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Marc Anthony Says to Europe Pa’llá Voy

The most influential tropical artist of the 21st century will offer a series of concerts in Spain, London, Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany

Otra Nota (1993) was Marc Anthony’s first solo album

Si hay una fiesta pa’llá voy. Si hay una rumba, pa’llá voy. Con buena música y alcohol, cuando me llamen, pa’llá voy. With this nice choir of the song Pa’llá Voy that gives its name to the 2022 tour, Marc Anthony begins the series of concerts in Europe.

The versatile Salsa artist with the record for the most albums sold worldwide begins a series of 17 concerts on Saturday, June 4^th at the OVO Arena Wembley in London (United Kingdom) with a capacity for 12,500 people. His next stop will be in the Rotterdam city (Netherlands) in Ahoy, which can hold 15,818 salsa souls, followed by Paris (France), Assago (Italy), Zurich (Switzerland), Cologne (Germany), ending his tour in 11 cities from Spain (Cornellá de Llobregat, Santiago de Compostela, Madrid, Seville, Fuengirola, Calvia, Oviedo, Valencia, Murcia, Cadiz, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). In this last city, the capital of Gran Canaria, Marc Anthony will step onto the stage of the Granca Live Fest that will take place on July 8^th at the stadium of this cosmopolitan city with a capacity of 31,250 people.

This same tour, postponed due to the pandemic in 2020, was initially called “Opus Tour” and a year later it changed to “World Tour” now it is titled “Pa’ lla voy Tour” the homonymous name of the thirteenth album of the singer of Puerto Rican descent released on March 4^th, 2022.

Pa’lla Voy was recorded during the pandemic period in Miami (United States), the place of residence of Magnus, the company of the singer awarded the Order of the Golden Sphinx by Harvard. This studio album is made up of nine Salsa pieces (Pa’llá voy, Yo le mentí, No se quita, Nada de nada, Amor no tiene sexo, Mala, Gimme some more, El que te amaba y Si fuera fácil).

“When we got to the studio to record this album, I was full of inspiration. I had time to absorb these songs, fall in love with them, and create what you can now hear.” The artist wrote on his Facebook account on March 4^th.

You don’t need to carry out any additional management or expense if you purchased the tickets in 2020

Anthony, with almost three decades of trajectory, has released two singles from this new production, “Mala” co-authored by Lenier and under the production of Sergio George (producer of his first hits), and co-produced by Motiff, recognized for his work with Víctor Manuelle, Gente de Zona, Natalia Jiménez among many others.

In the same way, “Pa’lla Voy” was released this year, his most important single, and that gives life to the tour. This first track of the album was written by the Venezuelan singer-songwriter brothers San Luis (Luigi and Santiago Castillo). Another piece of information that we can provide you is about the participation of the only woman on this album, the Venezuelan singer Elena Rose, co-writer of the song “Yo Le Mentí”. Andrea Elena Mangiamarchi, known by the artistic name Elena Rose, is known for working with urban singers like Becky G, Rauw Alejandro, Tini, and CNCO.

Tickets for this long-awaited tour are between 40 Euros and 140+ Euros. The tickets purchased for the suspended tour in 2020 are valid.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to sing and dance on Pa’lla Voy Tour, https://www.marcanthonyonline.com/gira/ and enjoy this new salsa jewel live and listen to his greatest hits such as “Valió la pena” or “Vivir mi vida”, the latter ranked 46th among the category of the 50 most important Latin songs of the American magazine specialized in music, Rolling Stone.

José Mosquera from Barquisimeto for the World “The bodybuilder and elegant”

Barquisimeto, is well known as the musical capital of Venezuela and in this opportunity we will make special mention to the musician José Jesús Mosquera Cañizales, born in our city in the Antonio María Pineda Hospital, on May 23, 1969, son of Rafael Mosquera and Juana Cañizales, married to Yolanda García and from this union were born their children Yolanda José and Luis José.

Mosquera was always inclined to music since he was a child, participating in the musical activities of his school “Ciudad Bolivar”, located on Carrera 13 and 48th Street, in Barquisimeto, singing and playing the cuatro in a self-taught way and with the help of his father who taught him to improve his playing.

