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Europe / Alemania / Munich

Javier Plaza was born on October 4, 1952 in the Target Shooting sector of the populous neighborhood of Sarría, in Caracas – Venezuela.

In 1957 the urbanization 23 de Enero was inaugurated and the Plaza Castillo family is one of the many founding families of this beautiful project of the government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Javier’s Plaza childhood and adolescence take place in this environment.

The parking lot of block 5 of the Monte Piedad area on January 23, was the space where Javier Plaza began to discover his skills as a percussionist, because it was the place chosen by the neighborhood boys to take out the drums, unload and share. Among some of these future stars we can mention Bitervo Plaza, José “Cheo” Navarro and Alfredo “Cutuflá” Franchesqui.

Starting in the mid-70s, he began his professional career in Latin music, forming part of groups such as Rumbón 10, Sexteto Juventud, Enrique “Culebra” Iriarte y su Orquesta, Culebra being the one who gave him the opportunity to be one of the orchestra singers.

This work opens the doors for him in the record market, with the help of producer Víctor Mendoza, he participates in recordings of different groups such as José Rosario y sus Soneros, Federico y Su Combo and El Clan de Victor.

At the beginning of the 80s, the Orquesta Café was formed, Javier is one of its vocalists along with Joe Ruiz and Carlos Espósito, managing to record one of the most important albums of his career and one of the most significant for the inhabitants of January 23, Due to the fact that most of its musicians are parishioners, the rehearsals were held in Monte Piedad and the economic resources for the recording of the album arose in the neighborhood, thanks to a great collaborator and music lover, Mr. Andrés “Culebra” Vasquéz.

In this group musicians participated, who at the time were not as recognized as today, among others Jose “Tucky” Torres, César “Chino” Pérez, Carlos “Kutimba” Espósito, Bitervo Plaza, Gerardo Rosales, Jorge “Venado” Ponce and the late Joe Ruiz.

By the mid-1980s, Javier began to knock on doors in the old continent and Alfredo Cutuflá, who lives in Paris, invited him to participate in Combo Ventú, a group established in Paris with most of its Venezuelan members.

There he began a successful career in Europe participating in different groups and collaborating in recordings and presentations of other artists. Thanks to the presentations of Combo Ventú, the director of the Conexión Latina Orchestra, based in Munich-Germany, contacted him to be part of their ranks, he has remained with this orchestra for 18 years, currently being the oldest musician of the grouping.

Since he (Javier Plaza) was hired by the Connection, he has lived in the city of Cologne-Germany, a place where a large group of Venezuelans live, many of them dedicated to culture.

He (Javier Plaza) reinforced his musical studies of vocal technique, theory and music theory at the Köln Mülheim and studied the German language at the IBM Institute.

He has participated in groups such as Kimbiza, La Charanga Nueva de Alfredo Cutuflá, the Colombian pianist Francisco Zumaqué, Salsamanía, Cesar “Chino” Pérez and Gerardo Rosales, without abandoning his responsibility within the Latin Connection vocalists.

With La Conexión, he has had the opportunity to accompany international stars of Latin music, such as Perico Ortiz, Ismael Miranda, Adalberto Santiago and Azuquita, among others. Javier comments that Nicky Marrero worked with La Conexión for five years.

Since 1992, Javier Plaza has been managing his personal project, the Son-Risa Orchestra. With her he has made two productions entitled “Libre Soy” and “Mi Música”, with most of the songs of his own authorship.

In 2006 he came to Venezuela with a project under his arm, lyrics, musical arrangements and a proposal, in search of private or government financial support.

The name of the project “El Reencuentro”, with which he planned to bring six talented Venezuelan musicians based in Europe to meet again with musicians who make life in our country and thus make a recording where this experience would be reflected, these musicians were Alfredo ” Cutuflá” Franchesqui, Orlando “Watussi” Castillo, Carlos “Kutimba” Espósito, Orlando Poleo, Yma América and José Ávila…

but the money was not enough to purchase the tickets. Therefore, El Proyecto Reencuentro was recorded with the musicians residing in our country, resulting in a product of excellent quality, among others, Nelson “Melo” Douglas, Alberto Crespo, Leonel Sanchez, Charles Peñalver, Alberto Naranjo, Tucky Torres, Rafael González, Carlos Julio “El Oso” Ramírez, Marcial Istúriz and José Ramoncini.

During the recording of this album, his mother passed away (02-04-2006), Rosario Castillo, popularly known in the neighborhood as Rosarito, to whom he dedicated this album and one of its songs was written especially for her.

The chorus of one of the themes of the new Son-Risa production says: “Let’s get the drums out again, let Caribe not die”.

As the boys did in the parking lot of Block 5 of Monte Piedad, we know that Javier Plaza and his Son-Risa Orchestra will have the support of all Venezuelan music lovers.