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Irawo Orchestra

Latin America/ México / México City

Irawo means “Star” in the Yoruba language of African origin.

Irawo is an Afro-Caribbean Rhythms (Salsa) orchestra that arises with the purpose of rescuing the original sound of La Salsa Dura from the 70s`s created in the city of New York and Puerto Rico, to bring this concept to the style of Irawo to the new generations.

Understood and interpreted from the vision of the Mexican musician, since its music and arrangements are original, which makes it an orchestra that plays salsa 100% made in Mexico with a modern, dynamic, energetic and unique sound.

Irawo Orchestra is made up of musicians who have a career in which they have participated with great international figures of Salsa, as well as other genres such as: rock, pop, Mexican music, jazz, which is projected with a high level of execution.

Irawo Orchestra is for the Mexican and international salsa public, knowledgeable and demanding, and for anyone passionate about dancing and enjoyment.

We spoke with Andrea Chaparro from Lulada Club

Lulada Club is a group composed entirely of women that plays a good number of Latin music genres such as salsa, bolero, cha cha chá, boogaloo, among others. These girls have a very interesting concept that caught our attention as soon as we checked their social networks, so we decided to get in touch with their director, Andrea Chaparro, who kindly agreed to talk to us and give us more details about the group she leads.

Name of the orchestra ”Lulada” and how it emerged

We found the name they chose for the group very curious, so Andrea went on to explain that Lulada is a Colombian drink, specifically Cali (the capital of salsa) that comes from the lulo fruit. She and her partner, who is also part of the orchestra, wanted to pay tribute to this city so important for their careers and for salsa in general.

The idea came from several sessions and rehearsals in which they were deciding what name to use, but they always knew that they wanted it having to do with Cali. In the end, they thought that ”lulada” sounded very good and mixed the term with ”club”, which originated a result that they all liked.

Why only girls?

Andrea recognizes that having a Latin female orchestra is not a novel idea, far from it. In fact, she saw this concept in Cali in several all-female orchestras that have been around for decades, so she wanted to replicate that idea.

About six or seven years ago, it was when she wanted to create an all-girl group and the opportunity was given to her in the framework of the pandemic. In Colombia, the artist had been playing with other all-male groups, but she began meeting other female musicians and instrumentalists and had the opportunity to organize a group for an event to which she and her saxophonist partner were invited.

When we wanted to know more about the selection process of the members, Andrea noted that she did a sort of search on Instagram to see their work directly, but several of the girls were brought in and recommended by other members.

Some of these girls had not had the opportunity to develop their skills because they were always underestimated in the Latin salsa scene for being female or very young, so Lulada Club has been a great opportunity for them to grow and evolve in music.

Lulada Club and Andrea Chaparro — This is the whole group, Lulada Club

She considers that they have all fit together very well with the group and understand each other perfectly most of the time, which is why she considers that they have been very fortunate to find each other and join their professional lives.

Andrea and Lulada Club in New York

At the moment, all of the members of Lulada Club live in New York and have no plans to move to any other place, since their greatest opportunities have been given to them in this city.

She does say that they are completely open to the possibility of touring both nationally and internationally whenever they find it possible. Indeed, at present, they already have many invitations to attend concerts and festivals in many other cities in the United States, but they will not base the orchestra anywhere else.

Both Andrea and the rest of the girls feel that their biggest audience is there and many people in positions of power are seeing what they are doing and taking them into account. People, club owners and event organizers have received them with open arms and have taken them into account for events of all kinds.

One such event is SummerStage on August 2, whose main attraction will be the maestro Eddie Palmieri, who will be offering one of the last concerts of his career after announcing his retirement. It is a great honor for the girls to be able to open for this world-renowned artist who has contributed so much to salsa and Latin music since his beginnings.

The news about their participation in the event made them very happy and feel that all their hard work has paid off.

Andrea Chaparro on stage with Lulada — Andrea Chaparro singing on stage

Genres played by Andrea and Lulada Club

As we have mentioned at the beginning of this edition, there are several Latin genres played by Lulada Club such as salsa, cha cha chá or boogalo, but each one has its own audience.

In that sense, Andrea said that they play a lot of hard salsa for dancers and classical music coming from the clubs in Cali. There are certain songs that can never be out of their repertoire such as ”Llorarás” by Oscar D’ León, ”La rebelión” by Joe Arroyo, ”Brujería” by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, among others.