At the age of 8 he studied at Pablo Canela’s academy, at the age of 10 he learned to play guitar, also with the support of his father and his cousin Carlos Romero.

At the age of 11 he participates in the musical groups of the Christian church, standing out as a guitarist, drummer and timbalero. When he turned 15, he became interested in playing the bass guitar and during his high school studies at the Ezequiel Bujanda Combined Cycle, he met Jesús Rincón, also a musician, and joined the ranks of the “Obeligaitas” bagpipe group, where he began his career as a bass player.

When he turned 18 years old, he was part of the staff of the group “Tecnogaitas” of the Tecnológico Antonio José de Sucre and simultaneously he was bassist of the band “La Salle”. Afterwards, he is recommended to Alí Rojas and auditions to be the bassist of the “Sonora de Alí”, where he remains for 3 years.

Alí Rojas gave him the responsibility of being the bassist of the dance orchestra “Sensación”, where he remained for 15 years. In 1992, he began working as a music instructor for the Fundación del Niño until 1996.

Mosquera, besides being an excellent bass player, plays string instruments such as the cuatro, guitar and requinto.

In 1993, Mosquera turned to romantic music and created the duet “Génesis” with his friend and compadre Carlos Enrique Prince, performing in nightclubs and private parties. In 1997, he joined the Poliboys Orchestra of the General Command of the Lara State Police as a bass player, where he currently works. In 2004 he began his musical studies at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory and graduated as an academic musician in 2009 with excellent grades. José has performed on regional television stations demonstrating his qualities in various prestigious programs and in 2016, he won 3rd place in the Police Voice Festival.

Mosquera, at what date do you become interested in salsa as a musical genre?, Professor Carlos in 2007 I start playing the baby bass and in 2011 I join the K’dencia Latina Orchestra of Carlos Sanchez and also had the privilege of accompanying Benjamin Rausseo “El Conde del Guácharo”, performing with his band and with K’dencia Latina, accompanied the late Willy Rodriguez, and vocalists of national and international renown: Hildemaro, Pibo Márquez, Charlie Guzmán, Alejandro Mayora, Mariana “La Sonera de Venezuela” and the official doubles in Venezuela of Rubén Blades (Jhony Heredia) and Celia Cruz (Ibrahíma Rondón).

Mosquera finally told us that musical excellence is achieved through perseverance and dedication.

Finally we wish the best of success on behalf of International Salsa Magazine, to the excellent musician José Mosquera “The bodybuilder and elegant bass”.

See you next time and let’s keep on salsaing!

José Mosquera “The bodybuilder and elegant”.

Once again, maestro Bobby Valentín delivers a very daring and innovative musical theme

While it is true that salsa is very much alive, it is also true that it has been enriched through fusions and transformations. Of course, this is not the first time we see that the salsa sound is transformed to give way to increasingly daring musical themes.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “I’m glad there are collaborations where the wallet of other sounds invests in producing music that I enjoy. Note that the only music I enjoy with the passion I enjoy nothing else is salsa. This salsa I’m talking about also includes fusions and other inventions, as long as I like them.”

Well, let’s get to the mambo….

During the “Tropical Music Festival” I was backstage and was able to share with the musicians before and after their performances. That privilege gave me the opportunity to talk to them about their projects, among other things. On a side note, Oria Rivera graciously let me know about the release that same day of Bobby Valentin’s latest single. As soon as I got home I listened to the song via You Tube.

Once again, maestro Valentín delivers a very daring and innovative song. I know that “chinchas” are going to fall on me as usual; but without being repetitive, you know that I am one of those who believe that Valentin is never wrong.

Let’s establish that boogaloo or bugaloo is a Latin music and dance genre that was popular in the United States in the 1960s. It originated in New York City, mainly among Hispanic and Latin American teenagers. The style was a fusion of popular African-American rhythm and blues (R&B), in turn combining soul music with mambo and son montuno.

In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans in the United States listened to various styles of music, including jump blues, R&B and doo-wop. Latinos in New York City shared those tastes, but also listened to genres such as mambo and cha-cha-chá. There was a mix of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and African-Americans in clubs, whose groups tried to find common musical ground. In the end, boogaloo or bugaloo was the common musical ground, a fusion of many styles cooking American son montuno, guaguancó, guajira, guaracha, mambo, R&B and soul on the same stove. That must have been the reason why the boogaloo or bugalú allowed Spanish and English on equal terms.

