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Today’s feature in “International Salsa Magazine” is multi-instrumentalist Jorge Gregorio Rojas Perozo

The name of the city of Barquisimeto continues to be known as the musical capital of Venezuela.

Characteristic by which, for years, is national and international reference and for proof of this, excellent musicians born in this city, who triumph and shine with their own light, demonstrating quality and versatility in all Latin rhythms stand out.

And today’s character in “Salsa Escrita” is the multi-instrumentalist Jorge Gregorio Rojas Perozo, artistically known as Jorge “El Papi” Rojas, extraordinary tres player, guitarist, bassist, arranger, composer, producer and teacher of Latin rhythms and tumbaos.

“El Papi”, as he is commonly known, was born on November 28th in the city of Crepuscular and from a very young age he started in this wonderful art of music, studying at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Music Conservatory.

Welcome Jorge to “Salsa Escrita”, through International Salsa Magazine, www.salsagoogle.com our readers want to know your wide and successful trajectory.

Thank you Professor Carlos Colmenárez for giving me the opportunity to appear in your well read and well known salsa column.

Jorge, tell us in general terms, with which groups have you been part of?

Professor, in 1986 I was director and founder of Grupo Identidad Caribe, in the salsa genre, then in 1987, founder of Grupo Miyare, also salsa.

From 1988 to 1992, director of the Orquesta Profecía (Christian salsa); 1996 to 2003, director of the Orquesta Monumental. From 2003 to 2008 I was director of the Epsilon Band (rock-pop) with music from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and from 2003 to 2010, bass player, accompanying on tours in Venezuela of: Henry Stephen, Trino Mora, Los Tres Tristes Tigres, Carlos Moreno, Los Pasteles Verdes, Los Ángeles Negros, Mirtha Pérez, Tania and Leo Dan; from 2007 to 2009, accompanying musician for singers: Mervin Rodriguez, Aurita Uribarri and Marco Molina.

Jorge “El Papi” Rojas, extraordinario tresista, guitarrista, bajista, arreglista, compositor

In 2012 to the present, tres player of “Sasón Latino”; in 2018, musical director of the Orquesta Siete Mangos y una Flor.

Today I direct the salsa group “Coimbre” and in parallel I am recording my own production of salsa and sones with lyrics and arrangements of my authorship to provide a contribution to Latin music from the state of Lara.

Also, I am giving virtual classes of Latin rhythms and tumbaos in the Cuban tres, bass and guitar, both nationally and internationally.

Very interesting and admirable your trajectory; Jorge, by the way, I remember a performance of you with the “Orquesta Profecía”, alternating with the “Estrellas de Fania” in the Municipal Coliseum of Barquisimeto, how was that experience? Well professor, it was an unforgettable experience, to be sharing the stage with Ismael Miranda, Larry Harlow, Bobby Valentin, Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz, Pete “Conde” Rodriguez and Jhonny Pacheco; in an unforgettable night, where we opened that concert, taking pleasant impressions from the audience and salsa specialists.

And I tell you professor, besides alternating with Fania here in Barquisimeto, we also did it in the Poliedro of Caracas, in a tour made by them in our country in 1993.

And as for international tours, which countries have you visited? Professor Carlos, I had the honor of performing in the brother country of Neogranadino with the salsa group “Coimbre”, where the Colombian salsa public enjoyed the Afro-Caribbean music, made by musicians from Barquisimeto; visiting the cities of Cucuta and Medellin.

Recently we accompanied the sonero Ramoncito Mendez in his show at the end of 2019, here in the state of Lara. Current projects “Papi”, what do you have out there? Friend Carlos, at the moment, as I told you at the beginning, I am finishing my production and simultaneously I am teaching online classes, with people from abroad.

What are your digital platforms? They are, Facebook: Jorge El Papi Rojas; phone +58 426 3531337; email: [email protected]. Finally, on behalf of Salsa Escrita, we would like to congratulate you for your vast and interesting artistic career and we hope you continue to succeed in our country and abroad, with the help of God Almighty.

