Search Results for: Puerto Rico

How his career starts

We are here with the very talented Irwin Wito Rodriguez (https://www.facebook.com/nmjrecords). Pleased to meet you, Mr. Rodriguez, such a pleasure to have you here. How are you?

Thank you very much, Karina. Thank you for the invitation. Quite well, thanks to God. I am in Florida at the moment, where the temperature is very pleasant.

Talented Puerto Rican singer Wito Rodríguez

Your beginnings in the musical world occured in a rock band, which is very common in many of your colleagues. Many of them start as boleristas and rockers. How did you go from a rock band to singing salsa and other genres like this?

I was born in Chicago and my parents are Puerto Rican, so I was raised American and tended to speak more English than Spanish. I listened only to music in English, but I also listened to Daniel Santos, Los Panchos and Tito Rodriguez at hore since I was a little boy. However, they were my parents’ favorite artists, not mine. As the years went by, my dad bought me my first guitar, so I joined a rock band of four or five kids and we started playing very cool songs. This lasted until I was 14 years old, when my father decided to send us to Puerto Rico and it was a very drastic change for me because now I was going to be in a school where Spanish is spoken and my Spanish was very bad. When I arrived in Puerto Rico, it was very nice to see the island in person because I only knew it from what my dad told me.

Five or six months after I arrived in Puerto Rico, I started singing with another rock band until I turned 16, which was when a very famous percussionist named Chacón (he had a band called Chacón Y Sus Batirítmicos) heard me sing and told me that he would like me to sing with them. He lived near me, so I could go to his place. I started going about twice a week to learn to play the conga and the clave. Around that time, I started learning everything related to salsa and typical Puerto Rican rhythms.

So I started playing in a nightclub, but I wasn’t supposed to do that because I was still 16 years old. So, they got me a jacket, hid me and I started singing there. When I turned 17, I moved to Chicago to finish school and speak English again. Three months later, I started singing salsa with the first orchestra in Chicago whose name was La Orquesta La Justicia from 1971.

So, you didn’t like salsa, but you developed a taste for it.

That’s correct. I didn’t have the joy of attending music school, so I just tried to learn as much as I could from what I saw. If I saw someone playing on a stage, I would approach the musicians, ask questions and clear my doubts. I learned a lot of things on my own.

Image taken from his video clip You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine

Military service and his first orchestra

You were part of the German orchestra Conexión Latina while serving in the army. How did the idea of starting a Latin music group in such a country arise?

When I was in the Orquesta La Justicia, I met many salsa stars like La Lupe, Ismael Rivera, Larry Harlow, Ray Barreto, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, La Sonora Ponceña and many others. All these artists helped me and taught me many things.

When I joined the U.S. Army, I had the opportunity to sing with an orchestra in Puerto Rico, but I was in Chicago. I accepted and prepared everything to return to the island, but the orchestra had already gone on tour when I arrived and they didn’t take me. It was very sad for me because I left everything in Chicago, since I wasn’t thinking of returning.

From there, I decided to join the U.S. Army and wanted to be sent as far away as possible. A week later, I reveived word that I passed the test and that I would be sent to Germany. That’s when I started a band called Wito Y Su Conjunto Sabor in 1977 along with other Puerto Ricans who also sang or played instruments. We were the only salsa band in Germany at that time. In 1981, I already had an orchestra called La Sonora Antillana and we played for the German audience, which was very tough.

In 1983, I left the army. Then, Luis García, an excellent tres player, and Cano Robles from Conjunto Canayon, Puerto Rico, made my first album called Calorcito. The following year, I released my first album and it was awesome because it led me to release another record production that took me to tour all around Europe.

In 1992, I went back to Tampa, where my dad lived. I came back to be in need because nobody knew who I am there. It was very difficult, so I had to start working until I returned to the Army and was sent to Pennsylvania. In 2007, I finally retired with 30 years of service.

In 2013, I started making my first solo album whose name was Qué Mundo Maravilloso. In 2016, I moved to Orlando, where I finished my other three albums I released later.

