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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

Jimmy Delgado’s ongoing projects and legacy of Johnny Rodríguez

Salsa news in New York

Hello everybody! As always, we have the latest in the salsa scene for our audience. Today, we will talk about Jimmy Delgado’s ongoing projects and the life and work of Johnny Rodriguez during his career.

Jimmy Delgado and his new album

This is Jimmy Delgado

Jimmy Delgado is an artist born in New York City, United States, on July 29th who has had a very prolific career in the Latin music world. There is not a lot of information about the years in which he became interested in music, but it is known that he started in this world in 1974, that’s when he began working with various orchestras and artists of renown such as Ismael Quintana, La Tipica Novel, the Big Band of Ray Barreto, among others. With this last group, he would perform again in the 1980s and work about five and a half years.

In parallel, he continued to work as a musician for other singers and orchestras, such as Willie Colón on timbales and bongo. At the same time, it is he who replaced one of the most important members of La Típica 73. But his career does not end there, as he also worked with Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Luis Perico Ortiz and many others.

With such a track record, it is not common for him to be so sucessful and for each of his projects to enchant the audience, no matter what time. Today, he has returned to back into the limelight with his most recent phonogram entitled A Mis Mentores…To My Mentors. Timbalero, conguero and bongocero has made these unreleased tracks available to his fans on all music-related digital platforms and are the following:

Si Hecho Palante / La Libertad

Algún Lugar Bajo El Sol

De Qué

Adoración

Alma Con alma

Sin Timbal

Recordando A Barreto

Qué Bonita Es Mi Tierra

Ahora Si Voy A Gozar

(Bolero Medley) La Noche De Anoche / Cada Vez / Sé que volverás

Jimmy´s Descarga

Jimmy being interviewd by Johnny Cruz and El Rubio

Life and work of Johnny Rodriguez

A particularity of Johnny Rodriguez is that he was one of the first artists to create musical trios, which was completely new in the 1930s. That has not stopped him from achieving success with his partners, being the lead voice of the group Johnny Rodríguez Y Su Trío. One of the singles that made him better known was Fichas Negras, which is still remembered by many despite the years that have elapsed since its release.

Johnny traveled throughout Hispanic America and much of Europe to offer his talent to as many fans as possible. One of the countries where he was most successful was Puerto Rico, where he performed constantly on stage and even worked with TV shows on a recurring basis.

In his last years, he hosted a radio show in which he provided advice to young artists who were starting out in the artistic world and talked about his own musical tastes, showing that he believed that past ages were better in that respect. Even after his death many years ago, his legacy is still present in the old and new generations due to the great talent that always characterized him.

Johnny Rodríguez, Manuel Jiménez, Lalo Martínez, and Celso Vega in New York in 1943

Ismael Miranda Carrero “El Niño Bonito of the Fania All Stars”

Where did Ismael Miranda’s artistic nickname “El Niño Bonito de la Salsa” (The Pretty Boy of Salsa), with which he became known, come from?

I liked to dress up and look nice for the presentations on one occasion I went to the hairdresser’s and bought a suit for the show when I arrived at the hotel, Johnny Pacheco said to me: ‘How nice, the pretty boy is late! As always.

And from that day on they called me “El niño bonito de la salsa” (the pretty boy of salsa). Pacheco gave the nicknames to everyone in the Fania All Stars.

Johnny Pacheco had a lot of faith when he came up with the idea of making this movie and it was a success.

People vibrated with our songs and we took advantage of 4 emblematic concerts to record it.

That’s how we have to walk through life. It is enough to know that we are doing things right to reap triumphs. Said the trumpet player and composer.

Perico also took the opportunity to tell where all that tasty Caribbean rhythm comes from, of which they are such good exponents. “The folklore of Latin American music was born in Africa”. He recalled the first time he arrived with La Fania to this continent. He still has in his mind the gesture of the Africans when he saw people from other parts of the world playing the congas like masters. We all felt proud, he said.

Miranda also recalled that on August 6, 1980, he arrived for the first time in Barranquilla to present a concert with Héctor Lavoe.

“We were used to performing on huge stages and singing with a well achieved sound; in Barranquilla there was nothing like that, but something magical happened, the affection and joy of the people infected us.

Hector and I gave a show of height, at the end we realized that we enjoyed it completely with all the people of Barranquilla.

During the conference, Perico Ortiz explained why he never recorded an album with Las Estrella de la Fania.

“I never recorded an album, but I participated in many concerts. At that moment I felt in my heart that it was time to sing and I told Jerry Masucci to give me the opportunity, but he did not see me as an artist, but as a trumpet player and arranger, so I decided to retire from La Fania and concentrated on recording my first album as a soloist in 1977 titled My Own Image”.

Ismael was born in Aguada, in western Puerto Rico, but as a child his family settled in New York. He began singing in English in school plays when he was only eight years old, and was even part of a children’s group called “Little Junior in the Class Mate”.

Soon after, he began taking singing lessons at a music school at 46th and Broadway, and then to improve his singing skills he studied with a music teacher recommended to him by Tito Rodriguez.

