WBMB - Ahh my humble beginnings into the industry. I had lots of fun broadcasting in the booth of Baruch College Radio. To see the student body of the college react with curious interest to the music I played off tapes, records, and CDs belonging to artists that almost never got airplay in commercial radio was very pleasing. After submitting endless pages of ‘playlists', RMM was the first to take notice of my efforts and decided to add me to their mailing list. I guess this action started a phenomenal chain reaction where all other Latin labels started to add me to their mailing list. Not only was I added to mailing lists, but I was actually getting calls to interview some of the artists that were happening yesterday, today, and forever.
In 1993 Sony Discos called me up and asked me if I would be interested in interviewing Gilberto Santa Rosa. Do not try to guess what my response was. Three days later the suits from Sony, Gilberto, his manager, and myself met at a Brazilian restaurant that used to be located on 45th between 6th Avenue and Broadway. We ate, Gilberto chatted and joked with all of us in the table.
What piece? With all the joking and carrying on how do you expect me to write one?
"What do you mean? What was all that stuff you were writing? Ah never mind. Gilberto! It's kind of late and because of the circumstances, the environment is not suitable for an interview. Would you mind meeting him tomorrow?" "Hay muchacho dejate de eso. No es ninguna molestia, claro que podemos hacer la entrevista mañana...pero temprano ok."
So sure enough, the next day I showed up to his hotel suite...
GSR - No problem I understand. You had a nice time right?
NL - Well of course!
GSR - That's what's important.
NL - Absolutely, now lets get this show on the road. Basically, many people including myself, know of you and your beginnings with Tommy Olivencia. However, I am sure that there are missing steps in that Gilberto Santa Rosa biography.
GSR - Well in 1976-78 I started as an amateur with a group of amateurs in Puerto Rico, and later my first recording was done for the Mario Ortiz Orchestra. He was the first one to give me the opportunity to record. After that I moved on to Orquesta La Grande, and during the two years I was with them I met Mr. Elias Lopés. With Elias I did some things, and from there I went on to record with Tommy and later I recorded with the Puerto Rico All Stars. Today those recordings are collector items simply because they cannot be found. I don't think Combo Records has any plans to re-issue those Mario Ortiz records. The Elias Lopés record was special product done by an independent producer for The Panamerican Games held in Puerto Rico. There was something called The Borinquen All-Stars that was basically Elias' band with different singers. Anyway, from 1981 through 1986 I was with the Willie Rosario Orchestra.
NL - Many, many, moons ago you were also addressed as "El Bebe De La Salsa".
GSR - (Laughs) Let me first tell you that the "bebe" was left behind a long time ago. That was because when I began I was only 14 years old. Honestly, I was always afraid of that title.
NL - Obviously that title doesn't fit you anymore, however don't you find it interesting that such title has easily been passed on to guys like Jerry Rivera, Giro and other youthful guys?
GSR - It's interesting you mention this. Understand that guys like Tito Nieves, Jose Alberto "El Canario", Tito Rojas, myself, Domingo Quiñonez - we are guys from another generation. I find that guys like Jerry Rivera, Frankie Ruiz, Eddie Santiago, Giro and many young singers out there serve a purpose. They fill the gap between generations. Jerry in particular has acquired some type of musical identity that is need today to appeal to our young people. So yes for these reasons we need a Frankie Ruiz, a Eddie Santiago, a Luis Enrique, a Gran Combo, a Sonora Ponceña, a Willie Rosario and all the performers of today and the many to come. We cannot have just one sound for many different people.
NL - How did you come to the decision to leave Willie Rosario and venture on own? How did you feel?