Art for the song Qué Mundo Maravilloso

You took opera classes. How did this help you in salsa?

Those classes taught me how to stabilize my voice, know how to modulate, know how to breathe, know how to feel the tone in one part of the body (under your nose), know what tone comes after the previous one and all kinds of things. I also learned some very good exercises to warm up my voice.

Another thing these classes taught me was resistance. Spending an hour singing on stage is not easy.

A lot of singers have a good voice, but they don’t have the necessary training to get to the right tone for them and avoid singing off-key.

I read that you have been nominated for the Hollywood Media Music Awards and the Miami Fox Music Awards for both English and Spanish songs. Which songs are the most successful? English or Spanish?

I try to include even a salsa song in English in all my albums. My last song focuses more on the American audience than the Latin audience. It was a good choice because the video has about 42,000 views on YouTube, which means it attracks more attention than my other work.

One of the things that has done musicians in general most harm has been Covid-19. Many are recovering, but others had to get a job because they could no longer make a living from music.

Many of his songs are related to his Puerto Rican roots

 

A graduate of Berklee College of Music, with his college degree in hand, the young bassist returned home to make his homeland in salsa time.

Jesús Algarín is a Puerto Rican bassist who, at the age of 25, landed in the salsa scene to make music his life project.  The young musician already walks with a firm step accompanied by the forceful interpretation of his bass, leading his own orchestra with confidence.

From the time he was born, according to what his parents told him, they used to party, so it was not surprising that at the age of 8 he was already the one who was the one who was livening up the parrandas while playing the Puerto Rican cuatro.  Algarín, who was born and raised in the heart of Puerto Rico (Caguas), candidly tells us that as a child, he discovered through our very own parrandera tradition, that music -which he refers to as a wonderful art- had a healing and restorative power.

Well advised by the adults in his family, he recounts that his uncle explained to him early in his life that if he failed to ignite his audience at the Choliseo during a parranda, it would become more difficult for him. Once he understood the advice, he applied it to himself.  Today he concludes that it is necessary to dominate every stage, from a marquee to a public square, and to take it one step at a time.

Through Puerto Rican folk music, studying and interpreting the seis, the aguinaldo, the bomba, and the plena, he was entering into what without planning it became his life project.  Later, playing the Puerto Rican cuatro purely by ear, he was able to enter the “magical” world of music, as he himself describes it.

Already in the sixth grade of elementary school, he began his formal apprenticeship at the Escuela Libre de Música de Caguas.  Before that time, he played the cuatro but did not read music.  Once he learned to read music, he decided to continue growing musically in his instrument.

Six years later, in grade 12, about to finish high school, he took part in the camps that Berklee College of Music brings to Puerto Rico every year. He auditioned for the Puerto Rican cuatro.  However, at the time, he did not achieve his goal of positioning himself. Determined not to give up, the following year he returned to the Berklee camp but changed tactics. He showed up to the workshops with a bass because he understood that the cuatro was not a good fit.  When he filled out the registration form for the workshops, he reported that his bass playing was at the advanced level, even though he knew it wasn’t true.  This adolescent idea, which added a good deal of pressure and stress to his musical performance, helped him get into the ensembles he aspired to qualify for. Today he admits that at that time, which today seems far away, he could not handle the bass because, as an instrument, it was still unknown to him.

In any case, Algarín qualified because, as we know, you have to take your chances with life.  The rest is history. 

With the bass as his main instrument, Algarín got Berklee to give him a scholarship and after four years in Boston, Massachusetts he graduated with a degree in Music Business. In other words, he spent four years making music while learning to see music as a business.

The young bass player confesses that he had not planned to be a musician nor had he thought he would make a living from music.  He did not see music as a possibility, since although it was always an integral part of his life, music was a hobby or a way to serve God in the church.  And that’s what he limited himself to until he came to Berklee’s summer workshops.  Before that, he saw himself as a lawyer and when it was his turn to enter college, he initially enrolled at Ana G. Mendez University.  There he attempted to complete a bachelor’s degree in accounting. However, from the very first accounting class he knew that accounting was not for him.

