{{genrebox|name=Salsa |color=black |bgcolor=palegoldenrod |font color="blue" |stylistic_origins=Cuban, originating from a mix of Spanish Cancion and Afro-Cuban beats (Cuban Son, Guaracha, Rumba and Guaguanco) Jazz |cultural_origins= Cuba. It later spread and further developed in New York City, Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries ]]

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music. Originally, Salsa was not a rhythm in its own right, but a name given in the 1970s to various Cuban-derived genres, such as Son, Mambo and Son Montuno.

Regarding the genre's origin, Johnny Pacheco, creator of the Fania All-Stars, who "brought salsa to New York" (of which some members include: Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín), explained that "..salsa is and always had been Cuban Music."

Popular across Latin America and North America, salsa incorporates multiple styles and variations. Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a particular style developed in the 1960s and '70s by Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants to the New York City area, and its later stylistic descendants including 1980s salsa romantica and other sub-genres. The style is now practiced throughout Latin America, and abroad. Salsa derives from the Cuban son and mambo, as the music foundation is based on the Son Clave. The terms Latin jazz and salsa are sometimes used interchangeably; many musicians are considered a part of either (like Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto among others), or both, fields, especially performers from prior to the 1970s.

Salsa is essentially Cuban in stylistic origin, though it also has styles mixed with pop, jazz, rock, and R&B;. Salsa is the primary music played at Latin dance clubs and is the "essential pulse of [Latin] music", according to Ed Morales, while music author Peter Manuel called it the "most popular dance (music) among Puerto Rican and Cuban communities, (and in) Central and South America", and "one of the most dynamic and significant pan-American musical phenomena of the 1970s and 1980s". Modern salsa remains a dance-oriented genre and is closely associated with a style of salsa dancing.

The word salsa

Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language, and carries connotations of the spiciness common in Latin and Caribbean cuisine. More recently, salsa acquired a musical meaning in both English and Spanish. In this sense salsa has been described as a word with "vivid associations" but no absolute definitions, a tag that encompasses a rainbow assortment of Latin rhythms and styles, taking on a different hue wherever you stand in the Spanish-speaking world". Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants in New York have used the term analogously to swing or soul, which refer to a quality of emotionally and culturally genuine music in the African American community. In this usage Salsa connotes a frenzied, "hot" and wild musical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin culture, regardless of the specific style.

Various music writers and historians have traced the use of Salsa to different periods of the 20th century. World music author Sue Steward has claimed that Salsa was originally used in music as a "cry of appreciation for a particularly piquant or flashy solo". She cites the first use in this manner to a Venezuelan radio DJ named Phidias Danilo Escalona; Max Salazar traced the word back to the early 1930s, when Ignacio Piñeiro composed "Échale Salsita", a dance song protesting tasteless food. Though Salazar describes this song as the origin of salsa meaning "danceable Latin music", Ed Morales has described the usage in the same song as a cry from Piñeiro to his band, telling them to increase the tempo to "put the dancers into high gear". Morales claims that later in the 1930s, vocalist Beny Moré would shout salsa during a performance "to acknowledge a musical moment's heat, to express a kind of cultural nationalist sloganeering [and to celebrate the] 'hotness' or 'spiciness' of Latin American cultures". For a time the Cuban state media officially claimed that the term salsa music was a euphemism for authentic Cuban music stolen by American imperialists, though the media has since abandoned this theory.

Some doubt that the term salsa has any precise and unambiguous meaning. Peter Manuel describes salsa as "at once (both) a modern marketing concept and the cultural voice of a new generation", representative of a "crystallization of a Latino identity in New York in the early 1960s". Manuel also recognizes the commercial and cultural dichotomy to salsa, noting that the term's broad use for many styles of Latin pop music has served the development of "pan-Latin solidarity", while also noting that the "recycling of Cuban music under an artificial, obscurantist label is but one more example of North American exploitation and commodification of third world primary products; for Latinos, salsa bridges the gap between "tradition and modernity, between the impoverished homeland and the dominant United States, between street life and the chic night club, and between grassroots culture and the corporate media". Although one must note that all music throughout history has been taken from one concept to another thus creating a new sound. Clearly all music has its roots, while music continues to evolve such as going from Cuban Mambo and Son to modern Salsa.

Music writer Peter Manuel claims that Salsa came to describe a specific style of music in the mid-1970s "when a group of New York–based Latin musicians began overhauling the classic big-band arrangements popular since the mambo era of the 1940s and '50s", and that the term was "popularized" in the late 1960s by a Venezuelan radio station and Jerry Masucci of Fania Records. In contrast, Ed Morales cites the use of salsa for a specific style to a New York–based editor and graphic designer named Izzy Sanabria. Morales also mentions an early use of the term by Johnny Pacheco, a Dominican performer who released a 1962 album called Salsa Na' Ma, which Morales translates as "it just needs a little salsa, or spice".

Characteristics

Though the term salsa music is not necessarily precise in scope, most authors use the term to refer specifically to a style created in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Author Ed Morales has said the obvious, most common perception of salsa is an "extravagant, clave-driven, Afro-Cuban-derived songs anchored by piano, horns, and rhythm section and sung by a velvety voiced crooner in a sharkskin suit".

At its root, however, salsa is a mixture of African and Spanish music, filtered through the musical history of Cuba, and adapted by Latin jazz and Latin popular musicians for Latino populations, especially Puerto Ricans with diverse musical tastes. The basic structure of a salsa song is based on the Cuban son, beginning with a simple melody and followed by a coro section in which the performers improvise. Ed Morales has claimed that the "key staples" of salsa's origins were the use of the trombone as a counterpoint to the vocalist and a more aggressive sound than is typical in Cuban music; the trombone also carries the melody, while the rhythm is most generally provided by bongos, congas and timbales. Peter Manuel notes how New York and Puerto Rican salsa differs from the 1950s Cuban son in various ways, such as the greater use of timbales and trombones, the occasional use of Puerto Rican elements like the declamatory exclamation le-lo-lai, its frequent lyrics about barrio life in New York and elsewhere, the "smooth" sound of the "salsa romántica" style that emerged in the 1980s, and salsa's role as a soundscape for the Latino identity movement of the 1970s.

