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Tito Planas talked to us about his Orquesta Afinke and its members
If there is something that we have seen in recent times is that Los Angeles, New York and Miami are not the only places Latin music has had great boom due to the huge number of Latinos in those areas, as our culture has permeated many other places in the United States. A great example of that is the Orquesta Afinke, based in the state of Connecticut, and its director Herminio ‘‘Tito’’ Planas, with whom we were able to talk about his career and band.
How Tito fell in love with music
Tito was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the town of Ponce, the home of great luminaries of salsa such as Hector Lavoe, Pete ‘’El Conde’’ Rodriguez, Papo Luca, Jose ‘‘Cheo’’ Feliciano, Ismael Quintana, Yolanda Rivera, among many others. He even attended school with Keila Lucca, the daughter of one of the Luccas of La Sonora Ponceña, and is still in contact with her through social networks.
He studied at the Free School of Music in Ponce where he sang in a children’s choir and they traveled around the town to delight a variety of audiences with his voice. Building on the success of this program run by the school, there were many children from third through eighth grades who began taking lessons of solfeggio or any instrument they wanted.
In Tito’s case, he moved with his parents to the United States at age 13 in the eighth grade of the secondary education. His father had lost his job in Puerto Rico and the economic situation of the family was very precarious, so he made the decision to go first to find work and, in so doing, taking his children and his wife to live there.
In college, he started getting involved with salsa and had Jerry Perez as a trombone teacher, who taught him in this instrument for several years and offered him to form an orchestra together. They eventually did and toured with it in various parts of the United States.
Professional start
After being played the trombone for some time, many other musicians saw him and offered him to play with them in their orchestras. Many of these job opportunities came from New York, which was very close to him, which benefited him greatly because the clubs in that city closed much later, so they could play even till five in the morning. He combined all these activities with university and his private lessons in order to further improve his musical skills.
Orquesta Afinke
After the foundation of the orchestra, Tito and his musicians accompanied many great artists such as Hector Tricoche, El Grupo Guayacán, Viti Ruíz, Van Lester, Frankie Vázquez and many others.
Thanks to all these shows they were doing with other groups, Sammy Diaz, co-director of the orchestra, and Tito decided it was time to create a much more formal project that grouped together all the original members of the band. What brought them closer together was the fact that both Tito and Sammy had teenage children, whom they included in the group to keep them playing and in constant contact with music.
Today, Tito’s youngest son is 18 years old and is about to enter the University of Connecticut to study music in order to follow the same path as his father, with whom he has been working in the orchestra since he was about 11 years old singing backup and playing the saxophone.
They started with about three scores with which they managed to put on a show for as long as half an hour. Today, 16 years later, they have more than 80 scores and about 12 original songs, of which one was recently released and another is being recorded at the time of writing this article.
On the other hand, the core of the orchestra has been the same since its foundation and includes pianist Rafael Rosado, bassist Victor Planas, bongo player Sammy Diaz Jr. (co-director of the orchestra Sammy Diaz’s son), timbalero Sammy Tercero (another son of Sammy Diaz), conguero Luis Carrasquillo, singer Junior Travieso, singer Raquel Ramirez, Peruvian singer Jano Arroyo, trombonist Jerry Perez (the teacher who taught Tito to play the trombone) and Daniel Planas (Tito’s son).
Read also: Eduardo Ron and his Fondo Blanco Band liven up great events in Miami
Eddie Montalvo Iron Hands: “I’m in love with Venezuela”
We felt an unforgivable duty to publish this interview with Eddie Montalvo “Iron Hands,” as it is Swing Latino update on the biography of a musician who is more than just a friend, a godfather; he’s family, the kind that gives you friendship, that fills you with conflicting feelings and leads you to relive wonderful and unforgettable moments.
He is a living legend of our Afro-Caribbean music.