Algarín capitalized on what he learned, and has been able to stick to music as a way of life; from a more realistic and less idealistic perspective. Of course, all without losing the artistic focus of musical interpretation.  Along with his musical training, he has been preparing himself in legal issues, maintaining business awareness, focusing on the protection of music and copyrights.  He has also been responsible for making other musicians aware of the importance of registering their music with the Library of Congress and thus making the most of their work.  There is no doubt that Algarín knows his worth as a musician and from his space he has decided to serve and guide his counterparts to protect their work.

Before entering the studio to record his project, Algarín had recorded with Manolito Rodríguez.  During his student years in Boston, he was a musician in the Eric German Orchestra, the orchestra that accompanies visiting solo singers in the New England area.

Today, his main instrument is the bass, double bass, baby base or electric bass.

The bassist, a native of Caguas and graduate of Berklee College of Music, class of 2020, returned to Puerto Rico to lead his own musical project.

Two years after Algarín’s return home, the orchestra is already promoting its first production entitled “Dímelo Algarín”, which is part of his project “Jesús Algarín”. The format of the base orchestra of the project is as follows: winds (trumpet, trombone and baritone saxophone), bass, piano, conga, timbal, bongo and bell; backing singers and choirs. This, his first production, contains 5 songs, with contemporary themes in its lyrics. This lyric, however, embraces the nostalgic sonority of the sextet, complementing some of the songs with the Cuban tres. The bassist leader of his project arranged and composed these 5 unreleased tracks, which are merged in a production for which Jesús Algarín is also responsible.

The production is available in digital format on all platforms. The promotional cut is Sigue tu camino performed by Ricardo Colón, who also sings in the Willie Rosario Orchestra. The other four tracks included in the production are:  Playita, Cadencia y sabor and La calle se prendió; performed by vocalist José Luis De Jesús and Caribeña, in the voice of Marisabel Vázquez Varela.

The recording studio musicians who participated in the production are from the Caribbean.  Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Venezuelans merge in a salsa embrace; as is to be expected.

Vocals: José Luis De Jesús, Ricardo Colón and Marisabel Vázquez Varela.

Backing vocals: Jorge Yadiel Santos, Carlos García, Ricardo Colón, José Luis De Jesús, Manolo Ruiz and Carloscar Cepero.

Bass: Jesús Algarín

Piano: Aníbal Cruz and Juan Rivera

Tres: Renesito Avich

Percussion: Miguel Martínez

Trumpets: Luis Arnaldo Ramos, Angel Segarra y Nicolás Benítez

Trombone: Johan Escalante y Carloscar Cepero

Baritone saxophone: Efraín Martínez

Cuatro: Jesús Algarín.

As the son of documentary filmmaker Juan Félix Algarín, Jesús considers himself blessed to have been mentored by a father with first-hand knowledge.  His father always instructed him to be aware of music as a business in the entertainment world. Jesus knows his worth and has kept himself informed as to the costs of production and is clear as to the rates of his work.  He identifies himself as a Puerto Rican and Caribbean musician. He is in every sense of the word, a music worker.

As it is, we are still in salsa.  Yes, salsa lives! The effort, discipline and talent -in that order- of this young bandleader attest to that. Congratulations, and may you continue to “catch the ride”.

For bookings, Ángel Ilarraza: 787-347-4662 or e-mail: [email protected]

 

By Bella Martinez, ISM Correspondents, San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

 

 

 

 

 

A graduate of Berklee College of Music, with his college degree in hand, the young bassist returned home to make his homeland in salsa time.

Jesús Algarín is a Puerto Rican bassist who, at the age of 25, landed in the salsa scene to make music his life project.  The young musician already walks with a firm step accompanied by the forceful interpretation of his bass, leading his own orchestra with confidence.