Songs and instrumentation

and a full drumset]]

Salsa bands play a wide variety of songs, including pieces based on plenas and bombas, cumbia, vallenato and merengue; most songs, however, are modern versions of the Cuban son. Like the son, salsa songs begin with a songlike section followed by a montuno break with call-and-response vocals, instrumental breaks and jazzy solos. In the United States, the music of a salsa club is a mix of salsa, merengue, cha-cha-cha, cumbia, and bachata, whether sourced from a live band or a DJ. Some salsa clubs also add reggaeton to the mix due to its popularity with youth.

The most important instrumentation in salsa is the percussion, which is played by a wide variety of instruments, including claves, cowbells, timbales and conga.

, an important percussion instrument]]

Salsa essentially remains a form of dance music; thus, many songs have little in the way of lyrics beyond exhortations to dance or other simple words. Modern pop-salsa is often romántica, defined partially by the sentimental, lovelorn lyrics, or erótica, defined largely by the sexually explicit lyrics. Salsa also has a long tradition of lyrical experimentation, with singer-songwriters like Rubén Blades using incisive lyrics about everything from imperialism to disarmament and environmentalism. Vocalists are expected to be able to improvise during verses and instrumental solos. References to Afro-Catholic religions, such as Santería, are also a major part of salsa's lyrics throughout Latin America, even among those artists who are not themselves practitioners of any Afro-Catholic religion.

Rhythm

, commonly used to play the clave rhythm by the clavero.]]

Salsa music traditionally utilizes a 4/4 time signature. Musicians play recurring rhythmic accompaniments often in groups of eight beats (two measures of four quarter notes), while melodic phrases span eight or sixteen beats, with entire stanzas spanning thirty-two beats.

While percussion instruments layer several different rhythmic patterns simultaneously, the clave rhythm is the foundation of salsa; all salsa music and dance is governed by the clave rhythm from the Cuban Son. The most common clave rhythm in salsa is the so-called son clave, which is eight beats long and can be played either in 2–3 or 3–2 style.

Even when the clave rhythm is not played by its own, it functions as a basis for the instrumentalists and singers to use as a common rhythmic ground for their own musical phrases. The instrumentalists emphasize the differences of the two halves of the eight-beat clave rhythm; for example, in an eight-beat-long phrase used in a 2–3 clave context, the first half of the phrase is given more straight notes that are played directly on beat, while the second half instead contains notes with longer durations and with a more off-beat feeling. This emphasizes that the first four beats of the 2–3 son clave contain two "short" strikes that are directly on beat, while the last four beats contain three "long" clave strikes with the second strike placed offbeat between beats two and three. Salsa songs occasionally start with one clave and then switch to the reverse partway through the song, without restarting the clave rhythm; instead, the rhythm is shifted four beats using breaks and stop-time.

Percussion instruments have standard patterns that reoccur in most salsa music with only slight variations. For example, this is a common rhythmic pattern called the cáscara based on the 2–3 clave, and is played on the shells of the timbales during the verses and less energetic parts of a song:

During the chorus and solo parts, the timbalero often switches to the following rhythm, which is normally played on a cowbell (the mambo bell) mounted on the timbales set:

The timbales pattern above is often accompanied by a handheld cowbell (the bongo bell) also played during the chorus but by another person, using this simpler rhythm:

The piano has many roles in salsa, being an important solo instrument and providing harmony, rhythm and sometimes even the lead melody. During the montuno section, in which the singers and chorus engage in a call and response pattern of singing, the piano player plays a repeating ostinato figure known as a guajeo or tumbao which serves as a backbone for the rhythm section. The piano always respects the clave. The montuno patterns have many variations, but are basically highly syncopated two-bar vamps made to match the clave. According to Rebeca Mauleon "the feeling of the montuno is highly pushed, but never rushed." The author further explains the basic voicings which "consist of the left hand playing the chord as a triad and the right hand doubling the bottom note of the chord on the top (creating the octave outer voice)."

The bass pattern often follows a distinct salsa rhythm pattern known as the tumbao which alternates between the fifth and the root of a chord. One side of the tumbao will be in near unison with the clave, while the other side is syncopated against the clave:

Lyricism

Salsa lyrics range from simple dance numbers with little lyrical innovation and sentimental romantic songs to risqué and politically-radical lyrics. Music author Isabelle Leymarie notes that salsa performers often incorporate istic (guapería) in their lyrics, in a manner reminiscent of calypso and samba, a theme she ascribes to the performers' "humble backgrounds" and subsequent need to compensate for their origins. Leymarie claims that salsa is "essentially virile, an affirmation of the Latin man's pride and identity". As an extension of salsa's macho stance, manly taunts and challenges (desafio) are also a traditional part of salsa.

History

In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, Cuban music within Cuba was evolving into new styles derived primarily from son and rumba, while the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in New York began playing their own distinctive styles. Their music included son and guarachas, as well as tango, bolero and danza, with prominent influences from jazz. While the New York scene continued evolving, Cuban popular music, especially mambo, became very famous across the United States. This was followed by a series of other genres of Cuban music, which especially affected the Latin scene in New York. Many Latin musicians in New York were Puerto Rican, and it was these performers who innovated the style now known as salsa music, based largely on Cuban music.