In cases where we get a quieter audience, we can play a bolero or cha cha chá, but everything will depend on the reaction of those present to our performance,” said Andrea on this subject.

In terms of their original songs, they have two recorded and their names are ”La Palma” ”Lulada ya llegó”, which has been very well received by those who have heard it.

Undoubtedly, Lulada Club has a lot to offer to the audience and fortunately festival organizers and club owners are realizing the great potential of this group, and every day that passes they are taking more into account in their lineups.

Musical director of VibraSÓN Jake Jacobs is here

VibraSÓN is a musical group that makes life in the state of California, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has become one of the best options for festivals and nightclubs seeking fresh sounds in terms of salsa, swing and Latin music in general.

I was pleased to know about this great orchestra, its members and sound thanks to its work at Charley’s LG, Bar and Nightclub where Eduardo Guilarte, our editor, was working and directing everything related to the lineups and musical programming for Latin music nights, more specifically on Tuesdays.

When I made contact, the person who was kind enough to reply was musical director of VibraSÓN. Jake Jacobs, who at the same time works as a producer, percussionist and backing vocalist.

Jake Jacobs from VibraSÓN — Jake Jacobs, musical director of VibraSON

Talk with Jake Jacobs from the group VibraSÓN

Jake Jacobs comes from a very interesting background. His first contact with music took place with his father and uncle, both of whom were professional musicians, but Jake says he has always been interested in this world.

He studied classical piano and music theory at the University of Illinois and took some jazz piano lessons in his passage through the University of California. During these years, the musical director spent roughly 13 hours a day practicing with this instrument to master it as well as possible.

With time, he became interested in Latin music and dance, which also led him to take dance classes at university. With that knowledge acquired up to that moment, he went to visit New York and his trip coincided with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade (an event held annually in New York and other states to celebrate Puerto Rico and its traditions in the United States).

This event inspired Jake so much that he returned to the Bay Area with the intention to switch his dance classes to salsa classes. He became so good that he began to teach salsa dance classes himself to numerous students interested in learning these rhythms, something he has been done for over 20 years in widely recognized clubs and dance studios.

He used to provide these classes twice a week at the Cocomo Club, which was very important at the time and attracted more than 600 people every day. When bands performed live, the future leader of VibraSÓN began to know musicians, who, in turn, gave him music lessons and his first opportunities to play in bands.

Jake Jacobs with VibraSÓN — Jake Jacobs and the other members of VibraSÓN

Apprenticeships and classes with great musicians

One of the most impressive credentials that Jake can have is to have studied with some of the best musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area such as Edgardo Cambón, Karl Perazzo, Michael Spiro, Louie Romero, among others.

Evidently, all these luminaries have taught the producer much of what he knows and applies today, but he ensures that it was not easy to learn from so many ”teachers” at the same time, in both dancing and music performance.

Ensures that some of the most important things he learned have to do with technique and tips to be applied such as how to play the drums, the notes at the right times, silences and much more.

He points out that they all taught him valuable and important things, which are still very useful to this day. One of those great lessons was to practice and practice until he achieved the sounds he wanted, especially in Latin music.

VibraSÓN

Finally, in 2014, Jake decided it was time to put into practice everything he learned and create his own musical group with his own original details. This is how VibraSÓN came about.

The origin of his band’s name came from Luis Morales, one of its members. It is based on vibraphone, which is not widely used by the orchestras from the San Francisco Bay Area, but by the dancers and by this new group in their performances. As for the end of the name, it comes from ”son cubano”, a typical genre of the island Jake likes very much.

Although Club Cocomo unfortunately closed the following year, that didn’t stop VibraSÓN from making its way and becoming one of the most demanded groups in the Bay Area in recent years.

One of the things that Jake thinks makes his group unique is that there are very few people who use the vibraphone and, due to his training as a dancer, he is always looking to make the most appropriate music for that part of the audience for whom dancing is very important.

Jake Jacobs in San Francisco — Jake Jacobs performing on stage in San Francisco

How Jake and VibraSÓN read the crowd

For Jake and the rest of the band, it is very important to read the crowd and see how people react to the music they play at any time. They pay a lot of attention to the dance floor to see what works and what doesn’t with the people they play for that night.

