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His reaction to the scholarship

We are here with Venezuelan percussionist and musician Omar Ledezma Jr. Good afternoon, Mr. Ledezma, how are you? Nice to meet you.

Same to you, Karina. It’s great to be participating again in the activities of International Salsa Magazine, a magazine that I have much appreciation and I’m find of it. Here we are always at your service.

According to your website, you received a scholarship to study at Berkeley College of Music. How did you receive the news that you were selected?

That was interesting because when I arrived in the United States, I applied for the scholarship, so I had to extend my stay here in order to attend the audition in a December. In January, I got a letter that said I passed the audition and awarded the scholarship to study at the school. That was one of the most important news in my life.

So you were in the United States at the time you received the scholarship.

Yes, because there was no way I could have done that in Caracas, where I am from. So, I had the opportunity to travel to Boston to apply for the scholarship. Thank goodness, I had the opportunity to come and everything worked out fine.

Regarding technical and musical issues, what differences between your native country and the United States did you notice?

The first thing I noticed was that there were many opportunities. Really, I can say that I didn’t face the same constraints as in Caracas. When I started playing, I had many opportunities to go abroad to take my art. I already had the experience of having done it in my country with many other artists.

I think It would’ve been no different if I was in Caracas because I would have taken all the opportunities, played with many people and made my career there. However, I was able to go to Boston and took that opportunity. A few months later, I was already playing with school teachers, classmates, graduates and new people I met in a very interesting way. Despite my constraints related to the language, you can establish such interaction with all of them.

We understand that you are teaching at the SF Community Music Center and work hand in hand with other academic institutions, what made you dedicate yourself to teaching and training young talent?

I think it is important to lay the groundwork for the future. The present is lived now and the past provides us with experience, but we should always open the road forward for the future and new generations. I think that legacy for musicians is very important. We have to pass those teachings on to new generations.

Do you feel that the language shut doors on you at the beginning?

Not really. I have always thought that language should not be a limitation to fulfill your dreams. You have to respect the language of the country you are moving to, but without forgetting the mother tongue with which you were born, which is why I am a big supporter of bilingualism. You have to learn English, but without forgetting Spanish. It is a very important tool for young people whose parents were born outside the United States and moved here, but they should not forget their roots.

His experience at the Tempo Latino Festival

You have already told us that you have had the opportunity to tour the world. Could you tell us a little about your experience with Tempo Latino?

It was a very important experience for me and the group that I’m in, Pacific Mambo. It was an incredible experience with a massive attendance and it was surprising that we were able to meet that many people after the pandemic. We were playing in an arena full of people where we were warmly received.

It was very nice to feel the warmth of the live audience again and massively.

How was the flight, the arrival, the reception and everything that happened before the show?

It’s interesting because when I lived on the Northeast United States coastline, it was very easy for me to travel to Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and other parts of the United States. Moving to California makes it more difficult because the trip is longer. It takes me about 11 hours to get to any port in Europe, and then being there, you have to make connection to get somewhere else. In our case, it was a full day of travel, as we arrived through Portugal. It was there that we waited for our connection to get to France. There were many people entering through the port of Lisbon, but there was no problem at all.

Already in France, the welcome the Tempo Latino staff was absolutely incredible. The audience was already waiting for our show. Then, we arrived to the village where the festival takes place and traveled a very beautiful route with spectacular scenery. Despite the fatigue, we fully enjoyed the trip.

When you played in the arena, how many people were there?

It is difficult to count the amount of people people there. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I can tell you that the arena was packed at the time of getting to the stage. We had the responsibility of opening for other well-known groups such as Los Van Van, so the arena was already full of people at the time of performing our show.

How was the audience reception towards you?

The audience reception was very warm and touching. People did not expect the band to have that contact and respect for the public like every time we perform. Many people enjoyed the hits we have had throughout our career such as OverJoyed by Stevie Wonder, Pink Panther Mambo, among other songs. When I did my solo with the timbales and the drums, I achieved a sound very much like We will rock you by Queen and I had to keep playing it because people were singing the song. An amazing thing that had never happened to me in my career.

I heard that when you left France, you turned out to be infected with Covid-19, could you tell us what it went?

Yes, it came a surprise for me because I had not been infected since I went back to work on the street after the pandemic. I returned to my activities in the schools where I work and started providing shows again, but I had never tested positive for Covid-19 despite having been exposed. In fact, I have traveled to play in many places and even went on vacation to Venezuela, but I never contracted the virus.

