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Incredible conversation with Luis Medina

Good afternoon, everyone. We are here with broadcaster, DJ and event producer Luis Medina. Mr. Medina, how are you today?  

I am well and ready to talk to you right now.

Mr. Medina, you have a very long career as a radio presenter. You got started in this business in 1974. What led you to spend so much time in your career on the radio? 

In 1971 I was studying architecture at San Francisco State University, but in 1974 I changed my major to broadcasting and communications in the Department of Radio and Television. When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by broadcasters on TV with their microphones. My parents gave me a toy microphone, and I always imagined I was broadcasting. At the time I was accepted in the broadcasting program, I already loved salsa because my cousin  Stella played popular music for me since I was about 8 years old. I loved all kinds of music. At home, we always had the radio on, and my parents always listened to tropical music, which was very common at that time.

In 1974 my cousin Eduardo invited me to go to a radio station called KBRG to visit some friends who had a program called Venezuela Suya. In another studio in the station, there was a radio producer named Arturito Santiago, who was the master of ceremonies for the Gran Combo de Puerto Rico when they did dances in San Francisco hotels. When I saw him doing his job, I was intrigued. Two months later, my cousin called to tell me that he’d gotten involved in a community radio station called KPOO San Francisco and asked me if I wanted to help him with the show. I brought a stack of LPs, and we did the show from midnight until 6 am. I went a few times to help, but I could not maintain that pace because I was still in college.

A few months later, he called me to tell me that he had a show from 3pm to 6pm on Sundays. He told me he was talking to other people I knew in order to do the show together. I got a segment of 45 minutes to an hour to do whatever I wanted, so I decided to start programming salsa. I helped produce several programs until I had my own show. In 1979, while I had a four-hour show on Saturdays on KPOO, KBRG’s program director, Al Carlos Hernandez, called me. KBRG was a powerful FM station at that time. That gave me the opportunity to do a commercial show.

I am part Venezuelan and part Mexican, but I grew up in the United States. I spoke Spanish perfectly until I was five years old, but when I started school, I just wanted to speak English in school and at home. When I turned 18, I decided to get my culture back and relearn to speak Spanish again. However, I’m wasn’t completely fluent in Spanish because I have to translate mentally from English. I explained the situation to Al Carlos, and he told me that he did not care. That’s how I became the first radio announcer to do salsa programming in English on a Spanish-speaking station. The program was called Sabor Caliente and it lasted about a year and a half, until they let me go due to philosophical differences. After that, I did specials in KPFA, until Víctor Castro, who produced the program Ahora, invited me to alternate weeks with him. I produced salsa shows on KPFA from 1983 to 1995.

What Medina has to say about all his combined activities

How do you balance your radio activities and event production and your job as a DJ?  

When I was a student at San Francisco State University, I became co-director of the university’s productions to present musical acts. From 1974 to 1976 I presented acts from various genres such as rock, R&B, and jazz, among others. I also presented some salsa and Latin jazz shows, including Pete and Sheila Escovedo, who were part of Roger Glenn’s band, Benny Velarde and others. I became friends with Pete and Sheila before Sheila became Sheila E and I also worked with Pete’s brother, Coke Escovedo in the 70s.

Then I met Roberto Hernandez, who had an organization that helped produced the first major street fairs in the San Francisco Mission district together with a coalition of community agencies. I got involved with the fairs, which presented the famous singer Joe Bataan among others. It was the era of Latin rock, but salsa was also booming. I was part of the renaissance of salsa music that occurred on the radio, but I also had the opportunity to play an influential role in the community in the Mission. In 1977, the Mission Cultural Center opened in a furniture store ran by artists that were organizing it. I became part of the music committee and we presented performances and salsa groups that were growing in fame at that time. I was involved on the activities of the center until the 1980s, when some of us created a production group called CMP (Cultural Music Productions). During the 80s we did a series of dances, in which I worked as master of ceremonies. I already had experience as master of ceremonies because when I was at KBRG, they gave me the opportunity to introduce some great shows with Celia Cruz, La Sonora Matancera, Oscar D’ León, Cal Tjader and La Orquesta Broadway. I was also master of ceremonies for Brazilian carnivals for about five years. With CMP I was involved in dances with Willie Colón, Bobby Valentín, Oscar D’ León, and boxing champion Roberto Durán (who at the time wanted to be a salsa singer).

