Prince Royce cleans up at Premio Lo Nuestro

By Fernie Ruano Jr.

Bachata crown jewel Prince Royce, the baby-faced crooner with a soulful timbre that can bring a room to its knees (especially one filled with ladies), had little use for a Kleenex box Thursday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, especially after heading into the Miami night with six Premio Lo Nuestroawards.

But just about everybody else besides the 23-year-old, Bronx-born Royce, the Tropical contemporary artist of the year, shed a tear during a somber and draining 25^th anniversary of Univision’s annual homage to Latin music, which included a remembrance in song of the late Diva de la Banda Jenni Rivera, who won five awards.

Vibrant images and video footage of Rivera, killed in a plane crash in December, served as backdrop while her brother Lupillo Rivera and Puerto Rican singer Olga Tanon shared the stage for an emotion-filled rendition of Yo te extranare (I miss you) that brought many in the audience to tears minutes after Maria Jose delighted with a heartfelt El (Him), one of Rivera’s signature songs.

While emotive and gut-wrenching, especially for Rivera who could barely control his emotions throughout the performance, the 10-minute tribute didn’t include any of Jenni Rivera’s daughters despite being in attendance and accepting several awards in place of their mother earlier in the evening.

Victor Manuelle, who took home Tropical salsa artist of the year, delivered an emotional and tender speech while admitting he prayed in hopes of winning an award so he could dedicate it to his ailing father, watching in Puerto Rico. “One of the most important people in my life is losing his memory. My father’s is battling Alzheimer and his condition is worsening by the day,” said Manuelle in Spanish.

“But father I want to tell you I’m not the great artist, the famous one or the important one. Instead, I am the great person that you helped nurture and that I love you. I will tell you every day of your living life so that you will always remember it.”

The emotion that carried the latter half of the show did little to make up for the lackluster production, a recurring theme in recent years. Other than archived video footage of the usual suspects, including Tanon, the three-hour broadcast proceeded without any real ‘surprises’ and failed  to truly celebrate its 25-year history, unless an uninspiring performance by Colombian singer Carlos Vives to cap the evening is accounted for.

Royce, who won best rock/alternative song and collaboration for El Verdadero Amor Perdona (Real Love Forgives) with Mexican rock group Mana, joined Mexican pop star Thalia for Te Perdiste Mi Amor (You Love My Love) off her Habitame Siempre (Live in me always) album.

Mana won three awards, while Jesse y Joy and Wisin y Yandel garnered two apiece.

Dominican singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra fell flat in attempt to pump life into the show and honor its history with a mixture of his biggest hits, while Miami-bred darling Pitbull brought the audience to its feet with Echa Pa’lla (Sube Las Manos), (Scoot Over). Ex-Menudo pop tarts Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa came together for Mas y Mas (More and More), the first drop off Rosa’s album, Vida (Life).

Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, Pop male artist of the year, received the Excellence Award.

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Hanlon giddy over "Encanto"

Irish American pianist reconnects with Latin roots, old friends

By Fernando Ruano Jr.

His head and right foot moving simultaneously as he watches himself on a flat screen inside a posh South Beach hotel, Arthur Hanlon appears mesmerized by his own music during a screening of Encanto del Caribe: Arthur Hanlon & Friends, Hanlon’s exquisite churning of his trademark blue piano accompanied by the distinct vocals of guest artists including Marc Anthony and Natalia Jimenez.

“It does it to me even though I’ve probably watched it a few times,” says Hanlon about taking over the 500-year-old San Cristal Castle amid fortress walls in Puerto Rico and dusting off the Latin roots he discovered in mid-80’s New York. “I don’t think I’m done discovering them, searching for them, but (El) Gran Combo, (Grupo) Niche and Oscar D’ Leon definitely helped bring it out of me back in the day.”

He drops a prolonged rap about that brainy rat over Bernie Williams’ blistering guitar in the intro to Cheo Feliciano’s 70’s New York swing classic “El Raton”, performed with precision as the legendary Puerto Rican singer cuts in with short, poignant lyrics. And while its simplistic and an easy listen, Hanlon’s lightning-quick precision and dramatizing touch – traits he’s perfected as a leading exponent of Latin instrumental music and sole pianist to hit No.1 on the Billboard Latin charts – lends a punch. “Being up there with Cheo definitely took me back (in time), kind of traveling back through those streets again.”

Hanlon, the Irish-American pianist/composer with the schooled feel and hardened melody, discovered his classical side as a youngster in Detroit, but it was true love once he stepped on the streets of Spanish Harlem and was seduced by the Latin music washing over the city on a nightly basis. “It was a bit overwhelming, but enticing – (Jairo) Varela one night, Willie Colon the next, Eddie Palmieri,” says Hanlon, at the time completing postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music.

“It was kind of weird, in a good way. I arrived as a classical pianist and was slowing becoming a Latin (one). Each night was different, a melting pot of (Latin) cultures.”