We hadn’t seen each other for many years, so I wanted to share the time with him before he left Venezuela (he was playing on Saturday, so we met on Friday and shared some time with longtime friends starting at noon), before the show. The next day he would say goodbye to Venezuelan soil. This interview will be published in two installments, and here is the first one.
– How long has it been since Eddie Montalvo last came to Venezuela?
– Let me put it this way. The last time I came to Venezuela was with Rubén Blades and Son del Solar. I’ll call it Seis, because Son was with another keyboardist, Arturo Ortiz, Robby Ameen on drums, and two trombones, Reinaldo (Jorge) and Jimmy Bosch. That was the last time, many years ago.
I’ve always loved Venezuela, it’s the honest truth. I’m in love with Venezuela, no matter what happens. I’m always grateful for it. I’ve always had many friends here.
The School of the Street
– What was your first experience in music? Why conga?
– Well, when I was very young, my parents and I would go every weekend to a party at an aunt’s house. At that time, my goddaughter, I’m not going to lie to you. The gentlemen were always well-dressed, with ties, the ladies with their eyebrows done, their hair combed, a real formality despite their humility.
Everyone was dancing at that party, and Eddie Montalvo was banging on the tables until he could say no more. That’s how they got me two metal cookie tins, and it became my first instrument.
When I was five, I asked my parents if it was possible for Santa Claus to bring me a bongo. My parents were poor, and yet, on December 25th, a bongo appeared under the Christmas tree.
A bongo that didn’t have a key, a bongo that you had to put a fire under to get the sound out.
At ten, without lying to you, I asked them if it was possible for them to buy me a conga, and my parents bought me a conga that cost 50 US dollars.
As I grew older, I started crossing the street where there was always a party of rumba players. I went down with the conga, and they asked me, “Do you know how to play?” And I said, “No,” then they said, “Well, if you don’t know how to play, you can’t sit here with us and rumba.”
I went home frustrated with the conga line because they wouldn’t let me sit in and play at the party.
It just so happened that there was a conga player who played with Héctor Lavoe, with Willie Colón, on an album called The Hustler.
His name was Héctor Andrade and he had a nickname: Bucky. He saw me every day when I came down with the conga line, and it seems he felt sorry for me and said, “Come here.” I said, “Are you talking to me?” He said, “Yes, yourself, come here!” Bucky said, “I see you here every day, and I feel sorry for you because I know you love the conga line, because you spend hours sitting on the bench watching us; I’m going to teach you the first tumbao like it’s played in rumba, street rumba.”
Because remember, my first music school was the street. My parents didn’t have the money. After Bucky taught me, he said, “Go home and practice.
When you think you’re ready, come, but I warn you, there will be about five rumberos playing the quinto. If you get tired, you’ll never play here again.”
I went to my room and practiced. When I felt God tell me to come down, that you’re ready, I went down.
Bucky looked at me and said, “How are you feeling?” And I sat down to play the tumba’o. About seven or eight rumberos played by, and I was still playing the tumba’o, tired, but I couldn’t stop playing, and that was my first experience. I learned a lot by watching the rumberos on the street. That way, I prepared myself and was able to sit with all of them, play the first part, play the second part, play the third part, and then quintate. That way, I played the grade they wanted and went down every day to sit with them.
Formal Studies
As I grew older, in my last year of school, I saw they had a Latin orchestra at a music school, but honestly, all they played was a Latin segment, but it was all American music.
The teacher was Italian. I knocked on the door of that school, and the teacher in charge looked at me and said, “Can I help you?” And I said, “I’m here because I’d like to know if it’s possible for you to let me play conga here with the Latin group.” He said, “Oh, no, no, no, look, son, I have tons of conga players here. Everyone comes here because they want to play conga. Excuse me, come see me next year.” And so I wasted all that time frustrated because I wanted to play.