The diasporic nature of these Cuban and Puerto Rican communities in New York, which set the foundation for the expansion, and eventual creation of, the genre now known as salsa. With the influx of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican immigrants in America since the 1950s, a unique Afro-Caribbean diaspora was in play. Artists such as Willie Colón, amongst others, were well known for traveling back and forth between The Bronx and his homeland of Puerto Rico. In his travels, Willie Colón collected influences of the Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Nuyorican communities and demonstrated these through much of his music. Alongside another Salsa pioneer, Héctor Lavoe, both artists combined musical traditions in a manner that showcased and in many ways reflected the culture and soundscape of their New York barrios while still paying homage to their beloved Puerto Rico.

Salsa evolved steadily through the later 1970s and into the '80s and '90s. New instruments were adopted and new national styles, like the music of Brazil, were adapted to salsa. New subgenres appeared, such as the sweet love songs called salsa romantica, while salsa became a major part of the music scene in Venezuela, and as far away as Japan. Diverse influences, including most prominently hip hop music, came to shape the evolving genre. By the turn of the century, salsa was one of the major fields of popular music in the world, and salsa stars were international celebrities.

Origins

Salsa's most direct antecedent is Cuban son , which itself is a combination of Spanish and African influences. Large son bands were very popular in Cuba beginning in the 1930s; these were largely septetos and sextetos, and they quickly spread to the United States. In the 1940s Cuban dance bands grew much larger, becoming mambo and charanga orchestras led by bandleaders like Arsenio Rodríguez and Felix Chappotin. In New York City in the '40s, at the center for mambo in the United States, the Palladium Dancehall, and in Mexico City, where a burgeoning film industry attracted Latin musicians, Cuban-style big bands were formed by Cubans and Puerto Ricans like Machito, Perez Prado, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez. New York began developing its own Cuban-derived sound, spurred by large-scale Latino immigration, the rise of local record labels due to the early 1940s musicians strike and the spread of the jukebox industry, and the craze for big band dance music.

Mambo was very jazz-influenced, and it was the mambo big bands that kept alive the large jazz band tradition while the mainstream current of jazz was moving on to the smaller bands of the bebop era. Throughout the 1950s Latin dance music, such as mambo, rumba and chachachá, was mainstream popular music in the United States and Europe. The '50s also saw a decline in popularity for mambo big bands, followed by the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which greatly inhibited contact between New York and Cuba. The result was a scene more dominated by Puerto Ricans than Cubans.

1960s

The Latin music scene of early 1960s New York was dominated by bands led by musicians such as Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco and Eddie Palmieri, whose style was influenced by imported Cuban fads such as pachanga and charanga; after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, however, Cuban-American contact declined precipitously, and Puerto Ricans became a larger part of the New York Latin music scene. During this time a hybrid Nuyorican cultural identity emerged, primarily Puerto Rican but influenced by many Latin cultures as well as the close contact with African Americans.

The growth of modern salsa, however, is said to have begun in the streets of New York in the late 1960s. By this time Latin pop was no longer a major force in American music, having lost ground to doo wop, R&B; and rock and roll; there were a few youth fads for Latin dances, such as the soul and mambo fusion boogaloo, but Latin music ceased to be a major part of American popular music. Few Latin record labels had any significant distribution, the two exceptions being Tico and Alegre. Though East Harlem had long been a center for Latin music in New York, during the 1960s many of the venues there shut down, and Brooklyn Heights' Saint George Hotel became "salsa's first stronghold". Performers there included Joe Bataan and the Lebron Brothers.

The late 1960s also saw white youth joining a counterculture heavily associated with political activism, while black youth formed radical organizations like the Black Panthers. Inspired by these movements, Latinos in New York formed the Young Lords, rejected assimilation and "made the barrio a cauldron of militant assertiveness and artistic creativity". The musical aspect of this social change was based on the Cuban son, which had long been the favored musical form for urbanites in both Puerto Rico and New York. By the early 1970s, salsa's center moved to Manhattan and the Cheetah, where promoter Ralph Mercado introduced many future stars to an ever-growing and diverse crowd of Latino audiences. Popular performers like Eddie Palmieri and Celia Cruz adapted to the salsa format, joined by more authentically traditional singers like Willie Colón and Rubén Blades. Colón and Blades worked together for much of the 1970s and '80s, becoming some of the most critically and popularly acclaimed salsa performers in the world. Their lyricism set them apart from others; Blades became a "mouthpiece for oppressed Latin America", while Colón composed "potent", "socio-political vignettes". Their 1978 album Siembra was, at that time, the best-selling Latin album in history.

The 1970s saw a number of musical innovations among salsa musicians. The bandleader Willie Colón introduced the cuatro, a rural Puerto Rican plucked string instrument, as well as jazz, rock, and Panamanian and Brazilian music. Larry Harlow, the arranger for Fania Records, modernized salsa by adding an electric piano. By the end of the decade, Fania Records' longtime leadership of salsa was weakened by the arrival of the labels TH-Rodven and RMM. Salsa had come to be perceived as "contaminated by fusion and disco", and took elements from disparate styles like go-go, while many young Latinos turned to hip hop, techno or other styles. Salsa began spreading throughout Latin America in the 1970s, especially to Colombia, where a new generation of performers began to combine salsa with elements of cumbia and vallenato''; this fusion tradition can be traced back to the 1960s work of Peregoyo y su Combo Vacana. However, it was Joe Arroyo and La Verdad, his band, that popularized Colombian salsa beginning in the 1980s.

