Ismael Rivera "El Sonero Mayor" PART 1 & 2 |
Just click on the Play button to hear! <-------- "La Soledad" |
PART 1
Many salsa lovers have a favorite singer, a favorite song, and a favorite band. Puerto Rico had a favorite son. He was one among many yet his talent for improvising lyrics and rhythms on the spot would earn him the title "El Sonero Mayor", the premiere improviser.
Ismael Rivera, affectionately known as ‘Maelo’, lives in the hearts of Puerto Ricans and salsa fans. Some of you reading this article have no idea who I am writing about because you were too young to remember him, or you started listening to music when La India made her debut several years ago. Some of you have probably heard his music and didn’t know whom it was you were hearing but you knew you liked the sound and the swing. Others, like myself, have dear memories of cleaning the house or apartment Saturday morning with the phonograph blaring out bombas y plenas that inspired you to clean with a little more energy.
Ismael Rivera was born October 5, 1931 to Margarita Rivera in the town of Loiza Aldea in Puerto Rico. At an early age Maelo showed signs of his musical ability. On weekends he would go to the beach with a childhood friend, Rafael Cortijo, to hear the musicians ‘jam’. Ismael’s father would be upset at Rafael because his son would drop anything he was doing to go hear the musicians. At the age of 10 Ismael tells his mother that he wants to be a singer. His wish came true. Rafael and Ismael would later go on to form a conjunto that would be recognized internationally.
Although trained as a mason, Ismael was very adept at singing and improvising. Rafael Cortijo told him that he was a good singer as long as he stayed within his limits as a singer. Cortijo saw the raw talent and tried to coach his friend as best he could. Ismael started singing with a small local band called Conjunto Agueybana. They would play at an abandoned racetrack, El Hipodromo Las Casas, which was at Parada #27 in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. The band was small but Maelo’s singing carried the group and made them swing. After a while he started singing with Lito Peña y la Panaméricana. Maelo had success with them. With them he recorded "Charlatan", one of his early hits. He left Lito Peña and started singing for Machito. While Ismael was gaining experience singing with the different groups, Cortijo was honing his own percussion skills. He started a group and Ismael became the lead singer. That is the birth of Cortijo y su Combo - canta Ismael Rivera.
With the other groups Ismael was singing guarachas, guajiras, son, mambo, guaguanco, and boleros. Cortijo decided to experiment with bomba y plena. It was the perfect musical vehicle for their combo. Bomba y plena are Puerto Rico’s folkloric music. Bomba is more of a ceremonious dancing music while plena was used mainly as a conveyor of news from town to town in the colonial era. Cortijo y Ismael became modern griots (storytellers) of the Puerto Rican folklore. The songs they played covered many topics: love, love of country, family, betrayal, religion, embarrassing situations, and local gossip; all suitable to be conveyed as a story through bomba y plena.
Cortijo y su Combo enjoyed fame wherever they went. They traveled to Europe, Central and South America. Everyone identified with the music they played. The musicians were excellent: Rafael Ithier –piano, Roberto Roena –bongo, Martin Quiñones –congas, Kito Velez – trumpet, etc.
During a trip to Panama, Maelo was trying to cut some sort of illegal deal with some people. Those people became suspicious of him holding up his end of the deal and called ahead to San Juan. They alerted the authorities who detained the group upon their arrival at Puerto Rico. Ismael was convicted and had to serve time. This led to the break-up of the band. Cortijo continued to play locally with folkloric groups, and the piano player Rafael Ithier convinced some of the other musicians to stay with him and form a band. That was the birth of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. As we have seen repeatedly, drugs find their way into the lives of very talented people and destroy them.
Seven years passed and Ismael was now free to pursue whatever he chose. He came out and started his own band, Ismael Rivera y sus Cachimbos. The word cachimbo has two meanings. Literally it is a pipe that you smoke, and the other which is a musician for processions – similar to the ones in New Orleans. This was a very young group of musicians that had a lot of swing. They were a cohesive unit anchored at the piano by Javier Vasquez, the present day pianist for La Sonora Matancera.
With los Cachimbos, Ismael continued to play bomba y plena but with very modern arrangements. After being with his group for about eight years Ismael sought out Rafael Cortijo and they record an album titled "Ellos se Juntan"– They get together. Here the original Cortijo y su Combo recorded some of their classic tunes like "Negro Bembon", "Severa"and "Quitate de la via Perico".
