Cheo Feliciano marks 50 years salseando

nydailynews.com

Salsa royalty celebrates Cheo Feliciano’s 50 years in music
By ALFREDO ALVARADO

A super-class sonero, Cheo Feliciano traveled the world with Fania All Star icons Ray Barretto and Héctor Lavoe during salsa’s glory days of the 1970s.

On June 20, a dozen Latin music legends will celebrate his 50th anniversary in music, a long overdue tribute at Madison Square Garden’s WaMu Theater.

“It’s about time,” said Oscar Hernández, leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, who will participate. “If there’s anybody who deserves a tribute like this it’s Cheo Feliciano.”

“Cheo is one of my favorite singers,” said nine-time Grammy award winner Eddie Palmieri, who will be on hand for the celebration.

“His timbre and his phrasing, he really is one of kind,” said the veteran bandleader.

Fania mates Ismael Miranda, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín, Papo Lucca and Johnny Pacheco will also be part of the anniversary concert, along with singer and percussionist Jimmy Sabater.

Feliciano’s route to stardom began in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where he grew up until the 1950s, when he migrated with his family — like tens of thousands of other puertorriqueños — to New York City looking for better economic opportunities.

“It was very impressive,” said Feliciano, who was 17 when he arrived. “Back in Ponce, the tallest building was only five stories.”

He wasted no time in finding his way to the musicians union and soon was paying his dues as the band boy for the orchestras of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez, the bandleaders who ruled the New York dance floors during the golden Palladium era.

It was Rodríguez, a singer of impeccable style, who gave Feliciano his big break.

“Tito didn’t know that I could sing and the guys in the band would tell him to give me a chance. So finally he asked me and I told him I was the world’s greatest singer,” Feliciano recalled with a chuckle.

“When he called me to go on stage, that’s how he introduced me, as the world’s greatest singer.”

For his anniversary concert, Feliciano will take his fans on a journey back to the hits he recorded with the Joe Cuba Sextet and the Fania All Stars, such as “Anacaona” and “Amada Mía.”

“We’re going to do a little bit of everything,” said Feliciano, whose first love is the romantic boleros of groups like Trío Los Panchos.

Feliciano’s next project is an album with salsero Rubén Blades, a longtime admirer of his.

“I recorded some of Rubén’s songs and he’ll record some of mine,” he said. “My part is already done, we’re just waiting for Rubén.”

Death by Detention

Salsa great Lalo Rodriguez gets a star in New York

dominicantoday.com

Salsa great Lalo Rodriguez gets a star in New York

New York.- Puerto Rico salsa great Lalo Rodriguez said he’s very happy with getting his star in the park Celia Cruz, as he celebrates the 20 years since his international hit ‘Devorame Otra Vez’.

Rodriguez, the first salsa singer to win a Grammy prize when he recorded with Eddy Palmieri’s orchestra in the 1970s, will be the New York Dominican Parade’s international godfather,” said Latin music impresario Jessie Ramirez.

New Yorkers Use Classic Salsa to Fight Gentrification

New York’s salsa scene, still going strong in Spanish Harlem, valiantly beats back the McCondo purge
by Raquel Cepeda

I almost broke my neck the other day, walking across the intersection of Third Avenue and 109th Street in Spanish Harlem—better known as El Barrio—to pick my daughter up from school. I whirled around at the sight of a man I thought didn’t exist anymore in New York City. He was a local titere (a street tough), sauntering down the very same “Calle Luna, Calle Sol” that salsa legend Héctor Lavoe sang about on a song from friend and fellow icon Willie Colón’s classic 1973 album, Lo Mato.

The cautionary tale, sung in Spanish, warns the citizens of John Lindsay’s New York to stay clear of the matóns (hoodlums) locking down the streets unless they’re prepared to go fisticuffs, or worse. But here, in 2008, the older, weathered man—well into his fifties—strutted right past me rocking a beaded Puerto Rican flag necklace and matching T-shirt, carrying a shoddy boombox on his shoulder that blared yet another of Lavoe’s many emblematic collaborations with Colón, “Che Che Colé,” from its rustic speakers.