Multi-instrumentista Jorge Gregorio Rojas Perozo

Thank you Professor Carlos Colmenárez, for the interview in your salsa column, very grateful and I wish you long life to continue supporting and projecting the musicians from Barquisimeto, Venezuela and around the world.

Jorge El Papi Rojas

You can read: Henry Valladares, a brilliant, versatile, and disciplined percussionist

Digital voice effects processors

Although the technology of voice processors is not new and has been used for decades, first in recording studios when refining vocals and instruments, it is now available to anyone, be it vocalist, instrumentalist or both, now we are presented with the question, is a performer using it a good vocalist or not, in fact only if we have an “unplug event”, can we realise the vocal range actually, as I said before, it has been used for years in recording studios, as I said before, it has been used for years in recording studios, maybe they have given it another name but they “tweak” the voice on the tracks and you could notice it, only in live events you could perceive some differences and they said it was the “acoustics” or some other excuse.

Nowadays we can no longer distinguish it as it has been used and popularised in performances in front of the audience, whether they accept it as part of the show or just don’t care about the real voice. But don’t misunderstand this, because there are excellent singers who have used it or use it to have a virtual backing vocal with their own voice, special effects as required by the song and it is totally valid.

Courtesy of: Roz Firth

What is really unacceptable, or at least it is to me, is that I am a lousy “shower singer” who uses it to modify my voice to such an extent that it is a deception to “my audience”.

Technology has digitised the equipment by reducing its size and power consumption, adding extra functions to just processing the voice like in a recording studio, it has integrated the voice through a microphone to musical instruments, whether the vocalist is playing a guitar or other musical instrument while performing in front of an audience or accompanying himself in the recent “if the music inspires me to vocalise, it’s perfectly valid” home studios.

However, these very small pieces of equipment have their detractors, be they purists or bandleaders, the latter may argue that it “takes away the work of the extra musicians” but the current reality indicates that if you want to make a live performance you must take care of the economy of all and not only favour the orchestra or the producer of the event, what must prevail is the excellence of the music in front of the audience, and for that you need good vocalists and excellent musicians.

The technology of voice processors accompanied by digitised effects is already with us, there is no turning back, nor should there be, everything changes for the better and that leads us to have better vocalists and more qualified musicians, it gives the opportunity to emerging musical groups that do not have a large budget for extra musicians, recording studios … if you are good with little, you will be evaluated by those who really matter, your audience.

Now let’s talk about these vocal effects processors, what they do, what they look like, costs, etc.

What do they do?

They are electronic devices that allow echo effects, reverb, voice multiplication (to be and make your own chorus), enhance the vocalist’s singing in real time, pitch, depth, volume, add pre-recorded harmonies and loops, change tempo, gender, age and distort the voice, something you could never do on your own, all while performing in front of your audience, something unthinkable between how the artist sounds in studio and “live” and in addition to this we can integrate via MIDI connection a guitar, piano, synthesizer or simply next to the microphone, a harmonica, to the audio output.

What are they like?

They are small, portable and not expensive musical equipment digitized or purity of sound that emanates from them, are placed between the microphone, either dynamic, condenser … the main thing is its connection is XLR, these capture the voice processing it, mixing it to achieve and deliver a very refined voice (such as that of a recording studio operated by a sound engineer), directly to the audio system to the public, and are presented as desktop models or pedal, both do wonders.

Variety and cost

At this point we must remember that like all equipment, they are constantly updated, improving their quality and variety of effects and interfaces to other equipment, so there is a wide variety of prices according to their characteristics, currently we can indicate six really efficient voice processors, I established the order according to the price range and not preferences, in the links you can see videos of artists using them, their use and more.

