First of all, I would like to take a moment to mourn the passing of Willie Sotello on June 3. Sympathy to his family, friends, colleagues and fans.
Billboard:
Willie Sotello, pianist and music director of the Puerto Rican salsa band El Grano Combo de Puerto Rico, died in Puerto Rico on Friday (June 3). The 61-year-old musician died of “health complications”.
News of Sotello’s death was released to the media in a press release and posted on El Gran Combo’s Instagram account.
Master Willie Sotello, the music director of El Gran Combo, has died at the age of 61 due to health complications. His wife Janet Navarro, his daughter Vilmali Sotello, his other relatives and mentor Rafael Ithier and his orchestra colleagues ask for a place to deal with this difficult process and thank you for all your support and prayers. “
Puerto Rican newspaper Of El Nuevo (Translated):
Sotello joined [El Gran Combo] In 2006, when director and founder Rafael Ithier decided it was time to reduce his workload.
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[I]The composer initially played the group’s pianist and eventually Ethier hired him as the music director. In his work, Sotello coordinated orchestral recruitment, contracts, and performances.
[After graduating] From InterMargan University in San German, [majoring] At the age of 19, he founded the Willie Sotello Music Center, teaching music with concentration on the piano.
The Mayaguez composer and conductor played with orchestras such as La Solusiones, Ismail Miranda, Elias Lopez, Willie Rosario and Lalo Rodriguez, among others. He was the music director for Frankie Ruiz, Luis Enrique, Emilker Boskan, David Pabon and … Roberto Roena and his Apollo Sound.
Members of the El Gran Combo were nominated “King of the Parade” in 2011.
Later, the band goes on stage to sing. “Paap salsa no he priiso,“Which means” without salsa, there is no paradise. “
We’ve visited salsa and Latin jazz before — if you missed them, check out “Jazz Appreciation Month: Latin Jazz Birthday Celebration”, “Put on those dancing shoes and celebrate Salsa’s Afro-Boricua soul.” Celebrate, “and” Salute to the salsa, soul, and the late Johnny Pacheco for the month of Black History. “
New York City has many places dedicated to Latin dance and music — the Palladium, The Corso, The Hunts Point Palace, The Tropicoro, The Chase Jose, and the St. George Hotel, to name a few. What drew me to the village gate was that there, I could satisfy my love of jazz and my love of salsa dance, it all depended on what night I went. I must admit that I also knew a bouncer and could often get one for free.
The club was described in a 2009 autobiography by owner Art D’Lugoff, by Lee Morganer In Jazz Times:
After years of building concerts around New York City, D’Lugoff and his brother Burt opened the gate in 1958, as it was called informally. He booked many great names in jazz, such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelionius. Monk, Billy Holiday and Duke Ellington. Located in the heart of the village near the corner of Blicker and Thomson Streets, the club also featured comedy and the famous comedians who performed there were Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Mort Sahel before they became famous. One of the most apocryphal stories about D’Lugoff was that he fired Bob Dylan and fired Dustin Hoffman (as a waiter). Of course, many clubs and promoters rejected Dylan in his early years in New York City, but the story speaks volumes about Dilgoff’s unique combination of self-confidence and humility.
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All his life D’Lugoff was passionate about Latin music, which he booked and promoted at the club, the most famous in a weekly series he called Salsa Meats Jazz. The series helped popularize Latin music in the downtown scene and strengthen the bond between the jazz and Latin music communities. D’Lugoff was also proud of the fact that the series brought together different audiences who shared a common love of music and dance.
A professor of political science and a fan of Latin music, Dr. Jose E. Cruz has written extensively about the “Salsa Meets Jazz” events at Village Gate for the Jazz Latino website.
From “Salsa joins Jazz, Part I “:
In 2004, I spent about seven hours with a microfilm reader at the New York Public Library. The voice of the village Published between January 7 and December 30, 1980. I was looking for an answer to a very simple question: When did salsa meet jazz start at the village gate? Salsa Meats was the name of a series conceived and hosted by the late Jazz promoter Jack Hook and Art D’Lugoff, owner of Village Gate. It was held on Monday night to showcase the Latin orchestra and jazz soloists. D’Lugoff organized the series out of his love of dance. Monday was chosen because they were “slow nights.”
The Salsa Meats Jazz didn’t take a lot of money from D’Lugoff, but it did make it lively at the gate on Monday. For seven years I lived in New York City, Monday night at Village Gate was my church and Salsa Meats Jazz was my religion. Nowhere else in the city could anyone dance (or listen) to the music of Tito Puente and Eddie Palmiri for hours for just $ 10. On any given Monday, one can see Daisy Gillespie or McCoy Tyner playing with Luis “Perico” Ortiz and Charlie Palmieri, respectively, while Ray Barreto or Johnny Pacheco walks around the bar.
Let’s take a moment to define download
A descarga (literally discharge in Spanish) is an improved jam session featuring Cuban music themes, mainly son Montuno, but also Guzira, Bolero, Guaracha and Ramba. The style is heavily influenced by jazz and was developed in Havana during the 1950’s.