When I return from my travel at the Tempo Latino festival, I was feeling a little sick and thought it was the fatigue of travel, but it turned out to be Covid-19. Fortunately, symptoms were very mild and I followed the treatment prescribed by the doctors. It took a little while for the virus to go away, but it all worked out. It was a period of forced vacation, as I had to wait about 20 days for the tests to be all negative.

Are you planning other international tours to Europe or Latin America?

We are negotiating to go to the East Coast and Canada in November. We are also making preparations for another small tour in the fall.

Today, the San Francisco Jazz Organization is going to broadcast our concert for subscribers, which makes us very happy.

What projects do you have on hand?

With regard to the band is concerned, we have talked about the possibility of making a new album and the way we want to do it. We are already looking for the music, the composers and the songs for the pre-production of this new musical work.

Why romantic salsa?

So here we have Sebastian Medina or better known as SBM. He is a promising young talent born and based in the city of Boston. How are you, Sebastián? It’s ice to meet you.

Thank you very much for the opportunity, Karina. I’m super happy and pleased to be here with you.

Why use the acronym SBM as your stage name?

SBM refers to my full name, which is Sebastián Medina. In the genre, there are few artists who use a short, cool and different name. So, I wanted a short and quick name by which people could identify me.

In passing, I wanted to differentiate myself from other artists with an unusual name.

Many young people like you choose urban genres to start their artistic careers. Why did you choose romantic salsa as your main genre?

As a musician I really identify with salsa because of its instruments, its harmony and everything to do with them. Although I really like romantic salsa, I also like hard dura. I like all types of salsa. I have this impulse to play the piano, get into the genre and enjoy it.

As a singer, the situation is different because I have always wanted to be on stage like the greatest artists. Being also a composer, when someone sings my music, I feel very grateful and supported by those who do it. I want to bring that music to all the young people of the world.

Reading a bit about your history, it is clear that you have always liked this genre.

Yes, I am a romantic. I always have been.

How was Sebastian selected for his scholarship?

You were selected for a scholarship at the Berkeley College of Music. How was the selection process and the audition? What was your reaction to being selected?

I was a little nervous during the audition. I sang a song in Spanish and very few people sing Latin music here in Boston. So, I went in and sang a beautiful song by Marc Anthony to compete for that scholarship.

Here in the city there is a program called City Music Boston, whose directors saw my talent and followed my progress in high school. I got a message from them, took some classes they had offered me about music, theory and other things and, meet the people in there. When December came, I received an email congratulating me and informing that I had been accepted to the Berkeley College of Music. That’s when I started to wonder how I was going to pay for college, but I was called from the City Music Boston program to inform me that they would offer me the scholarship that would cover my studies.

What do you think are the selection criteria of the Berkeley College of Music for choosing young talents like you? What do you think made you stand out from the rest?

I studied at the Boston Arts Academy, which is the only arts school here in Boston. I am always very dedicated to my music, my learning and what teachers do. I like to learn a lot and absorb all the energy that the music scene has. I think that the judges saw that in me. They saw my hunger and passion for music and composition.

Now that I’m at the Berkeley College of Music, I’m studying to be an arranger because I want to devote myself to arranging my own music and that of others, but always focusing on salsa.

I read that you like Marc Anthony and Los Adolescentes, but you also like urban artists such as Nacho and Nicky Jam. How do you reconcile these very different tastes?

As you know, young people don’t identify strongly with salsa today. For that reason, I’m trying to combine salsa with the urban genre to create new sounds. I’m aware that people really like trap and reggaeton, so I want to use those genres to combine them with my music. My goal is to appeal to the very young.

It may happen that I ask a friend of mine if he likes salsa and he replied that his parents and grandparents were the ones who listen to it. It makes me wonder why he can’t enjoy that music too. That has led me to use other sounds and melodies that young people can identify with.

Would you dive into urban genres?

If a recognized artist gives me the opportunity to do so, I would like to try, but now I want to focus on salsa because that is my priority.

What are the age ranges of the people who listen to your music?

According to Spotify, most of the people who listen to my music are between 18 to 30 years old.

Do you feel there is little unity in salsa?

I think great artists have a legacy built and now it’s up to young artists to create theirs because that’s how music should be. There are not many collaborations at the moment and that must change.

In the case of the urban genre, artists release collaborations almost every week and I don’t understand why salsa singers can’t do the same. I think that a salsa song can have a different arrangement so that it becomes a remix, but unfortunately that is not being done. There is also a part of the public that is a bit narrow-minded, which is why they don’t support new salsa talents, but rather those who already have a consolidated career.

Do you think that this union is what differentiates salsa from urban music?

