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The lobby of the Centro de Bellas Artes in Caguas served as a prelude to the concert, entitled Tocando y contando historias (Playing and telling stories), for which we came to enjoy “Perico” and his guests. Mario Ortiz, Jr. brought together a dozen trumpet players (Luis Figueroa, Richie Segarra, Roby Texeira, Rafael Lebrón, Kevin Ibáñez, Ricardo Marrero, Kenneth Torres, Rubén Días, Ricky Zayas and Simón Rivera) to pay tribute to Luis “Perico” Ortiz by performing his most emblematic solo: ‘Coro Miyare’.

Once in the concert hall, the child trumpeter Daniel Torres (whom Perico predicted would be his successor) and Luis “Perico” Ortiz kicked off the concert with a fun trumpet correspondence. The musicians, turned into actors, shared with us the scene in which we saw Luis “Luisín” Ortiz as a child, playing ‘Quítate de la vía Perico’ with his trumpet; introduction that gave way to the custodian of Ismael Rivera’s legacy (“Moncho” Rivera) to sing the emblematic theme to which “Perico” owes his nickname, while the audience enjoyed images of “Maelo” on a giant screen. The short film defined how “El Sonero Mayor”, personified by “Moncho” told “Luisín”, that from that moment on he would be called “Perico”.

Moncho also interpreted ‘Bilongo’, a song in which Richard Carrasco stood out on the bongo after the saxophones made themselves felt with forcefulness. “Perico” also claimed his turn with the trumpet solo that preceded a resounding “Buenas noches” in the voice of the virtuoso trumpet player.

The orchestra was integrated by: Luis “Perico” Ortiz on musical direction; Yturvides Vilchez, Jan Duclerc and Rolando Alejandro Lora on trumpets; Rafy Torres, Jorge Díaz, Randy A. Román, Mario Alonso Ángel Marulanda on trombones; Roberto Calderón on baritone saxophone, Luis Daniel Valentín Muñiz on tenor saxophone; Antonio Luis Orta and Luis Fernando Hernández on alto saxophones; David Marcano on timbales; Gadwin Vargas Vélez on congas; Richard Carrasco Ayala on bongo; Juan Manuel Rivera Colón on piano; Carlos Luis Martínez Peña on bass; Henry Santiago and David Carrero on backing vocals.

Then, Henry Santiago received the microphone to sing ‘Tres grandes amigos’. For the song, which refers to Tito Rodríguez, Tito Puente, and Machito; “Perico” introduced “Manolito” Rodríguez and Arianelys Ortiz Cruz, a blind autistic timbalera player.

He was followed by Norberto Vélez, who performed ‘Julián Del Valle’ (1978, Súper salsa) and ‘De patitas’ (1979, Luis “Perico” Ortiz, One of a kind) – songs of great vocal and interpretative difficulty, popularized by the unmistakable voice of Rafael De Jesús – with his usual sympathy. Nor-Bert once again demonstrated his powerful voice, and was matched by the saxophones, whose forcefulness did not diminish the power of Vélez’s voice.

“La India” arrived with her usual energy to interpret ‘Químbara’ and “Manolito” did his part singing ‘La Reina es la rumba’, in company of “La India”, alternating on the soneos.

Coro Miyare” made use of Richard Carrasco’s unbeatable performance in the bongo solo with drumsticks -which had been popularized by Roberto Roena-, followed by the crushing solo by “Perico”, the piano solo by Juan Rivera, the conga solo by Gadwin Vargas and the timbales solo by David Marcano.

The highlight of the concert was Gilberto Santa Rosa’s brilliant renditions of ‘Atrevida’ and ‘Planté bandera’; recorded and immortalized by Tommy Olivencia’s La Primerísima, to which Santa Rosa briefly belonged.

After the intermission, as a tribute to the “Niño bonito de la salsa”, “Perico” invited Tony Vega to the stage to perform ‘Así se compone un son’ and ‘Borinquen tiene montuno’, the latter adorned with an elaborate trumpet solo by “Perico”.

“Perico” brought Gerardo Rivas to the stage to perform ‘Río abajo va’ (1985, La vida en broma), popularized in the voice of Domingo Quiñones. Gerardo explained that he had accepted the invitation to participate in the concert without knowing which song he was going to sing, in a clear allusion to the vocal difficulty of reaching Domingo’s vocal register. Gadwin Vargas sprinkled the theme with a conga solo with a mozambique beat, very well achieved. Gerardo’s second song, ‘Perico lo tiene’, brought to the stage the cacique of the Rivas dynasty (“Jerry” Rivas, singer of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico) on the tres and Richie Bastar (bongos player of La Universidad de la Salsa). While Bastar took over on the bongo and the bell, Richard Carrasco took over the güiro. At the end of the intervention, “Jerry” asked for a round of applause for the mulato mayor, Don Rafael Ithier, who was enjoying the concert with all of us who were there.

