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Do you enjoy Latin music? Would you like to get more involved in this genre and share your passion for Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Merengue and more. Why not joint our Global Team of volunteers as a correspondent?
You can ask for more details with no obligation and we’ll be happy to talk to you about the benefits that come with the role [Read more…] about ISM / December 2024
Latin America / Peru / Lima
Renzo Padilla. At the age of 15, Renzo began his career as a backing singer with the “New Band Salsa” Orchestra. His time with this group was brief, because later he would join the Orquesta La Original, made up of Peruvian musicians based in Buenos Aires.
In the year 2000 he moved to New York City, fulfilling a dream that he thought was impossible. That same year he signed a contract with the Grupo Fuerza Juvenil, he participated for two years in this group that was nominated for the Billboard awards in 2002.
He meets the timbalero Jimmy Delgado and he offered him a project to record, so Renzo resigns from Fuerza Juvenil and decides to record with Delgado, his first single titled Salsa con Dulzura. After this recording he was invited to accompany the most renowned artists in the world of salsa, such as: Frankie Hernández, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Miranda, Cano Estremera, Ismael Quintana, David Pabón, Roberto Roena, Marvin Santiago, Meñique, Ray Barreto. , Adalberto Santiago, Cuco Valoy, Junior González, Paquito Guzmán, Yolanda Rivera, Luigi Texidor, José Bello, Pedro Conga, Cheo Andujar, Anthony Cruz, Luisito Carrion, Maelo Ruiz, Tito Nieves.
Another of his dreams came true when he met the master Willie Colon, he was invited by him to perform a song by Hector Lavoe, in a New York nightclub. He was also invited by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico on several occasions.
In 2003, Ray Barreto and Adalberto Santiago met again, in which he participated as a chorister at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York.
In 2006 with bassist Ray Martínez he recorded his second album Alto Nivel, and recorded two songs with the Narváez Orchestra. In 2008 he sang with Jimmy Delgado at the Leyendas de la Salsa Concert, along with a lineup of artists such as Luis Perico Ortiz, Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz, Lalo Rodríguez and Adalberto Santiago.
Renzo also sang in the second part of the Legends of Salsa Concert in tribute to Ismael Quintana, where Tony Vega, Luis Perico Ortiz, Lalo Rodríguez, Héctor Tricoche performed, among others.
In 2009 he was a soloist with the Lavoe All Stars Orchestra, made up of musicians from Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe, such as Professor Joe Torre, José Mangual, Jimmy Delgado, Eddie Montalvo, Reynaldo Jorge, Milton Cardona.
In 2010 he was called by the New York group “Our Latin Thing”, to share the stage with Victor Manuel.
On the other hand, Renzo began to develop his talent as a composer. One of his compositions Donde Esta Tu Amor was recorded by Puerto Rican singer Maelo Ruiz.
In 2014 he got together with Jacob Plasse to form the Melaza Group, in which all the songs are his. In that same year, he participated in the largest salsa group, the “Fania All Stars”, and also sang for the recording of the Narváez Orchestra’s album 65 Infantería.
In 2015 he participated as a backing vocalist and as a singer in the concerts of the piano emperor Eddie Palmieri.
In October 2016 he was part of the Eddie Palmieri Orchestra that traveled to Lima to perform a concert at the National Stadium. He has been a vocalist for Los Hermanos Lebrón.
In 2017 he had a successful tour of different cities in Japan. Currently he continues to sing in Lima and on tour around the world.
This talented Peruvian singer is considered one of the promises of salsa. He will continue in his rising career of success and international recognition.
North America / USA / New York
Cuban multi-percussionist, Orestes Vilato, is undoubtedly one of the greatest figures in the history of the Cuban drums known as timbales.
During the fifties, the Vilato family moved to New York, salsa capital of the world, where young Orestes would rise to fame as an innovator of his beloved traditional instrument, “Los Timbales”. While living in New York for 25 years, Orestes was intimately involved with many musical organizations that played seminal roles in shaping the course of Latin Music around the world.
Among the many groups were: Fania All Starts (founding member), Ray Barretto, Tipica 73 (founding member), Los Kimbos (founder-director), Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Rivera, Joe Cuba, Eddie Palmieri, Ruben Blades, La Lupe, Celia Cruz, Rolando La Serie, Chico O’Farril, Lionel Hampton, Los Chavales de Espana, Cal Tjader.
Other artists with whom he has recorded or worked include: Winton and Bradford Marsalis, Paco De Lucia, Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Cachao, Andy Garcia, Emilio Estefan, Gloria Estefan, Paquito de Rivera, Dave Valentin, Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, John Santos, Rebeca Mauleon, Giovanni Hidalgo and Raul Rekow.
In 1981, Mr. Vilato moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where he still resides with his family. From 1980 to 1989 he recorded and toured with the renowned Carlos Santana Band.
Orestes was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 (Latin Jazz category) for his CD, Ritmo Y Candela With Patato and Changuito. In 2009 his solo CD Its About Time was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
Orestes has recorded several movie sound tracks that include: Our Latin Thing, Mambo Kings, Carlito’s Way, Steal Big Steal Little, The Bird Cage, Dance With Me, Just A Ticket, Things To Do In Denver and The Lost City.
He has been a special guest artist in multiple Jazz Festivals around the country and Puerto Rico including the San Jose Jazz Festival. He has performed and taught at numerous music conservatories including The Berkeley School of Music, UCLA, Fresno University, Standford University as well as many conservatories overseas.
Orestes was given tribute at Yerba Buena Garden, Monterey and San Francisco Jazz Festivals.
Orestes’ style is one of the most imitated and emulated among recording-performing artists.
