Latin-tinged “EXITOS”.

He has written symphonic orchestrations, performed and recorded by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and compositions like ABRE LOS OJOS, CIERRA LOS OJOS, commissioned and premiered by the MUSICA DE CAMARA STRING ORCHESTRA at St Patrick’s Cathedral in April 2011.

Hector Martignon is currently working on a first CD with his BANDAGRANDE Big Band + String Quartet as well as an album with selections out of a series of 7 solo piano recitals at the Ludwigsburg University of Education (Germany), where he conducts a “compact seminar” on Classic Music-based improvisation every November.

As a requested sideman he has toured the world with such greats as Paquito D’Rivera, Ray Barretto, Gato Barbieri, Steve Turre, Don Byron, Tito Puente and was featured pianist with Max Roach’s PROJECT AMERICA at the 92 St Y.

His joy of teaching has made him a requested guest-lecturer and performance teacher in music faculties and academies in several countries of Europe, Japan, North- and South America.

Hector wrote an instructional book on Latin piano commissioned and published by Hal Leonard, the SALSA PIANO BOOK.

Martignon’s abilities as a pianist have always been enriched by his interest in varied musical genres.

He paid for his studies of classical piano and composition at the prestigious Freiburger Musikhochschule in Germany by performing with the best Afro-Cuban and Brazilian bands of Europe, backing stars like Celia Cruz and Ismael Quintana on their European tours, and recording with Tata Güiness and Arturo Sandoval.

At the same time he was attending seminars of contemporary composition with masters like Gyorgi Ligetti, Luigi Nono and Karl Heinz Stockhausen.

He also performed classical music in recitals and concerts in Germany, Italy and his native Colombia, specializing in Chopin, Bach and Debussy.

One of his latest endeavors has been a Jazz-Classical crossover project, co-lead with star virtuoso trumpeter Joe Burgstaller, in which the music of the classics, from Bach to Ellington is re-created in a chamber-jazz setting, to be enjoyed on their two releases, “Mozart’s Blue Fantasies” and “Bach’s Secret Files”.

Living in Brazil for a one-year love affair with that country and its music, Martignon soon became a requested studio musician and worked for star producer Carlinhos Brown.

Since relocating to New York City, Martignon has been one of the most sought-after pianists on the Latin jazz scene.

He’s toured North and South America, Europe, and Asia with the bands of Mongo Santamaría, Gato Barbieri, Steve Turre and Don Byron, who had him record in his latest CD.

He was featured pianist with the bands of Tito Puente, Mario Bauzá, Chico O’Farrill, Paquito D’Rivera, and Max Roach in his “Project America.” Most notably, Martignon was pianist for the late Ray Barretto’s various ensembles.

During his eight-year association with Barretto, his contributions as pianist, arranger, and composer were fundamental in shaping the sound of the now famous New World Spirit Sextet.

One of his last collaborations with Barretto, “My Summertime,” was a favorite nominee for a Grammy award. Martignon’s versatility has also made him extremely active in the film and television industries.

Besides playing all piano parts, he arranged and produced many parts of the score for the Oscar-nominated film “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” by Ang Lee and performed the piano and keyboard parts for many movie scores (i.e., “Gloria”, “Relativity”).

He is composer of the original music of two feature films, one of which, “Septimo Cielo”, won international awards. He also collaborated in the production of many Broadway musicals (“Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, Paul Simon’s “The Capeman”, “Selena Forever”) as conductor, arranger, and co-composer. In the fall of 2003 Hector visited Slovenia and Russia to collaborate with singer-songwriter Vitaly Osmsçko’s first symphonic CD.

The Russian Philharmonic Orchestra recorded in Moscow the orchestrations written by Hector.

As a composer, producer and arranger of TV and radio music his record is no less impressive. In 2001 he landed two spots for HBO Latino, and one for Coca Cola.

HECTOR” S FOREIGN AFFAIR In 1998 Martignon performed with his quartet “Foreign Affair”at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s famed annual festival “The Next Wave” on a triple bill with Tito Puente’s “Top Percussion” and Don Byron’s “Music for six Musicians”.

This proved to be a turning point for him and his ensemble, which evolved from the strictly acoustic trio sound of the first two CDs to a more eclectic and electric quartet sound.

The new configuration that evolved from that memorable concert started a series of concerts and recordings, with guitarist Mark Whitfield, Cameroonian bassist Richard Bona and Cuban drummer Horacio “Negro” Hernández.

This quartet performed and recorded live during a weeklong stint at New York’s famous Birdland.