Having played at clubs such as Charley’s, Bar Fluxus, La Peña Cultural, The Cigar Bar and Space 500, they have prepared a very generous repertoire for each performance. Just as they have written original music, they have also dedicated themselves to perform covers of the most buzzed-about artists in recent times in certain contexts, something that worked out for several orchestras when they need to draw on these resources to entertain the audience.

This wide repertoire that they now enjoy is what has allowed them to make diverse shows with lots of variety so that those present never get bored, even if they usually go to the same place.

Another thing they tend to do is add new arrangements and change genres to the covers they do so that they do not sound exactly like the originals and they can inject some of their essence, even if they are not songs written or sung by them originally. ”Even if they are covers, we always try to add our original arrangements so that the dancers enjoy them that much more” said Jake.

They have also learned to connect with the audience and know what the dancers and the general public want in order to give them exactly what they want. And they did not learn this overnight, but have observed in detail what other orchestras do to imitate what is good and useful.

Jake and VibraSÓN on stage — VibraSÓN performing on stage

Tours and future plans of VibraSÓN

At the end of the interesting talk, Jake told us that, for now, they only plan to record new music and other activities that are comfortable for all the members, since many of the musicians are in other orchestras and record for other people, so it is too complicated for them to tour with VibraSÓN. In addition to that, several of them have small children to care for, so it is impossible for them to travel for a long time.

He is so considerate because he always tries to keep the same members and preserve the unity of the group above all else. It has worked for them, as they have managed to made a name, which will continue to become popular over time.

Jerry Rivas, career, and support for the Spaha Salsa Gallery Museum

The Spaha Salsa Gallery Museum has been the recipient of a good number of objects donated by artists and their families after they had died. This time, it is the turn of Jerry Louis Díaz Rivas, better known as Jerry Rivas in the music scene, who is one of the main singers of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico.

We want to use his pleasant visit to our museum and his forty-sixth anniversary with El Gran Combo to talk a little about his great career and everything achieved in his long musical career over the past decades.

Jerry with Johnny — El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico singer Jerry Rivas and Johnny Cruz

Life and career of Jerry Rivas

Jerry Diaz was born in the city of Tampa, United States, on August 25, 1955 and his parents were of Puerto Rican origin, so it is undeniable that Puerto Rican heritage greatly influenced the path he would take later on.

About five years later, Jerry and his family moved to the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, where he began to take his first steps in the world of music with the guitar, the Puerto Rican cuatro and the Cuban tres, counting on the support of professor Carlos Seguí to learn to play the latter. However, shortly after, he would decide that singing was his thing.

While still a young teenager, he was part of various groups such as Grupo Complicación, Conjunto Cojoba and Grupo Chaney, being in all cases a very important part of the body of musicians who were in these bands.

His big great came in 1976 when Don Rafael Ithier, who was interested in the artist to be part of El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, after he was recommended by Don Quique Lucca, who thought of this boy as replacement of the legendary Andy Montañez, singer of the group for more than 14 years.

Jerry signing a tres — Jerry Rivas signing the Cuban tres he donated

Although it was not believed that Jerry could fill the shoes of his predecessor, his talent, effort and support from the music director of the orchestra, made him consolidate in the institution along with the rest of his colleagues and become one of the longest-serving members of El Gran Combo.

International fame came with the album ”El Gran Combo En Las Vegas” thanks to the song ”La Clave”, in which he proved his vocal abilities to new levels. After that, he achieved his consecration as an international star with the album ”Happy Days” thanks to the song ”El Menú”.

After that, everything that followed for Jerry was success with the orchestra, which resulted in approximately 30 recordings in a span of 45 years with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, his musicians and the extraordinary team behind the group.

Other details of his life and support to the Salsa Museum

In addition to being a vocalist for El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Jerry also participated in backing vocals with other great musicians for their respective musical works such as Willie Rosario, Bobby Valentín, Yuri Buenaventura, Gilberto Santa Rosa, La Sonora Ponceña, Adalberto Santiago and many others.

Jerry with Johnny and the tres — Jerry and Johnny with the tres and the jacket Jerry donated to the museum

In each of these projects, the Puerto Rican artist has always given his personal touch and his unmistakable vocal chords, so it is normal that he is considered a legendary voice within the salsa movement not only in his country, but also worldwide.

