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Julio Vilchez and his orchestra conquer Miami

Peru continues to give us something to talk about thanks to all the salsa talent coming out that country in recent years and today we had the opportunity to talk with one of them, which is the producer, composer and singer Julio Vilchez.

After we communicated with Vilchez via email and WhatsApp to schedule an interview, we have managed to have a great conversation in which we knew a little more about the artist’s beginnings in this fascinating world that is music.

This is Peruvian producer, composer and singer Julio Vilchez

Childhood and musical roots in the Vilchez family

It is not surprising that Vilchez took that parth of life considering that his father, Juan José Vilchez Sanchez, was a talented actor, comedian and professional dancer who carried music in the blood and ran some of the most famous salsa clubs in the city of Lima, which served as a stage for important national and international groups and singers of all genres.

Having referred with admiration to his father because of all that he achieved in life thanks to music, he assured that music definitely ran through the veins of his family and had always been a very important part of his childhood and youth.

Seeing all this, the years were not many when Vilchez became interested in musical instruments such as maracas, the bongo bell and the güiro, which led him to participate in groups such as Raíces, La Fragua and Soy Calidad.

Salsa and other genres

A large majority of Peruvian artists whom we had the honor to interview have typically ventured in Peruvian Creole music before getting involved in salsa, but not Vilchez. In fact, he pointed out to us that his country was heavily influenced by Cuba musically speaking and there used to be a time when groups from the island visited Peru such as La Sonora Matancera and Los Compadres. Peru also received influence from Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, although to a lesser extent.

The artist also remembers that, at home, he and his family always used to listen to Venezuelan singers and orchestras such as La Dimensión Latina, Oscar D’ León, Luisito Quintero, Nati Y Su Orquesta, among others. In the case of Puerto Rico, of course Vilchez and his family used to listen to La Fania All Stars.

Vilchez was part of Raíces, La Fragua and Soy Calidad — Julio Vilchez was part of groups such as Raíces, La Fragua and Soy Calidad

Formal beginnings of Julio Vilchez in music

In the neighborhood Vilchez and his family lived in, the singer made friends with other local boys and met up with them to sing in a completely amateur way. In addition to that, he liked to participate in school talent shows, in which he delighted the crowd performing songs from Oscar D’León, Rubén Blades and Willie Colón.

After attaining the age of 17, he began working alongside his father in the business of running clubs, which gave him the opportunity to spend time with the members of the orchestra La Progresiva del Callao, who performed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in one of those places.

Since Vilchez loved to dance and the orchestra focused a lot on its choreographies, the young man identified himself a lot with the group and began to learn the steps the singers performed on stage. One day, the boys saw him dancing and invited him to sing with them in one of their shows, in which he danced very well, but he did not sing in the best way. For this reason, he got the opportunity to stay permanently in the orchestra, but only as a dancer for the moment.

Over time, he was grabbing experience on stage and getting over stage fright until he managed to keep up with the rest of his orchestra fellows with the passing of days.

Julio Vilchez with Cano Estremera — Julio Vilchez with Puerto Rican salsa singer Cano Estremera

Vilchez’s time in Venezuela

Vilchez made friends with a group of Venezuelan musicians who accompanied Oscar D’ León in one of his concerts and invited him to travel with them to Venezuela because they wanted him to be part of the sextet they were going to create, which was meant to perform at a tavern in Caracas.

Seeing that things were going well in Venezuela at that time, Vílchez decided to accept the invitation and immigrate to the South American country to try his luck. Once there, he spent a lot of time alone because the boys from the sextet traveled a lot, something which took advantage to get to know other groups, one of them being La Selecta de Cúa. One day, Vilchez was walking down the street and heard this orchestra rehearsing, but it needed a singer. That is when Vilchez proposed himself as an option, was admitted and worked for about two years in this orchestra.

Although he did well in Venezuela, he ended up returning to his native country because he missed his homeland and his father could not get used to having him away, so he packed suitcases and decided to return.

