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José Flores Pérez

Jose Flores Perez, better known as Chevy El Pitirre De La Salsa, is a salsa singer who was born in the town of Cidra, Puerto Rico, but currently resides in Georgia. We have had a very pleasant conversation with the salsa exponent, in which we have touched on certain various professional and personal tissues never mentioned before. It is a real pleasure for us that he has agreed to talk with us and tell a little more of his personal story on this platform, which is International Salsa Magazine.

Origin of his artistic name

”Chevy” is a nickname his parents and friends always gave him and ”pitirre” refers to a Puerto Rican bird with very short dize, but a very strong character. Maestro Felix Ortiz name him ”El Pitirre” because of the way he sings and improvise in the stage and the trust between them was such that he even became the music director of his orchestra. This combination of nicknames was what made Flores start to become known by that way during the last four years of his career.

Influences and predilection for salsa music

The reason Chevy opted for salsa was the great influence from his family. His father was a salsa singer for local orchestras in Chicago, which made him listen to various Puerto Rican genres such as salsa, bolero, jibaro music and trova throughout his childhood.

There were years when he really enjoyed listening to hip hop and rap in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but it didn’t take long for him to reconnect with salsa when he started listening to Héctor Lavoe, Ismael Rivera, Sammy Marrero, Bobby Valentín, Cano Estremera, among others. Listening to all these idols and what they achieved led him to take salsa much more seriously.

His time in the military and formal beginnings in music

During his time in the military, he performed in different orchestras and accompanied various artists throughout Atlanta. Although this was a demanding career, he organized himself to pursue his interest in music. When he leaves the armed forces, he went to Puerto Rico, where he lived for a great deal of time until he moved to Georgia in 2016.

His current residence is still in this state for professional reasons totally unrelated to music, but he had been there around the time he served in the army, so this part of the United States was not unknown to him. It is there that he resumesd his musical career after so many years.

In 2017, he began to compose, but it was not until two years later when he decided to launch as a soloist, make his first single ”Instrumento de amor” and carry out his first independent musical project entitled ”Entre el amor y el vacilón”.

In this same year 2019, he took advantage of the internet and social networks to become known at an international level and released his second record production during the pandemic, but the singer does not think this situation has hurt his carrer. On the contrary, he believes that social media and digital platforms gave him the push he needed to promote his artistic proposal.

Recent projects

One of his most recent projects was carried out in 2019, is titled ”Atacando en Navidad” and was born from the songs ”Arbolito de Navidad” and ”Compay no se me raje”. The first is written by Chevy, but the latter was composed by the legend Johnny Vega. At some point, the artist decided that these two singles were not enough, so he created a full album based on the Puerto Rican parranda he always enjoyed as a child. The result is a mix of nostalgia, sadness, love and joy. He tells how Christmas was celebrated at home, his childhood dreams, what this time meant to his family and the sadness when a loved one dies that year.

One of the most significant songs is ”Navidad Sin Parranda”, which was written a year before Chevy’s mother died. She was so ill at the time that the whole family thought she suddenly would lose her life, but fortunately she did not. Back then, the salsero was beginning to imagine a life and a Christmas without his mother, as she kept the family together and her house was the meeting place for all the important dates.

It just so happens that Venezuelan musical arranger Willy Melo lost his father within a few days of receiving the song, so he was very connected to that same pain around the same time.

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Young Joseph

Joseph Gonzalez has been one of the greatest Latin percussion icons of our time and it is worth talking about his past and current accomplishments. He was born on March 12, 1953 in the San Juan Hill section of Manhattan and grew up in a mixture of cultures with Puerto Rican and Italian roots, which ensured that the young Joseph and the rest of his siblings were raised with the best of each.

According to the musician himself, his passion for music started in the 1950s when he listened to all kinds of genres and rhythms at home, which trained the young man almost without him realizing it. At home, his family used to enjoy the talent of Frank Santana, Machito, Jerry Vale, Tito Puente, Mario Lanza, among many other artists of the time. Upon hearing these names, one can already get an idea of what Gonzalez’s vocational training would be like in the future.

From a young age, he would liven up family parties by playing the conga. At the age of 15, the boy first became interested in music as something more than just a hobby to kill some time. The teenager gave signs that music would be a very important part of his life.

Already in the 1960s, Gonzalez had made his first long-playing record with Frankie Nieves, vocalist and neighbor of the artist who had set himself the goal of taking over the boogaloo world and become one of its greatest exponents. The album was called ”The Terrible Frankie Nieves”, was under the direction of producer Stan Lewis and contained all kinds of popular genres for those years such as R&B, guaracha, mambo and much more.

Self-taugh musician

Something very striking about this music is that he never attended an institute or school of arts, but learned everything by himself through the experience he gained in San Juan Hill, where the best Latin music orchestras were always heard and whose musicians lived and some even resided in Amsterdam Houses.

In 1971, he became  a member of the Ruben Betancourt’s orchestra, with whom he would play the group’s first LP entitled ”Orquesta Tentación” and published by the record label Mañana Records. A few years later, he married and soon he and his wife had their first daughter, to whom they gave the name Audrey Valentina. Around the same time, he separated from Rubénm stayed with ”Felix Morales & Orchestra Caprí” for two years and was part of ”Son De La Loma”, whose members were veteran musicians who taught Joe everything they knew.