Eventually I left CMP, and I was contacted by Roberto Hernandez, who offered me the position of entertainment director of his new organization, MECA. I accepted and started to help him program the schedule for events such as the San Francisco Carnival, and the 24 Street Fair. I worked with Roberto until 1994 and we presented Santana, Los Lobos, Eddie Palmieri, Luis Henrique, Willie Colón, Yomo Toro, Mighty Sparrow, The Neville Brothers, Shaggy, and many more. When Roberto Hernandez left the organization, I stayed for four more years and worked with Manny Oquendo and Libre, John Santos, Pete Escovedo and Pancho Quinto. In 1998, the president of the organization Patricia Aguayo and I had some problems, so we stopped working together.

A radio DJ and a party DJ are two completely different things. It took me a little while to adjust to being a live DJ. In the early 1990’s, the producers at the Alta Vista club hired me from time to time. Then, they moved to a ship called Alta Vista del Mar in Pier 3, and occasionally hired me as their DJ.

In 1994 I met a very ambitious young Venezuelan by the name of Adrian Goddard and started working with him at his club, 330 Ritch. It was a winning combination of Adrian’s talent as an event producer and my talent as a DJ and MC. I worked there for about nine very successful months, but then I had an opportunity with KPFA and I was forced to leave the club because the schedule conflicted. My priority was to produce my own salsa show (ironically, this program didn’t last long, but in 1997 they offered me the same slot, which would become the program Con Sabor, which I still produced today, 25 years later, at KPFA, on Saturdays from 9-11pm.)

A little later, Kimballs Carnaval hired me as a Latin House DJ, as this rhythm was very popular at that time. I wanted to please them, but it wasn’t a good fit. Eventually I was hired as a salsa DJ by the club Kimballs West. This opened other opportunities and I became the DJ in residence at the most prominent salsa clubs in San Francisco at the time, the legendary Jelly’s Cafe, where I DJ’d until it closed in 2010 and the popular Café Cócomo, which closed in 2014. I now DJ and MC primarily for special events and private parties.

Something very important in my story is that in 1997 I worked with Bill Martinez and Arturo Riera  and they both gave me the opportunity to be master of ceremonies for a very important series of concerts featuring Cuban musicians who were allowed into the States for the first time. I was the first master of ceremonies for a Los Van Van concert in San Francisco and I also represented my show and KPFA for their concert at Stern Grove in 2019. That was one of many times that I worked with that group.  I also was the MC   for Orquesta Aragon, Cubanismo, NG La Banda and other Cuban acts.

During the pandemic, I was offered a show with an online radio station called World Salsa Radio. I started the show Sabiduría con Tumbao on Wednesdays from 5 to 7 pm. What makes this show different from Con Sabor is that Sabiduría Con Tumbao is a conceptual program that focuses on certain musicians, musical themes and movements within salsa and Afro-Latin music. On the other hand, Con Sabor offers a broader perspective of salsa, Latin Jazz and música cubana from the classics to the latest.

Since the pandemic started, I produce all my radio shows at home. I managed to master the technology and built my own home studio. I am not afraid of technology or modern things. I go with the flow because I’ve learned that I should be at the forefront of technology and music. If I do not know something, I am going to research it right away. I keep an open mind and ears and I appreciate and listen to all kinds of music, something that was key when I was music director at KPFA from 2001 through 2014. In terms of my own programs, I really love salsa from the 70s, but I’m not stuck in any time period.