1980s

The 1980s was a time of diversification, as popular salsa evolved into sweet and smooth salsa romantica, with lyrics dwelling on love and romance, and its more explicit cousin, salsa erotica. Salsa romantica can be traced back to Noches Calientes, a 1984 album by singer José Alberto with producer Louie Ramirez. A wave of romantica singers, found wide audiences with a new style characterized by romantic lyrics, an emphasis on the melody over rhythm, and use of percussion breaks and chord changes. However, salsa lost popularity among many Latino youth, who were drawn to American rock in large numbers, while the popularization of Dominican merengue further sapped the audience among Latinos in both New York and Puerto Rico. The 1980s also saw salsa expand to Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Europe and Japan, and diversify into many new styles.

In the 1980s some performers experimented with combining elements of salsa with hip hop music, while the producer and pianist Sergio George helped to revive salsa's commercial success. He created a sound based on prominent trombones and rootsy, mambo-inspired style. He worked with the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz, and developed a studio orchestra that included Tito Nieves, Celia Cruz, José Alberto, La India, Tito Puente and Luis Enrique. The Colombian singer Joe Arroyo first rose to fame in the 1970s, but became a renowned exponent of Colombian salsa in the 1980s. Arroyo worked for many years with the Colombian arranger Fruko and his band Los Tesos.

1990s to the present

In the 1990s Cuban salsa became more prominent in Europe, especially a distinct genre called timba. Using the complex songo rhythm, bands like NG La Banda and Los Van Van developed timba.

Salsa remained a major part of Colombian music through the 1990s, producing popular bands like Sonora Carruseles, while the singer Carlos Vives created his own style that fuses salsa with vallenato and rock. Vives' popularization of vallenato-salsa led to the accordion-led vallenato style being used by mainstream pop stars like Gloria Estefan. The city of Cali, in Colombia, has come to call itself the "salsa capital of the world", having produced such groups as Orquesta Guayacan and Grupo Niche. And producer of the Marco Barrientos Band Julian Collazos

The most recent innovations in the genre include hybrids like Latin house, salsa-merengue and salsaton, alongside salsa gorda. Since the mid-1990s African artists have also been very active through the super-group Africando, where African and New York musicians mix with leading African singers such as Bambino Diabate, Ricardo Lemvo, Ismael Lo and Salif Keita. Salsa is only one of many Latin genres to have traveled back and influenced West African music. Not only did these amazing singers break through but a huge influence was due to Willy Chirino's sound and style that gave the Afro style conga beats and island style of funk. He is a pioneer into bringing this sound to South Florida.

Films

1979 - Salsa: Latin Music in the Cities. Directed by Jeremy Marre.

Cited references

References

. See also

Further reading

García, David F., Arsenio Rodríguez and the transnational flows of latin popular music, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

Kent, Mary, Salsa Talks!: A Musical Heritage Uncovered, Digital Domain, 2005. ISBN 978-0976499008

Rondón, César Miguel, The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean to New York City, translated by Frances R. Aparicio with Jackie White, University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0807858592

Salazar, Max, "Gabriel Oller: Aguinaldos de Salsa - TT: Gabriel Oller: Salsa Music bonus", Latin Beat Magazine, March, 2000. This is about Gabriel Oller and the history of New York's Latin music world

Sanabria, Izzy, "What is Salsa? Where and How Did it Start?, publisher of Latin NY Magazine.

Washburne, Christopher, Sounding Salsa: Performing Latin Music in New York City, Temple University Press, 2008.

External links

Sky.fm Salsa radio

List of salsa radio stations

Experiment with salsa rhythms online

Valle Son Music Classical salsa from Viñales, Cuba

24 hour podcast of Viejoteca on CFRU 93,3 FM

LaMusicaSalsa.com | Latin American Music and Salsa Resources

LaMusicaSalsa.net | Latin Music and Salsa Network

Latin Music USA, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) TV documentary, October 2009.

Category:Cuban styles of music Category:Latin American styles of music Category:Puerto Rican styles of music

Name	Joe Arroyo
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Alvaro Jose Arroyo
Alias	El Joe
Born	November 01, 1955Cartagena, Colombia
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Salsa, tropical
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, record producer, musician,
Years active	1969–present

Álvaro José Arroyo González (also known as "Joe Arroyo" or "El Joe"; born 1 November 1955) is a Colombian salsa and tropical music singer and songwriter.

Early life

Joe Arroyo was born in Cartagena. At the age of ten, he was already singing in one of Cartagena's popular music halls. His father had 40 children with different women, a story that he usually tells.

Early musical career

In 1971, Arroyo had his biggest opportunity of becoming a nationally known artist. He was discovered by Ernesto Estrada, the bass player and singer of the band Fruko y sus Tesos (Fruko and his buddies) and signed up with Colombian record label Discos Fuentes. With the band he performed for ten years until in 1981 when he began his solo career leading his band, named "La Verdad" (The truth).

Joe Arroyo became very successful by mixing salsa, merengue, soca, kompa, zouk and other music from the African Diaspora in a unique style that has earned him the prefix of Sonero de la Salsa by renown critics and fans. One of his most famous songs is "Rebelión (No Le Pegue A La Negra)". It is widely considered one of the greatest salsa songs of all time.

Health issues and drug abuse

Joe Arroyo left behind the stage many times due to his health problems. On more than one occasion, he was thought dead because of his abrupt absences from media attention. Joe Arroyo had to go through surgery because of problems with his legs.

He was once in a coma for 3 months due to his drug abuse. After recovering from the coma he wrote the song "A Mi Dios Todo Le Debo" (I owe God everything).