As you can see, fusions are not a recent fad.

Well then. The time has come to tell you what my salsa ears have heard, since there will be those who say that this is not a salsa song. Well, the truth of the matter is that it is not suitable for salseros without musical appreciation skills.

From the first bars of this song, Bobby Valentín’s musical arrangement highlights the bass, accompanied by trumpets and saxophones in an arrangement that sounds great. In the first thirty seconds of the song you can appreciate the vocal part of the composer -Bobby Valentín- ultra well accompanied by his most recent acquisition for the front of his orchestra: Leró Martínez. And for the most skeptical, Bobby and Leró sing in impeccable English.

The song is perfect, since in three minutes it opens up a range of musical possibilities in “English without barriers”. Despite the brevity of the song, it lacks nothing. Nor does it feel or sound like musical creativity was curtailed by trying to shorten the time. The track flows naturally from the prelude, to the mambo, to the closing. At one and a half minutes, the saxophones provide the melody and the trumpets the breaks. At the fiftieth minute, the trumpets play challenging the rhythm section, formed by: Victor Roque on the tumbadoras, Kevin Vega on the timbal and Javier Oquendo on the bongo. Ceferino Cabán’s piano complements the “king’s” bass in a masterful way.

Shortly after the second minute (2.19), Victor “Yuca” Maldonado’s baritone saxophone sets the stage for Julito Alvarado and Angie Machado’s trumpets to firmly establish their presence. This second minute also highlights the dynamism of the trombone by Eliut Cintrón. Let’s not forget that the composer, arranger, producer and bassist of this song was a trumpet player in his beginnings. At exactly 2.40 the bass takes command of the orchestra with more forcefulness, melodically allying itself with the sound of the trumpets and saxophones. Well into the second minute (2.44) the electric guitar in command of Javier Perez begins a correspondence with the bass, which is maintained until the closing of the song.

As for the cover art, it features a childish Bobby Valentine dressed as a musical celebrity. The boy wears dark pants and a white shirt with those stylish puffed sleeves that scream mambo. The title letters, which read It’s Boogaloo time are superimposed over the child’s image. The style of the yellow letters that inscribe the word Boogaloo over the image described above make me imagine letters in some liquid material. The composition of the artwork rests on a rather garish salmon-colored background. According to the credits, both the graphic design and art direction were created by Orialis Valentin. Brava!

If you are one of those who say you are tired of the same old same old, I challenge you to listen to this gem, just as I recommended El Twist a while back.

Salsa lives! I hope I have dispelled your doubts, if you had any. If you still have any doubts, I confirm that you are not ready for this salsa conversation.

Musical Director: Bobby Valentín

Audio Recording & Mixing: Play Bach Studio

Engineer Carlitos Velázquez and Ramón Martínez

Mastering: WAVEM Acoustic LLC; Eduardo Ramos

Producer: Bobby Valentín

How talented Puerto Rican singer Fernandito Rentas started his career

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

Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría “I wanted to do something that sounded like home”.

April 7, 1917, Mongo Santamaría was born in the Jesús María neighborhood of Havana, Cuba.

Exceptional percussionist of Latin Jazz and related rhythms, whose first name was Ramón Santamaría.

Mongo left to continue playing his Congas hard in the sky on February 1st, 2003.

“I wanted to do something that sounded like home”. With these simple words, Ramón Santamaría Rodríguez “Mongo Santamaría” spoke of his essence.

The purpose of his music pursued a sonority and a memory, possibly located in Cuba, in Jesús María, a marginal neighborhood where he grew up and enjoyed a tradition attached to the drum, to religion, to the street and from where this great Cuban percussionist drank infinitely.

But surely those drums also came to him from far away, from the Congo, where his grandfather came from to be a slave on the island and who also filled his head with sounds full of meanings and colors, which he later masterfully spread around the world.

The name of Mongo Santamaría (Havana, April 7/1917 – Miami, Feb. 1/2003) is, for the glory of all music, an inevitable reference of Cuban percussion.

Since he was a child he knew that his thing was to play the drum and he was lucky enough to belong to a family of empirical musicians, singers and drummers who supported him in the learning and mastery of these instruments.