TC-Helicon VoiceLive 3 https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CDY ($ 740)
Boss VE-20 Vocal Performer https://www.boss.info/global/products/ve-20/ ($ 360)
Zoom v3 https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/vocal-processors/vocal-processors/v3/ ($ 285)
Roland VT-3 Vocal Transformer https://www.roland.com/global/products/vt-3/ ($276)
EHX Voice Box Vocal Harmony Machine and Vocoder https://www.ehx.com/products/voice-box/ ($ 262)
TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G XT https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CMT ($ 229)
Behringer Virtualizer 3D FX2000 https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0A3P ($ 160)

AQUILES BÁEZ

Swing And Tradition Of A Distinguished Venezuelan Artist

Chapter I: Aquiles’ Farewell

“With all the pain in my soul, I must publicly communicate that my friend, my brother, my accomplice Aquiles Báez passed away this morning at 5 in the morning in the city of Aachen, Germany. Aquiles was in the middle of a concert tour here in Europe. He flies high gordito.” Ramón Arturo Aular (Báez’s friend, musician, and professor at the Aachen Conservatory of Music) informed the community through his Twitter account the Monday, September 12^th.

The virtuoso musician, noble guitarist, arranger, and excellent composer died of a sudden heart attack at the residence of his friend Ramón Aular. His last concert was held in the city of Cologne located in western Germany as part of his 2022 European tour, the first he did after the cessation of activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The noble 58-year-old artist had already performed in Spain and was preparing to present his music in some German cities such as Berlin, Tubingen, and Hamburg, before finishing his tour in France and Portugal.

“I think it is important to project the work that one has been developing in other latitudes. This is very interesting because I realize that the music I make is universal, it is not limited only to playing for the Venezuelan diaspora, which of course also provides an audience”. Báez expressed this to an international media.

During his artistic career, he recorded 17 albums and collaborated on more than 150 recordings with other artists. Báez was a professor at the Berklee College of Music (Boston, Massachusetts) and was recognized for his mastery of the guitar with “elements of mixed Caribbean and Afro-Venezuelan cultures with classical music and Jazz.” Fragment extracted from his biography.

In life, he shared stages with artists such as Paquito D´ Rivera, John Patitucci, Romero Lubambo, C4 Trío, Ilan Chester, Simón Díaz, Huáscar Barradas, Worlds of Guitars, Aquiles Machado, Serenata Guayanesa, Iván Pérez Rossi, Fareed Haque, Dawn Upshaw, Richard Bona, Luisito Quintero, Solo Razaf, Marco Pereira, Oscar Stagnaro, and Ensamble Gurrufío.

Before passed away, Aquiles Báez was preparing the publication of two studio albums and the creation of five more. He was also in charge of making the music for the Venezuelan play Mi último delirio, which premiered on September 2^nd with the lead role of his friend Héctor Manrique and with great reception from the public and specialized critics.

Chapter II: Getting to know the musicians’ Master to the rhythm of the compass

His older brother, Julio, was the one who instilled in him a love for music by giving him his first instrument, the Cuatro.

Aquiles Báez was always an irreverent musician who made the type of music that he felt. “It is important to make music from what one feels it is, from that forceful energy that is the act of creating…Lately, I have been respected. It was hard to get that position. They have not always respected me, perhaps because of my way of being, irreverent. The people who manage cultural spaces have always taken me as an anarchist… I consider myself someone accessible, the teacher thing hasn’t gotten to me, seeing everyone below me, that seems pathetic to me…” Aquiles expressed this to a Venezuelan media.

“Throughout his career, Aquiles has received various awards and recognitions. These include Pepsi music awards and the William Leavitt award given by the Berklee College of Music; In addition, he has stood out with more than a dozen awards as a composer of music for film, theater, and dance. Extracted from his biography.

In 1996, at the age of 32, Aquiles decided to move to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After two semesters he dropped out, considering that he was “learning the same thing but in another language.” And that was not only his thinking, but also what he demonstrated during his stay as a student at the academic campus, so shortly after he entered the Berklee College of Music again, but this time as a professor.