Ismael sang better than ever. The fans constantly asked for some of the classic tunes he sang with Cortijo. It is possible to hear four or five versions of the same song because of this. Ismael sang songs composed by Bobby Capo, Pedro Flores, Tite Curet Alonso, and his mother, Margarita Rivera. She was very in-fluential in his musical career. She nurtured his love of music.
His death on May 13,1987 was felt all over the world. In Puerto Rico everyone tried to touch the casket. So many did so that it smelled of tobacco, lipstick, perfume, beer and rum. His music still lives in the hearts of all those who remember him at the mike, snapping his fingers, delighting audiences, inventing words to spice up the not-too-long montuno that had you sweating on the floor every time his band was cooking.
Part 2
Ismael "Maelo" Rivera and Cortijo collaborated on many songs that would eventually become standards for Salsa bands. The key to this combination was pure chemistry. Rafael Cortijo was one of the best percussionist there was in Salsa. He was so good you didn’t hear his rim shots or flams because it went perfect with the music; it was all in sync. The best example would be to compare him to Thelonius Monk. Monk was a jazz pianist that was so good you forgot he was playing a tune because he made everyone else sound so good. So was the percussive sound of Cortijo. Maelo had the perfect voice to accompany the different moods that Cortijo created. These different musical moods--romantic bolero, a desperate plena, a calypso-bomba, a patient almost repentant cha cha, was the trademark Cortijo y Maelo sound.
Maelo was really a scat singer; daba-raba-wee-woo-waa-wee daba-raba-wee-wee-woo-waa. In Spanish however using words with double meanings, using assonance (similar sound patterns), aliteration, inventing words, uttering vowel sounds alone, created this ‘scat’ effect, and Maelo was the master. So you have a talented percussionist, a tight band, a singer with unbridled ability and a repertoire of songs that covered the gamut of themes, moods and emotions.
An important key to the soneo mystique of Maelo is the variety of lyrical slogans or ‘lemas’ he employed with his singing. Understand that the Salsa singer as well as the singer of any genre has a musical if not lyrical signature. For example: Marvin Santiago -"Inca por ahi"or "Ave María; Gilberto Santarosa – "Caminalo"; Celia Cruz – "Azucar"; Luigi Texidor – "A Cara'"; Rolando Laserie (RIP) – "De Pelicula!"; Monguito Quijan ‘El Unico’ – "Si señor, ahi na’ma", etc.
Maelo had several and they were rooted in the daily lives of the Puerto Rican identity. Here are some of Maelo’s ‘lemas’: Ecuajey – ecua mean righteous or just coupled with jey it is an expression of emphasis similar to the English version Word!; Componte – literally means Get yourself together; Quema – literally means burn but is used idiomatically as Go ahead; Dimelo – literally means tell me but is used idiomatically as Talk to me; Juega – literally means play but is used idiomatically as Get down; Sacude – literally means to shake off but is used idiomatically as Get out of here; Huyele – literally means to flee but is used idiomatically Get away from it. These are the usual ‘lemas’ you’ll hear throughout Cortijo’s and Maelo’s repertoire. The majority of the times they were used to emphasize a fact or condition; something that is intrinsically Caribbean, something that is seen and heard in Puerto Rico, Cuba, la Republica Dominicana and other Latin American countries. This point of identification is the factor that glued Cortijo and Maelo to the hearts of all Salsa lovers.
A characteristic that Ismael and Cortijo brought to Latin Music was humor. Their music was danceable yet so entertaining. The reason for that is that many of the tunes dealt with outrageous premiseses. The Puerto Rican is a humble person that often depends on humor to deal with the more serious or tragic aspects of life. It is this humor or perspective that allows the people to laugh at the silly things that simply color their daily lives.
"El Negro Gulembo" is a serious bomba that talks about poor Gulembo, an inocent humble person that went to the dentist to get a set of dentures. However the dentures he received were made of dog teeth. By laughing at the situation it goes from being a situation where someone was victimized to a funny incident that would become legendary among the people who knew Gulembo. Superficially one may think this stupid or childish but imagine your best friend smiling at you with a new set of dentures, pointy canines, not knowing they are dogs teeth; a little bit of comic relief:
"Que contento estaba Gulembo,
pero tenía dientes de perro"
Plena y bomba is the folkloric music of Puerto Rico and Cortijo and Ismael popularized that music form through their recordings. El Charlatan was one of those tunes that made you shake and dance and sing. The song is about a girl, Lola, who went to a dance by herself. Some male offended her by hitting her; she happened to be alone. In the song, Maelo is challenging the guy to hit her now that he is with her:
"Anoche le diste charlatan
Le diste a mi Lola
Anoche le diste charlatan
Ven dale ahora"
The song clearly demonstrates the female submissive role that was and in some places still exists. Cortijo and Ismael recorded the same song many times because the audience asked for it. Some of those songs are "Maquino Landera", "Cucala" "Severa", " Negro Bembon", "Quitate de la Via Perico", "Piedras en mi Camino".