From the time he was born, according to what his parents told him, they used to party, so it was not surprising that at the age of 8 he was already the one who was the one who was livening up the parrandas while playing the Puerto Rican cuatro.  Algarín, who was born and raised in the heart of Puerto Rico (Caguas), candidly tells us that as a child, he discovered through our very own parrandera tradition, that music -which he refers to as a wonderful art- had a healing and restorative power.

Well advised by the adults in his family, he recounts that his uncle explained to him early in his life that if he failed to ignite his audience at the Choliseo during a parranda, it would become more difficult for him. Once he understood the advice, he applied it to himself.  Today he concludes that it is necessary to dominate every stage, from a marquee to a public square, and to take it one step at a time.

Through Puerto Rican folk music, studying and interpreting the seis, the aguinaldo, the bomba, and the plena, he was entering into what without planning it became his life project.  Later, playing the Puerto Rican cuatro purely by ear, he was able to enter the “magical” world of music, as he himself describes it.

Already in the sixth grade of elementary school, he began his formal apprenticeship at the Escuela Libre de Música de Caguas.  Before that time, he played the cuatro but did not read music.  Once he learned to read music, he decided to continue growing musically in his instrument.

Six years later, in grade 12, about to finish high school, he took part in the camps that Berklee College of Music brings to Puerto Rico every year. He auditioned for the Puerto Rican cuatro.  However, at the time, he did not achieve his goal of positioning himself. Determined not to give up, the following year he returned to the Berklee camp but changed tactics. He showed up to the workshops with a bass because he understood that the cuatro was not a good fit.  When he filled out the registration form for the workshops, he reported that his bass playing was at the advanced level, even though he knew it wasn’t true.  This adolescent idea, which added a good deal of pressure and stress to his musical performance, helped him get into the ensembles he aspired to qualify for. Today he admits that at that time, which today seems far away, he could not handle the bass because, as an instrument, it was still unknown to him.

In any case, Algarín qualified because, as we know, you have to take your chances with life.  The rest is history. 

With the bass as his main instrument, Algarín got Berklee to give him a scholarship and after four years in Boston, Massachusetts he graduated with a degree in Music Business. In other words, he spent four years making music while learning to see music as a business.

The young bass player confesses that he had not planned to be a musician nor had he thought he would make a living from music.  He did not see music as a possibility, since although it was always an integral part of his life, music was a hobby or a way to serve God in the church.  And that’s what he limited himself to until he came to Berklee’s summer workshops.  Before that, he saw himself as a lawyer and when it was his turn to enter college, he initially enrolled at Ana G. Mendez University.  There he attempted to complete a bachelor’s degree in accounting. However, from the very first accounting class he knew that accounting was not for him.

Algarín capitalized on what he learned, and has been able to stick to music as a way of life; from a more realistic and less idealistic perspective. Of course, all without losing the artistic focus of musical interpretation.  Along with his musical training, he has been preparing himself in legal issues, maintaining business awareness, focusing on the protection of music and copyrights.  He has also been responsible for making other musicians aware of the importance of registering their music with the Library of Congress and thus making the most of their work.  There is no doubt that Algarín knows his worth as a musician and from his space he has decided to serve and guide his counterparts to protect their work.

Before entering the studio to record his project, Algarín had recorded with Manolito Rodríguez.  During his student years in Boston, he was a musician in the Eric German Orchestra, the orchestra that accompanies visiting solo singers in the New England area.

Today, his main instrument is the bass, double bass, baby base or electric bass.

The bassist, a native of Caguas and graduate of Berklee College of Music, class of 2020, returned to Puerto Rico to lead his own musical project.

Two years after Algarín’s return home, the orchestra is already promoting its first production entitled “Dímelo Algarín”, which is part of his project “Jesús Algarín”. The format of the base orchestra of the project is as follows: winds (trumpet, trombone and baritone saxophone), bass, piano, conga, timbal, bongo and bell; backing singers and choirs. This, his first production, contains 5 songs, with contemporary themes in its lyrics. This lyric, however, embraces the nostalgic sonority of the sextet, complementing some of the songs with the Cuban tres. The bassist leader of his project arranged and composed these 5 unreleased tracks, which are merged in a production for which Jesús Algarín is also responsible.

