Musician's Bios
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Zon del Barrio Members:
The following are the core Band Members who are: Zon Del Barrio.
Aurora Flores
Bandleader, composer, Lead and Coro Vocals.
Considered a 21st century Renaissance woman, Aurora Flores is a musician, writer, producer and activist. Raised in a musical family where her grandfather played plena and aguilnaldos on the accordion, her father wrote songs, her mother sang while her brother plays percussion she started as a classical musician playing violin, guitar and bass while singing in the school and church chorus before recording her first album at 15 with the Manhattan Borough Wide Orchestra as head of the bass section while studying bass privately with Frederic Zimmerman.
She went on to become the first Latina editor of Latin New York Magazine in 1974 later becoming the first female music correspondent for Billboard Magazine from 1976 to 1978. During this time she sang in the bands of Cortijo & Maelo y sus Cachimbos as well as a few local groups.
She attended the Columbia School of Journalism before breaking into mainstream journalism writing and reporting news for television, radio and print before starting a family and her own public relations agency, Aurora Communications, Inc in 1987.
With thousands of articles to her name, Aurora Flores organized her own septet in tribute to the music of Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera called Zon del Barrio featuring some of her own original compositions.
Flores continues to write for various mainstream newspapers and magazines while teaching a Latin music history course and lecturing on the roots of the music.
A cultural consultant, she has written bilingual tunes for the hit children's show, Dora, the Explorer and conducts tours of East Harlem in a cultural, political and socio/economic content. She can be seen singing alongside Tito Puente in the Edward James Olmos Docudrama, Americanos, Latino Life in the U.S.; lecturing in the Bravo documentary, Palladium: When Mambo Was King and in the Smithsonian film accompanying the traveling exhibit: Latin-jazz, La Combinación Perfecta. Flores is currently working on a book based on her experiences in the Latino New York world.
David N. