CANADADIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS |
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UNITED STATESDIRECTORY OF NIGHTCLUBS |
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| CALIFORNIA | FLORIDA | ILLINOIS |
| MICHIGAN | NEW JERSEY | NEW YORK |
| OHIO | PENNSYLVANIA | TEXAS |
| VIRGINIA | WASHINGTON | |
| NOVEMBER 2023 FESTIVALS | ||
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San Francisco SBK Congress 2023Nov 17 / 19, 2023 1333 Old Bayshore Hwy, Burlingame CA, United States, 94010 |
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Love Bachata Congress 2023Nov 23 / 27,2023 165 Courtland St NE, Atlanta GA, United States, 30303 |
North America / United States / New York
Mario Bauzá (Havana, April 28, 1911 – Manhattan, July 11, 1993) was a Cuban saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, arranger and composer.
Known above all for having been the musical director of the Machito orchestra (of whom he was also a brother-in-law), he was a pioneer of what is now known as Afro-Cuban jazz.
Bauzá played the clarinet in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra. However, after traveling to New York in 1927 with the Antonio María Romeu orchestra, he was so impressed by the Big Bands of Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson and Tommy Dorsey, and by the Harlem music revues, that in 1930 he decided to emigrate definitively to USA.
During the trip, he became friends with Antonio Machín. Mario Bauzá would return on the same boat in which Don Aspiazu’s orchestra was travelling, who immediately began the arrangements to record El manisero.
Upon arriving in New York, Bauzá went to live in Harlem with his cousin, the trumpeter René Endreira. Bauzá began playing the saxophone at house parties with pianist Lucky Roberts and began to absorb African-American culture.
Between 1930 and 1931, he was a trumpeter in the Antonio Machín quartet and made important recordings with this group in New York City. Anecdotally, it is said that he had learned to play the trumpet in just two weeks.
His first jobs were with the orchestras of Cass Carr, Noble Sissle and Sam Wooding.
In 1933 he entered Chick Webb’s orchestra as first trumpet, where he ended up as music director. He then worked with Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson, eventually landing Cab Calloway.
Being in that band, Mario brought the young trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to the orchestra.
Bauzá married Estela Gutiérrez, sister of Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, known as Machito.
On December 3, 1940, he debuted with Machito at the Park Plaza, a dance hall, with the Afro-Cubans, later working for almost four years at the La Conga club.
Bauzá works for Machito as artistic director, taking care of the arrangements and hiring the musicians.
The style of the Afro-Cubans mixes the son montuno of Cuba with features of swing bands.
Thanks to this, musicians like Dizzy Gillespie or James Moody introduced Afro-Cuban rhythms into jazz, starting in 1947.
He became interested in jazz when he heard Frankie Trumbauer play the saxophone performing Rhapsody in blue with the Paul Whiteman orchestra.
In the forties, Mario will develop the sound of Afro-Cuban jazz. His work as a clarinetist, trumpeter, saxophonist and arranger in the Machito orchestra constitutes one of the main pillars in the emergence and development of that Cuban genre.
He had formal studies in drums during his adolescence, but more could the sounds of Tito Puente and Willie Bobo, his major influences.
He debuted in music with a high school ensemble called Orquesta Caribe.
However, his first recording session was at the age of 15 with the original band of another teenager born in 1950: Willie Colón.
Curiously, at the time of these sessions, three pillars of the Alegre All-Stars, Charlie Palmieri, Louie Ramirez and Kako, were present in the studio, and young Nicky was invited to participate as a timbalero.
In 1968 he was recruited by Eddie Palmieri, who by then, as a consequence of internal problems, gradually disbanded his original orchestra: La Perfecta.
The decade of the 70’s opens for him with three important events: the classic album “Vámonos Pa’l Monte”, his participation with Patato in the album “Portrait Of Jennie” by Dizzy Gillespie and the beginning of his career as a percussion teacher, as a member of the faculty of the East Harlem Music School, the school of Johnny Colón, legendary pianist and one-time pioneer of boogaloo.