The only pianist to land the No. 1 on the Billboard Latin charts in over a decade, Hanlon, characterized for his blend of classic and Latin rhythms throughout a 20-year career, encountered little difficulty in walking with “people from all Latin America.” “A lot of the people I knew were musicians I came across with time,” says Hanlon, who started playing gigs around the city that led to his first album, “Encuentros” .

In 2005, Hanlon recorded “La Gorda Linda”, a mainstream score featuring Tito Nieves and Arturo Sandoval. “I was making friends from all over: Puerto Rico, Colombia, you name it.”

Living amongst such a “melting pot”, Hanlon drew closer to those influences while developing a stylish piano form of his own. While he doesn’t utter anything vocally, Hanlon uses melodramatic timeliness in adding a splash of freshness to the most classic of songs.

He reaches the apex in “Encanto”, with the aid of Anthony’s stirring tenor in “Mi Viejo San Juan”, and the versatile capacity of Jimenez in “Historia de Un Amor”. “Jimenez, the former lead for La Quinta Estacion, takes her voice in all different directions as she pours an emotive rendition over Hanlon’s sharpness, even carrying high notes and breaking into dance as the song transforms from tender ballad to full-fledged salsa.

The CD/DVD, which also includes piano-duet “Prendo Te” and “Bienvenido” with Laura Pasini, who Hanlon met backstage at a show at Madison Square Garden. We met backstage at a show at Madison Square Garden,” says Hanlon, recalling he had to share a dressing room with Pasini. “I think you can say we hit it off quite nicely.”

The concert commences with a full orchestra performing “Encanto” against the picturesque backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and the walls of the historic castle – a picture Hanlon hopes stays in focus for years to come.

“It’s indicative that we have no barriers (in music),’ said Hanlon. “No matter where you’re from we can all come together to make music from any part of the world.”

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Montaner convinced true love will reign forever

Venezuelan-bred Latin pop artist takes familiar route in Viajero Frecuente”

By Fernando Ruano Jr.

If love were measured by the number of times he tugs at his collar in conversation, champagne and flowers would reign forever in our hearts. Ricardo Montaner, freshly ironed in white dress shirt and jeans, and bronzed as if he didn’t waste a single summer’s day on Miami Beach, is here today as the voice of romance and oddly enough to talk up “Convenceme”(Convince Me), another of his picturesque tale ballads and the first single off his upcoming album,“Viajero Frecuente” (Frequent Traveler).

He’s come to roll out the red carpet too, welcoming you with a beaming smile and handshake – amid laughter and banter– before kindly refuting your suggestion of romanticism being dead. No way, no how is it dead and he’s going to great lengths – albeit in a friendly tone – to convince you there’s still somebody out there, perhaps maybe even the beautiful blonde girl you’ve been dying to see again, ready to walk through the park and cuddle under the tree.

“Man, don’t look at it like that, romance will always exist” the Venezuelan-bred Montaner, 54, says during a sit-down interview inside a Coconut Grove-based record label. “Look, everything evolves as we travel (through) life, and the same has happened with the way most people fall (in love) these days, but that doesn’t mean it has died. It’s always going to be there, believe me.”

With a slight tap on your wrist, the Venezuelan-bred crooner with the 25 million records sold and effortless ability to lyrically paint pictures reassures you, no matter your depth of disillusion, there’s still plenty love in the air, so dust off those Jose Jose and Nino Bravo classics mami has buried in her closet – you know the songs you never hear on the radio anymore– and give it another try. “A lot of us have fallen in love with music, and a lot of us will continue to fall in love with music.”

Whether blinded or truly head over heels about a genre that flourished in the 1970’s and into the mid-90’s on the strength of Latin pop icons such as Julio Iglesias and Roberto Carlos but has been silenced in recent years by a younger generation’s thirst for synchronized beats and raps, Montaner, who turned his childish poetry scribing as a teenager in Argentina into a 30-year career of singing about love worldwide and the release of 15 albums, isn’t done making his pitch, even after coyly acknowledging a changing of the guard.

He might be willing to move a bit more on stage, but forget about rapping. “There were a lot of different musicians that influenced me, Beatles, (The Rolling) Stones, but this is what I knew I was and what defines me to this day.. It’s who I am.”

But the heartfelt lyrics and interpretations of Bravo and Carlos would have a lasting impact. He would spend hours sitting by the window or near any quiet space he could find writing about trying to hold on to time because he was a man, or a kid, falling hard, and even after all these years Montaner is still holding on no matter how long it takes as evidenced in “Convenceme”, a journey through a love-stricken man’s calendar unwilling to move on and desperately holding on to time in search of happiness.

Over a soft layer of percussion and piano, Montaner tenderly explores with her to convince him “the week with her has two Sundays” and that “the night is young although it’s early morning.” He wants certainty “all this will conclude in true love (story).” “A man that still sees an opening in the window, no matter how small,” says Montaner about the song. “Obviously, here’s a man that clearly hasn’t thrown in the towel.”

And Montaner is clearly a man still in love with his craft, eagerly selling his 12-track, yet-t0-be-released CD and telling you he has little use for writing songs that aren’t going to make the final cut. “I wrote 12 songs and 12 (songs) made it,” says Montaner, imploring anybody in love to take a trip through “Viajero Frecuente”. “I don’t believe in stocking hundreds of songs, they all have to clearly mean something and convince me.”