Let’s now Dr. Cruise’s “Salsa Meets Jazz, Part II: ¡A Descargar!” Let’s move on:
Before Salsa Meats Jazz officially became a series, Village Gate hosted a descarga session that was recorded live and released in three parts of the title. D.C. at the village gate. According to the famous disc jockey Symphony Sid (whose name was Sid Torin C), Descargus started the 1966 Village Gate project with a phone call to Maurice Levy, president of Tico Records. Tico was the company that hosted some of the most prominent Spanish-speaking Caribbean music artists in New York during the 1950s and 1960s. Sid told Levi, “Let’s have a Latin jam session to get rid of all the discharges,” and whatever it took to get off the ground was a serious reaction at the other end of the line. “off one’s nuts!” Levi said. Levi then called another Morris — Morris Pearlman, aka Pancho Crystal: “Call Tito Puente, Eddie Palmiri, and Joey Cuba.” Shortly afterwards, a small army of movers and shakers headed for Descarga on a crazy dash. “Se Fueron a la Lucha” is how Puerto Rico’s leading horse racing storyteller, Riviera Monge, would present it if he were to witness the opening round of the event.
Read more about the origins of Tico Records here.
Here’s a cut before that download Album:
I am always amazed when I see the lineup. Who is this Latin music!
Tenor Saxophone: El Abreo, Trumpet: Pedro Bulong, Conga: Joe Cuba, Conga: Candido Camaro, Trumpet: Vincent Frisora, Piano: Eddie Palmieri, Trumpet: Victor Paz, Saxophone: Bobby Bੋਰbe : Bobby Rodriguez, Trombone: Barry Rogers, Timbles: Jimmy Sabeter, Trombone: Jose Rodriguez, Trumpet: Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, Conga: Ray Barreto, Bass Guitar: Israel Lopez: “Piano” : Charlie Palmieri, Bells: Chino Pozzo, Bells, Bongos: John Rodriguez, Vocal: Santos Colon, Vocal: Chivirico DeVilla, Cheo Feliciano, Monguito “El Unico” Santamaria
I am Dr. I strongly recommend the rest of the series from Cruz: “Salsa Meats Jazz, Part III: A series is born“And”Salsa Meats Jazz, Part IV: 1980 and beyond.
First Descargas The album was followed by two more episodes.
Here is one of the other jams:
And from the third:
If you really want to understand what the Latin nights were like, and the amazing energy on stage, here is a clip that always keeps me cool. On a Monday night in August 1986, Tito Puente invited Nikki Marrero and Kako to the Timble’s Duel.
Puente will return to the gates in 1992 to record Golden Jazz All Star. This clip shows the dancing crowd.
One of the albums I released during the day was Mongo Santamaria Explodes at the village gate. The title of the album is apt because Santamaria was an explosive one conguero (Kanga drum player) Mongo was a Cuban, not a Puerto Rican, but he was one of the major influencers in the development of Latin jazz in New York.
Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba to a family that valued music and their African heritage. At an early age, Santamaria played the violin, but Ramba’s popularity for music and family ties led him to pursue a musical career in percussion. Santamaria dropped out of middle school and taught himself Marcus, Bongo, Conga and Timbel. In 1937, he began performing at the famous Tropicana Club in Havana, along with Septato Bellona and the house band.
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Santamaria has released solo albums, many featuring Cuban percussion and songs derived from West African sounds and rhythms. His 1959 composition, “Afro-Blue,” is a jazz standard, recorded by John Coltrain and Dizzy Gillespie, among many others.
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Throughout her career, Santamaria has set countless records for various labels and worked with top artists, while incorporating her Latin voices into jazz and R&B. He has performed on kanga and other percussion instruments at clubs and festivals around the world, including against Ray Barreto as a member of the famous Fania All-Stars. Santa Maria died at the age of 85 after a stroke in Miami.
Here Santamaria is presenting its “Afro-Blue”.
Memories of The Gate and its “Salsa Meets Jazz” series woke up in 2017, when artists gathered at The Gate after Hurricane Maria to raise money for musicians on the island.
On October 23, (Le) Poison Rouge will host a benefit event titled Salsa meets jazz for Puerto Rico! The venue is located at 158 Blacker Street, the former site of the famous jazz venue The Village Gate.
The benefit headline refers to Monday night’s Salsa Meats Jazz series on the floor of The Village Gate. Band leader / percussionist Bobby Sanabria will host the star-studded concert, which will raise money and support musicians in Puerto Rico through the efforts of the American Jazz Foundation.
Daily Kos was a member of the community and New York poet Lapoetamariposa was one of the presenters!
As mentioned above, The Gate also produced a long list of live jazz albums; It will take more than a month for all of them to play.
The following is a Twitter photographic sample of the presentation:
I hope those pictures will increase your appetite for more tunes, which I will present in the comments. I will end things here with a performance at the Gate in 1970.
I’ve had the opportunity to see her live many times, although you never knew if she was going to show up, or if, when she did, she would have a problem with someone in the audience (which I witnessed). She was, and is, however, probably my favorite female singer ever.
The late, the great, Nina Simon, lives at the gate.