References

External links

Info and Images

Video of Joe Arroyo

Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Colombian singers Category:Colombian male singers Category:Salsa musicians

Roberto Roena (born on January 16, 1938 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) was one of the original members of El Gran Combo a Puerto Rican salsa music orchestra. The group's name derived from the name of an existing band named "El Combo" in which many of the original band members had been involved. at Radio Voz, Carolina, Puerto Rico (1980s)]] (1980s) Roena, aside from being a percussionist (bongos,cowbell) was a dancer and baseball player. In 1969, he went on to form a band by the name of "Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound", arguably one of the best Latin salsa bands in Puerto Rico. They recorded such hits, as Y Tu Loco Loco, Traicion, Que Se Sepa and Herencia Rumbero. Roberto Roena has also been a long-time member of the Fania All Stars, a salsa group that has enjoyed worldwide success since the 1970s. He recorded his signature song, "Coro Miyare", with the group; live performances of the song featured Roena playing the bongos and dancing with his uncle, legendary salsa dancer Aníbal Vázquez, in a choreographed section that almost always received standing ovations from the audience.

Mr. Roena took a giant step in the fusion of salsa with jazz, in the 1970s, by joining forces with African superstar (saxophonist) Manu Dibango of "Soul Makossa" fame.

Born in Dulces Labios neighborhood of Mayagüez, Roena took his first steps in the art of dance by staging dance routines with his brother Cuqui in La Sultana del Oeste. When Roberto was nine years old, his family settled in Santurce, where the brothers continued to refine their mambo and cha-cha-chá routines, delighting their public in talent contests. This led to their contract of weekly performances on the television program “La Taberna India” on Channel Two. During the recordings, the percussionist Rafael Cortijo saw Roena in action.

When Roberto was 16 years old, Cortijo was in need of a bongo player for a group that he was forming. Visualizing a bongo player that could dance and play the cowbell at the same time, Cortijo recruited Roberto to join his new band, and personally taught Roberto how to play both instruments. For seven years, Roena was part of Cortijo’s group and his Combo, with Ismael Rivera as vocalist. With that lineup, they toured the major stages of the United States, Europe, and South America. It is worth noting that "Cortijo y Su Combo", mostly made up of black musicians (of Puerto Rican descent), was the first of its kind to succeed in gaining access to the stages where only white artists were performing, within and outside of Puerto Rico. Combo’s good fortune ended with the arrest of its star singer, Ismael Rivera, for charges of drug possession. With the absence of “El Sonero Mayor,” Cortijo’s musicians discussed the possibility of remaining together. Some members of the group chose to distance themselves from their imprisoned lead singer, and "El Gran Combo" was born. Out of gratitude and loyalty to Rafael Cortijo, his mentor, Roena did not join the new Combo immediately. Eventually Cortijo left for New York in search of new musicians, and after nine months, Roberto, who had stayed in Puerto Rico, decided to join "El Gran Combo" which was then led by pianist Rafael Ithier.

El Gran Combo became the new sensation in Latin music, and Roena was part of the group until 1969. Desiring to establish his own salsa orchestra, Roberto formed “Los Megatones” in 1967, playing Latin Jazz Wednesday nights at a local club. Two years after forming "Los Megatones", as a result of personal differences with Andy Montañez, one of "El Gran Combo's" vocalists, Roberto left "El Gran Combo". Roberto Roena’s new orchestra was baptized "El Apollo Sound" because the launch of a rocket to the moon coincided with the day of the band’s first rehearsal. Even without knowing how to read or write music, and probably because of it, Roena knew how to surround himself with excellent musicians and arrangers. "Apollo Sound" featured musicians from the ensemble of Tito Puente, "Cortijo y Su Combo", "El Gran Combo" and "Los Sunsets", among others. Some of the well renown arrangers and composers who nourished his repertoire were Mario Ortiz, Bobby Valentín, Elias Lopés, Luis “Perico” Ortiz and Papo Lucca. With "Apollo Sound", Roberto introduced a “new” sound to salsa music by utilizing two trumpets, a trombone and a saxophone, a combination he took from the influence of the wind section of the rock group Blood, Sweat, and Tears (and who recorded a successful version of “Spinning Wheel”).

Roberto always considered variety as the key to success, leading him to include in his musical repertoire everything from go-go to the romantic, the same in English as in Spanish. Roberto Roena and his Apollo Sound’s first CD produced hits of great impact like “Tú loco loco y yo tranquilo,” “El escapulario,” and “El sordo.” In fact, it was Apollo Sound who popularized the Bobby Capó classic, “Soñando con Puerto Rico.”

Apollo Sound recorded under the label International Records (a subsidiary of Fania) for a decade, in which they harvested successes like “Traición,” “Chotorro,” “Mi Desengaño,” “Fea,” “Marejada feliz,” “Cui cui,” and “El progreso,” among others. His popularity on the radio waves came accompanied with tours around the United States and Latin America.

Complementing the musicality of the salsa group was always the showmanship inherent in Roberto Roena. Dying his hair in new colors, playing percussion in his underwear and sporting a harness so he could “fly” around the stage of Madison Square Garden were some of the tricks that he used to stand out among the other groups in vogue. In fact, a noted journalist that followed Apollo Sound once remarked that they were “the first group in Puerto Rico with a system of psychedelic lights and go-go girls.” Beginning in the 1980s, Roberto Roena and his Apollo Sound experienced a fade in popularity, reflecting a crisis that was sweeping through the salsa movement in general. Nevertheless, Roberto maintained himself by collaborating and recording independently with local groups. In 1990, Roena tried to revive the concept of Apollo Sound. He opened a concert for the British rock singer, Sting, in the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, where he presented his hit salsa version of “Every Breath You Take.”

In 1994, he celebrated 25 years with his orchestra in a successful concert at The Centro de Bellas Artes, in Puerto Rico. This performance was recorded and released, presenting the validity of his musical proposal before a new generation.