GSR - That was a very special moment for me. A painful moment, because I loved that band! As a singer, as a dancer, and as fan of the music, Willie's band was and still is a total delight. There was great chemistry between all the band members during those years. Everyone contributed something special to the band. However, there comes a time when one must leave the nest. Something inside was telling me that the time was right for me to do something on my own. So finally I decided to unleash my desire to have and lead my own orchestra. It has always been a dream of mines to do this. Was I doubtful? Was I scared? Sure! I was doubtful about success, you know the questions surrounding my head were "am I doing this too soon or too late", "is the public going to accept me" things of that nature. But I was never doubtful of what I wanted to do. So I spoke to Tito Echeverria and Jimmy Morales. I told them about my plans because we were friends from before, and then they decided to join me. Willie wasn't offended because he knew about my goals way in advance. Besides, he is the type of band leader that knows talent and is always able to mold any new talent to his liking. And thank God we still have a great working relationship. Matter of fact, every now and then Tony Vega and myself have shared the stage with Willie just for old time sakes you know.
NL - Wow Gilberto, that's awesome! But tell me something, coming out of such a heavy band and having an incredible résumé; how do you develop your own sound? Your own identity? It must've been difficult.
GSR - Difficult it was! From the beginning, I had those very same concerns too. I'm not a songwriter, I'm not an arranger, I am a performer that interprets songs in an arrangement tailored to fit a mood. You see at that time, like you mentioned, I had plenty of ideas and concepts. And how couldn't I? Having learned so much from all my prior experiences, I had no choice but to deliberate and experiment. Everyone of those experiences played an important part in the creation and development of the Gilberto Santa Rosa sound. I counseled many times with Rafael Ithier in regards to this issue.
NL - Oh wow! That's the record eh? What about the first two? I mean correct me if I am wrong but, I feel that your first two records were sort of the trial and error period you went through.
GSR - Exactly!
NL - Don't get me wrong they are incredible records. But honestly speaking, I wasn't sold on the idea of you leaving Willie's band. As a result, when I bought your first record (on Combo Records titled Good Vibrations), not surprisingly I wasn't pleased. However, upon hearing probably a third time, I discovered a track titled Encrucijada. That track opened me to the entire album. An album that's now one of my all time favorites.
GSR - A lot of people felt similarly to how you felt. Encrucijada was written by Tommy Sanchez and arranged by Marcelo Rosario (no relation to Willie), and is one of the most complicated arrangements to perform live. We used to tease Marcelo about it by asking him if the ink spilled by accident on the music sheet. It just has lots and lots of notes. But yes! My first two records were basically experiments. We were in search of the Gilberto Santa Rosa sound, and by the third time out we got it!
NL - Undoubtedly you are a sonero, and also a singer. How is it that you become a producer?
GSR - You must be referring to the Pupy Santiago record (Tal Como Soy) and Victor Manuelle (Justo A Tiempo). Sony Discos at the time was very pleased with the success of my music. They were also looking to produce a new record for Pupy Santiago. Sony came up and asked me if I would be interested in producing a record for Pupy. To which I replied, if Pupy is up to it then we have a deal. And a deal we had.
NL - For many years my friends and I have re-named you Tito Rodriguez part two. Who would've thought that eventually you would record a tribute to Tito Rodriguez (Dos Tiempos de Un Tiempo). How does this happen?
GSR - It turns out that while doing a show in Puerto Rico's Teatro De Bellas Artes with strings an all, we did a medley of Tito Rodriguez' songs. The people enjoyed it so much that I was constantly asked to record it. So as faith would have it, Sony asked me for a special product, and I proposed the idea of doing a tribute to Tito Rodriguez. Sony loved the idea, and we went to work. It was a project that was handled with great care. A record that was done up to par with the standards of the icon we were paying tribute to before his untimely passing. Without the slightest attempt to imitate him. I mean Tito Rodriguez can't be imitated, he was a very balanced performer. Many people remember him as the balladeer, but he was also tremendous guarachero.
NL - With the lines that are being drawn in the sand by today's music fans, what do you consider yourself and your music. Pop or hard core salsa gorda?