Cover of the album Tributo al Caballero by Julio Vilchez

Life in the United States

One of the songs he released in 1995 led him to make a video clip, which started to become very popular on music channels and shows, giving him the recognition Vilchez aimed for so long.

Since things were not going as he expected on his solo career, he joined the Orquesta La Novel to continue working on music for the next two years. Although his name was not as well known as Vilchez needed it to be, his song was still sounding loud internationally for quite some time, which led him to receive a proposal to perform eight shows with his orchestra in the United States in 2000.

When Vilchez and the rest of the musicians traveled to Miami, about nine members of the orchestra received proposals to stay in the country and decided to accept. It was there where the artist gathered his courage and says to himself ”I’m staying too”. That was over 24 years ago now.

At that point, the Peruvian had to look for other musicians to replace the others in order to finish the concert tour they had scheduled. It was then when he contacted José Alberto ”El Canario” through a Peruvian colleague of his to use his band for the remainder of the tour and so he did. Vilchez did two or three shows with this band and stayed in Miami from 2001 to 2004.

Given the lack of musical proposals, he spent a few years in New York, but returned to Miami some time later to work both with music and with a business sector linked to gastronomy, since living only from music is complicated. In addition to that, his children live in Miami and he wanted to spend more time with them, so this was also a powerful reason to return.

Birdland announces the new Latin Live Jazz Shows this February

North America / USA / New York

The famous Latin Jazz’s Nightclub brings to their stage four renowned artists of the New York Jazz scene to present their biggest hits during this month

Birdland kicks off the New Latin Live Jazz Shows with Arturo O’Farrill, a modern composer and pianist. He combines European harmony and instruments with those from India, Africa, and the Caribbean to bring a never heard ensemble sound to bear.

“Resist” comprises a weaving together of different influences into a new fabric, partly rough-textured, but with an internal dialogue that honors of each musical idea. There is the combination of flute (Alejandro Aviles) and tuba (Earl McIntyre) – two ends of the tonal and pitch spectrum, in duet with one another plus trumpet (Adam O’Farrill).

Sometimes they play the same notes, only octaves apart, and sometimes in counterpoint with one another. Latin percussion (Carlos “Carly” Maldonado) combines with African drums (Neil Clarke) and drum set (Zack O’Farrill), held together by the bassist Bambam Rodriguez. Special guest slam poet Baba Israel is also featured.

DATE: Sunday, February 3^rd
SHOW: 9:00PM & 11:00PM
PRICE: $40 General Seating

Continuing with the Live Jazz entertaiment in this famous Nigthclub will be Claudia Acuña, celebrating the release of her album “TURNING PAGES”. This new album is an exquisite reintroduction to a singer who has thrived at the cusp of jazz and Latin American music.

Slated for release on February 1st, 2019, the project captures an artist in the process of reinventing herself, with a program of strikingly melodic original songs expressing her singular vision. Please, visit her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Claudiaacunamusic/

DATES: From Wednesday, February 6^th to Saturday, February 9^th
SHOWS: 7:00PM & 9:45PM
PRICE: $20 – $30

The third important Latin Orchestra that will be present in this venue during two Sundays in February is: THE AFRO LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA, which is the resident large format ensemble of the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (ALJA) founded by Arturo O’Farrill in 2007 and dedicated to preserving the heritage of big band Latin jazz, supporting its performance for new audiences. For more information about the orchestra and other ALJA initiatives, please visit them at www.afrolatinjazz.org

DATES: Sunday, February 10^TH & Sunday, February 17^TH
SHOWS: 9:00PM & 11:00PM
PRICE: $40 General Seating

And finally, the Grammy nominated Argentine pianist, composer and bandleader Emilio Solla has chosen Birdland for the official premiere of his brand new TANGO JAZZ ORCHESTRA on February 24^th, a 17 piece band that incorporates many of the best NY jazz players.