The group has also performed on BET television festivals, at jazz clubs in Manhattan, and made various appearances in clubs and open-air festivals in his native Colombia and in Europe.

Martignon’s third solo project, to be released in the fall of 2003, is not only a reflection of the group’s new musical direction but also of his interaction with other world class musicians.

Eddie Gomez, Jeff Watts, Mathew Garrison, John Benitez, Dafnis Prieto, Willard Dyson have all made their unique contribution to this, Martignon’s new sound of Jazz.

Hector In Amsterdam with daughter Leticia

Hector Martignon never fails to surprise, challenge and delight us. Stay tuned and get involved in this affair.

Site: Héctor Martignon

Also Read: “El Sol de la Música Latina” el primer premio Grammy para el histórico disco de Salsa Eddie Palmieri

North America – November 2020

Lengaïa Salsa Brava is killing it in Montréal

Latin talent can be found where you might least expect it and, this time we found it in the city of Montreal, Canada, a place that is cultivating an increasingly large and vigorous Latin music scene. On this occasion, we were thrilled to be able to talk to Giany-Frantz Huyghues-Despointes, who is the leader and founder of the orchestra Lengaïa Salsa Brava.

Lengaïa Salsa Brava is a 12-member salsa orchestra that was created in 2012 by Giany, who was also a trombonist and had some experience in the world of music before daring to create his own group.

The effort of all its members has enabled them to collaborate with great performers of the genre and win important awards such as the Canada Latin Awards in the category of ”Salsa Group of the Year” in a row in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Lengaïa Salsa Brava has also performed approximately 30 concerts a year since its foundation and has participated in important festivals such as Toronto Salsa Festival, Festival Nuit Blanche de Montreal, Nuits d’Afrique, among others. The group was greatly helped by the fact that its members come from different countries such as French Guyana, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Quebec, Spain and Venezuela.

This interesting journey shows us how hard this group has worked to achieve a place within the industry and all the potential they have to achieve much more than what was obtained. Today, Giany, its founder, shares a little more about himself and his orchestra Lengaïa Salsa Brava.

Giany, founder of Lengaïa Salsa Brava — Giany Huyghues Despointes, director and founder of Lengaïa Salsa Brava

Giany’s beginnings as a musician

Although the trombone is the instrument for which Giany is known, he started playing the trumpet from 10 years of age, which is when he began his interest in this branch of the art.

An important point is that in French Guyana, the country where Giany was born, salsa is not a predominant genre, since the most played by the French Guyanese is the mazurka, which is very similar to the Haitian compas. In the case of Giany’s family, they listened to a bit of everything, including salsa.

A turning point for the artist was watching Celia Cruz singing on tv one day. The musician had never heard the Cuban singer before and it was an incredible experience for him, as her deep voice, colorful outfit and wig caught his attention at the time.

Because of her deep voice, he thought she was a man, but his mother explained to him who Celia was and, months later, took him to a concert to see her live. That performance of ”La Guarachera de Cuba” marked him so much that he would begin to lean towards music in the future. Today, he says that Celia is a spiritual mother to him, as she was his great inspiration.

Along with being a fan of the Cuban singer, he wanted to learn to play instruments and initially opted for the piano and the guitar, but that changed when his Spanish teacher at school gave him a trumpet and he discovered that he really liked to play it.

Some time later, he graduated from the national school of music in his country and, by the time he turned 18, Giany noticed that his musical skills excelled more with the trombone than the trumpet. This is how he decided to choose the trombone as his main instrument and so it has been to the present time.

He started playing classical music with that instrument but soon discovered that he wanted to return to the genre that captivated him when he was just a child, so he dared to create a group in France, where he studied aviation. The thing is that he went to live in Canada six months later and had to abandon the plans he had at that time.

Founding of Lengaïa Salsa Brava

Giany arrived in Canada with the vision to create another group in his new country of residence, but he did not know any musicians yet, so he moved into action and started placing ads on social networks and other virtual means to communicate with artists who were interested in joining his project.

The results were amazing and there were many musicians who contacted Giany because of their interest in the concept proposed by him. With this group, he started assembling the orchestra in order to give form to what Lengaïa Salsa Brava is today. The orchestra has six years with the same staff and format it presents to the public today.

Huge number of nationalities in Lengaïa Salsa Brava

As for the large number of nationalities living in the orchestra, Giany has said that all ”are part of a big family” hinting that national origins have not been a problem for the smooth development of the group. In addition to that, the salsa brava is a genre widely known worldwide, so the members of the orchestra knew in advance what they were getting into.

To what we must add that these guys work or have worked in other salsa brava orchestras, so they were pretty much steeped in everything related to this beautiful music.