Due to all of the above, it is a true honor for the Spaha Salsa Gallery Museum to receive this great musical luminary in its facilities, where he was welcomed by its president and founder, Mr. Johnny Cruz.

Some photos on the Cruz’s official Facebook page, it is evident that both shared a very pleasant time remembering things from the past and talking about music. In addition, Jerry donated one of his shirts and a Cuban tres to the museum so that they can be exhibited to the public along with the rest of the objects in its collection.

We thank Jerry for his kindness, generosity and great talent, which we hope will continue to accompany us in the years to come.

“My best inspiration and my best teacher is my dad.” Inheritance, discipline and academic training forged the Padilla dynasty that empowers salsa.

Robert and Ricardo Padilla have a fundamental importance within the musical movement we know as salsa. The father is a historian, curator and consultant. The son is a journalist, producer and broadcaster.

The role of Robert Padilla, who tropical music connoisseurs consider the most important salsa collector in the world, is unrepeatable, as he weaves together history, characters, facts and archives; delivering a holistic approach to salsa as a concept. His motivation is pure interest in preserving and spreading the culture.

The relevance of the museum that he conceived and guarded is unquestionable. He acquired the property and fitted out the building with the required specifications and ambience with the purpose of having a repository that keeps the salsa memory alive and in force.

When Ricardo was asked if his father influenced his training in the preservation of the musical archive, his successor answered: “That’s right. My dad and I have many things in common; among them, we love salsa. I grew up watching my dad play records and listen to music. But, my grandfather also had an influence because during the 1940s and 1950s, (the golden era of the Palladium, with Tito Rodriguez) Don Hector Padilla Rosado (RIP) had bodegas in New York.

My grandfather was part of what was happening there and danced mambo in that environment. My grandfather told me all that story and my father repeated it to me (…) the Padilla family would not be the Padilla family if we did not talk about my grandfather, Don Héctor. So we are three generations that in one way or another have dedicated ourselves to supporting music because it has changed our lives for the better.”

Robert Ricardo — My best inspiration and my best teacher is my dad.” Inheritance, discipline and academic training forged the Padilla dynasty.

Ricardo considers his father the biggest fan of salsa. “Beyond being a historian, he is the number one salsa fan. My dad has the largest collection of tropical music in existence.” That collection includes records in different formats, photographs, memorabilia, videos and audios of live shows, all documented and classified. Recently to his already incalculable collection was added that of Don Mariano Artau (RIP), who was collecting and curating unique musical treasures for more than seventy years.

In Ricardo’s case, he studied Journalism at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. What the father began as a hobby, the son saw as a profession. The gratitude and admiration he has for his father is evident when he says: “I thank my dad (…) all those concerts he took me to as a child formed me. And all those people he connected me with, later became mentors for what I do today as a Salsoul programmer.” And he adds: “my greatest inspiration and my best teacher is my dad; and he will continue to be so in every sense of the word”.

Speaking of orchestras, the salsa sound that Robert favors is that of the duo that popularized Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe. For his part Ricardo affirms: “I say that Willie Rosario doesn’t have a bad album. He is a role model; being true to himself, molding a sound supported by great arrangers that he himself chose to refine that style.

He is so special in so many areas (…) So much so that even his life has been compiled in a book, and at 99 years of age, without having the need to play, he continues to do so because music is not necessarily something that only generates money for him; it is something that generates motivation to continue living. Without detracting from Don Rafael Ithier with his mulatos, or Don Papo Lucca with that southern giant, or the orchestra of the King of the bass, Don Willie transcends music and is an example of how to live”.

The Padilla’s, organically; to the succession they added a good dose of discipline and polished themselves with the commitment to take their musical training -which has not yet culminated- seriously, becoming the most admired influencers of salsa.

This dynasty is committed to their self-imposed mission of excellence. They say goodbye as a team and almost in unison affirm: “we are at your service”. I responded gratefully with “we’re still in salsa”, knowing that neither Puerto Rico nor the salsa world can repay this dynasty for the monumental contribution to the culture and musical history of this archipelago that has been the cradle of the greatest exponents of salsa, which the Padillas empower by sharing these stories of Puerto Rico with the world.

Bella Martinez ISM correspondent – Puerto Rico