Then, “Perico” dedicated ‘Perfume de gardenias’ to his mother; a speech that was enjoyed with an instrumental prelude performed by “Perico” and a great vocalization by “El Caballero de la Salsa”.

Next up was Rubén “Panamá” Blades, who received a standing ovation from the audience. This made visibility difficult, although it did not affect our enjoyment of the audio. Blades was in charge of the big hits ‘Plástico’ and ‘Pedro Navaja’ (1978, Siembra). During ‘Pedro Navaja’ Gadwin Vargas replicated the conga sound that Eddie Montalvo immortalized on the recording.

The stage was full when all the guests arrived to perform ‘Como vivo yo’, after Perico announced with a trumpet solo the song that would end the show.

As Luis “Perico” Ortiz said, the vote of love and confidence that we witnessed there will be remembered as an unrepeatable evening, which detailed what has been six decades of impeccable career that the trumpeter, composer, arranger and music producer has achieved.

 

 

 

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Heir to the solid musical tradition of his family, Justo Betancourt was an incomparable sonero, possessing a unique personal style, He began his career at a very early age in his native Cuba, where he participated with orchestras and bands.

In the 1960s, he arrived in New York, where he launched a new and brilliant stage of his career, singing vocals for the legendary and inveterate group, La Sonora Matancera, which was already established in the city. Betancourt stayed with the group for five years.

In later years, he was a member of the chorus of several groups, including those of Eddie Palmieri and Ray Barretto.

At the end of 1976 Justo settled in Puerto Rico, fleeing the limitations of the New York environment and separating himself from the tours and recordings of Fania All Stars, to enter the modern and freer scene projected by groups such as Sonora Ponceña, Willie Rosario, Bobby Valentín and Roberto Roena, among others, from the island.

With young musicians including vocalists Sammy Gonzalez and Tito Rojas, he created his own orchestra which he called “Borincuba”, a name to reflect the mixture of Puerto Rican and Cuban artists.

In 1976 Johnny Pacheco in his interest to maintain the successful formula of the modernization of the sound of the Sonora Matancera as the typical sound of his group (the Tumbao Añejo), unites the voice of Justo Betancourt with that of his compatriot Celia Cruz, it was the first time that this duo of Cubans in exile was reunited, in the album “Recordando El Ayer” and in which the young pianist Papo Lucca was presented in a big way. Justo’s voice was recorded in the songs “La Equivocada” (a duet with Celia), “Ahora Sí” and “Guíllate”.

 

That same year 1976, Justo is part of the ten vocalists that the Fania All Stars summons for his first production in a recording studio in the project “Tribute To Tito Rodriguez”, in which he performs the song “Cara De Payaso”, (the other vocalists were Santos Colón, Bobby Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Miranda, Ismael Quintana, Pete “Conde” Rodríguez, Rubén Blades (his first recording with Fania All Stars) and Chivirico Dávila (his only recording with the group).

To complete this productive year, Justo Betancourt joins percussionist Mongo Santamaría as the lead vocalist for the musical work “Ubane”, with the production of Marty Sheller, one of the important experimental albums of the salsa boom, a work that recovers the saxophone for the Salsa and bembé orchestra in the old Cuban Guaracha of the 50’s, and in which a constellation of New York, Cuban, Puerto Rican and Colombian musicians participate.

However, the album did not succeed in definitely catching on with the public and ended in the most unjust failure.

With his new orchestra, he recorded four albums, of which he recorded as lead singer in only two albums: “Distinto Y Diferente” (1977) which includes the songs: “No Estás En Nada”, “Distinto Y Diferente”, “Soy Profesional” and “Óyela”; and “¡Presencia!” (1978) which includes a tremendous new version of the bolero “Psicología” and the song, composed by Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso, “Camarón”. Justo was always among the best and remained oblivious to the decadence of the industrial boom of New York Salsa at the end of the decade.

His secret was to remain bravo by performing authentic Caribbean music without the commercial additives imposed by Salsa.

The young singer who performed in the chorus and Justo’s student in Borincuba, Tito Rojas, became the lead singer in the following album “Con Amor” (1978), which Betancourt conducted and participated in the chorus.