During his time in Cuba, already a professional musician, he participated in numerous groups that little by little gave him a place among the most outstanding percussionists of the time. Some names of these groups are El Conjunto Boloña, Lecuona Cuban Boys, with whom he was able to participate in the recording of his first album, Conjunto Matamoros, Segundo Grupo de Arsenio Rodríguez, among others.

Each group had its own style and stamp, but in each of them Santamaría put his personal “touch”.

At the prestigious Tropicana cabaret he played with Chano Pozo as a member of Armando Romeu’s orchestra.

From that moment on, his career would not stop. Conjuntos, Septetos de Son were the perfect selection to complete the sap from which he would draw all his style and technique.

Later, from carnival to carnival, he would gather with other percussionists to play in the comparsas and experience the festive musical atmosphere par excellence of those years.

Alongside him played other friends who soon became a Cuban reference in the United States: Patato Valdés and Armando Peraza.

As part of the Tropicana orchestra and located in a show in Mexico, he decided to settle there as did many musicians of his time and came to play with Pérez Prado and Benny Moré.

It was precisely in the latter orchestra where he met Clemente Piquero “Chicho”, another Cuban percussionist whose style made him rethink the role of percussion in Cuban popular orchestras.

Mongo Santamaría belongs to the second wave of Cuban percussionists who arrived in New York in 1950.

His new idea of restructuring and designing his own style in the use of Cuban percussion was perfectly in tune with the reality that a few years earlier was being experienced in the music produced and sold in New York, after the arrival of the Cuban rumbero Chano Pozo.

“The rhythm produced by the conga organizes all the percussion of a band, from which melodies and counter-melodies can be experimented with.”

“I think percussion is the base from which things come out.”

Already in the United States, Mongo plays with Gilberto Valdés, again he is part of Pérez Prado’s orchestra and finally with Tito Puente’s, where he stayed for 7 years. Once in the line of Afro-Cuban jazz, so popular at the time, he joined George Shearing’s group and later the vibraphonist Cal Tjader.

With his own orchestra, he accompanied La Lupe, one of his favorite singers, and undertook projects of novel formats for the time, such as small formations of brass trio, piano, bass, percussion and drums, at a time when jazz bands predominated.

Mongo Santamaría, perhaps without the theatricality to which Chano had accustomed the New York public, focused all his strength on achieving his own sonority, with a fusion of Cuban styles and genres, perfected and deepened in the introduction of Afro-Cuban rhythms with a naturalness and using colorful timbre elements by using several tumbadoras in his set.

His creativity is highly demonstrated in the great amount of music that is part of his catalog of works and the quality becomes indisputable when seeing the amount of outstanding jazz interpreters that version and recreate his work.

In 1959 he recorded Tambores y cantos, which contains the song Afro blue, which over the years became “a jazz anthem of all times”, according to Nat Chediak, author of the Latin Jazz Dictionary.

His long recording career (50 albums), testifies to the musical activity that this great percussionist carried out throughout his professional career. He worked with American jazz legends such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, flutist Hubert Maws, Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter Marty Seller, among other musicians who today still pay tribute to this Cuban conguero who was the architect of the fusion of rhythm & blues rhythms and Afro-Cuban music, recognized the connection of Cuban music to African roots and placed the congas in an indispensable instrument for the determination of Latin jazz.

In 1977 Mongo Santamaría received the American Grammy Award for “Best Latin Recording” for the work Dawn.

In 1999, Rhyno Record Company, based in Los Angeles, California, recognizing his contribution to Latin Jazz, released the “box set” (CD) Skin On Skin: The Mongo Santamaría Anthology (1958-1995), which includes 34 of his most successful pieces (from his rumba albums, his LP with La Lupe and his projects in the fusion of Jazz and Latin) and an extraordinary literature about his career written by actor Andy García, musician Poncho Sánchez and other connoisseurs of the Latin Jazz genre such as José Rizo, Luis Tamargo, Joel Dorn and Miles Pelich.

The legendary musician was extremely honored and grateful for the distinction Rhyno gave him by introducing this historic anthology to the world. As stated in the conversation with Jaime Torres, Mongo said:

“This is the fruit of many years of work, music made with taste and love.”

May he rest in peace and eternal glory to him.