I couldn’t help but flash back to a rare interview—obviously one of his last, now canonized on YouTube—wherein a melancholic, barely recognizable Lavoe slurred that “Che Che Colé” was, to him, the most indelible song among all his nonpareil repertoire, because it transported him back to happier days when he had money, and his wife Nilda and son Héctor Jr. were in his life.

Sung in the authentically jibaro, rural timbre that makes every listen a visceral experience, the opening track off Colón’s (recently remastered) 1969 long-player Cosa Nuestra feels like an astral excursion into the countryside of Lavoe’s native Puerto Rico.

But to hear it now? In Manhattan?

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Secrets of the Guitar Heroes: Carlos Santana

From the latest issue of Rolling Stone which has a special feature on great guitar songs and guitarists, an interesting (as is usually the case) interview with music legend Carlos Santana.

——————-

You were born in Mexico, your father was a mariachi violinist, and you played the violin before taking up the guitar. Did you feel torn between the old and new when you discovered electric blues?
I don’t disrespect tradition. But it is not going to hold me back. John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jimmy Reed — that was something I needed. I started with those three gentlemen, because they were the ultimate in simplicity. They make it look simple. But if you try to play like John Lee Hooker or Jimmy Reed, it’s not that easy.

I joined my father in the streets, playing boleros. But I had my ear on Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley, on B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. There was nothing plastic about those guys. They went deep, and each note carried something important. I knew, from a long time ago, the difference between notes and life. I’d rather play life than notes. It’s OK to learn how to read music. It’s not going to hurt you. You can go to the Berklee College of Music. But they do not teach you how to play life.

As a teenager in San Francisco, you went to many early Fillmore shows. Who were some of the guitarists you first saw there?
The same people Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were into — Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Albert King — and Michael Bloomfield and [Fleetwood Mac's] Peter Green. Even before Jimi Hendrix came out in ‘67, Bloomfield was hitting it hard with Paul Butterfield’s band on things like East-West. It was a different kind of blues, even for white people. When you closed your eyes, it did not sound white.

What about Jerry Garcia? He was playing almost every night all over town with the Grateful Dead.
There is something in me — my body will not let in bluegrass music. I love Merle Haggard and Buck Owens — the songwriting — and of course Willie Nelson. But there are certain kinds of music that my body doesn’t allow. One is norteño. Another is bluegrass, and Jerry’s playing had a lot of that. When he did “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” — which is more in a Buddy Guy-Junior Wells style — I was like, “OK, I can listen to that.” I’m very particular. There is certain music that I just don’t want to know about [laughs]. I’m still working on that.

When Santana played at Woodstock in 1969, you already had your trademark sound, that piercing sustain in which you hold a single note for what seems like ages. How did playing with so much high-speed percussion affect your approach to soloing?
The more somebody plays fast around you, the more you slow down and play long, legato lines. In “Jingo” [on 1969's Santana], we had that bass line and the conga going in that rhythm. I had to do something different. Plus, I started with the violin, which was drawing long notes with a bow. I realized that playing longer notes, sustaining them, was more appealing.

It was getting crowded at that time with blues people. My voice on the guitar felt more natural in a different vocabulary. But I still love the blues. You need to marinate yourself in that music daily. It’s like putting syrup on pancakes. If you don’t have any syrup, the pancakes are not that cool [laughs]. If there’s no blues in it, then I won’t listen.

What was it like to hear those notes sail over that huge Woodstock crowd?
It was beyond scary, especially because I was at the peak of acid. I said, “God, please help me stay in tune. Please help me stay in time. I promise I’ll never touch this stuff again.” Of course, I lied [laughs]. What I remember is that it was really hot, all of the other bands were playing the same — and we were different. When we started, it felt like we were back in Aquatic Park in San Francisco, where people would drink wine, smoke a little hemp and just play congas. It felt that natural.