Tito Rojas’ last work before splitting from Borincuba to start his solo career was the album titled only as “Borincuba”, in which Justo also served as musical director and backing vocalist.

So in 1979, when Tito inherited the band, he started his solo career changing the name to Tito Rojas y el Conjunto Borincano¸ which had a short existence.

After a series of his own albums, he became the lead vocalist of the Puerto Rican Power Orchestra and appeared on their first two albums (1987 and 1989).

In 1990, Tito Rojas embarked on his solo career with the romantic salsa album “Sensual” which reached first place in the Latin Music Hit Parade in April.

In the following years, Betancourt, residing between New York and San Juan, continued in the inertia of the Fania contracts. In March 1979, when the Fania All Stars were part of the group of musicians who traveled to the island of Cuba to participate in the “Havana Jam Festival”, a musical exchange between the United States and Cuba organized by CBS and held at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, Justo Betancourt and his compatriot Celia Cruz, for obvious political reasons, could not travel with the group; for this reason Justo decided to leave the All Stars.

Nevertheless, his contract with the Fania company remained in force, and that year he released another album titled “Justo Betancourt” (1979), produced by himself and Louie Ramirez, which included the songs “Yo Sin Ti” and “Qué Más Quieres De Mi”, among others.

In 1981, Betancourt returns to record again with the Sonora Matancera in an album entitled “Sonora Matancera Con Justo Betancourt”, produced by Javier Vásquez and recorded on the Bárbaro label, a subsidiary of Fania and owned by Jerry Masucci. On this album, four guest musicians appear for the first time to record with the Sonora: Pedro “Puchi” Boulong: on trumpet, José Daniel: on the tumbadora, Elpidio Vásquez Jr. (son of the bassist): on second bass, and Mario Hernández: on tres.

From this work the hit “Mala Pata” and a new version of the bolero “Hoy Sé Más” stand out.

In 1982, he recorded his last work on the Fania Records label “Leguleya No” (1982), with his own production company RMQ and with the arrangements and musical direction of Ray Santos and Javier Vásquez.

From 1982 onwards his appearances were variable, he participated in Israel Sardinas’ LP, “Israel, la Verdad” (1984), and participated in Celia Cruz and Tito Puente’s album “Homenaje A Benny Moré Vol. 3” in 1985, in one of the songs: “Tú Solo Tú”.

Except for these participations, he made no recordings between 1983 and 1989.

And so, there were plenty of reasons for Justo Betancourt, despite so many successes, to end up in virtual anonymity and indifference. He gradually withdrew from the world of the studios, although he continued to perform sporadically.

After years of recording silence, he returned in 1990 with his style with the album “Regresar” on his own label RMQ, of which he was the producer, director and did half of the arrangements written by Eric Figueroa.

In 1992 he released the album “El Bravo De Siempre”, for Rafael Viera’s RV Productions label, which featured the participation of Cuban percussion legend Carlos “Patato” Valdes, among other great Puerto Rican musicians.

In 1994 he participated in the project of Puerto Rican producer and musician Frank Ferrer called “Descarga Boricua”, alongside more than 30 experienced local and international musicians such as Ismael Miranda, Jerry Medina, Papo Vázquez, Juancito Torres, Alex Acuna, Mario Rivera, Pedro Guzmán and Ángel “Cachete” Maldonado, among others. There, and in several songs, he resorted to his superb vocal resources as in his good times. In the second work of the Descarga Boricua, edited in 1996, he participated briefly with some soneos in the song “Abrázate a Puerto Rico”, as well as in the third album of the reunion of the virtuous Puerto Rican musicians.

He returned to the recording studios again in 1998 with the CD “Mató” for the El Paso label in Puerto Rico, and from which the song “El Lema Del Guaguancó” stands out in the most vigorous style of Arsenio Rodríguez, composer of the song.

He also made his return as guest singer of the Fania All Stars for the concert of April 29, 2000 in Puerto Rico, a return that he made together with Ismael Miranda and Luigi Texidor to the group.

Justo Betancourt has participated as a backing vocalist in the recordings of many Latin music orchestras and works of renowned artists, such as La Conspiración de Ernie Agosto, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Roberto Roena, Willie Colón, Eddie Palmieri, Willie Rosario’s orchestra, Héctor Lavoe, Adalberto Santiago, Kim De Los Santos, Van Lester and the Puerto Rican Power orchestra, among others.

In 2002 he participated for pianist Papo Lucca in the musical project “Festival de Boleros” with the song “En Cada Beso”, along with a constellation of Boricua singers and musicians.

Sources:

Por: Jose Ramon Tremaria

Ecued

Fania Stars

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