Time came and school started in September. I tried again, and the teacher refused again. So I said, “No, no, no, no, wait, you promised me I could play conga here.” And seeing my insistence, the teacher asked me, “Do you really play conga?” “I think so.” Then he said, “Bring me a conga that’s in that room. I want it to play me a merengue, a cha-cha-cha, and a mambo.” I played it for him, and he said, “Wow, you have good hands, you’re starting with the Latin orchestra here,” and that’s how I graduated from hig h school at 17.
From School to Work
At that time, I went to work at the stock exchange in New York, and I didn’t like it, so I left. One day, I went into a New York club, and Joey Pastrana’s orchestra was playing.
It just so happened that someone said to Joey Pastrana, “Look, you see that skinny kid over there on the corner, that kid plays conga,” and he said to the kid, “Tell him to come over here.”
The kid came up to me and said, “Look, Joey wants you to go over there on stage.” I replied, “I don’t know Joey. And you’re telling me Joey wants me to go over there when I don’t even know him?” “Well, look, go, he’s calling you.”
I went over there, and he said, “Look, and Joey said, “Do you want to play a number with me?” And I said, “I don’t know who told you I play conga. I don’t play conga.” And he answers, “But the kids here are saying you play conga.”
And because of his insistence, I played a number. When I played the number, he said, “Do you want to play here? Because my brother, Willie Pastrana, is leaving the group.”
And when I came to see you, at 17, I was playing with Joey Pastrana. So, from then on, I went with Tony Pabón in the protest. I was with Ernie Agosto and La Conspiración, with Adalberto Santiago, Los Kimbos, even with La Diferente for a little while, just for a while; with the great Héctor Lavoe, with Pacheco, with Pete el Conde, very quickly. Then with the Estrellas Fania, and those from Puerto Rico.
– You replaced Ray Barreto in Fania, hence the nickname Manos de Hierro? Tell us a little about your experience with Fania.
– Oh, because I always had heavy hands when I played. And they called me that name: Ray Barretto, “Hard Hands,” and I, “Iron Hands.” They were the musicians, and your dad (Ángel Méndez) gave me that nickname. I’ll never forget this. I forgot to mention someone, Willie Colón, who I also played with and recorded the album “Siembra.”
Ray Barretto’s Replacement
I can’t explain how I was able to make my career in music, because, blissfully, I was in the audience at Madison Square Garden watching Fania, and I never in my life thought I’d play with the Fania Stars!
Regarding the question about whether I reviewed Barretto: before joining the Fania stars, there was Johnny Rodriguez, El Dandy.
He left, and I joined. So when I saw Barreto wanting to return, I said these words to Ray Barreto: “With all due respect to you, because you’re an icon I’ve always respected, this chair, I was just warming it up, this chair is yours.” And he said to me in English: “Eddie, we’re going to split the show. You play half the show, and I’ll play half.” And I said to him, “Ray, this seat is yours. I respect it,” and he said, “No, half and half.”
We always had a tremendous relationship. I remember when my father passed away, and Ray came and stayed with me at the funeral home for two hours. I’ll never forget it.
And I’m telling you from the bottom of my heart, one of the things I hold dear is that when Ray got sick, honestly, I wanted to go see him, and they always told me, Eddie, you can’t go because they have him in intensive care and they won’t let you in.
I was always calling mutual friends who knew if he was coming out of intensive care or not. They would tell me, “Eddie, no, hey man, don’t come because you’ll waste your time.” That’s how I couldn’t see him in his final days. It was only when he passed away that I went to the funeral home.
The same thing with your father, you know, your father for me is the friendship, and I’m not saying this because you’re interviewing me, but the relationship, the respect I have for your father, and you know, I thank your father because he was the one who made us, and I say this, of course, God made us, and with all due respect, but when it comes to the entertainment side of things, your father was the magazine that everyone bought.
When I started out in 1977, coming to Venezuela, I met your father, Ángel Méndez, Swing Latino, with Fernando, the photographer, and the truth is that the friendship was never lost.