Cover of the album ‘’62nd and 10th’’

During the 1980s, there was a dramatic decline in the Latin music scene, which caused Gonzalez to look for a regular job that could support his family and provide them with the the finaltial security they need. In those years, he partnered with jazzman Mario Bauzá and his orchestra, a group with which the percussionist finally achieved the level he was destined to get to.

He started making very important appearances in a lot of concerts with the Bauzá’s orchestra and recordings that would lead him to have access to many other opportunities on TV shows, film soundtracks, tours, awards, among many other things. This led him to be worthy of the Latin Grammy on several occasions and perform with stars such as Celia Cruz, Papo Vázquez, Arturo O’Farrill, Daniel Poce and many more.

His most recent album is entitled ”62nd to 10th”, which is absolutely dominated by Latin jazz and whose compositions are written by Gonzalez himself, except for one track. In this album, Joe Gonzalez once again demonstrates that he has not forgotten everything he has learned and is still as strong as ever.

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By Johnny Cruz, ISM Correspondents, New York, New York City

Who is Yamila Guerra

Yamila Guerra is a Cuban singer, dancer, actress and TV host who has always felt a great passion for music from an early age and knew she wanted to devote her life to the world of entertainment. She is the daughter of the famous Cuban duo Rosell y Cary and sister of famous producer, bandleader, arranger, composer, classical guitarist Yalil Guerra, who is a great friend of International Salsa Magazine.

We had the honor of talking with Yamila for a while and know a little more about her both personally and professionally. It was really a pleasure for us to have had her here and to know more about her great career.

Inclination for the arts from an early age and academic background

Yamila reveals that she has always felt very attracted to the art world and started this journey doing impressions of certain Cuban and foreign artists who she saw on TV. Some of them were friends of her parents’or colleagues because they shared the stage with them in all the activities they did in Cuba.

Evidently, the fact that she grew up in an artistic and musical environment included a lot in the inclination she had towards this world, but it was not the only thing that made her dedicate herself to all this. She always felt a natural and organic attraction to the world of entertainment, music and art.

Seeing that her career began at the Cuba’s National Ballet School, it can be said that the first area in which she began to develop was dance. When she took the physical tests, she was admitted to the institution and attended as a listener until she was old enough to be able to participate in the classes. She feels that she had a complete training because, besides studying classical ballet, she learned all the Cuban dances such as contradanza, Cuban son, cha cha chá, danzón, among others.

At the School of Artistic Varieties, she developed in areas such as acting, singing, music and much more. All these disciplines mentioned above helped her a lot with her professional future.

Once in the United States, she studied at Berkley College of Music and took singing lessons in some genres such as blues, jazz, country, ballads, among others. At other schools, she studied art history, marketing, business, sales and other areas that have served her professionally speaking.

Life in Spain

Guerra tells us that she left Spain and moved to Miami because she could not tolerate its cold climate and wanted to be closer to her family in Cuba, but she has many good memories and is thankful to the European country, as it gave her the opportunity to be a TV host on channels such as TVE, Canal Satélite Digital, Antena 3 and Telecinco. Likewise, she was able to take her music to different stages and many parts of Spain. She felt that the Spanish people welcomed her art with open arms.

Once she moved to Miami, she worked on  ”Sábado Gigante” as an actress with Don Francisco, whom she thanks for the opportunity his team gave her.

How business, economics and legality have helped her in her career

One of the first pieces of advice Yamila gives to anyone who wants to work in entertainment in the United States is to master the English language. The artist defines herself as an eternal student because she has always liked to learn everything, especially languages. In fact, when she was in Spain, she paid for an English academy once a week to learn that language because she knew it would be very important in her career in terms of negotiation.

She also stresses that it is important to find out about legal and business issues to deal with clients and partners in the best possible way and avoid loopholes that naturally arise in the entertainment world. Yamila believes that it is very important to separate art from business and ”not to be trusted with money”. The Cuban highlights the importance of being pragmatic about making decisions and not allowing the artistic part to prevent people from making the right decisions at the level of business.

Social media

The talented performer considers that social networks are a fundamental part of her work and promotion, so she thinks it is important to have a presence on each and every one of them and design a strategy depending on the characteristics of each one. She considers that it is very important to post videos and photographs in order to promote her work, but also use her platforms to talk about other more personal topics such as family, beauty, nutrition, love and other things. That variety of facets is what attracts so many people to her content.

As for her personal tastes, she confesses that she loves Tik Tok because she considers it a very organic and authentic platform. This is where she posts videos of herself acting and giving her opinion about all kinds of topics, something that gives her great exposure.

On this same issue, she stated that social networking has become essential to all types of professions and that we must all be present on them as much as possible because they have become part of our letter of introduction to others.

Tradicional Cubano

Yamila had been wanting to make an album fully dedicated to traditional Cuban music, which she considers to be the most flavorful, since it does not need a lot of instrumentation to feel it. It is very old, but it does not lose its flavor and its validity over the years. This is how her latest album ”Tradicional Cubano” came about.

This album includes composers such as Ignacio Piñeiro and Celina González. Guerra wanted to rescue this repertoire that she listened to when she was a child, since it always caught her attention and she was fascinated to be able to portray the Cuban culture and the lives of Cubans.

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