The song "Severa" talks about a woman whose name means ‘severe’. She has a big body yet she keeps all the men at bay, trying to hide her face from them. Maelo sings that he saw her face and if you paid him he’d tell you the details. Seeing her face is another way of saying that he saw what type of person she is. He beckons the men to try and be aggressive and they will succeed:
Yo le ví . . . a Severa
Le ví la cara a Severa (first chorus)
Tenía la cara como una pantera
Le ví la cara a Severa
Si me paga digo como era
Atacala que ella cae, ella cae(secondary chorus)
Tenía la cara como una pantera y el cuerpo como una nevera Severa
Atacala que ella cae, ella cae
"Cucala" was a hit with Maelo, and a super hit with Celia Cruz. When approached about recording "Cucala" on the album Tremendo Cache with Johnny Pacheco, she was hesitant. She thought that following Maelo was a hard thing to do. Coming from the Quenn of Salsa that is high praise. The song is about a lady who is shy but her shyness is her way of attracting men. The song is telling you to tease her ,coax her, which is what the title implies: cucar means to coax or tease, cucala is how you say that:
Cucala cucala cuca cucala que ella sale
Cucala cucala cuca cucala que ella baila
Cucala cucala cuca cucala que ella sale
Cucala cucala cuca cucala que se hace
Esta moderna
Oiga mira es un monumento
Esa negrita sabe de todo
Caballero no pierda tiempo
A classic plena tune that has a history is "Dejalo Que Sube". Cortijo y su combo were playing at a town nearby and there was a misunderstanding. Cortijo and the group had to fight their way out of the place and retreat to their ‘turf’. The song tells of how they are challenging this group to come their way because they are going to beat them so bad that even those that haven’t been born will be beaten:
Dejalo que suba nene
Dejalo que suba ya
Que van a llevar latigazos
Hasta los que están por nacer
"Arecotín Arecotán" a boogaloo classic that can be danced as a slow classic cha-cha but has that serious boogaloo groove. Maelo’s singing style lends itself to this tune. He riffs blending vowel sounds that have no meaning other than they were uttered on clave:
Arecotín Arecotán
A la vera cuantos van
"El Negro Bembon" literally means ‘Big-lipped Negro’. The song is about a man who killed Negro Bembon as he was affectionately called. The police officer who apprehended the killer asked him why he killed Negro Bembon. The killer responded because he had big lips. The police officer, being big-lipped himself hides his lips and says,"That’s no reason." The song clearly addresses a social issue but lightly enough so as not to get in the way of the music:
"Y sabe la pregunta que le hizó al matón
Por que diga Usted mató al negron
Y sabe la respuesta que le dió el matón
Yo lo maté por ser tan bembon
El guardia escondió la bemba y le dijo
Eso no es razón, Eso no es razón"
"El Negrito de Alabama" is another song that told the story of a Black guy who goes to Heaven and asks St. Peter to let him in. St. Peter asks him what merits this priviledge and he tells St. Peter that he married a blonde woman in Alabama at 12 noon and it is exactly 12:01 and he’s dead already:
"En Alabama a las doce ‘el día
Con una rubia yo me casé
Y no hace un minuto oye San Pedro
Y ya tu ve como me limpié"
"Quitate De La Via Perico" is a song that tells the story of a deaf parrot that was on the railroad tracks sucking on sugar cane. Nobody knew that he was deaf and they didn’t bother to stop the train. On the surface is a really hard-driving song. There have been some devoted fans of Cortijo and Maelo that will say this is a pivotal song in Ismael’s career. First because he starts singing about social issues that aren’t stifled anymore, and secondly because his voice and style are now defined. El perico symbolizes Puerto Rico while the train is the industrial revolution brought by the Americans to the island. The deafness symbolizes the Puerto Rican struggle for identity and autonomy. By ignoring the train Perico does what he wants, if only in the song. These last three songs start another chapter in the life and career of Ismael Rivera.