SOLLA has written music for and recorded/performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Edmar Castañeda, and many others tango and Latin Jazz genius, and his album “Second Half” was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award as Best Latin Jazz Album. For major information please, visit www.emiliosolla.com

DATES: Sunday, February 24^TH
SHOW: 6:00PM
PRICE: $30

Birdland Details:

$10 food/drink minimum per person

Dinner is served between 5:00PM – 1:00AM

Venue: 315w 44th St, NY, New York 10036

Website: birdlandjazz.com

Afro latin jazz orchestra: Birdland — Afro latin jazz orchestra

Young Puerto Rican singer Jeremy Bosch supports the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum

There are many people who believe that salsa is a genre of past generations that does not have worthy youth representatives who stick up for this set of rhythms that has been keeping so many people dancing for so long, but fortunately they are wrong. Jeremy Bosch, whom we had the opportunity to interview at The Johnny Cruz Shw a few weeks ago is a god example of this.

We are honored to know that one of the new sensations of Latin music, specifically salsa, supports one of the most important institutions dedicated to the genre such as the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum, so we want to take advantage to talk a little about the career of this young singer and everything he has achieved so far.

Jeremy playing the flute — Jeremy Bosch playing the flute live

Jeremy’s beginnings in this world

Jeremy Bosch is a singer and flutist born in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who began his journey in the world of music singing and playing percussion in the church on his block while growing up listening to a great variety of artists including Hector Lavoe to Chicago and Tonny Bennett, so he had influences of all kinds.

Not much time would past before Jeremy took achevable steps towards the direction he was meant to take. At only 17 years old, he won a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in the city of Boston, United States, and graduated in 2023, specializing in jazz composition. From then on, what followed for the young artist have been successes and great proposals he could seize.

One of thse things he is best known for is having been the vocalist and flutist of the acclaimed group Spanish Harlem Orchestra, but that has not stopped him from collaborating with great figures in the industry such as musical director and Grammy-winning percussionist Pete Perignon, with whom he recorded the social short called ”Sería Una Pena”.

Johnny and Jeremy — Johnny Cruz and Jeremy Bosch posing for the camera

Jeremy’s professional career

Sometime later, he would have the opportunity to realize one of the most important works of his career, which is the tribute to the late Cheo Feliciano, which was recorded live at the Dizzy Club in New York City and was titled ”The Music of Cheo Feliciano. In addition, the project included Nelson Gonzalez, Johnny ”Dandy” Rodriguez and Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader Oscar Hernandez.

With regard to this great night for his career, Jeremy commented that since his debut both he and arranger and vibraphonist Felipe Fourniel had long time wanting to work on something about Cheo Feliciano and his legacy for a long time until they finally made it. This show was the sign that Jeremy has everything to become an icon of salsa and Afro-Caribbean music in general.

As for his solo career, he has made a few remarkable recordings and one of them was ”Prologo Hoy”, which included the participation of Nicaraguan singer Luis Enrique and Cuban vocalist and guitarist Alain Perez. It is a five-song EP that focuses a lot on Afro-Colombian and tropical music, while including some covers in English such as ”Love Holiday”, which gives a distinct flavor to the material as a whole.

Jeremy and Johnny on the set — Jeremy Bosch and Johnny Cruz on the set of The Johnny Cruz Show

Later on, Jeremy released ”Epilogo: la clave del tiempo”, which includes 11 tracks and is basically a mix of Afro-Cuban rhythms, soneo, urban genres, modern synthesizers, among other elements. The album starts with ”Locura” and continues with singles such as ”Try Again”, ”La Mala”, ”Autopsia” and a few more.

Support for the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum

In the social networks of the director of the Spanish Harlem Salsa Museum, Johnny Cruz, there is a clip in which the The Johnny Cruz Show host introduces Jeremy as his special guest on that occasion, promotes the interview with him and describes him as the sensation of the moment. Then, the camera goes n Jeremy’s face, who thanks the invitation with a smile and assures that they both will have a good time talking about his life and career.