On this academic campus, he gave “clinics, workshops, and seminars at different universities and musical institutions such as Indiana University, Temple University, Queen College, Krems Summer camp, Curitiba Music Office, The Jazz School in San Francisco, among others, in Europe and the United States”, according to his biography.

Shortly after, he participated as a guest musician on the albums of Panamanian artist Danilo Pérez: Central Avenue (1998) and Motherland (2000), both albums nominated for Grammys.

Aquiles Báez was a founder and member of the board of directors of Guataca productions. In this space, they continue to support emerging Venezuelan artists. Báez’s methodology for finding new talent was to research, listen to them live and contact them. “Why not support those guys who come after you? Why not make life more pleasant for them? Or a lighter path than one had. This road is not easy at all, it has been very hard, and it continues to be hard. And one continues and believes that he has acquired a certain reputation…” Báez expressed this in an interview conducted by a Venezuelan media outlet.

Chapter III: Anecdotes of a famous life

Last night sharing with the beloved Maestro Carlos Cruz Diez (Panama. October 29, 2016)

Countless artists expressed their affection and grief for Aquiles’ departure, expressing testimonies of a life full of joy, love, and passion for musical colors.

“One of the artists who has inspired me the most and a great human being. He made it possible for us to make our first album, the tour of the United States and opened the doors of his home for us. We made a lot of beautiful friends with Aquiles. D.E.P, Maestro, compaíto Aquiles Báez”. Jorge Glem (Cuatrista and member of the group C4 Trio).

“The wonderful Aquiles Báez was a musician capable of playing all Venezuelan music of all genres“. Alfredo Naranjo (Vibraphonist)

“Dismayed by the sudden death of my dear friend Aquiles Báez, one of the great musicians of our country, guitar teacher, and eternal officiant of humor and simplicity”. Leonardo Padron (Writer)

“Today we are less. I have just been informed that our admired and beloved musician and my dear friend, Aquiles Baez, has passed away. This news is heartbreaking and unfair. Aquiles is one of the most creative and generous people I have ever met”. Héctor Manrique (Director and theater actor)

“Thank you for being an inspiration in music and a big brother in life. Without your unconditional support, I would not have even reached the corner”. Álvaro Paiva Bimbo (Guitarist and 2022 Oscar nominee for the soundtrack of the Disney movie “Encanto”)

“How can we forget this great friend and fellow adventurer”. Claudio Nazoa (Comedian)

“I was left with the desire to carry out the project we had to record an album together. What profound sadness!” Miguel Delgado Estévez (Musician, arranger, and producer)

Finally, the Venezuelan percussionist Omar Ledezma Jr. expressed his sorrow for the death of Báez.

LENTEJAS. That’s what the gordo called me. 7 years of my life I played and toured the world with Aquiles Báez. We met at one of his concerts at the Bellas Artes thanks to my dear Carlos Reyes, another great guitarist from our country, at the time I worked at the MACCSI. Years later, arriving in Boston, he called me to be in his group and I couldn’t believe it. The gordo was my musical hero thanks to his Platabanda and the number of times I saw him accompanying great singers. He was the one who told me to grab El Cajón and start putting in the merengue and the gaitas. I knew his bad jokes by heart: “Vamos a tocar la canción de DC: Di si encontraste…”, with him, I learned to be a person first, then a musician, I learned not to make ugly faces if I made a mistake, with him, I had to press on reading, to be punctual, to put my batteries.

Anyway… with the gordo I learned to be a professional musician, because with his virtues and defects, for me, he was the best.

I love you my gordo, wherever you are. Thanks. #aquilesbaez”.

You can continue reading the article about Omar Ledezma Jr. From The Venezuelan Melody To The Caribbean Rhythm.

Here is a small excerpt from this interview of 2021:

Years later, and with experience acquired in presentations, and groups, Omar Jr. met his first mentor, Aquiles Baez, a famous Venezuelan artist, guitar virtuoso. Together with Aquiles, he made his first international tour of the United States. “With Aquiles, I had the pleasure of playing Venezuelan music. We play with many artists in the United States… Thanks to him I developed percussion (Non-autochthonous element) in Venezuelan music”. Ledezma Jr. commented.