At this institution Nicky gives his first lessons to a 13 year old boy named Jimmy Delgado.
In 1972 Nicky is invited to participate in the Afro-American Music Festival. 1975 he joins the troupe of the Wonderful Jew, Larry Harlow, then he is part of the Revelation Orchestra, two years with the Novel Orchestra.
In fact, thanks to his internship with Harlow’s band, Nicky was already part of Fania Records’ staff of musicians, recording as timbalero, bongos player and even drummer (and one of his first assignments for that label as a studio musician was the album “Pa’ Bravo Yo” by Justo Betancourt, produced by Harlow himself in 1972).
In 1973 he was included in the Fania All-Stars, replacing Orestes Vilató.
Marrero received an invitation from Pacheco to make his debut with them at Yankee Stadium in August of that year. Ironically, despite the events that separated Vilató from the stellar orchestra, he remained part of Fania’s studio staff. In fact, Vilató and Marrero crossed paths on countless sessions for various artists on the label between 1973 and 1980, in most cases with Marrero on timbales and Vilató serving as bongos player.
He is also invited to participate in the first of several rock sessions, this one specifically as an all-around percussionist for the group Electric Flag: “The Band Kept Playing”.
He travels with Fania to the African continent, later Jerry Masucci gets a potentially lucrative contract for the Fania All-Stars with Columbia Records, for recording purposes the orchestra is reduced to a sextet: Pacheco, Barretto, Nicky, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentin and debuting with the orchestra, Papo Lucca.
This is how Nicky, without being a band leader, not only became a star member of the Fania All-Stars, but also an “exclusive artist” of the Fania label. And as such, he appears on several albums that are not necessarily Latin and travels with Fania to Europe (the first of several subsequent visits) and Japan. Together with Harlow, Vilató on bongo, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera on bass, Frankie Rodríguez on congas, Harry Viggiano on guitar and Pablito Rosario on percussion, he recorded an album of downloads for the Japanese market under the curious group name of Belmonte (“Olé”). [This album is very difficult to obtain.
Nicky introduces drum toms to his rhythm kit (the only drum component Nicky overlooks in his regular timpani set is the hi-hats).
Nicky even recorded his first drum solo on the song “Yo Bailo De Todo” on that album. By this time, production at the Fania label and its subsidiaries was exhausting and the salsa boom in New York was in full swing.
Exhausting tours with the Fania All-Stars, he travels with Tipica’73 to Havana, Cuba, the first time in 20 years of economic blockade and open political friction that a New York Latin orchestra performs in the home of son, Nicky’s visit with La Tipica and Orestes Vilató’s own visit the following year, replacing him with the Fania All-Stars, helped to restore the timbal and bongo to the importance they should never have lost in Cuba.
To this day, Nicky remains healthy and active in music.
Also Read: The legendary singer Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond “La Lupe”
North America / United Stated / New York
It was one of those nights of meeting with friends, those friends with whom you share the same musical preferences among other things, you know, of those gatherings where only you and your friends can spend hours discussing the best songs of Héctor Lavoe or remembering the best hits of the Fania, and in which there is no other way to end the evening than with the deities that brings the good Salsa music from a live band to close the night with a flourish.
And so that was, when with the hours passed we came across one of these charming Latin clubs that fill the streets and every day prevail more in the city of New York, where, of course, they offered Live Salsa. Eureka! If you allow me to say it … It was the perfect place to “Echarnos un Pie” (colloquial term that we usually give in some Latin countries when we refer to dance).
Upon entering, the characteristic sound of the band wrapped up the entire venue, no doubt, captivated us. It was the harmony of an orchestra that played the typical Cuban music: “La Charanga“, which had its maximum exposure in the 20th century. We were all enthralled or if you want to say “delighted”, it was the mixture of wind instruments with percussion instruments but especially with the string instrument that most caught our attention, the Violin.