We are honred to support young talents like Jeremy and, at the same time, to get the same support and love back because that is what salsa and the Latin music scene in general needs, that all those involved join together around it to keep it alive.

Career and interesting facts about Venezuelan singer and musician Omar Ledezma Jr.

Venezuelan singer, percussionist and music teacher Omar Ledezma Jr. has already talked to us in the past and has revealed important details regarding his life and career, but this time, our editor Eduardo Guilarte has been in charge of interviewing him and revealing some unknown details about his different facets professionally and personally.

Is such a pleasure to have the chance to talk to one of the most talented Latin musicians who currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and know so many things that the artist had not previously revealed.

Venezuelan percussionist Omar Ledezma — This is Omar Ledezma Jr., Venezuelan singer, percussionist and music teacher

Omar Ledezma’s beginnings in music and childhood

Omar Ledezma Jr. was born on February 17, 1972 in Caracas, Venezuela, and was raised in a very close family that gave him a lot of love and care since he was a child. Both the Ledezma and López families were very important in his growth, but it was from the Ledezma’s that he got his musical vein.

His mother and cousin José Vicente Rodríguez López decided to enroll him in the marching band at the Claret School, where he had his first contact with music by playing the snare drum, an instrument he was first assigned to play. It is also in the band where he started making friends with other teens who were already forming gaitas groups to compete in contests related to this traditional Venezuelan genre.

When he turned 16, he began to participate in these gaitas inter-school competitions in 1987 and 1988. In 1989, he participated in his first big musical event at the nightclub Mata de Coco. Omar assures that this was the official start of his career in a more professional way. A few years later, going hand-in-hand with his father, he began to take a deeper interest in music as a profession and wanted to experiment with other genres such as Afro-Cuban music and Latin jazz.

This path led him to join the orchestra La Charanga Clásica led by Mr. Frank Luzón. While playing there, he met several inspiration timbaleros such as Daniel Cádiz (from the Andy Durán Orchestra).

In parallel with all of the above, Omar was admitted to study in law school at the Santa María University, so he shared his time between his university studies and his professional musical activities. In his spare time outside the university, he played Latin jazz and was formed as a percussionist with his orchestra.

In 1995, Omar graduated as a lawyer as part of the class ”Honor a Venezuela” ranked in 12th place among his classmates. Although today he is not engage in law at all, he considers that having continued his studies was very important to him as a person because he would have a base on which to stand on in case his plans with music fell through.

However, the artist never thought about practicing law, since he was very clear that it would be difficult to do so due to the legal situation in Venezuela, so he continued to focus on his great passion, which was music. Besides, after analyzing it, he decided that he did not have a natural talent for that career.

In parallel, during those years as a law student, he made a trip to Cuba, which he claims changed his life completely. Some friends he made there, when seeing his skills as a musician, told him that he could be studying law, but that his life was and would be music forever.

Omar graduating as a lawyer — Omar Ledezma Jr. graduating from Berkee College of Music

The United States and Berklee College of Music

Just a few years after graduating, specifically in 1998, Omar made the decision to move to the United States looking for new opportunities and describes this trip as an exploring experience because many of his friends, orchestra fellows and acquaintances from the musical environment in general started taking new directions in the mid 90’s. The young man knew he wanted to do the same and chose the city of Boston to settle in at first.

Although he finally moved to Boston in 1998, already in 1997, his mother gave him the idea of going to the United States with an open ticket so he could decide whether to stay permanently or return. In the end, he opted not to use the return ticket and stayed in Boston to try to enter any music school through a scholarship.

After checking several options, he chose Berklee College of Music because it was the only college that allowed him to study composition and arranging as hand percussionist, so he auditioned to be admitted and was selected in the fall of 1999. He obtained a 70% scholarship, but he had to work hard to get the remaining 30%. In that sense, Omar assures that the same school helped him to obtain the corresponding permits to work legally in the country and thus be able to pay the percentage that is not covered by the scholarship.