Giany says it is very easy to work with his musicians because they always know how to perfectly interpret what he wants.

Lengaïa at one of its concerts — Lengaïa Salsa Brava at one of its concerts

Origin of the name Lengaïa Salsa Brava

When Giany was looking for a name for the group, he wanted something different and not very Latin sounding. He also wanted people to ask what the name meant, so we have fallen into the trap.

The musician explained that he wanted something that refers to how explosive, energetic and aggressive his music is, so he chose the name inspired by a Tanzanian volcano called Ol Doinyo Lengaï that spews black lava. ”When you see a volcano exploding, you imagine something explosive and aggressive at the time. That’s what we want to reflect with our music”. Also, the fact that its lava is black is something different from other volcanoes, as is the group’s orchestration and technique,

Activities outside Lengaïa Salsa Brava

Giany wanted to emphasize that all the members of Lengaïa Salsa Brava have other jobs and work activities outside the orchestra. In his particular case, he works as a commercial pilot, but in his spare time, he devotes himself as much as he can to his great passion which is music.

So far, Giany and the other members of the orchestra are unable to live solely on music, but they do their best to keep the group together and are there to fulfill Lengaïa Salsa Brava whenever necessary.

Although the orchestra has been a second employment option, it is undeniable that this is their great vocation and the engine that moves his life, so there will always be space for it.

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero

North America / United States / New Jersey

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero hails from Caracas, Venezuela.

Where his father, a respected percussionist in his own right, tutored and encouraged his son to become one of music’s best percussionists.

Luisito comes from a long line of outstanding musicians including his uncle, Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Robert Quintero.

He studied at the respected Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela (The Symphonic Orchestra of Venezuela) and his percussion technique soon garnered attention from his colleagues.

Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Luisito joined the popular music ensembles Grupo Guaco and Oscar D’Leon, where he enjoyed worldwide acclaim.

Luisito Quintero has worked and recorded with many of music’s legends including The Rolling Stones, Vanessa Williams, Paul Simon, Santana, Jack De Johnette, David Sanborn, George Benson, Joe Sample, Bill Cosby, the late Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Cachao, Eddie Palmieri, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Richard Bona, Ravi Coltrane, Nathalie Cole, Diana Krall, Giovanni Hidalgo, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Spanish Harlem, Willie Colon and countless others. One of his recent projects finds him as musical director for Louie Vega and the Elements of Life Band, as well as extensive work with Jack DeJohnette’s Latin Project. He has also had the privilege to tour and record with the Tony & Grammy award winning Jazz artist, Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Quintero himself has earned more than thirteen Grammy certificate awards for his participation in numerous recordings.

Luisito Quintero has two solo projects under Vega Records/BBE, entitled “Percussion Maddness” and “Percussion Maddness Revisited”.

Timbalero - Luisito Quintero — Master Timbalero Luisito Quintero – Photo

Scheduled for release in the spring of 2013, his upcoming production entitled “3rd Element”, features guest artists Gato Barbieri, Oscar Hernandez, Doug Beavers, Richie Flores, Steve Khan, Reynaldo Jorge and his cousin Roberto Quintero. Currently, Luisito is the touring & recording percussionist for the legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea and for Spanish Harlem.

Yani Borrell ”El Elegante de La Salsa”

How Yani became the artist he is now

We were fortunate to speak with the Cuban singer based in Canada, Yani Borrell, who has been kind enough to spare us a few minutes of his busy schedule to reveal unpublished details of his beginnings in music, departure from Cuba, arrival in Canada, current projects, among other things.

Then these were the most important issues that came up in the conversation we had with the artist for a little over half an hour.

Cuban singer Yani — This is Yani Borrell, a famous Cuban singer based in Canada

Grupo Constitución

Yani joined Grupo Constitución being just a 17-year-old. In his native city of Camagüey, there was a small square where concerts were held and Grupo Constitución used to rehearse there. One day, the young man was going through the place and was struck by what the musicians were doing at that moment.

Suddenly, the musical director asked the vocalist to make a little more complex melody, but failed. However, Yani perceived the sound and reproduced it with his lips loudly. That got the music director’s attention so much that he asked the young man to come over and show the singer what he had done.

When he repeated it, the musical director of the group was so fascinated that he asked her to join them. This is how Yani began to study music to a more professional level and to hold the necessary auditions to be able to belong to an orchestra in Cuba (this was a mandatory requirement in the country to belong to a musical group).

After attracting the attention of other groups due to his talent, Yani was contacted by a more renowned orchestra, Yani decided to leave Grupo Constitución and go with his new companions to seize this new opportunity that life had to offer.