When we asked for the name of the orchestra, they told us: “Son del Monte”. It’s the ideal name for an orchestra of 12 Latin musicians who project their virtuosity before an audience eager for Caribbean Music that bathes the senses and awakens the joy of living.
Son Del Monte is a band based in New York City that presents unique tunes from various artists. This orchestra was born from the musical director and timbalero, Manny Rivera whose aspiration was to create a Charanga band with a hard New York sound that paid homage to the orchestras of the 60s, 70s and 80s. “Our music is captivating for the listeners and dancers. Fans from all over the world have come to love Son Del Monte: Una Charanga Con Algo Más and our incredible musical swing”, said Manny Rivera.
This band that combines the typical sound of Cuba with the mixture of flute, violins and trombones with three singers that create a distinctive harmony of three parts, have performed in so popular Salsa venues, such as: Maryland Live Casino, the Baltimore´s Latino Festival, the boardwalk of Coney Island, SOB’s, Empire City Casino in Yonkers, Gonzalez y Gonzalez, La Marqueta, the Latina Hats Society, Industry City, Harlem Mist, among other recognized Salsa venues.
The members of this Charanga orchestra with “Sabor” and electrifying sound are: Mauricio Smith Jr. (Flute), Eric Roberto Salazar and David Rimelis (Violins), Michael Pallas, Juanga Lakunza and Charlie Garcia (Trombones), Eli Rivera (Piano), Bert Castro (Bass), Joe Gonzalez (Conga), Manuel Rivera (Timbales / Musical Director / Leader) and Luis Ayala, Armando Jiménez Sonji and Luis Soto (Singers).
Since the beginning of this year (2019), Son del Monte has been working on their record proposal for the Latin market with unpublished themes, rhythmic and unique sound – contemporary. To date they already have two singles: “Rumba Omelenko” and “Vengo de Nueva York” availables in: CD Baby, Deezer, iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify. Likewise, the song “Herman” is in the process of recording. So, get ready because this Charanga orchestra promises their CD ended with great compositions for the public later this year.
Undeniable, the acceptance of Son del Monte has been so extensive on the part of New Yorkers and all who are Salsa lovers that they were recently awarded with the TANAE Digital Media Award for Band of the Year 2018, giving recognition to an arduous musical performance, but above all of great cultural value that keeps alive our Latin idiosyncrasy.
Manuel Rivera, have been a professional musician for more than 40 years and now Son Del Monte’s Leader/ Musical Director. His musical career started playing Bongo in a Latin Workshop band which eventually became Orchestra Yambu. Yambu was known for its Latin Jazz style and Disco Hit “Sunny”, his first recording. Subsequently, I joined the original Charanga Orchestra Sublime of New York City, doubling up on Bongo and Timbales. He recorded on Sublime’s first two albums in 1977 and 1979.
In 2001, he rejoined Orchestra Sublime now known as “Sonsublime”. Manuel recorded on Sonsublime’s Gran Reserva and Bailando Con Sonsublime, their latest CDs. He studied various folkloric rhythms, Bata drums and sight reading at the Harbor’s Conservatory of Music in El Barrio in New York City under the guidance of the Master Louie Bauzo.
Manuel Rivera has performed with the Bassist: William Millan, of the original Conjunto Saoco, singers: Henry Fiol, Ray Ramos, and Luis Ayala. Also, he performed with Yerason and the MTG All Stars Orchestra under the direction of Hector Leguillow, Joe Quijano at Lincoln Center and other various artists throughout his musical career.
Next Shows:
Monday, Jult 15TH
Venue: Cunanele Restaurant and Lounge. 1 Route 46 W, Totowa, NJ 07512
Saturday, August 17TH
Venue: La Placita de la Marqueta. North trains between 111th and 112th Streets in East Harlem, “El Barrio” and uptown Manhattan, NY.
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