See also

List of famous Puerto Ricans

External links

Biography, Discography, Photos, Lyrics (SalsaClasica.com)

Music of Puerto Rico

Roberto Roena

Youtube video - Roberto Roena playing bongo and cowbell

Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Bongo players Category:Percussionists Category:Fania Records artists Category:People from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Category:Percussionists Category:Puerto Rican people of African descent Category:Puerto Rican singers Category:Salsa musicians

Jorge Moreno Cuban-American musician.

Moreno won much critical acclaim for his debut album and was awarded a Latin Grammy award for "Best New Artist", Early the next year he nominated in the (Anglo) Grammy's for "Best Latin Album" and was one of the first artists to perform in Spanish on Good Morning America.

He also received much praise and a Univision Nomination for his avant gard Self Directed Video for his track "Mi Sufrimiento", in which Moreno Humorusly confesses that the record company would not pay for another video so he did it himself.

After the dissolution of Maverick, Moreno went indie and was soon asked by Clive Davis to record a track "Satellite" with none other than Carlos Santana for the movie soundtrack Miramax film "Havana Nights" produced by Moreno's first producer Lester Mendez (Shakira).

Moreno then proceeded to release his second album cleverly titled "El Segundo" which started to gather more critical acclaim but was lost at radio in a wave of Reggaeton fad.

Moreno can also add TV Producer to his many talents, he opened a Production company on South beach named Beach Pictures which focuses on Docu-Reality content.

Early life

Jorge Moreno was born on April 23, 1975 in Miami, Florida. His parents emigrated from Cuba to Miami during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In the 1970s and 1980s, his father operated several well-known salsa labels. His mother, Melba, was a huge fan of 1950s and 1960s pop and rock acts such as Frankie Valli, Elvis Presley, and Dion.

As a teenager, he was most interested in punk and alternative American rock music. "Then I had my gothic phase, and I still love a lot of those bands," he told Hispanic Magazine. "But, the thing is, I was rebelling against conformity and commercial music. But the time came when I realized I was becoming as closed-minded as the people I was rebelling against." In his late teens, he began to discover classic Cuban crooners such as the legendary Beny Moré. This renewed interest in Latin music would yield an unusual mix that wasn't necessarily welcome on Miami's conventional Latin music scene.

Education

The list of schools Moreno has attended start with Dade Christian, Palms Srings Elementary, Immaculate Conception, Edison Private, Hialeah Gardens Academy, Miami Lakes Jr, Belen, Miami Aerospace Military (Boarding School), Pace High, Miami High and Finally Coral Gables Sr. High.. In his junior year of high school, Moreno joined two friends in a musical trio that melded all of these musical influences into a "a Latin Beatles-ish sort of rock." The band broke up three years later and Moreno left to study film and photography at New World School of the Arts and then Later University of Miami. In the meantime, however, he continued to compose and improve upon his guitar-playing skills. In 1996, upon deciding that he wanted to dedicate his life exclusively to music, he began recording demos---off-the-wall creations. He spent the next five years making demos, which he reportedly sent to record executives in pizza boxes in order to get their attention. Experimentation over this period forged a new sound that mixed these varied musical interests with the sounds of the 1950s that he had grown up with. ""If you take [sic] Beny Moré, Paul McCartney, and Radiohead, placed them in a car, and shook it up a bit, that would be my sound," Moreno would later tell LatinStyleMag.com.

Career

Moreno got a break when EMI Music Publishing took him on as a songwriter. It was then that he caught the attention of Madonna's Latin music label, Maverick Música, and hooked up with established producers Lester Méndez, A.T. Molina, and Andrés Levin. The result was Moreno's slickly produced debut album in 2001. One review referred to Moreno as "a fascinating, occasionally almost surreal melding of traditional and modern Latin styles, '60s Top 40, B-movie soundtrack music, '90s synth pop, alternative rock, and even a little hip-hop, the album defies easy categorization." The album's bicultural mix of disparate musical influences took the United States-based Latin music industry by storm.

"Not since Santana has a U.S.-based Latin performer captured bicultural sensibilities in such a seamless, accessible and original way," stated a review in the Los Angeles Times. "Moreno might even manage to put Miami on the musical map after decades of mediocrity from the so-called capital of Latin music."

Using his training as a film student, Moreno produced his own music video for the pop ballad "Mi Sufrimiento", consisting of a single shot of the artist lip synching at home, with the streaming subtitles "Madonna owns my label .. Maybe I can get her to be in my video." The video became one of MTV Es biggest hits of the year and showed that Moreno was not your typical pop artist.

After years of relative anonymity, Moreno became an overnight sensation with an alternative version of the song "Babalú," popularized for American audiences by the late Cuban-born artist Desi Arnaz, who was best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the 1950s television comedy I Love Lucy, in which he starred alongside his wife, the famous actress and comedienne Lucille Ball. Moreno knew that he wanted to pay tribute to the song on his first album, and he later appeared on the CBS I Love Lucy's 50th Anniversary Special, hosted by the children of Arnaz and Ball. His appearance on the program sparked public interest in an artist previously unknown to the greater public.

In 2002, Moreno won the 2002 Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and in 2003 his album Moreno received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. Despite mainstream success and the "pretty-boy pouty" look of his album cover, Moreno has often used the word "alternative" to categorize his music. "I consider myself part of the Latin alternative music movement" he told Hispanic Magazine.

In late March 2005, Moreno's released his second CD was "EL SEGUNDO", with the song "Avión" expected to rule the airwaves but was lost with the new Reggeaton fad.. In the meantime, he had live performances all across Universities in the U.S. and started to build a grass roots fan base. Soon after he recorded the title track for the Havana Nights Sound track with Santana and has started other business ventures including a production company named Beach Pictures. www.BeachPictures.tv

Moreno is still very much a musician though, he is reportedly recording his 3rd album set to launch 2010 and besides Usher, Moreno performed at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show televised worldwide.