ISMAEL RIVERA
"EL SONERO MAYOR"
PART 3
Ismael Rivera is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most influential Salsa singer to grace the stage. That is my opinion and I will support it. Maelo, aside from being the best ‘sonero’ has sung all types of music within the Salsa and tropical music genre: son montuno, guaguanco, rumba, samba, bomba, plena, bolero, guaracha, bugaloo, mambo, etc. Ismael has influenced other singers to the point that the songs he made famous are the same songs that others have had tremendous success with: Marvin Santiago – "El Negrito de Alabama"; Hector Lavoe – "Lo Deje Llorando"; Celia Cruz – "Cucala". A local band from Virginia named Bio-Ritmo has several Cortijo y Ismael songs as part of their repertoire. As recently as last week the Puerto Rican artist Yolandita Monge sang a Cortijo & Maelo medley with DLG on the Cristina Show.
Ismael Rivera had a tight group in Los Cachimbos. The musical director and the man who arranged all their tunes as well as played the piano was Javier Vazquez. Alongside of him were many talented musicians who were part of the band or who recorded with him: Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros–trumpet; Hector "Bomberito" Zarzuela–trumpet; Victor Paz–trumpet; Manuel "Manolin" Gonzalez-Saxophone; Harry D’Agular–trombone; Vitin Gonzalez–bongo; "Kako"-bongo; Mario Hernandez – cuatro; Carlos Malcon – timbales; Juan Ross – conga; Sammy Ayala – percussion y coro; Vitin Aviles-coro; Adalberto Santiago–coro; Yayo ‘El Indio’-coro.
Aside from having tight arrangements, excellent musicians and recording artists- there is a difference, folks. Maelo, aside from writing some of his own songs, also had premiere songwriters. The songs that Ismael recorded were from heavyweights: Tite Curet Alonso; Bobby Capo; Pedro Flores; Rafael Hernandez; Johnny Ortiz; Sammy Ayala; Margarita Rivera; Rafael Cortijo.
Ismael grew as a singer the way poets grow in consciousness. The 50s gave way to the 60s and the country was coming of age. The Puerto Rican search for identity was taking shape in the form of militant action and the music had more conscience than rhythm. Maelo had the formula. He was able to make a silly situation a dance hit with Cortijo; with Los Cachimbos he was able to take a social condition, expose it and let YOU deal with it. Clearly Maelo’s voice as a singer had been established but now the added sense of purpose propelled him to the summit among singers. Granted Ismael had undergone a period when his vocal chords were strained and he had to take time off for treatment. Fortunately he recovered and together with his old friend Sammy Ayala, Maelo was able to recover his place among Salsa singers.
Los Cachimbos finds Maelo singing boleros, plena y bomba, guaracha, guaguanco, samba and rumba. It is interesting that aside from his personal artistic growth Maelo added a few more ‘lemas’ to his repertoire. His identification with the regular everyday common folk, or as is termed in Spanish ‘lo cotidiano’, gave birth to these ‘lemas’.
A common one was "Raspa piragüero", which idiomatically means – work it. A piragua is a snow cone. In Puerto Rico and in New York the snow cones were not fashioned by putting a chunk of ice into a machine and shaving ice into a cup, no. There was a wooden cart with wheels, usually from an old pair of skates, and a block of ice. There was an instrument used for scraping or shaving the ice by hand. Depending on your acumen as a piragüero – (snow cone maker), your block of ice yielded a certain amount of piraguas. A small piragua was 7 strokes of the ice, a large one was 15, and then you molded it with an empty counter cup that usually holds the white cone cups. After this process the syrup is added and you have a genuine piragua. I’m not lecturing on the cultural arts of the summer but that entire picture is what you get when you say piragua. Although it is soothing to you, it is work to the piragüero. Maelo would say this when the mambo of the song was breaking or at the start of a solo. Mario Hernandez playing cuatro on "Cachita" starts plucking away a solo and you hear ‘Maelo’ say, "Raspa Mario, de Canovanas". Here raspa means pluck away or stroke it.
Another ‘lema’ we hear is "No jueges con los chavos de la renta", which literally means don’t mess with the rent money, or "No jueges con los chavos de la compra" which means don’t mess with the food money. That situation arises when people mess with a sure thing in hopes of gaining more in an uncertain field. Another ‘lema’ that surfaces is "Echale caldo ahi que los garbanzos estan duros", which literally means It’s not done yet, something is missing. The reference is strictly to cooking and these images are the glue that tattoo the Puerto Rican folklore and culture to the mainstream tropical Salsa genre via Cortijo and Ismael Rivera. The ‘lema’ therefore functions by emphasizing a point in the story being sung, or a mood achieved by the music.
Some of the tunes Maelo recorded with Los Cachimbos were old tunes re-done such as "Piedras En Mi Camino", "Maquino Landera", "Severa", "Dime La Verdad" and versions of previous songs like "El Mesias", a direct spin off from "El Nazareno". Some of the themes Maelo records with Los Cachimbos assume a philosophical perspective not heard before. The following are songs that are familiar but have never been looked at critically or at a deeper level than the mere joyous dance music it purports to be.
"El Incomprendido" – The misunderstood one, talks about dying alone. He expounds about nothing going his way and how the only luck he’s had is bad luck. The sentiment is not totally erroneous however. Maelo although adored by the Puerto Rican people was also considered by others as an outlaw and seen in unfavorable light due to his drug use and his prior incarceration. The song actually is a reverse of what happens at his death:
Veo una estrella y se apagá
Toco una flor y se marchita
Negra suerte la que tengo yo
Y todo lo que tengo yo
In the song ¨La Comedia¨, Maelo talks about a public that asks him to shut up while applauding less worthy and less deserving artists that are not serving the public they are befriending. It is an existential view that is surrounded by surreal images. Again it is an agonizing Maelo, yet the song gives us a peek at the inner soul of an artist a little insecure about his place among artists. The song has a haunting last line that echoes his sentiment. As the song winds down he says, "Despues de tanta Salsa que les traje – After all the salsa I’ve given you":
En el gran escenario de la vida
De tu reparto final soy el villano
Tengo que actuar porque eso es mi fortuna
La farsa tiene que seguir actuando
"La Cubanita" is a song about having fun. It is standard Maelo where his 'soneos' are exceptional and often times simply vowel sounds without any meaning. It is a good dance song with Maelo driving the rhythm:
Yo tengo un ritmo que dice
A la cumbala cumbita
Pa’ que lo bailen los lobos
Y vacilen las nenitas
Mi ritmo no cree en la pena
Es una barbaridad
Oye bien lo que te digo
Yo sé que te va gustar
"Mi Jaragual" is a song that talks about the beauty of Puerto Rico and having peace and tranquility in his little piece of land planting corn barefooted, drinking homemade rum and playing with his dog. This sentiment is common especially among those Puerto Ricans who came to the United States and had a difficult time adjusting to the temperate climate of the states:
Que inmenso, que inmenso
Ser el dueño de la finca y mi mujer.
"El Cumbanchero" is a song where Maelo highlights the bands percussive sound alongside of his sonero skills. Tite Curet Alonso said that this song is one of the two pieces that consecrate Ismael Rivera as ‘El Sonero Mayor". It is one of the few songs if not the first where Maelo proclaims himself as "Sonero Mayor":
Cumbanchero mama, cumbanchero (Chorus/coro)
A mi me llaman el Sonero Mayor
Porque vacilo con la clave y tengo sabor
"Las Caras Lindas" is the other song that Tite Curet Alonso spoke about. Maelo records this song on the album Esto Si Es Lo Mio where the majority of the songs glorifies and praises the Puerto Rican experience, specifically on the island itself. The lyrics glorify the beauty of its ‘gente negra’ – black people, while the arrangement makes this one of the most recognizable songs in Maelo's entire repertoire. Mario Hernandez takes an amazing solo on cuatro that is simultaneously accompanied by Ismael Rivera on vocals (he literally sings every note that is being played):
Las Caras Lindas de mi gente negra
Son un desfile de melaza en flor
Que cuando pasa frente a mi se alegra
De su negrura todo el corazon
"Borinqueneando" which means PuertoRican-ing, is a simple song about the places and the people of Puerto Rico; the street vendors and their songs or pregones; the different sites; the culture; the food; the lifestyle; the entire island experience that is familiar and at the same time far away for many who live here in the states:
Desde mi campo florido
Viene el sonero cantando
Con pregon repetido
Traigo la yucca y el mango
"Parece que le Gusta" talks about the people of his neighborhood; la gente de la Calle Calma in the public housing projects of Lloren Torres. These people are slow to get the party going but once started there is no way of stopping them:
A esta gente le vacila mi ritmo
Parece que les gusta guarachar
Si vieran como mueven la cintura
Con cadencia que nadie puede igualar
"Colobo" talks about a calm serene spot in Loiza Aldea where life seems a little slow and very unlike the bustle of cities. It is a place to escape and rejuvenate oneself. Interestingly Maelo chooses a serious bomba for this song and makes reference to Cortijo. He says here you can enjoy the bomba along with some crabs from a lady who specializes in their preparation:
Tierra adentro en Colobo
El ambiente es noble y sano
Aqui vibren emocion
El tambor ritmo Africano
"La Tumba" talks about prison being a tomb where people just do monotonous routine acts in order to survive. However the deeper meaning is that of the mental prison the four walls represent. Creatively we hear Maelo shout different ‘lemas’ that are strictly prison oriented, such as "Te tenían bien mangao" which means "they owned you"; "Recoje mijo, mira que va pa’ la calle" which means "Get your things together you’re hitting the streets "; "Mandame algo pa’ la comisaria" which means "Send me something for the commissary." These types of glorification of the common things in life, both positive and negative are what made the people adore Maelo.
