Los Angeles-based bandleader/
percussionist/vocalist Louie Cruz Beltran has been banging on drums since he was in grade school. The early recordings of Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaría, and Pérez Prado initially captivated him and inspired him to play percussion instruments. Beltran said, "I was born to play conga drums. I am a rumbero." Beltran studied music at the Bakersfield City College but his first Latin percussion instructor was Jorge Claudio (a Puerto Rican percussionist who introduced Beltran to the fundamental rhythms of Cuba and Puerto Rico)...
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“Paint the Rhythm”, the brand new release from Los Angeles-based bandleader/
percussionist/vocalist Louie Cruz Beltrán, caters to Latin jazz and Latin dance music enthusiasts who enjoy music with a strong, tasty beat. This time around, Cruz surrounded himself with L.A.’s first-call studio players, including René Camacho and Oskar Cartaya (bass), Joe Rotondi and Otmaro Ruiz (piano), and Ramón Flores (trumpet), among others, as well as international icons such as Hubert Laws, Giovanni Hidalgo, Poncho Sánchez, Justo Almario and Abraham Laboriel. For the majority of the recording, Cruz Beltrán handles the lead vocals as well as the main percussive duties, applied to timbal, congas, bongó, and Brazilian percussion, thus keeping the... |
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The Bronx-born vocalist simply identified as Sol has released a salsa production titled "La Que Manda Soy Yo" (Muziq Records), produced by Ernie Acevedo.
Sol was exposed to Latin music during her childhood by her fatherJulio, a percussionist who could listen to any particular Latin album and name every performer on any given track, while he played congas and her mother Santa danced to the rhythms.
At age nine, upon becoming a finalist during a neighborhood audition, she went on to perform in a Central Park charity event as the opening act for Brenda K. Starr, Coro, and Cynthia & Fat Boys (very popular entertainers in the 1980s). "This was the match that lit the fire," Sol says... |
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Thanks mainly to San Francisco Arts Commissioner John Calloway, a resolution that many helped write and edit was unanimously passed at the Arts Commission. John Calloway, Arturo Riera and John Santos had the opportunity to speak at the meeting and it was successful, another small but mighty step in the battle against the ill-advised decision by NARAS to eliminate 31 categories of roots and creative music from Grammy consideration.
An international boycott of the CBS Grammy telecast on February 12, 2012 has been called for and is in effect. Please join us if you can in the picket line at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where the Telecast will originate.
Thank you for your support in opposing narrow-mindedness, cultural insensitivity, and colonial mentality everywhere it occurs, from congress to the streets of our country... |
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