It’s amazing — within a year [after that show], everybody had congas and timbales: the Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis. All we really did was integrate Tito Puente, Afro-Cuban musicians like Mongo Santamaria, into the blues that I loved.

How would you describe your role in Santana as a guitarist? It’s your name on the marquee, but there is so much going on under and around you.
I tie it all together. We play Santana music, but at the same time, we become like John F. Kennedy Airport. Bob Marley, Miles, John Coltrane, Marvin Gaye and Jimi — they are going to land here and there. We are going to visit those guys. But we are still going to sound like Santana. What I do with the guitar, when I move around in the music, is make sure that the bass, drums and keyboards are on the one [makes a heartbeat-rhythm sound]. That creates the trance, the spell. And it makes women go absolutely wild. It’s the same thing Miles had with his group. You play two or three notes and let people know, “It’s fun exploring, but now we gotta get back to this.”

Do you have a practice regimen? How much do you play offstage, when you are not recording?
I don’t call it practice. I call it dipping. I have a serious collection of records — Wes Montgomery, Miles, Jimi, a lot of Marvin Gaye — and I play along with them. I try to play the way Marvin sings. I don’t practice to know where my fingers go. I’m curious about how to penetrate inside the note. I think it was the Grateful Dead who used to say the music is playing you. You’re not playing it. I want to utilize sound, resonance, vibration, to bring people closer to their own hearts.

And you do it without pedals — just volume and touch.
I only use a wah-wah once in a while. I’m wired, just like Buddy Guy. Buddy can grab any guitar, any amplifier, and they’re gonna sound like him. When I do it, it’s still going to sound like me. I stopped fighting it. I used to want to sound like Otis Rush. The way he sings and plays guitar in “Double Trouble” — there’s a reason why Eric Clapton quotes him every night [laughs].

You talk a lot about trances. Do you go there when you hit one of those long notes?
You have to give yourself chills before anyone else gets them. I become less of a ringmaster. I forget to correct anyone onstage. I just go into my guitar. I can see the rest of the musicians going, “Yep, he’s hungry, and he’s helping himself.”

Benicio Del Toro wins Cannes’ Best Actor award as “Che”

Benicio Del Toro, ‘Latino Brad Pitt’, wins Cannes award as ‘Che’

by Claire Rosemberg

CANNES, France (AFP) – Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro, the Puerto Rican-born star often dubbed the “Latino Brad Pitt”, won Cannes’ Best Actor award Sunday for his role as “Che” Guevara in Steven Soderbergh’s film on the revolutionary hero.

“I’d like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara,” said the actor, after accepting his second big award under the US director’s helmsmanship.

“I wouldn’t be here without Che Guevera, and through all the awards the movie gets you’ll have to pay your respects to the man.”

And taking one reporter’s question after Cannes’ red-carpet awards ceremony, all Del Toro saw was her “Che” T-shirt. “I like the shirt,” he said several times.

Del Toro, 41, transmutes into a larger-than-life Che in the marathon four-hours-plus movie.

“Che” charts two episodes in the life of the guerrilla hero — the late 1950s ouster of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista alongside Fidel Castro, and Che’s subsequent aborted bid to bring the Cuban revolution to Bolivia.

Some critics slammed the film shot in Spanish for its length and meticulous documentary-style presentation, as well as for failing to focus on the politically controversial aspects of the Cuban revolution.

Soderbergh needed to tighten it for average movie-goers, they said.

The US director back in 2000 propelled Del Toro into the movie limelight, when he bagged best supporting Oscar for his role as a restrained Mexican police officer walking the moral high ground in “Traffic”.

Del Toro, original name Benicio Monserrate Rafael Del Toro Sanchez, also played five years earlier in the blockbuster “The Usual Suspects”, where he was the mumbling gangster Fenster.

He has also been directed by the head of this year’s Cannes jury Sean Penn, in 1990 “The Indian Runner” and “The Pledge”, 2001.

Born in Puerto Rico to lawyer parents, he moved to the United States at the age of nine when his mother died and studied commerce before deciding, secretly, to change to acting.