GSR - I'll tell you I'm very happy in the middle. That's what I've always strived to do. According to the numbers, the consuming public of the 90's doesn't seem to be that specialized in only one music. They seem to buy what they deem as good. Meaning that an individual might buy a rock en Español record, a merengue record, a pop record, a salsa record so on and so forth.
If anything, we as artists are somewhat more specialized into one genre of music. If you are a salsero, that's it! If you are a merenguero, that's it! So what I try to do is to provide people with different flavors of what I do. If you like your salsa gorda, I got a couple of tracks in my records to please you, if you like salsa romantica, I got those too. If you like the son and the cha-cha-cha I got some of those too. The idea is to keep everyone happy.
NL - Speaking of salsa romantica & keeping everyone happy, Omar Alfanno...
GSR - Del Puente Del Mundo! (Playfully Yells)
NL - ...And Ramon Sanchez. Together they have given you huge hits and many people favorites. How did you team these to cats up?
GSR - I met Omar in Puerto Rico when he returned from Mexico. As you probably know he used to live in Mexico for many years. We became good friends. He gave me Vivir Sin Ella, and naturally I gave the song to Ramon to arrange. Before I record a song I would take the song on the road and test it on crowds whenever I play to get feed back. I got great feed back from it.
© 1995 - 99 Nestor A. Louis
"Oye tu eres Panameño verda?", Gilberto asked. Well yes I am. "Chacho! Tu país....Como me gusta tu país". And he continued to joke around. Well after two hours of eating and joking around one of the Sony guys turns to me and asks me, "did you get all what you needed for the piece?"
NL - Greetings Gilberto! Sorry about yesterday. I just thought that it would've been rude of me to conduct an interview with you, while the mood was clearly not of such.
I didn't want to be labeled. Obviously you grow up and eventually, in some cases hopefully; you mature. And when you do, those labels can be hard to remove. The examples that come to mind are those of the many child performers that grow up and can't find a new niche for themselves.
As a result I ended up looking for a team of musicians and arrangers, to pretty much record with them. It was deemed necessary by me because, these will be the guys that are going to produce a sound that will be a standard in both, the studio and the street. Along the way I found a young man by the name of Ramon Sanchez. He helped me design my sound. Later one of the finest trumpeters in Puerto Rico joined the band. That person is none other than Luis Aquino. All of us brought to the table our unique way of performing. I offered ideas that complemented my singing style, the guys in the band played and contributed with their ability to set the tone, and Ramon arranged with great understanding of what was needed, that a great synergy was created. The third record I did for Combo Records (De Amor Y Salsa) is a clear example of the synergy I'm talking about.
One of the most challenging things I've ever dealt with in this business is to create something that does not resemble me. In this case my sound. And with all modesty aside, I believe that was accomplished. I strongly believe that because Pupy's singing is different than mines, I had to develop a sound that would allow him to be exactly how he is. He is an aggressive singer, with an unmistakable style of delivery, capable of doing both salsa romantica and salsa gorda.
That's just how Pupy is. I called Edgardo "Mulenze" Morales to work the bass, Sammy Garcia, Leni Prieto, Luis Quevedo, and another Edgardo Morales on timbales. Unfortunately, it did not receive the type of promotions it needed to be a success. I truly believe that, aside from the fact that I produced that record, it was a production that was well done. Victor Manuelle, is the kid from the neighborhood. We love & admire him plenty. Out of the crop of young new singers, Victor Manuelle is without a doubt the best out there.
The song was recorded, and it became a hit. From there on, song that I got from Omar, became a song that was arranged by Ramon - Song that became a hit. Subsequently, it's been a successful combination that has been adopted by the industry, and one that I'll shamelessly take full credit in creating. Omar Alfanno has the incredible talent to write and describe the smallest and most insignificant nothing and make it something with a song. Ramon Sanchez has the gift to understand a piece of lyric and give it life by submersing himself in the song. They are both extremely talented.
nestor@palosalsero.com