The production is available in digital format on all platforms. The promotional cut is Sigue tu camino performed by Ricardo Colón, who also sings in the Willie Rosario Orchestra. The other four tracks included in the production are:  Playita, Cadencia y sabor and La calle se prendió; performed by vocalist José Luis De Jesús and Caribeña, in the voice of Marisabel Vázquez Varela.

The recording studio musicians who participated in the production are from the Caribbean.  Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Venezuelans merge in a salsa embrace; as is to be expected.

Vocals: José Luis De Jesús, Ricardo Colón and Marisabel Vázquez Varela.

Backing vocals: Jorge Yadiel Santos, Carlos García, Ricardo Colón, José Luis De Jesús, Manolo Ruiz and Carloscar Cepero.

Bass: Jesús Algarín

Piano: Aníbal Cruz and Juan Rivera

Tres: Renesito Avich

Percussion: Miguel Martínez

Trumpets: Luis Arnaldo Ramos, Angel Segarra y Nicolás Benítez

Trombone: Johan Escalante y Carloscar Cepero

Baritone saxophone: Efraín Martínez

Cuatro: Jesús Algarín.

As the son of documentary filmmaker Juan Félix Algarín, Jesús considers himself blessed to have been mentored by a father with first-hand knowledge.  His father always instructed him to be aware of music as a business in the entertainment world. Jesus knows his worth and has kept himself informed as to the costs of production and is clear as to the rates of his work.  He identifies himself as a Puerto Rican and Caribbean musician. He is in every sense of the word, a music worker.

As it is, we are still in salsa.  Yes, salsa lives! The effort, discipline and talent -in that order- of this young bandleader attest to that. Congratulations, and may you continue to “catch the ride”.

For bookings, Ángel Ilarraza: 787-347-4662 or e-mail: [email protected]

How his career started

We have here Fernandito Rentas, who is a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Good afternoon, Mr. Rentas, how do you do?

Good afternoon. Thank goodness, i’m doing just fine right in good health and working hard. We are doing what is done daily, which is my regular job, but on the other hand, we are making the music that I would be able to do up to the present time, or rshould I say, musical projects.

Fernandito Rentas recording one of his songs

You come from Ponce. This is a city from which many famous Puerto Rican artists come, especially in the salsa genre. Do you think that coming from that city had something to do with the road you would take later on?

Ar some point, yes because that influence was around me since I was a little boy. I have always been interested in music and sports, but I enjoyed more of music. I don’t come from a family of musicians as far as I know, but my biggest influences come from distant relatives like, for example, Mr. Esteban Tato Rico Ramírez, who was a singer in the orchestra La Solución.

Basically, what I remember most about my childhood is that it was from there that I became interested in music. At the same time, I would see my parents dancing at parties and there was all that excitement and feeling of celebration. The church and its chants were also important in that regard.

Those were earlier influences, but it was from the age of 7 that I began to understand tropical music. As time went by, I got more interested in it. I couldn’t take music lessons due to economic problems at that time, so I did everything by ear. I do remember that there was an instrument I liked a lot when I was in elementary school, which was marimba. I was strock by it, which led me to join a group of classmates at school who practiced in the school canteen in the afternoon. I also remember my music teacher, Mr. Fermín Torres, who was from the Adjuntas or Coamo area in Puerto Rico, but he was well known in the musical area of the school system.

I didn’t really jump right into music until a few years later because our family moved to Florida, where I began to look out for other interests such as the US Armed Forces. When I graduated from high school, I joined the army and there I met other colleagues from my homeland, which made me reconnect to Latin music. I was not only focused on music of Puerto Rico, but also from Colombia, Venezuela and other countries.

Fernandito Rentas singing on stage

My idol as an artist in the genre has always been Oscar D’ León since the first time I saw him when I was 7 or 8 years old during the patron festivities in my village. When I went into the army, many colleagues who were already veterans in this issue helped me to train me. The first person I met was bass player Héctor Cruz, who I say was my godfather in music. That was in Germany when I served on the force in 1989. When I returned to the United States, I went to North Carolina and began to succeed in music step by step.

I spent nine years serving in the South Korean peninsula, where I was blessed to pull together a group of musicians and perform live music with many fellow musicians, including Korean friends I made there. I returned to the United States in 2011 and thank goodness I stay on this. These days, I had the opportunity to connect or lift me up from where I were and do something different. What I was looking for was to create my own productions with the music that I like, so that’s what I’ve been doing these last two years.

His groups

You were part of various groups including Orquesta Mambo Son, Grupo Descarga, among others. When did you decide to go solo and create your own productions?

I decided to do it in 2020. I had already had this interest for many years and was always seeking the opportunity to break the ice through groups. I was looking to take part in the production of a group I was with and start from that point, but unfortunately none of my groups managed to get into production.

I finally got the chance with the pandemic, as I started to be able to be interacted with colleagues and friends through Facebook and connect with musicians from around the world. Then, other comrades who were also in the armed forces told me about Mr. Robert Requena, who is a Chilean who lives in Medellin, Colombia.

Fernandito Rentas in his military uniform

When I wanted to do things differently adapting myself to the new era, they put me in touch with Mr. Requena and I expressed my ideas. Then, he was the one who showed me the first composition for my first song, which we titled Bailando debajo del agua (Dancing under the water). The thing is that this song is based on an event that happened here in my house, which I told Requena about and we used it for the song. Then, we talked about its musical bases and what I was looking for in my future songs, so he came up with the formula. Today, we are working on my sixth record and thinking about releasing it in June, but there are seven others that are being created right now.

Seeing as your career practically started with Covid-19, do you think the pandemic precipitated what you had in mind?

Well, in a way, yes. My desire to make a solo album is very old, but the 20 years in which I was serving in the armed forces limited me, thing that also happened to other colleagues who are also launching their own albums today, such as Arnaldo LaFontaine, Edwin El Calvito Reyes, Josean Rivera, José Rivero, among others. Arnaldo La Fontaine, Jose Rivero and I were singers in the same orchestra in the southeastern United States during the 1990s.

My interest in being a soloist was present for a long time, but the opportunity to do so did not come until I made use of technology. I can tell you that all my albums are being made in Medellin, Colombia. All I do here in New Jersey is go to the studio and record the voice. That advantage that we have today really helped us and, at the same time, the arrival of the pandemic has prevented us from going to other places to bring our talent. I have accumulated unimterrupted 33 years of career, but the pandemic prevented us from going out and locked us up at home. It was there when many other artists began to take alternate measures to be able to continue reaching people.

In any way, I think we have turned this situation to our advantage in the best way that the Lord has not allowed.

Art of his last song Qué difícil es

An artist I interviewed told me that many musicians were preferring to release single songs instead of full recordings. Are you makings full recordings or single songs?

Based on advice that Mr. Requena gave me, I am releasing single songs. Nowadays, the matter of full albums has become complicated due to the lack of record labels and factories where these materials are produced. I would say that the idea of releasing singles was the best because you want to know if the public is going to accept or like the album. Instead of releasing all the songs at the same time, releasing one song at a time is more comfortable, less expensive and easier to work with. For the time beingt, I have no plans to release a CD.

How did you balance your musical and military activities?

I had to balance them because our obligations and priorities in the military service are focused on the mission and commitment to the defense of the country. During our free time, we liked to clear the mind and do different things. We went to parties.

We felt great making music for our fellow soldiers, their communities and families. We were able to bring our Latin culture to the countries we went to.

Music was our main hobby and the to entertain ourselves on the weekends.

Social networks and website

Facebook: Fernandito Rentas II

Instagram: Fernandito Rentas

YouTube: Fernandito Rentas