We’ll be releasing the second part of this interview soon.
Pónle Saborrrr!
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Ignacio Piñero Septeto Nacional has played an important role in Cuba’s music for more than seven decades
Founded by Havana-born bassist and vocalist Ignacio Piñero in 1927, the Septeto Nacional De Ignacio Piñero has played an important role in Cuba’s music for more than seven decades.
Pioneers of son, a rhythmic blend of African and Cuban music that evolved into salsa, mambo and Latin jazz, the group was the first son band to incorporate the trumpet as the main instrument.
Ignacio Piñero’s Septeto Nacional gained worldwide recognition with its performance at the 1928 Universal Exposition in Seville, and was reportedly the first group to mention “Salsa” in a song “Echale Salsita” recorded in 1933. The song composed by Piñero, was adapted by George Gershwin for the opening theme of his “Cuban Overture”.
Since Piñero’s death in 1968, after 41 years at the helm of the band, the Septeto Nacional De Ignacio Piñero has been led by a series of leaders.
Guitarist and composer Rafael Ortiz, who took over after Piñero’s death, bequeathed the position to vocalist Carlos Embale in 1982.
After leaving the group due to illness in 1998 Embale’s leadership was inherited by guitarist Richard Aymee Castro. True to their original musical roots, Ignacio Piñero’s Septeto Nacional continues to offer a danceable blend of montano, merengue, bolero, rumba and cha cha cha. Craig Harris.
Ignacio Piñero was one of the Pioneers of Son Cubano
In 1906 he already knew and had assimilated the different toques of the African cabildos that existed in the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo, which he later incorporated into some of his creations.
He began his artistic career with the group claves and guaguancó El Timbre de Oro, later he directed Los Roncos de Pueblo Nuevo, in which he developed as a decimist and director, at the same time he took his first steps as a composer.
From this stage are: Cuando tú, tu desengaño veas, Dónde estabas anoche, El Edén de Los Roncos, Mañana te espero, niña. Later he joined the group Renacimiento de Pueblo Nuevo.
To the folkloric values that Piñeiro cultivated in these groups, he contributed a wider melodic-harmonic development and a greater depth and poetic flight.
In 1926 he was one of the founders, together with María Teresa Vera, of the Sexteto Occidente, with which he made his first tour to the United States in order to record an album with this group.
In 1927 he founded the Sexteto Nacional, formed by Ignacio Piñeiro, director and double bass; Alberto Villalón, guitar; Francisco González Solares, tres; Abelardo Barroso, lead vocals; Juan de la Cruz, tenor; Bienvenido León, baritone and maracas, and José Manuel Carrera Incharte (El Chino), bongo; that same year trumpeter Lázaro Herrera joined the group. With this septet he traveled to New York, where he recorded his first works.
In 1929 he participated with the Septeto Nacional in the Fair-Exposition of Seville, Spain; in that country they were hired as exclusive artists by the company SEDECA, and toured other cities of that country: Vigo, La Coruña, Santander, Madrid and Valladolid; in addition, they performed in the theaters Torero, Jovellanos, the Cine-Teatro Grado, and the cabaret Maicú, all in Madrid. In 1930 he was one of the founders of the National Association of Cuban Soneros.
They performed at the Sans-Souci cabaret (1930); in 1931 they performed at the Lavín and CMCG radio stations; in 1932, at the Dos Hermanos Hotel, he premiered Buey viejo; that same year the American composer George Gershwin came to Havana, at the CMCJ radio station he listened to Piñeiro’s son Échale salsita, from which he later used the theme played on the trumpet in his Cuban Overture.
In 1933 he performed at the Fair-Exhibition A Century of Progress, held in Chicago, United States.
In 1934 Piñeiro retired from the septet, which from 1935 was directed by trumpeter Lázaro Herrera. In 1954, Piñeiro reappeared as leader of the septet, with which he appeared on the television program Música de Ayer y de Hoy.