Omar also told us that it was his friend Gonzalo Grau who helped him do the demo with which he auditioned to enter Berklee and it was a song of his own titled ”Cacao”. Today, he assures that that recording gave him one of the greatest opportunities he has ever had in life, which was to study there. He spent a total of four years studying in that institution and graduated in 2003.

During his undergraduate studies at Berklee, Omar had the option to study business and intellectual property and his lawyer’s training made it easier for him, but he defines himself as a ”natural born performer” and his life was the stage, so he did not see himself stuck in an office solving cases.

One of the first jobs Omar had in Los Angeles was replacing the singer from Johnny Polanco’s prestigious orchestra and that one that helped him take that place was Ray Barreto’s flautist, the late Artie Webb. The concert was held at the Mayan.

Omar playing the conga — Omar Ledezma Jr. playing the conga in a live performance

Family

As to the family part, Omar told us that he had married his wife Jennifer Radakovich about seven or eight years ago, but they have no children for the moment. This is because they are still analyzing their opportunities to settle permanently in the state of California, so he assures us that they are still building their future as a couple and as a family.

Jennifer’s family comes from Serbia and settled in Detroit, Michigan. They had to leave their country, which was then the former Yugoslavia because of the war that went on in the territory at the time. In fact, at a family reunion, his in-laws told him that his wife’s father arrived in the country on the boat anchored in Long Beach, California, The Queen Mary.

Pacific Mambo Orchestra

Omar Ledezma started his journey with Pacific Mambo Orquesta practically since its foundation in October 2010, when he started playing at Café Cocomo. Santana’s timbalero Karl Perazzo, who was already included in the lineup of the venue, proposed him to go to this place to play as a percussionist on Monday nights. The problem was that there was no money to pay him for the moment.

That’s when the directors of Pacific Mambo, Christian Tumalan and Steffen Kuehn, proposed to the owners of Cafe Cocomo to give them some space to have band practice. These Monday meetings ended up being paid rehearsals open to the public in exchange for 10 dollars a night. This lasted some years in which the 20 members of the orchestra were in charge of developing much of the repertoire that has made them famous internationally.

About this time, Omar said that, on several occasions, he and his orchestra fellows sat down to talk about the continuity of the band owing to the lack of money. The wonderful thing is that everyone always voted in favor of their stay in the group despite the adversities. According to the Venezuelan musician, it was this hunger and desire to succeed that made the orchestra what it is today.

Omar, Eric, Karl, and Edgardo — Omar Ledezma Jr., percussionist Eric Rangel, music producer Karl Perazzo, and bandleader Edgardo Cambon

These efforts worked and Pacific Mambo Orquestra managed to win their first and only Grammy so far in 2014. That year began with the orchestra’s appearance in one of the main banners of the iTunes page for a little over a week, which gave them a lot of popularity at that time and was not common for Latin artists and groups.

That same year, the group began touring with Tito Puente Jr. in August and were so successful that Omar and five other members of the group decided to begin campaigning for that year’s Grammys via e-mails to all the members of the jury promoting their latest album. Then, on tour, they received the news of their nomination (the second of Omar’s career), but they did not think they would win.

Much to the surprise of Omar, in January 2014, he received word that Pacific Mambo Orquesta won its first Grammy in the category of Latin Tropical Album of the Year. This event changed the lives of everyone in the group to the extent that large media outlets started looking at them. One of them was world-famous Billboard magazine, which published a piece talking about the band and its talents.

It is important to stress that, although it was an experience the musician will never forget in his life, he is aware that this is in the past and has to look ahead and focus on his future successes. At this moment, Omar and his companions are focused on making up for time lost during the pandemic and performing all the activities that confinement prevented them from doing.

The Conga Room closes its doors, but says goodbye in style

Recently, we learned some unfortunate news for the Latin music scene and the community in general and it is that The Conga Room, one of the most important nightclubs in Los Angeles, will close its doors this March, which has shocked those who used to frequent the cheerful and colorful place to forget their everyday problems for a few hours of dancing.