 

Julio Bravo and his amazing orchestra

The San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to have many musical talents who have made left this corner of the United States of America at the top. Acclaimed Julio Bravo is one of them and there are many reasons for stating that. Julio Bravo is a famous singer and musician who has been performing with his orchestra in many nightclubs and salsa festivals for quite some time now. He is the leader of the Orquesta Salsabor, which is composed of 12 members whose place of residence is the East Bay. 

This Peruvian says that they are a hard-working group with many decades of experience. He has also said at times that playing with the same people for so long makes a huge difference in terms of sound. In that sense, Salsabor is not unlike other orchestras of its type and time. 

As a child, Bravo already showed a big vocation by the world of music and this is reflected in his appearance on children’s television programmes, school plays and some more formal projects. At the end of the 80s, he came to the United States and it would not be long before he started walking the path still to be followed today. One of his first projects was his incorporation into the Trio Los Chalanes, which led him to become more and more known in the Latin community of his new country of residence. 

One of the events that projected the most his image as an artist was his brilliant participation on the TV show Buscando Estrellas, a contest in which he reached the final and became much more recognized than he already was thanks to his hard work. With the amount of fame he had earned so far, he started taking part in La Orquesta Internacional, with which he performed on countless occasions in various venues in California and had a heavy demand from places that wanted him to perform there. 

A few years later, he made the difficult decision to create his own orchestra which he named Salsabor and with which he remains active to this day. All this time, both Julio and his musicians have earned a reputation for professionalism and quality that would guarantee them the confidence of many festival organizers in night clubs and private events. 

His hard work has made his orchestra one of the most important salsa groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.   

Interview 

We are talking with Julio Bravo, Peruvian artist and leader of Orquesta Salsabor. Good afternoon, Julio. How are you?  

Very good afternoon, Karina. I am delighted to be here. Thank you for the invitation. 

Julio, you had your first contact with music when you were very young in your country. At what age did you know you wanted to dedicate yourself to the musical world?  

I think you are born with that. I think it all started when I was in school. In elementary school, I was always involved in the performances or the school theater. That’s how I think it all started. 

So, from schooling age, you already expressed this interest in the world of music and the arts.   

Exactly. I did not necessarily sing, but we acted and did skits. In my neighborhood, musical manifestations were very frequent. My parents always organized meetings at home and my friends came, and they loved to bring their guitars and the acoustic cajón. There were always meetings at my house or at a neighbor’s. 

Do you think there was something that inspired you?  

In Peru, we have the Creole music genre. Since I was a small child I listened to it at home with my parents. In order to play it, you only need the cajón accompanied by a guitar. In neighborhoods, when there are no guitarists, children have a cajon or they make one in wood. In the 70s and 80s, there was a strong influence from Creole music on radio and television in my country, plus my parents and neighbors liked it. So, seeing all that up close was one of the things that inspired me. 

In 1991, you were on the TV show Buscando Estrellas, since your career took off in many ways. Do you consider that this project changed your professional future?  

That helped me a lot, but it happened when I had barely two years here. When I came from Peru, I did not want to be a great musician or look for work in that field. I came to seek a future in whatever God put in my way and I was fortunate to have music as an instrument to generate work. When I started singing here, on my first week here, I went to sing at a restaurant because some friends took me over there. It was called ”El Chalán” and that’s where I met a group that performed that night and started playing with them, but I would recently arrived, so I had to get a revenue-generating job to pay the rent. I worked construction for about 10 years, but I was finally starting to work in music only on weekends. In 1994, I formed my orchestra after singing in several groups. I did not have such a plan, but the conditions were right and doing what you love does not take much effort because the thing leaves naturally. 

You mean, when you arrived in the United States, you were ready to do other activities and the music thing just came naturally.   

Exactly, I did not come with the desire to become an artist. I studied journalism at university in Peru, but I knew that it would be tough to practice my profession here because of language and immigration status. There were many obstacles that, like every immigrant, I had to learn how to overcome. I came with a degree in Communication Sciences, but I worked construction and did it with pride. 30 years later everything I worked in construction also helped me become a real estate and loan officer. However, I have not been able to leave music as a passion. I can quit jobs that have come my way, but music never. 

