Bella Martinez and International Salsa Magazine by the hand of www.SalsaGoogle.com. “Salsa has always been that rainbow that shines immediately at the end of the storm”.

During my most recent visit to the north, after the fury of the flooding associated with storm Ida allowed me to arrive in New York, I made my way to El Barrio’s ArtSpace to enjoy a night of salsa. Salsa has always been that rainbow that shimmers immediately when the storm subsides.

I entered the venue with the artist who is the subject of my upcoming book: Henry Knowles, also known as the “World Salsa DJ”. We identified ourselves to the checkpoint girl at the entrance, not before presenting our COVID 19 vaccination card and after receiving a good amount of hand sanitizer. Henry had to fulfill his artistic commitment for the evening, so I put my belongings away to free myself a little and be able to socialize with the crowd behind my mask.

Once admitted to the venue, I completed the regulatory round of recognition, which I took the opportunity to say hello to several acquaintances I had not seen for a long time. I realized that I am honing my skills to recognize my people just by identifying their eyes. I reflected on this detail while I was making the rounds, at the same time that the music caught my attention because of the tasty repertoire. To my surprise, the song “Mejor Que la medicine” by my beloved Víctor García y su Sonora Sanjuanera was playing, which I never imagined I would hear outside of Puerto Rico, in that environment full of connoisseurs. I registered the DJ in front of the dance floor. I realized it was my first time listening to the musical selection of Joe Gonzalez, better known as DJ Paz. I approached him and let him know that his repertoire was “bravo”.

During my most recent visit to the north, after the fury of the flooding associated with storm Ida allowed me to arrive in New York, I made my way to El Barrio's Art Space to enjoy a night of salsa. Salsa has always been that rainbow that shimmers immediately when the storm subsides. — Bella Martinez and Henry Knowles, also known as the “World Salsa DJ”.

I had gone to listen to Henry Knowles, whom I admire beyond his ability as a DJ, for his musical management and cultural diligence. Henry has been a promoter of our Afro-Antillean culture since 1977. During his artistic career, in addition to DJing, he has been a promoter, producer, and artist manager; successfully working with Ralph Mercado Management (RMM), Sony BMG Music, and Dave Maldonado Entertainment.

The purpose of my visit that night at El Barrio’s Art Space was to set the scene with Henry in the neighborhood, where Knowles himself began the story that I am transforming into my next book. The idea of this next literary proposal is to share it with anyone who wants to read a story of self-improvement and a lot of salsa. It is guaranteed that these lyrics will catch the interest of all Afro-Antillean music lovers.

While I was discovering details, which you will be able to read, later on, I had several surprises. But that’s another story, which I’ll tell you later.

We identified ourselves to the control girl at the entrance, but not before presenting our COVID 19 vaccination card and after receiving a good amount of hand sanitizer. Henry had to fulfill his artistic commitment for the night, so I put my belongings away to free myself a bit and be able to socialize with the crowd behind my mask. — Henry Knowles, also known as the “World Salsa DJ”.

Since 1999, Izzy Rodriguez has focused on the promotion of events where salsa stars, and early on in what was his recently launched event promotion career, Izzy became the most loyal promoter of salsa events on New York soil. As a relevant fact, Izzy had started in salsa long before committing himself to event promotion. Let’s just say that he fell in love with salsa through dancing, becoming one of the most outstanding artists of the great Eddie Torres’ corps de ballet. At the age of 16, Izzy managed to apply his formal training in ballet and jazz to combine it with his love for salsa. While still a teenager, he achieved professional dancer status in the highly competitive Nuyorican salsa scene. That fact, in fact, should not come as a surprise since Izzy is the son of a dancer from the Palladium era: Vivian Saldaña. In his case, one could say that dancing comes to Izzy from the salsa genes he inherited from his progenitor and his maternal grandmother.

Since 1980, when Henry Knowles and Izzy Rodriguez met at Club Epoca, this dynamic duo has been a winning duo. I attribute the success of this duo to the passion they share for the salsa sound, which they both support from their own spaces.

As a bonus, I managed to give a bear hug to my dear Luisito Salgado, better known as DJ Louie Love. As a curious fact, DJ Louie Love was the DJ that several years ago I hired and moved from New York to Puerto Rico to entertain the agape on the occasion of the nuptials of my princess, not only because he is a great DJ. He is also one of my favorite people.

I affirm that the turnout depends on the quality of the artists who share their talent. And this night in reference could be summarized in a meeting of salsa connoisseurs, where DJs had no room to invent; a meeting of DJs in the New York neighborhood where Henry began his successful career as a disseminator of our culture around the world, plus a dance floor adorned with celebrities, among which I managed to highlight Debbie Mercado, daughter of salsa manager and creator of Ralph Mercado Management; Denisse, daughter of the ever-remembered mambo dancer Cuban Pete; Gucci designer Dapper Dan and New York-based Puerto Rican politician Adam Clayton Powel, Jr: Adam Clayton Powel, Jr.