Making music in Cuba

We know that the political and economic situation in Cuba has been complicated for some decades, so we wanted to know how Yani lived these years in his native country while devoting himself to music.

That’s when he started telling us that he had to live through the terrible Special Period, one of the worst crises experienced by the island, so logically he did not have the necessary resources to devote himself fully to his passion and put aside any other job at that time.

Yani on stage — Yani Borrell performing on stage

This is because Yani thought that being in a mildly famous orchestra would bring him the benefits he was looking for, but unfortunately, it was not so. Rather, he was really struck with the difficult reality that sometimes performances and concerts were paid several months later.

Yani and many of his colleagues had to borrow in order to survive and wait for the pay day to settle the debts with those same people. This situation persisted for quite some time until he could work for an orchestra established for tourism, with which payments were a little more regular.

However, she had to make a living doing other activities outside the world of the arts. In his case, Yani was self-employed and even had a small mobile coffee shop where he sold sandwiches. At the same time, he studied music and worked with some orchestras, since it was impossible to live only from music.

The first level orchestras that toured internationally always pursued better financial compensation for their musicians, but salaries were still insufficient to alleviate the crisis experienced in Cuba.

Moving to Canada, Toronto

The process to live Cuba and move to Canada was extremely hard. Yani had already toured the North American country for some time, in fact, he was in about 25 Canadian cities during his tours, so he already knew the territory quite well.

Before the second tour he would do in that country with his orchestra of the day, the artist was very clear that he was going to ”defect from Cuba” (that is how the act of leaving the country at the first opportunity is called in Cuba).

While it is true that his standard of living had improved considerably with this international orchestra, this did not offer the stability he wanted, so he resigned from the group, decided to stay and live permanently in Canada and start a new life.

Today, he is completely satisfied with the results of his decisions and knows very well that he has done the right things for his career and his life in general.

Yani on radio — Yani Borrell during a radio interview

Adaptation to the Toronto music scene

One of the hardest decisions was already made, but there were still some challenges to overcome. He had to face language and cultural barriers in order to stand ut and make a place in the city’s Latin music scene.

At the same time, he worked in factories and even start his own business. He says there were times when he did not even sleep because he played with several local orchestras at the same time, so dividing his time between each of them was a titanic task. However, all the effort paid off.

After being with one of the most renowned orchestras in the area, Yani realized it was time to create his own project, which he called Yani Borrell & The Clave Kings.

After all this, he began to be prompted by a group of people who wanted to help him and pushed him to keep growing, thanks to which he released his first solo album in 2013.

C.W. Entertainment

The artist management company C.W. Entertainment was very important in Yoni’s growth as an artist, because at one point it joined forces with the artist and boosted his career to such an extent that this team made him one of the most important salsa artists of the time in Canada. So much was the support that it was this label that filmed his first two music videos.

Although he no longer works with that company for a year and a half, Yani assures that he still has an excellent relationship with its team and thanks these people for everything they have done for him.

Today, the Cuban already has his own record label and is entirely independent in this aspect.

Yani Borrell receiving recognition at the Caribbean Music and Entertainment Awards

El Elegante de La Salsa (The Elegance of Salsa)

One of the names by which Yani Borrell has been known throughout his career is ”El Elegante de La Salsa” due to his style when singing in this genre and the use of formal wear in concerts.

Regarding the story of how the nickname came about, it was precisely a social communicator who was very well liked in the city of Toronto, constantly interviewed the Cuban singer and started refering to him as ”the heartthrob”.

However, this journalist was the host of the concert in which Yani released his album and referred to him as ”El Galán de La Salsa” (The Salsa Heartthrob) at the moment of presenting him to the public.

From there, the public started refering to him as ”el galán” and ”el elegante”, which led one of his managers to tell him to start calling himself ”El Elegante de La Salsa”.

Future performances

Recently the nominees for the Latino de Oro Music Award have been announced, among which Yoni Borrell appears as one of the nominees for the ”Impact Singer with International Projection” category.

This was news that Yoni received with great pleasure due to so many years of effort to lift his artistic career. This and each one of the recognitions that the artist has received throughout his career has made him feel very proud and sure that he is on the right path.

He also revealed for the first time that he will be one of the artists invited to perform on stage that day to animate the event in the city of León, Spain.

To end the conversation, Yoni finished giving a message to Cuban musicians in which he said that they should always focus on discipline, which he defined as ”the mother of perfection”. He also invited these same young people not to despair and to be constant, since this career is an endurance race, not a marathon.