Never got to practice journalism in the United States?  

I could never practice journalism, but there were a couple of magazines run by some friends from the Peruvian community and I collaborated with them writing about show business. I also got to interview a couple of artists at that time. When La Orquesta de La Luz came to the San Francisco Bay Area, I interviewed them for that newspaper. I have not worked as a journalist, but I have done many things related to that environment. I have worked in radio and looked for a job at a television channel in my youth. Unfortunately, I did not have migration documents, the Green Card as people call it here. 

How do you think language made things difficult for you at the beginning?  

I always liked English, although I did not know how to speak it. Whenever I listened to songs in my country. We tried to imitate what artists said, but we could not (laugh). Before coming to this country, I decided to have as a priority booking intensive English classes a year before. I mean, every day, I had a two-hour class during the year my departure. That helped me a lot. When I came here, there were some barriers and I did not understand what people were saying, but I managed to learn a lot of vocabulary. Here, each working branch has its own vocabulary. If you work cleaning houses, you are not going to use the same vocabulary as if you work construction or in a store. I do not feel that language was an obstacle for me. I met people who discriminate in the early years, but that has not stopped me from moving forward. I do not think it is a barrier that prevents you from growing. 

What were your favorite bands in English?  

The Bee Gees and I also liked the Beatles. When the Bee Gees and the ”Saturday Night Fever” movie with John Travolta came out, I was about 13 years old and was working on a children’s television programme. On Wednesdays, we sang Peruvian music and played the cajón, but on Fridays, we did dance shows in the clothes of that time with large collars. I worked there for five years and that helped me a lot in my artistic training because it was a wonderful experience. The programme was called ”Villa Juguete”, which had music and dance. That helped me a lot to overcome stage fright. 

What makes Orquesta Salsabor different from other groups in the San Francisco Bay Area?  

I do not know what the main difference is. I think I like to play my original music, but I also know the importance of playing what people want to hear. You can’t just play my original music because I am no longer famous enough for people to know my numbers from beginning to end. For example, Oscar D’ León has more than 50 years in the artistic life and still plays ”Llorarás” every time he comes to the Bay. When people listen to one of those songs, they come out to dance immediately. I think I have the good sense to know when to play the hit songs that I have chosen over the years. I think that is what has differentiated me from other orchestras. 

What do you think has been your best professional decision in your career?  

The best decision I have made was to form my orchestra and it has taught me many things. I was taught to be a manager, a soundman, among other things. If someone new in this world wants to know what steps to take, I can gladly say what not to do to not make any mistakes. I do not think we have made mistakes as an orchestra, since we have always tried to do our best. We have had to travel in a van, in a plane or each in his own vehicle to go to play. The musician moves by the desire and motivation to show the gift which the Lord gave us. The restaurant and record label owners move by the economic benefit, but the case of the musician is different. I think the best decision I have made was to form my orchestra. I think that, if you talk to the musicians I have worked with, they know that, as the leader of the orchestra, I have done the best I could to offer them a good, fun and healthy working environment. 

And the worst one?  

When I started with the orchestra, I wanted to make studio recordings here and I lost a lot of money because the musicians I called to record did not arrive after I paid for the studio. The desire to to record here made me lose a lot of money. And by the way, this was money I was saving for the project, but it was gone away soon enough. That’s where I was recommended to talk to a producer and musician named Oscar Pitín Sanchez. I only knew him by his music, but I struck up a friendship with him. He helped me produce two of my salsa records. Sadly he passed away last year. Then I started getting some experience in the recording studios because experience is needed for everything. In the studios, the thing is cooler because there is no audience to applaud you. On the contrary, you do not want to make any mistakes because everything will be recorded. After being wrong in producing my own album without the required experience, I found a light on the way after a very long tunnel (laugh).  

Your website and social networks to follow you  

Website: juliobravo.com  

Instagram: @juliobravo_oficial  

Facebook: Julio Bravo Y Su Orquesta Salsabor