Historically, Cuba has been a tremendous source of talent and keeps on proving it to this very day. Through our great friend, Cuban tres player Ivan Camblor, we have been able to make contact with talented pianist Daniel Amat, who has revealed some of the most interesting facts about his life and career both in his native country and worldwide.
Daniel was fortunate to have been born into a musical family, starting with his father, who was known as ”El Pancho Amat” and had a great talent with the Cuban tres. On his mother’s side, there were also several musicians, so as a child Daniel always had contact with this fascinating world, to which he would belong a few years later.
By learning to play, he started with percussion, but little by little, he experimented with the trumpet and ended up playing the piano at the age of 13, since he saw it as a mixture between the sound world of the trumpet and the rhythmic world of percussion. This is the instrument that would finally hook him and for which he would later become known.
Daniel was a native of a small village in the country, where music could be studied at a basic level. However, anyone who wanted to attain an average level had to go to Havana if or if, but first those interested had to take some entrance exams in order to study in the aforementioned city.
After passing those tests, you went to the National School of Art (ENA), which was especially for the people from the Cuban provinces. In the case of Havanans, there was a music school exclusive for them. At the ENA, I met people from all over the country who played all kinds of genres, which helped me a lot. I studied with Ulises Hernández, who was an excellent teacher and one of the best concert pianists in Cuba” said Daniel on the issue.
He also told us that the school prepared him for many things, although he assures us that teaching is never complete, since a professional in any field must always look for a complement to add to that knowledge, which is given by practical professional experiences. The same happens with music and he is a great example of this.
In the same way, he pointed out that what he learned in the conservatory could not be learned on the street and what he learned on the street could not be learned in the conservatory, so the study and practice complement each other and are not mutually exclusive.
In addition to his studies at the conservatory in Cuba, he also began to pursue music in a much more professional way by playing charanga and danzones at the national hotel. He assures that this experience was very enriching, since he had the opportunity to learn what he could from older musicians with an immense trajectory.
Of that time, Daniel highlights his enormous will to know everything, so he always paid close attention to the anecdotes and stories that his colleagues told each other. Additionally, he was given a lot of advice on how to play or not, so he learned a lot during those years.
He also played with some Cuban popular music and danzón orchestras until he found his own style and released his first album ”El Piano Que Llevo Dentro” in 2003, which is when he formally started his solo career. It is since then that the piano started to be a fundamental part of his repertoire, although he never abandoned danzón, son and changüi. He also adds a bit of Latin jazz to his songs, which was always to his liking and he relied on what Chucho Valdez was doing with Iraquere to find the style he wanted to follow.
When Daniel turned 24 years old, he decided to leave Cuba and look for opportunities in other latitudes after marrying his current wife. It is there where his career obviously takes a new direction and many more growth opportunities for the young artist seemed to be surfacing.
While very far away from his homeland, he began collaborating with big bands and symphonic orchestras, but always playing and experimenting with the Cuban genres with which he started his career in the first place.
Since he had already traveled with his father to other countries in previous years due to his work, he developed many friendships and contacts with many people outside of Cuba, so he was able to get to work on his own stuff quickly and without delay. This led him to be called to perform at festivals and events in the United States, Spain and other parts of Europe.
Thanks to the above, Daniel has been fortunate to be able to work in the music branch without the need to look for other jobs as is the case of many other musicians when they emigrate from their respective countries. This has allowed him to focus one hundred percent on his musical projects and to start teaching jazz, Latin jazz, phrasing and many other areas.
The pianist is very happy because he will soon release a compilation of his first two albums called ”Una Parte de Mi” in vinyl format. For the same, he had the collaboration of his father ”Pancho” Amat, musician Orlando Valle ”Maraca”, maestro Chucho Valdéz, Sixto Llorente ”El Indio”, his piano teacher Ulises Hernández, percussionist Changuito and many more.
Read also: Edgardo ‘‘El Bambino’’ and his extensive and interesting musical career
Latinoamerica / Colombia / Cali
Latin percussionist born in Cali, Colombia. Since she was little she felt passion for music, singing, dancing and playing percussion. At the age of 17, she was invited by her cousin to a rehearsal and since she saw the Timbal she knew she had to undertake ‘the conquest for him’.
The first orchestra with which he worked was called Tumbadora, made up of women. Three years later she joined the Canela Orchestra, made up of 13 women and internationally recognized. Thanks to the tutelage and trust of percussionists from the most important groups in Colombia, such as Grupo Niche, Orquesta Guayacán, la Identidad and others, she was able to move forward and thus demonstrate that women, with effort, passion and dedication can conquer any instrument of percussion.
Elizabeth has had the opportunity to travel the world and share the stage with renowned artists such as Gilberto Santarosa, Andy Montañez, la Sonora Ponceña and the Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. With the latter two, he had the opportunity to share Timbal solos at the Bacardi Salsa Congress in Puerto Rico.
She recorded on the first album of Grupo Kemade Colombia directed by one of the most important musical producers in Colombia, José Aguirre, former director of Grupo Niche, Son de Cali and Yuri Buenaventura. In the educational field, Elizabeth founded the Percussion Academy in Cali which she directed for four years. In it children and adults received instruction.
Elizabeth has been based in Tampa, Florida for four years, where she develops as an independent musician. There he has shared the Timbal with renowned musicians such as Chago Martínez (timbalero and musical director of Víctor Manuelle), La India, Isidro Infante, Ramón Sánchez, Jerry Rivera and Michael Stuart. He is currently part of the Sol Caribe Orchestra.
Elizabeth has always proudly played the Timbale LP ‘Stainless Steel’, model Tito Puente. In her own words “I’m happy with my Timbale! I feel safe, calm and I love its sound”.
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