“Fall in NY. How beautiful are the colors of Autumn in NYC. Enjoying that watercolor of nature”. Aquiles Baez (November 8, 2018)

Melissa Aldana Will Headline The Wellington Jazz Festival

The Most Acclaimed Latin Saxophonist On The International Jazz Scene

Melissa Aldana started playing the alto saxophone at the age of 6

Melissa Aldana is a Chilean saxophonist and composer nominated for the Grammy Awards (2020) for her skills with this wind instrument, she has six studio albums, and her fame has spread to all Jazz circuits around the world.

Aldana with his quartet will headline the Wellington Jazz Festival 2022 to present to the fans the debut album with the company Blue Note Records titled 12 Stars, and you cannot miss the opportunity to experience this exceptional live performance with flowing harmonic notes seasoned with feeling in the Wellington Opera House (111 – 113 Manners Street, Wellington, New Zealand) on Sunday, October 23^rd from 7PM to 8:30PM, and the ticket price is $69.

The Wellington Jazz Festival is an entry point into the Jazz music calendar for fans and the curious. This event will offer more than 100 magical concerts in bars, restaurants, and live music venues in the capital. This year the splendid festival will take place in mid-spring in Aotearoa (New Zealand’s Maori name), featuring some of the best international Grammy Award-winning and nominated artists, as well as renowned talent from this Oceanian country and the world.

On the other hand, Melissa Aldana was the first South American woman and instrumentalist to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Contest (Washington -USA) in 2013. This artist born in Santiago de Chile in 1988 is a graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music with a full music scholarship in 2009, moreover, she also comes from a musical family where her father and paternal grandfather played this instrument.

The discography of this tenor saxophonist goes back 12 years when, at only 22 years old, she came out on the music market with her debut album Free Fall (2010). It is followed by Second Cycle in 2012, Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio (2014), and Back Home in 2016. Her fifth studio album was Visions (2019), an album that earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Solo by Improvised Jazz in recognition of her impressive tenor solo on her composition Elsewhere.

12 Stars was composed in Harlem (New York - USA) in 2020 — 12 Stars was composed in Harlem (New York – USA) in 2020

Most recently her record production is 12 Stars, an anecdotal album that she wrote during the Covid-19 pandemic and the product of the struggles she went through due to the breakup of a long relationship. “This is a very important album for me. I felt like I had a lot to say because of all the experiences I had during 2020. After the personal process that I went through, I feel more connected to myself and my imperfections… Embrace everything I hear, everything I touch, including mistakes, is more significant than perfection”. Aldana exposed in her biography

12 Stars was recorded under the Blue Note label and released on the music market on March 4^th. “I feel super privileged, but I had a feeling that this had to happen at some point. I’ve been very consistent with my band and my projects for a long time. I am very motivated for what comes next”. Aldana expressed to an international digital medium.

Melissa will end her presentations in Europe this year with a tour during November that will take her to the capital of Spain on Friday, November 11^th (Teatro Fernán Gómez) and on Saturday 12^th, she will be in Badajoz (Teatro López De Ayala). While on Monday, November 14^th, she will perform at the Zig Zag Jazz Club (Berlin-Germany), and on Wednesday, November 16^th, she will have the same but this time at the Porgy & Bess in Vienna, Austria.

The Padova Jazz Club (Padua- Italy) will be handed over to Melissa Aldana on Friday, November 18^th, and a day later she will do so at the Teatro Lauro Rossi in Macerata, Italy.

The interesting story of French percussionist Dominique Patrick Noel

How his career started

All right, so we are here with French percussionist, composer and musician Dominique Patrick Noel. How are you doing, Mr. Noel? A pleasure to have you here.