References

External links

http://www.jorgemoreno.com/

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:People from Miami, Florida Category:American entertainers of Cuban descent Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:American male singers Category:American singer-songwriters

Name	Celia Cruz
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso
Alias	La Reina de la Salsa, La Guarachera de Cuba
Born	October 21, 1924Havana, Cuba
Died	July 16, 2003Fort Lee, New Jersey, United States
Genre	Salsa, Bolero
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1948–2003
Associated acts	Sonora Matancera, Fania All-Stars
Url

Celia Cruz (born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso on October 21, 1924 – July 16, 2003) was a Havana, Cuba born salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, with twenty-three gold albums to her name. She was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."

She spent most of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries.

Celia Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music." Cruz once said in an interview "If I had a chance I wouldn't have been singing and dancing, I would be a teacher just like my dad wanted me to be".

Early life

Cruz was born in the diverse Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. She is the second child of fourteen children born to Catalina Alfonso and Simón Cruz. Simón worked in the railroads as a stoker, and Catalina took care of the extended family.

While growing up in Cuba's diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians that later influenced her adult career, such as Paulina Alvarez, Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo, Arsenio Rodríguez, and Arcaño y sus Maravillas. Celia Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Mercedita Valdes (an Akpwon santeria singer) from Cuba and Celia made various recordings of this religious genre singing even back up for other female akpwons like Candita Batista.

When she was a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to keep attending school, in hopes that she would become a Spanish language teacher. However, one of her teachers told her that as an entertainer she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers earned in a month. Cruz began singing in Havana's radio station Radio Garcia-Serra's popular "Hora del Té" daily broadcast, she sang the tango "Nostalgias", (and won a cake as first place) often winning cakes and also opportunities to participate in more contests. Her first recordings were made in 1948 in Venezuela. Before that, Cruz had recorded for radio stations.

Career

In 1950, Cruz made her first major breakthrough, after the lead singer of the Sonora Matancera, a renowned Cuban orchestra, left the group and Cruz was called to fill in. Cruz was hired permanently by the orchestra, but she wasn't well accepted by the public at first. However, the orchestra stood by their decision, and soon Cruz became famous throughout Cuba. During the 15 years she was a member, the band traveled all over Latin America, becoming known as "Café Con Leche" (coffee with milk). Cruz became known for her trademark shout "¡Azúcar!" ("Sugar!" in Spanish). The catch phrase started as the punch line for a joke Cruz used to tell frequently at her concerts. Once, she ordered cafe cubano (Cuban coffee) in a restaurant in Miami. The waiter asked her if she'd like sugar, and she replied that, since he was Cuban, he should know that you can't drink Cuban coffee without it! After having told the joke so many times, Cruz eventually dropped the joke and greeted her audience at the start of her appearances with the punch line alone. In her later years, she would use the punch line a few times, to later say: "No les digo más 'Azúcar', pa' que no les dé diabetes!" which means "I won't say 'Sugar' anymore so that you won't get diabetes".

With Fidel Castro assuming control of Cuba in 1959, Cruz and her husband, Pedro Knight, refused to return to their homeland and became citizens of the United States.

In 1966, Cruz and Tito Puente began an association that would lead to eight albums for Tico Records. The albums were not as successful as expected. However, Puente and Cruz later joined the Vaya Records label. There, she joined accomplished pianist Larry Harlow and was soon headlining a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall.

Cruz's 1974 album with Johnny Pacheco, Celia y Johnny, was very successful, and Cruz soon found herself in a group named the Fania All-Stars, which was an ensemble of salsa musicians from every orchestra signed by the Fania label (owner of Vaya Records). With the Fania All-Stars, Cruz had the opportunity of visiting England, France, Zaire (Today's DR Congo), and to return to tour Latin America; her performance in Zaire is included in the film Soul Power. In the late 1970s, she participated in an Eastern Air Lines commercial in Puerto Rico, singing the catchy phrase ¡Esto sí es volar! (This really is flying!).

Celia Cruz used to sing the identifying spot for WQBA radio station in Miami, formerly known as "La Cubanísima" : "I am the voice of Cuba, from this land, far away,..., I am liberty, I am WQBA, the most Cuban! (Yo soy de Cuba, la voz, desde esta tierra lejana, ..., soy libertad, soy WQBA, Cubanísima!)

During the 1980s, Cruz made many tours in Latin America and Europe, doing multiple concerts and television shows wherever she went, and singing both with younger stars and stars of her own era. She began a crossover of sorts, when she participated in the 1988 Hollywood production of Salsa, alongside Robby Draco Rosa.

In 1990, Cruz won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance - Ray Barretto & Celia Cruz - Ritmo en el Corazon. She later recorded an anniversary album with la Sonora Matancera. In 1992, she starred with Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas in the film The Mambo Kings. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the National Medal of Arts. In 2001, she recorded a new album, on which Johnny Pacheco was one of the producers.

On July 16, 2002, Cruz performed to a full house at the free outdoor performing arts festival Central Park SummerStage in New York City. During the performance she sang, "Bemba Colora." A live recording of this song was subsequently made available in 2005 on a commemorative CD honoring the festival's then 20 year history entitled, "Central Park SummerStage: Live from the Heart of the City."

In early 2003, she had surgery to correct knee problems that she had for a few years, and she intended to continue working indefinitely. She had weight issues.

Celia Cruz appeared on the Dionne Warwick album My Friends & Me 2006.

Death

.]] On July 16, 2003, Cruz died of a cancerous brain tumor at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey. She was survived by her husband Pedro Knight, who died February 3, 2007.