This great place was opened in 1999 by businessman Brad Gluckstein thanks to the support of leading figures in the entertainment industry such as businesswoman, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, actor Jimmy Smits, actor Paul Rodriguez and actress Sheila E.

Although it first opened its doors on Wilshire Boulevard in 1999, it was moved to L.A.A. LIVE about nine years later. After the change of venue, there were personalities interested in investing in The Conga Room due to the great project it represented at the time, such as rapper and member of the Black Eyed Peas William Adams (better known as will.i.am), actor of Puerto Rican descent Amaury Nolasco, former basketball player Baron Davis and former basketball player Trevor Ariza.

It was these great figures in music, acting and sports who made The Conga Room one of the most recognized meeting places for Latin music fans and its greatest exponents.

Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez at The Conga Roo — Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez celebrating The Conga Room’s 20th anniversary some years ago

The achievements of The Conga Room all these years

During the years following as of its reopening, The Conga Room became an iconic place for music lovers and contributed greatly to the development of the Latin music and cultural scene in Los Angeles.

During 25 years of operation, it has not only brought the best singers and DJs from California and the United States in general, but also managed to create a lively environment composed of all kinds of cultures that transcended musical genres, to the point that there were people of all nationalities dancing to the same rhythms without any problem, proving once again that music is a universal language we can all understand perfectly.

And speaking of music, its little stage witnessed more than 500 live shows that included big stars such as Celia, Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colón, Tito Puente, Ocar D’ León, Tito Nieves, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Carlos Santana, Elvis Crespo, Los Van Van, Buena Vista Social Club, Alejandro Sanz, Juanes, Fito Paez, Jerry Rivera, Eddie Santiago, Tony Vega, Zacarias Ferreira, Invasión Latina, Andy Montañez, Atercipelados, Aleks Syntek, Beto Cuevas, among many others. As for newer idols, The Conga Room has also received Ivy Queen, J Balvin, Maluma, Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi and many more.

It should also be mentioned that; while The Conga Room’s approach is to promote salsa, merengue and bachata; the nightclub is not limited to Latin genres. In fact, there have been great performances by rock, hip hop and R&B artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Justin Timberlake, Avicci, Snoop Dog, Ed Sheeran, Andy Grammer, Jamie Foxx and on and on.

This shows that The Conga Room was not limited to the original concept of its founders, but sought to go above and beyond to increase its assistance every day. Its management knew how to reinvent itself in spite of trends and circumstances, which is why it managed to survive so long.

Oscar D’ Leon at The Conga Room — Oscar D’ Leon performing at The Conga Room

The Conga Room’s definitive closure and farewell show

The Conga Room was inaugurated with music, so it must also say goodbye with music, so it will offer a private concert this March 27th featuring famous personalities who will meet at the club that day to say goodbye in style.

The main star of the event will be the renowned Puerto Rican singer Gilberto Santa Rosa, who will be one of those responsible for livening up the night for the show attendees with his greatest hits. Likewise, the host will be Jimmy Smits and he will be accompanied by Paul Rodriguez in the hosting of the show, who were bot very important in club maintenance for so long.

As for the reasons for the closure, founder Brad Gluckstein has issued statements saying that the ravages of the pandemic, the few events at the convention center and the difficulties in booking national artists with AEG Live (a company focused on the production and promotion of musical events) have made the business model of The Conga Room no longer viable in today’s economy. Not to mention that cost of living, inflation and high interest rates have changed the priorities of potential consumers.

However, despite the sadness that Gluckstein and the rest of those involved in the Conga Room project have, the businessman pointed out that not everything related to this mythical place will be forgotten, since Conga Kids, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting the social-emotional well-being of children through dancing, will continue to operate as before. This beautiful sister project of The Conga Room will keep its doors open despite the setbacks for the sake of the kids.