Allí en los tiempos de la esclavitud
El negro Carimbo marcado fue
De las tumbas quiero irme
No se cuando pasará
Las tumbas son pa´ los muertos
Y de muerto no tengo na´.
"Witinila" talks about a slave who escaped to free himself from his master's cruel abuses. Maelo talks out on a subject that others really didn’t deal with. Alongside of the Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen, the Puerto Rican poet Jose Pales Matos and the Dominican poet Blas Jimenez, Ismael Rivera and the author of this song have joined a select group of men who included the plight of black people, regardless or ethnic distinction, and glorified them in their art:
El negro Witinila al monte fue a parar
Porque no quiso ser esclavo quería su libertad
Y le pidió a los santos de su devoción
Que lo salvarán del latigo rudo del mayora mayora
Witinila huye huye (chorus-coro)
"Carimbo" talks about the colonial days when slavery existed. The word Carimbo means a branding iron and the song is about a slave that was branded. As he cried in pain he prayed for his gods to free him from the master's cruel hand. However in a way only a Hispanophone can understand, the slave is then called Carimbo:
El negro Carimbo marcado fue
Con un hierro candente si seño
"San Miguel Arcangel" talks about a religious experience. Maelo states that at one of the many parties he attended he had a vision of San Miguel (St. Michael the Archangel) talking to him. Th angele came to tell him what to do to get rid of the negative people that surrounded him. It’s a great dance song that has Puerto Rican as well as Hispanophone culture written all over it:
Yo tuve una revelación
Que a San Miguel que me hablaba
Ya no tienes que temer
Yo te vine a proteger
Y a quitarte esos fluidos
Pues te quieren envolver
"Satellite" is a social commentary on the status of Puerto Rico. Using technology as the background Ismael sings about a satellite calling but the control center does not respond. In this situation a satellite is similar to a colony, the actual status of Puerto Rico in regards to the United States. Clearly the song speaks about having energy and that energy being depleted by constantly being ignored. For a person who claimed not to be political in his music, Maelo laid it out right in front of their faces. How could you a control center (U.S.A.) ignore one of their satellites (Puerto Rico)? :
Satelite llamando a control
no responden (2x chorus-coro)
La energia la tenemos
Y se esta agotando ya
Que es lo que pasa
Que ignorandonos estan no responden
"La Perla" talks about the poorest area of Puerto Rico. La Perla is usually associated with violence, drugs, crime, and abject poverty. However Maelo without being judgmental addresses the situation merely as people living under their specific circumstances. On the contrary he states that anytime he’s away from Puerto Rico, he returns and is compelled to visit there:
A la perla
Este guaguanco es pa’ la Perla
As a staunch Ismael Rivera fan I felt it necessary for everyone to know about him the way I do. I do not claim to be an authority on him or his work, however I do know a little about his music and what attracted me in the beginning was the driving rhythm.
There are many other songs I’ve excluded because of time and because I wanted to keep the article clear and interesting to all. The next step is to listen to his music and to tell others and to understand that there are artists that give their entire lives to their art, as Ismael Rivera did. I have yet to hear a singer other than Oscar D’Leon that has the energy or the swing to totally change the evening or to transport you to a place with simple imagery. Maelo’s influence on singers of Salsa or tropical Afro-Caribbean music is evident. The pity is that many of the people that call themselves Salseros know nothing about this man.
The humanitarian side of Ismael Rivera was one of pure love and dedication to his people, especially to the children. I hope you have enjoyed a look into the life of one of the greatest singers Puerto Rico has given us. ¡ECUA JEY¡