After her death in New Jersey, her body was taken to Miami to lie in state in downtown Miami's Freedom Tower, where more than 200,000 of her South Florida fans paid their final respects. Her body was returned to New Jersey where tens of thousands of fans paid tribute to her at the funeral home. A service was held for her in St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. She was interred in a private mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx; an epilogue in her autobiography notes that, in accordance with her wishes, Cuban soil that she had saved from a visit to Guantánamo Bay was used in her entombment.

Legacy

.]] In February 2004, Cruz's latest album Regalo del Alma, won a posthumous award at the Premios Lo Nuestro for best Salsa release of the year. It was announced in December 2005 that a musical called "Assuca" would open in Tenerife before touring the world. The name comes from Cruz's well-known catch phrase of "¡Azúcar!"

On June 4, 2004, the heavily-Cuban-populated town of Union City, New Jersey heralded its annual Cuban Day Parade by dedicating its new Celia Cruz Park (also known as Celia Cruz Plaza), which features a sidewalk star in her honor, at 31st Street and Bergenline Avenue, with Cruz's widower, Pedro Knight, present. There are four other similar dedications to Cruz around the world. Cruz's star has expanded into Union City's "Walk of Fame", as new marble stars are added each spring to honor Latin entertainment and media personalities, such as merengue singer Joseíto Mateo, salsa singer La India, Cuban musician Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Cuban tenor Beny Moré, Tito Puente, Spanish language television news anchor Rafael Pineda, salsa pioneer Johnny Pacheco, singer/bandleader Gilberto Santa Rosa and music promoter Ralph Mercado.

On May 18, 2005, the National Museum of American History, administered by the Smithsonian Institution and located in Washington, D.C., opened "¡Azúcar!", an exhibit celebrating the life and music of Celia Cruz. The exhibit highlights important moments in Cruz's life and career through photographs, personal documents, costumes, videos, and music.

On September 26, 2007, through May 25, 2008, Celia, a musical based on the life of Celia Cruz, played at the off-Broadway venue, New World Stages. Some performances were in Spanish and some in English. The show won four 2008 HOLA awards.

Discography

2003 Homenaje a Beny Moré

2003 Celia & Johnny

2003 Dios Disfrute a la Reina

2003 Son Boleros, Boleros Son

2003 Reina de la Música Cubana

2003 Regalo del Alma

2003 Más Grande Historia Jamás Cantada

2003 Estrellas de la Sonora Matancera

2003 Celia in the House: Classic Hits Remixed

2003 Carnaval de la Vida

2003 Candela Pura

2002 Unrepeatable (Celia Cruz album)|Unrepeatable

2002 Hits Mix

2001 La Negra Tiene Tumbao

2000 Siempre Viviré

2000 Salsa

2000 Habanera (album)|Habanera

2000 Celia Cruz and Friends: A Night of Salsa

1999 En Vivo Radio Progreso, Vol. 3

1999 En Vivo Radio Progreso, Vol. 2

1999 En Vivo Radio Progreso, Vol. 1

1999 En Vivo C.M.Q., Vol. 5

1999 En Vivo C.M.Q., Vol. 4

1998 Mi Vida Es Cantar

1998 Afro-Cubana

1997 También Boleros

1997 Duets (Celia Cruz album)|Duets

1997 Cambiando Ritmos

1996 Celia Cruz Delta

1995 Irresistible (Celia Cruz album)|Irresistible

1995 Festejando Navidad

1995 Double Dynamite (Celia Cruz album)|Double Dynamite

1995 Cuba's Queen of Rhythm

1994 Merengue Saludos Amigos

1994 Mambo del Amor

1994 Irrepetible

1994 Homenaje a Los Santos

1994 Guaracheras de La Guaracha

1993 Introducing (Celia Cruz album)|Introducing

1993 Homenaje a Beny Moré, Vol. 3

1993 Boleros Polydor

1993 Azucar Negra

1992 Verdadera Historia

1992 Tributo a Ismael Rivera

1991 Reina del Ritmo Cubano

1991 Canta Celia Cruz

1990 Guarachera del Mundo

1988 Ritmo en el Corazón

1987 Winners (album)|Winners

1986 De Nuevo

1986 Candela (album)|Candela

1983 Tremendo Trío

1982 Feliz Encuentro

1981 Celia & Willie

1980 Celia/Johnny/Pete

1977 Only They Could Have Made This Album

1976 Recordando El Ayer

1975 Tremendo Caché

1974 Celia & Johnny

1971 Celia Y Tito Puente en España

1970 Etc. Etc. Etc.

1969 Quimbo Quimbumbia

1968 Serenata Guajira

1968 Excitante

1967 A Ti México

1967 Bravo Celia Cruz

1966 Son con Guaguancó

1966 Cuba Y Puerto Rico Son

1965 Sabor y Ritmo de Pueblos

1965 Canciones Premiadas

1959 Mi Diario Musical

1958 Incomparable Celia

Grammy awards

References

External links

Celia Cruz discography at Discogs.

Celia Cruz's Discography (album covers) Florida International University Libraries.

Celia Cruz's Discography (recordings) Florida International University Libraries.

Celia Cruz - videos.

.

Celia Cruz at Findagrave.com.

¡Azúcar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz at the National Museum of American History.

Category:1925 births Category:2003 deaths Category:1940s singers Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:American entertainers of Cuban descent Category:American people of Cuban descent Category:Cancer deaths in New Jersey Category:Cuban female singers Category:Cuban immigrants to the United States Category:Cuban people of Black African descent Category:Deaths from brain cancer Category:Fania Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hispanic and Latino American people Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Havana Category:Salsa musicians Category:Spanish-language singers Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (The Bronx) Category:People from Fort Lee, New Jersey