As a composer, Ignacio Piñeiro broke, although he took elements from the form of the oriental son, in which its creators used the quatrain and the tenth; an example of this break is his son Buey viejo, from 1932:
Carretero no maltrates a ese pobre buey tan viejo, que ya doblbla la cabeza por el peso de los tarros, y por senda de guijarros va tirando la carreta, y nunca llega a la meta, término de su dolor.
Piñeiro was one of those synthesis cases that managed to capture, develop and express the full richness of the son.
The structural modifications, the cadence, the rhythm and the use of refined melodies and lyrics, achieved by this creator and interpreted by the Septeto Nacional, make it possible to say that the work of this singular artist, although he did not mark the boundaries of son (which corresponded to the Sexteto Habanero), he did turn it into a son that today we can call classic, which became a model for its further development.
When Ignacio Piñeiro founded the Septeto Nacional, his purpose was to be a high exponent of the Cuban son and its various variants, he himself made use of those variants, composing guajira-son, canción-son, afro-son, so he worked with the elements offered by the oriental son, to which he gave a broader treatment, both musically and literary.
According to Miriam Villa: “If we analyze the organization of the literary text, we observe in his work the formal use of metrically heterogeneous links subjected to rhythm, characterized by the presence of accented and unaccented elements within the system of units that are repeated at intervals between them.
Piñeiro must not have been concerned about the meter in the text as a pattern, since through the rhythm of the composition he achieves the contrast relations, making the change of meter express a change in the thematic movement, either from intermittences or accentuations or sometimes both, which give it different semantic nuances and alternations of tensions and distensions.
And elsewhere Villa states: “Another aspect that in relation to the literary text is reflected in Piñeiro’s creative work is that of the thematic contents; these are shown from a diversification with greater scope in relation to his contemporaries.
His work can be divided into multiple themes among which are love, homeland, philosophical reflection, politics, the bucolic, the infantile, expressed in a variety of forms: satirical, apologetic, humorous and with greater depth than in the sonorous production that preceded him and even with which he shared.
With the Septeto Nacional, Piñeiro appears in the musical short El frutero, and in the film Nosotros la música, by director Rogelio París.
Ignacio Piñeiro Septeto Nacional
El Son de Altura (1998)
Tracks:
- Mayeya – No Juegues Con Los Santos (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Bardo (Bolero-son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Lejana Campiña (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Canta La Vueltabajera (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Guanajo Relleno (Guaracha-son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Esas No Son Cubanas (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Suavecito (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Alma Guajira (Guajira-son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Castigador (Son) (I. Piñeiro)
- Échale Salsita (Son-pregón) (I. Piñeiro)
- EI Viandero (Son-pregón) (Ernesto Muñoz)
- Son De La Loma (Son) (Miguel MGllamoros)
- Trompeta Querida (Boleró-son) (Lózoro Herrera)
- La Mujer De Antonio (Son) (Miguel Matamoros)
- La Cachimba De San Juan (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
- EI Alfiler (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
- Noche De Conga (Son) (l. Plñeiro)
- EI Paralitico (Son) (Miguel Matamoros)
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Ismael ‘Pat’ Quintana, born in Ponce Puerto Rico, began his musical career in 1961 alongside Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta
Ismael ‘Pat’ Quintana, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, began his musical career in 1961 alongside Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta
Commemorating one more anniversary of the departure of the Maestro: Ismael Quintana (Ponce, June 3, 1937-Colorado, April 16, 2016) was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of salsa, bolero and other genres of Caribbean music.
He began his musical career in 1961 alongside Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta, and later continued as a solo singer.
In 1970, he signed with Fania Records and joined the Fania All Stars, in addition to recording more solo albums.
By 2012, his health condition prevented him from continuing to perform and he stopped giving concerts.
In April 2016, he died of a heart attack at his residence in Colorado in the United States at 78 years of age and paid the first tributes.