I think so because there are cases such as Bad Bunny, who when he does a collaboration with a lesser known artist, the latter will automatically get all those streams, views, followers, among other things. That means that he is indirectly lending his support to that artist and his followers are going to support him as well.

You compose and play the piano. What other areas are you developing?

Right now, I’m in my third year of college and I’m learning as much as I can. At this point in my career, I’m taking a lot of music arranging classes. I’m learning how to arrange my music, how to keep two tunes going at the same time and other things. I’m also taking production classes and all kinds of programs that help me shape my ideas.

Read also: Puerto Rican salsa singer Jai Ramos spoke to us of his life and projects

How his career started

All right, so we are here with French percussionist, composer and musician Dominique Patrick Noel. How are you doing, Mr. Noel? A pleasure to have you here.

Well, thank you. First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to interview me and to greet all those who is going to read it. Thank goodness, I am in good health and it is all good.

You are a self-taught musician who started playing by age seven. Did you learn everything by yourself or did you receive some kind of training?

Since I come from a family of musicians such as my father and my two grandfathers, I can say that music has always been a part of my life. I started playing the drums by listening to a lot of jazz and fell in love with this genre. That’s how I started to develop the movements and patterns of jazz and the drums.

In school, I started playing and learned solfège, percussion, drumming, among other things. When I turned 15 years old, I started playing music at a pro level because I have always had the pleasure of learning by watching musicians, who had much more experience. Thank goodness, I had my mind fresh to grasp and remember what I had seen, which helped me a lot to continue developing in percussion, different instruments, rhythms, among other things.

When I started playing Latin music, my first instrument was the bongo. I had a mentor named Alfredo Mujica Jr.,m who knew my dad and learned by playing with him. When it was my turn, he was giving the task of helping me understand the patterns and other things. He told me that the best instrument I could choose to start with was the bongo because it would help me understand a little more about how salsa works and that helped me a lot. He showed me the basic pattern and how to imitate the sounds I heard until they were similar.

After that, I also learned to play the conga, the Dominican tambora, the güira, the batá, the cajon and the timbales.

When you played the bongo for the first time, did you know you wanted to dedicate yourself to the Latin genres permanently?

When I was nine years old, I moved to Martinique and lived there for about four years. There I was fortunate to learn its folklore, its rhythms, its typical instruments and its dances. I also learned to perform all those genres with the drums and tried to absorb all I saw. Concurrently, the zouk era was beginning and I fell in love with the genre since I heard it for the first time.

Sometime later, my dad and I went to the United States to be with my dad, who was living in Washington at the time. It was there where I started to accompany him in several of his activities and shows with his orchestras. Then, I began listening more to salsa, cumbia and merengue, something I liked very much. Then, I told him that I would like to learn what he knew and play with him, to which he replied that it looked good, but that it was a profession that I had to take very seriously. Therefore, he advised me to listen to everything, even if it wasn’t Latin music because all genres nurture the musician in one way or another.

With whom he has worked?

You have worked with Tito Puente Jr, Tito Rojas, Izis La Enfermera de La Salsa, Frankie Vasquez, Lalo Rodriguez, among others. What have you learned from them?

I have had the opportunity to play with maestro Tito Rojas and his musical director, Celso Clemente, gave me some advice. When rehearsing, I approached him to thank him for allowing me to play the bongo with them and ask him for advice for my career, to which he replied that he liked my work very much and that I was very good for someone who was not born in this Latin music environment.

He also advised me that I had to move forward, never play down my goals, accept constructive criticism and always stay humble. I will never forget his words.

We know that you are a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which is well known for giving the Grammy Awards. What do you base to vote for a nominated candidate for an award?

There are several processes for artists to be nominated. For us the voters, it is a long process because we have the task of listening to much music and analyzing many details such as recording quality, lyrics, musicality and much more. There are many important elements to consider when choosing the person. I want to get to the point of saying that someone really deserves my vote for this or that category.

Voting takes time. It’s not something that you do in an hour or two, it takes a long time. The day of the awards ceremony, we already know who will the winners. At that point, we can say that all of them have managed to win via an arduous selection process.

Tell us about your song Mi Secreto with D’ William.

The skeleton of the song was my idea and I got together D’ William, to whom I offered to join the song. He wanted to collaborate with me in a merengue song for some time and I sent him the skeleton, which he liked and told me that something could be done with it. When he asked me if I already had the lyrics, I said no, but I wanted to base the song on an experience of mine, so I told him what it was about and the lyrics were written about that fact. Later, we made some additional arrangements and that’s how Mi Secreto was born.

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