I conclude that we are still in salsa. Fortunately, the alchemy that was given to gestate what is still known today as salsa is still alive and well in the same neighborhood where it all began.

Long live Salsa!

By: Bella Martinez “The Irreverent Salsa Writer”
Puerto Rico

Bella Martinez led a pretty fun life — Bella Martinez,

WebSite: Bella Martinez

Article of Interest: Mel Martinez I come from Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico is Salsero

Dominican Republic where the traditional music is merengue expands to diverse musical rhythms such as bachata, rap, salsa, among others, and this time we had the opportunity to present 2 great musicians (both cousins) called Héctor and Cuso Cuevas , who have joined their talents and experiences in music to found the Orchestra who baptized it “Son Borojol” in March 2015, which is characterized by being a different and very tropical band, its name derives from a tribute to that popular sector because there the genre of son has always been danced.

Héctor Cuevas, was born in the Dominican Republic and lived a season in the USA, from the age of 13 and 14 he began his musical life with Johnny Ventura learning and working in the USA with respect to music, he was also in Caracas, Venezuela, Miami where He was musician for Hansel and Raul in the 80s.

In the “Son Borojol” Orchestra he is integrating a musical group that has several members from other countries apart from Dominicans and he mentions that the vast majority are Venezuelans, among them Cesar Augusto Anuel better known as Albondiga, a great trombonist, arranger, composer and musical director of the Latin dimension. He said he was very happy with the coupling of the members of the orchestra, who at each party give their best, showing their talents to please the dancing public.

The orchestra is composed of experienced musicians who have the peculiarity of having 3 violins (which are from the symphony), trumpeters and other instruments which manage to make a difference in quality and sound, when playing either Cumbia, Merengue, Son , Guaracha, Charanga, Traditional Salsa (La sonora matacera style, jhonny pacheco, Roberto faz)

He comments that once they had a contract with a Latin music label, where Hector wanted it to be pure salsa but they wanted a compilation of different Latin rhythms (merengue, salsa among others) but the most important thing is that the music was from Son Borojol and not from other artists, for a time they were counting on the support of maestro Sony Ovalle (who passed away on December 13, 2020).

The experience that Son Borojol has, in addition to its members, is added the great career he has had in various orchestras with his cousin and renowned bassist Cuso Cuevas (he also died in 2020), who worked with Félix del Rosario, Joseito Mateo, Jhonny Ventura, Santa Cecilia among others. For his part, Héctor Cuevas, played with the orchestras of Hansel and Raul, Jhonny Pacheco, Primitivo Santos and others in the United States.

With this project, the Son Borojol Orchestra has the objective that the public can enjoy different musical genres such as cumbia, danzones, salsa, boleros, Latin jazz and of course the son, a rhythm that every day continues to penetrate more and more in taste. popular of young people; since normally the more adult people who dance are montuno, habanero, bolero and son.

But apart from this particular objective, they have the following as their main idea:

“Our goal is to conclude some songs in the portfolio and prepare to travel to the United States, where they already want to get to know the orchestra, but for that we continue to rehearse hard, because we want to stay for many years to make our people happy every weekend and at private parties. How we are doing it ”, he expressed.

Héctor Cuevas, who is currently the musical director, once commented… “In those trips that I took to the Dominican Republic, I always had the idea of forming an orchestra of my own, since I have the experience because I had The Boston Latin Band, I met with my cousin Cuso Cuevas and we invited other proven musicians and today Son Borojol, it is a reality that continues to rise every day and our presentations speak for themselves, because we try every day to improve in quality, sound and interpretation ”.

Although he currently conducts the orchestra alone, he continues on in honor of his cousin Cuso Cuevas; During the Covid 19 pandemic, they took advantage of this time when all the events were canceled and the closure to record their new musical themes so that when the events opened they were ready for everything that came to them in the future; At least now in 2021 they began to open clubs and other venues, mobilizing dynamic activity in the country, of course with a much shorter work period than before or opening much earlier to take advantage of the regulatory time given by the government ( flexible quarantine)

Hector and Cuso Cuevas - Charanson — Photo of directors Hector and Cuso Cuevas

Currently they have many television offers and live events on the beaches of the country, and when everything is normalized with the pandemic, make their musical tour that was planned in 2020 to different countries of the world And as the penultimate stop in the USA and finally in the Dominican Republic .

A message to his viewers in this interview was the following: “That they take care of themselves, that they always have friends in their hearts and many blessings, and if they have a goal to follow that they do not deviate and always continue forward … nothing stops me and I keep moving forward and that’s what makes you feel good and reach that goal and don’t look back … ”