Quintana was the singer who gave the name salsa to Afro-Caribbean music, after having heard it in Venezuela.
Ismael ‘Pat’ Quintana, born in Ponce, a town rich in culture on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, moved to New York when he was very young. It was in the South Bronx that he fell in love with Latin music.
During these early years, he played percussion with a variety of bands throughout New York City.
He persevered and eventually joined Angel Natel’s orchestra as a teenage bongosero.
During one memorable night in 1959, the band was asked to play a particular number for one of the club’s dancers.
Natel’s singer was not familiar with the song, but Ismael was. He stepped up to the microphone, performed the song and in the process electrified the crowd with his talented voice. That night launched a magnificent career, a career that would eventually position Quintana as one of the most prominent vocalists in Latin music.
In 1961, visionary keyboardist Eddie Palmieri decided to leave the sanctuary of Tito Rodriguez’s eminent orchestra to pursue the dream of forming his own band.
Eddie was present when Quintana auditioned for Orlando Marin’s popular orchestra.
The pianist would eventually track him down and offer him the opportunity to become the lead singer of his new orchestra, La Perfecta.
This proved to be a vital move in Eddie’s quest to become one of the top Latin music bandleaders. Their alliance would last 12 years.
Together, Quintana and Palmieri pushed the boundaries of progressive salsa, creating dissonant improvisations that fused the raw tradition of Afro-Caribbean music (exemplified by the singer’s hardcore sonics) with a relentless desire to experiment (illustrated by Palmieri’s choice of electronic keyboards, use of structures borrowed from other musical formats, as well as meandering solos that had their own idiosyncratic logic).
The 1965 album Azúcar Pa’Tí is probably the aesthetic pinnacle of their collaboration. It featured classic salsa anthems such as “Oyelo Que Te Conviene”, included here for your listening pleasure.
Another unforgettable moment was Eddie’s decision to record a double LP set in the Sing Sing penitentiary.
Quintana’s voice sounds appropriately impassioned on that socially significant 1972 concert recording.
By 1973, Quintana had decided to embark on a solo career. He signed a contract with UA Latino Records and recorded two albums of excellent quality.
The second of these two releases gave him the opportunity to sing tangos and ballads, backed by a spectacular orchestra led by South American arrangers Héctor Garrido and Jorge Calandrelli.
Surprisingly, the singer has stated in interviews that he prefers to dance ballads and boleros rather than sing more fast-paced material.
Quintana’s first work for Vaya Records was recorded in 1974, It included the hit “La Blusita Colorá”, which is featured in this collection.
The singer also collaborated with keyboardist and bandleader of La Sonora Ponceña Papo Lucca, as well as Ricardo Marrero.
In 1975, Quintana was invited to join the legendary Fania All-Stars as one of their lead vocalists.
He appeared in the movie Salsa and participated in many of the combo’s historic performances, delivering a blistering version of the self-written “Mi Debilidad” at Yankee Stadium.
When not traveling the world with the All-Stars, Quintana could be found in the recording studio, working on material that appeared on his albums for Vaya Records.
Ismael Quintana’s name appears on many classic albums from the salsa explosion of the 1970s, both as a background singer and as a percussionist.
His phenomenal vocal abilities have obscured the fact that he is one of the most exciting maracas players in the genre.
He is also an innovative composer, having written many of the songs that make up Eddie Palmieri’s seminal albums of that era.
Quintana is also known as one of the nicest guys in the Latin music business.
A true professional who is never late for his concerts and a devoted family man who doesn’t smoke or drink.
Ponce in Puerto Rico has given birth to several legendary Latin singers, from Héctor Lavoé and Cheo Feliciano to Ednita Nazario and Pete ‘El Conde’ Rodríguez. Ismael Quintana is yet another luminary from that region.
This Latin Heritage compilation is a well-deserved tribute to one of salsa’s best. Fania All Stars.
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