Del Toro, who has a quiet but immensely strong presence, was involved from the start on the “Che” film, which took nine years of research and 60 million dollars to complete.

In Cannes for the screening, he recounted how like the average American he grew up with a bad guy image of Cuba’s hero until stumbling on a book on the guerrilla leader in Mexico.

“He had a really warm smile. I bought the book and then read more. The love people had for this man made me more interested,” he said.

David Sánchez colors his music with a “Latin tinge”

David Sánchez colors his music with a “Latin tinge”
Ed Morales
May 18, 2008

When Jelly Roll Morton, who played a pivotal role in inventing how to play jazz piano, spoke of using a “Latin tinge,” he was referring to a certain rhythmic pattern called the habanera, that crept into his style. Eighty or so years later, we can speak of the Latin tinge in more metaphorical terms, since “Latin” music has become so intertwined with jazz and other American pop music. Sometimes it’s not even the most dominant aspect of a recording artist’s trajectory.

Take David Sánchez, jazz saxophonist from Puerto Rico, whose new album, “Cultural Survival” (Concord Picante) has just been released.

Full Article

Bebo Valdés’s Incredible Comeback

Sonidos Latinos: Bebo Valdés’s Incredible Comeback

Ed Morales
May 11, 2008

Sometimes, the end of a documentary reveals itself to the director long before he is finished. That’s how it was for Carlos Carcas, who had been filming 89-year-old Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés as he played a moving rendition of “Old Man River.”

“He had just played a contradanza, and I was thinking, ‘How can he just switch from one genre to another like that’?” recalled Carcas. “I was like, wow, this is the end of the film – I don’t know what happens in the middle, but this is the end. Then [producer] Fernando Trueba walks in and says, ‘Hah! Old Man Bebo!’ and I had the title as well.”

Carcas’ lyrically informative documentary “Old Man Bebo” had just been screened at the TriBeCa Film Festival and received thundering applause. He had been Trueba’s cameraman on two films: “Calle 54″ and “El Milagro de Candeal” and then decided to tackle the task of telling Valdés’ life story.

Full Article

Guia Mensual de la Fania – Mayo 2008

DISCO DEL MES
FANIA RECORDS 2008

Ray Barretto
Acid lanzado originalmente en 1968

Ciertos álbumes son especiales, y se convierten en tesoros queridos, el disco Acid, del legendario conguero Ray Barretto es uno de esos discos. Lanzado en 1968, Acid es uno de los discos de mayores ventas en la historia de La Fania.

Inspirado por la música y la cultura del famoso verano de 1967, Ray Barretto se dedico a componer canciones con influencias de la música popular norte americana, y, por supuesto, combinando el rock & roll con los ritmos latinos de su afamada banda. El resultado final, es una grabación que une dos mundos y sobrepasa los limites musicales de la década.

Marcando los 40 años de la grabación de Acid, La Fania se une a la celebración de este gran clásico, del conguero de las “Manos Duras.”

Un original, Ray Barretto cambio e innovo la música latina, y su leyenda vive por siempre en esta grabación clásica de 1968 – ¡Que Viva Barretto!

FANIA EN EL CINE
FANIA RECORDS 2008

Celia The Queen

La gran e inolvidable Celia Cruz es la reina irrefutable de la canción latina. Su voz, estilo y gusto de vivir, representan lo mejor de la música popular. Por más de 10 años, Joe Cardona ha laborado para producir el documental Celia The Queen, (Celia La Reina) que finalmente estrenara este año.

El documental cuenta con entrevistas exclusivas con la reina de la salsa. Un articulo reciente del Miami Herald da muestra ha Celia Cruz recordando sus logros.

“Me gustaría ser recordada como alguien feliz, como una mujer que se gozo todo lo que la vida le dio”, recalco Cruz en el documental. “Me gustaría ser acordada como una gran amiga, una buena hermana, una buena esposa y buena en todo, con mucha azúcar!”