The environment in which he grew up helped him cultivate his love for music. First he wanted to be a percussionist and not a vocalist. That is why at the age of 10 he told his mother of his desire to buy a conga. Later he acquired a bongo, which resounded throughout the neighborhood. He got to play the conga in Andy Harlow’s sextet, and was part of the Sexteto Pipo y su Combo. But he finally turned to singing, for which he was assisted by Ismael Rivera.

He made his first recording in 1967 with José Luis Pastrana Santos, a musician, composer and timbalero from Santurce, known as Joey Pastrana, on the album Let’s Ball.

This album, recorded for the Cotique label, contains Ismael Miranda’s first big hit, the song “Rumbón melón”.

Facebook: Ismael Miranda

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.

From Peru and based in France we have Wálter Antonio Rebatta Hinostroza is a brand new and spectacular percussionist.

We are honored to present in this new release, one of the most outstanding figures of Latin music, representing the brother country of Peru, who has put the name of the musicians born in Inca lands very high in the world.

With you, directly from France, we have as a special guest Wálter Antonio Rebatta Hinostroza, a brand new and spectacular percussionist, who was born on September 14, 1973, in Bella Vista, Callao, Peru, being artistically known as “El Chato”.

Welcome Wálter to Salsa Escrita “La Columna Salsera de Barquisimeto, Venezuela”. It is a great pleasure to have you as a special guest in International Salsa Magazine, www.SalsaGoogle.com.

Thank you very much to you, my friend, Professor Carlos, for the invitation to your well read and recognized column and I take this opportunity to give a sincere greeting to all Venezuelans who are like my brothers.

How did you start in music? Well, teacher in my neighborhood called Ventanilla, in Peru, I grew up and since I was a child I breathed musical air, where at the age of 6 years old I was already playing “El Cajon”, traditional Peruvian Creole instrument, under the tutelage of my older brother Kike Rebatta, who took me later to learn other percussion instruments and prepare me with music theory, and then enter the music school of the renowned teacher Edelmi Chavez, and thus join the ranks of the most renowned orchestras in my country, such as: La Iniciativa, Orquesta la Grande, Banana Latin Jazz, among others.

Wálter, which international orchestras and artists have you accompanied? I have accompanied and worked with “Los Hermanos Colón” from Puerto Rico and among many groups, I have had the honor of being on stage with my Venezuelan brothers, Hildemaro “El Sonero del Amor”, with whom I have a great friendship, as well as with the master timbalero Alfredo Villamizar, from whom I have learned a lot and from whom I must thank through his column Salsa Escrita. “Chato”, you are currently based in the French city of Grenoble and we would like to know how is the salsa movement, especially in Europe. In fact, professor, in 1995, I came to Europe with the “Orquesta Salsa Perú” and I met Mr. Rodolfo Guerra, with whom a great friendship was born and I became part of the “Orquesta Sincopa Latina”, directed by him, being present in his productions: Salsa que te pasa, Demasiado corazón, Mi bachata, Puerto Rico, Todo, Escándalo, Mi silencio, Mi toque, Habla conmigo and Azafata. Wálter, I have heard that you have accompanied great salsa artists in their presentations, tell me who? I have had the honor of accompanying the late Tito Gómez, Willie González, Luisito Carrión and the great Venezuelan sonero Orlando José Castillo “Watussi”.

Also, let me tell you professor, that I have worked in the Italian television Media Set, in the very popular program “Notte Vola”, also in 2002, I participated in the Tour of the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz, along with the orchestra of the prestigious world famous violinist Alfredo de La Fe.

Likewise, my friend Carlos, in 2004, I performed in numerous events with Latin jazz groups, among them “El Royal Cuba”, of the Cuban musician and singer Eduardo Céspedes.

In 2007, I participated in the prestigious and famous festival of San Remo with the singer Daniele Silvestri, with whom I have recorded in his productions. In 2009, I participated in the Italian tour “Terromotati Dil Abruzzo”, conducted by the famous singer Laura Pausini and later that same year I participated again in a tour in the United States for charity with Pausini again.

Excellent Wálter, and what can you tell us about the orchestra you are currently working with and what are your future projects? Professor Carlos, at present I am an official musician of the renowned orchestra “Mercadonegro” and in relation to my projects, is to form my own group and perhaps dabble in bachata, but without leaving aside the salsa, since living in Europe I have met many bachateros. And something very important, my friend Colmenárez, I am also working on the project of my Venezuelan compadre, the musician Edwin Sanz, whom I would like you to interview at some point.

Very good Wálter, congratulations for your career, what are your contacts on digital platforms? My Facebook is: Wálter Antonio Rebatta Hinostroza and my whatsapp: +41 77 5122633.

We want to wish you the best on behalf of Salsa Escrita “La Columna Salsera de Barquisimeto” and that you continue to put the name of Peru on high in all the stages of the world.

Thank you a thousand times, Professor Carlos Colmenárez, for taking me into account and thus make my career known and offer my greetings, thanks and respect to all the salseros of the world through International Salsa Magazine, www.SalsaGoogle.com and long live salsa, Peru and Venezuela, united forever…!