Well, thank you. First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to interview me and to greet all those who is going to read it. Thank goodness, I am in good health and it is all good.

Dominique Patrick Noel tells us about his story and beginnings

You are a self-taught musician who started playing by age seven. Did you learn everything by yourself or did you receive some kind of training?

Since I come from a family of musicians such as my father and my two grandfathers, I can say that music has always been a part of my life. I started playing the drums by listening to a lot of jazz and fell in love with this genre. That’s how I started to develop the movements and patterns of jazz and the drums.

In school, I started playing and learned solfège, percussion, drumming, among other things. When I turned 15 years old, I started playing music at a pro level because I have always had the pleasure of learning by watching musicians, who had much more experience. Thank goodness, I had my mind fresh to grasp and remember what I had seen, which helped me a lot to continue developing in percussion, different instruments, rhythms, among other things.

When I started playing Latin music, my first instrument was the bongo. I had a mentor named Alfredo Mujica Jr.,m who knew my dad and learned by playing with him. When it was my turn, he was giving the task of helping me understand the patterns and other things. He told me that the best instrument I could choose to start with was the bongo because it would help me understand a little more about how salsa works and that helped me a lot. He showed me the basic pattern and how to imitate the sounds I heard until they were similar.

After that, I also learned to play the conga, the Dominican tambora, the güira, the batá, the cajon and the timbales.

His career started at the age of 15 and his first instrument was the bongo

When you played the bongo for the first time, did you know you wanted to dedicate yourself to the Latin genres permanently?

When I was nine years old, I moved to Martinique and lived there for about four years. There I was fortunate to learn its folklore, its rhythms, its typical instruments and its dances. I also learned to perform all those genres with the drums and tried to absorb all I saw. Concurrently, the zouk era was beginning and I fell in love with the genre since I heard it for the first time.

Sometime later, my dad and I went to the United States to be with my dad, who was living in Washington at the time. It was there where I started to accompany him in several of his activities and shows with his orchestras. Then, I began listening more to salsa, cumbia and merengue, something I liked very much. Then, I told him that I would like to learn what he knew and play with him, to which he replied that it looked good, but that it was a profession that I had to take very seriously. Therefore, he advised me to listen to everything, even if it wasn’t Latin music because all genres nurture the musician in one way or another.

With whom he has worked?

You have worked with Tito Puente Jr, Tito Rojas, Izis La Enfermera de La Salsa, Frankie Vasquez, Lalo Rodriguez, among others. What have you learned from them?

I have had the opportunity to play with maestro Tito Rojas and his musical director, Celso Clemente, gave me some advice. When rehearsing, I approached him to thank him for allowing me to play the bongo with them and ask him for advice for my career, to which he replied that he liked my work very much and that I was very good for someone who was not born in this Latin music environment.

He also advised me that I had to move forward, never play down my goals, accept constructive criticism and always stay humble. I will never forget his words.

Dominique Patrick Noel next to Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan

We know that you are a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which is well known for giving the Grammy Awards. What do you base to vote for a nominated candidate for an award?

There are several processes for artists to be nominated. For us the voters, it is a long process because we have the task of listening to much music and analyzing many details such as recording quality, lyrics, musicality and much more. There are many important elements to consider when choosing the person. I want to get to the point of saying that someone really deserves my vote for this or that category.

Voting takes time. It’s not something that you do in an hour or two, it takes a long time. The day of the awards ceremony, we already know who will the winners. At that point, we can say that all of them have managed to win via an arduous selection process.

Tell us about your song Mi Secreto with D’ William.

The skeleton of the song was my idea and I got together D’ William, to whom I offered to join the song. He wanted to collaborate with me in a merengue song for some time and I sent him the skeleton, which he liked and told me that something could be done with it. When he asked me if I already had the lyrics, I said no, but I wanted to base the song on an experience of mine, so I told him what it was about and the lyrics were written about that fact. Later, we made some additional arrangements and that’s how Mi Secreto was born.