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Miami-bred musician Jorge ‘Tekilla 23’ Gomez wears the look of a careless, if not, unfinished soul– his black hair styled straight frames his face, a hoop ring on his lower lip and leather boots splash attitude onto his punk garb — as he walks through the doors of a coffee shop in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla.
Unprovoked, Gomez wastes little time in pronouncing his distaste for anything having to do with school, after pulling up a chair to the counter.
“I was never really into school much. It just wasn’t for me,” said Gomez in an interview with VOXXI. “It never was and never will be. I don’t even know what the inside of a school looks like now a days.”
But if anybody, young or old, needed a refresher course on landing or bargaining for the
purchase of their next vinyl record, the 20-year-old high school dropout would undoubtedly be at the top of the list to teach it.

What younger generations find in vinyl records

Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King and ACDC Vinyl Records. (Photo Courtesy)

The black disc long cherished by old school DJs and baby boomers is now experiencing a resurgence spearheaded by music enthusiast of all ages.
In tune with the digital era but closer in age to Justin Bieber than practically any artist alive, Gomez, who keeps a hearty dose of rock rotating on his iPod, has a collection of over 500 LPs. It’s a hobby he started four years ago at Red, White & Blue Thrift Store in North Miami with a $2 “Orange Hurricane” album and David Bowie’s “Stardust,” which set him back $40.
His searching in hundreds of album crates since 2007 has been rewarding in that he’s bargained for the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” along the way. But beyond just searching for some of his favorite artists’ albums, it’s the entire nostalgic
experience vinyl records offer that has Gomez and many others like him hooked.

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and The Blackhearts vinyl records. (Photo Courtesy)

“You can hear all the instruments on an album…from corner to corner, and that to me is mesmerizing,” said the Peruvian-born Gomez, who grew up listening to rock, folklore and his mother’s Beatles records, yet also has Celia Cruz and Hector Lavoe in his collection.
“A lot of the time it’s hard to imagine I am so young considering my music taste. It’s like I was born in the wrong decade or something,” he told VOXXI.
Gomez forms part of a growing list of youngsters who grew up shaking their hips or beating their heads to music coming out of electronic and digital devices, but crave the authenticity of vinyl records, considered old and worthless by the mid 80s, that have been on the comeback trail in recent years.
For many vinyl fans it’s the allure of searching through hundreds of albums to find the “one” or to be able to soak in the cover art or put the needle to the record.

Sales of vinyl records climb in recent years

Vinyl records. (Photo Courtesy)

And the proof is in the numbers, as 1.9 million vinyl records were sold in 2008 before doubling in sales to 3.9 million in 2010, according to Nielson SoundScan. Overall sales have increased each year since 2005 even though the purchase of vinyl still lags behind that of CDs. Where CDs normally range from $10 to $14, a vinyl record can set anybody back $15-$25, and even more if it’s a double-album such as “Back in Black.”
But those numbers could come closer together in the coming years, especially with the growing popularity of salsa in Europe and South America, not to mention the ample collection of reissues featuring 70s Fania headliners Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz, said New York-based DJ Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia, who has seen the evolution of music over the last three decades as he’s traveled the world and continues to expose listeners to music he grew up with in the 70s and 80s.
“I love playing seven-inch records. The authenticity is wonderful,” said Garcia, who grew up partly on Willie Colon, Eddie Palmieri and Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, and helped organize a three-city Fania tribute in 2008.
“All those Hector (Lavoe) records will always have a special meaning because it’s what I grew up on, but at the same time whenever I play a Latin gig it’s what people want to hear and I will continue to expose it all over the world,” Garcia told VOXXI.
Despite the struggling music industry’s attempts to survive the crippling effects of free downloading, the mainstream public is finding it easier to buy and relive their youth and, now, a younger generation is hooked as vinyl records have resurfaced into the pop culture consciousness over the last decade.
“The vinyl record has become popular among all people who love music because its
representative of so much more than just the music,” Garcia explained. “There’s the art, the story and the time factor. They’re ageless.”
New York-born Cassandra Arias, 45, was initially exposed to vinyl as a teenager listening to Colon, Lavoe and Ruben Blades on the radio. She would go on to take the small-sized collection of Fania records her mother kept in their tiny apartment before moving out two decades ago. Her collection today includes everything from 1990s freestyle to 1970s Spanish ballads with a little hip hop mixed in between.
“More than a hobby, it’s a passion,” said Arias. “This is the music I love and being able to
preserve the records means a whole lot to me.”
The nostalgia felt by collectors such as Arias is what keeps business on the upswing for record shop owners like Lauren Raskin, of Miami’s Sweat Records.
“I really think it’s the personal experience beyond anything else that has turned people on to vinyl records,” said Raskin, “They come in to search for it, pick it up, observe it and then go home to listen to it. They’re getting a truly real experience from start to finish and I really think that’s part of the fascination.”


Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/people-young-and-old-grooving-vinyl-records/#ixzz2KERa4dcj

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