El documental, dirigido por Cardona, contiene música y cintas de los años de Celia Cruz con La Fania. La banda sonora de la película ofrecerá momentos clásicos de la reina de la salsa. El esperado documental aun no tiene fecha oficial pautada para su estreno, así que manténganse al tanto para más noticias sobre acerca de este gran evento cinematográfico.

FANIA DE GIRA
FANIA RECORDS 2008

Tampa 11 de Mayo

Willie Colón, el incomparable maleante de la salsa, tiene el gran honor de cerrar con broche de oro el festival de Música Latina en Tampa, Florida. El concierto anual cuenta con muchos de los nombres más grandes de la música latina, super-estrellas como Andy Montañez y Oscar D’ León.

Nuestro Willie brindara sus clásicos ritmos candentes en la ultima noche del festival, el once de Mayo. Como sorpresa adicional, la Fania distribuirá 1000 tarjetas de música digital durante el concierto de Colón.

Miami 17 de Mayo

El original “maleante de la salsa clásica” continua cosechando triunfos alrededor del mundo. Después de su conciertos en España, Venezuela y Puerto Rico, el gran Willie Colón lleva su sabor y control a la capital del sol Miami. El concierto será en el conocido James L Knight Center, y marca el retorno de Willie Colón a los escenarios de Miami.

Para más información, favor de visitar: www.williecolon.com

The New Swing Sextet
Mayo 3, Miami Beach

Después de más de 30-años, el legendario conjunto The New Swingtext retorna a los escenarios con un nuevo disco y espectáculos de música en vivo. Conocidos mundialmente por sus álbumes como A Taste of Spanish Harlem, Swinging Alone, Revolucionando y The Explosive, el New Swing Sextet representan lo mejor de los ritmos latinos.

Su nueva grabación, Back on The Streets, marca su retorno al estudio y la banda se presentara en vivo en varios escenarios a través del mundo. Su próxima presentación será el 3 Mayo en el Internacional Hustle and Salsa Competition y el nuevo disco, Back on The Streets sale al mercado el primero de Julio.

Para más información, favor de visitar: www.myspace.com/newswingsextet

Quédese pendiente a esta sección para más noticias de la Fania en gira.

FANIA EN LA RED CIBERNETICA
FANIA RECORDS 2008

Pagina de internet de La Fania

La pagina de Internet de la Fania esta siendo renovada, muy pronto se darán más noticias sobre la nueva pagina. Mientras tanto, aun nos pueden visitar en www.fania.com donde se podrá enterar de todo acerca de La Fania. Por favor escríbannos con sugerencias, preguntas y comentarios. ¡Queremos escuchar de ti! info@fania.com

También estamos Myspace y Facebook, búscanos en!

http://www.myspace.com/faniarecords

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fania-Records/11274971212

NUEVO DE LA FANIA
FANIA RECORDS 2008

Eddie Palmieri – Mozambique

On One Vol. 1 – (Dance Compilation)

On Two Vol 1 – (Dance Compilation)

Cha Cha Cha Vol 1 – (Dance Compilation)

Ray Barretto – On the Road

Celia Cruz – Greatest Hits

Cachao:

La Leyenda – 15 Danzones Clasicos*

I Like It Like That – (Dance Compilation)

Junot Diaz’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel headed for big screen

Junot Diaz’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel headed for big screen

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Dominican author Junot Diaz announced Friday that Miramax is turning his Pulitzer Prize-winning book into a movie, but that he worries how the story will be portrayed.

Diaz, who lives in New York City, told reporters that he doubts Americans could make a good Dominican movie and that they likely will not employ any Dominican actors.

Diaz said he has intentionally become more isolated, rarely going out after winning the fiction prize for his novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” a tragic but humorous story of desire, politics and violence among Dominicans at home and in the United States.

The 39-year-old said he plans to write another book that will be completely different from his first novel, which took him a decade to write.

Diaz also said his book will be translated into Spanish and that he hopes it will not lose its essence.

Diaz left the Dominican Republic at age 7 and moved with his family to New Jersey.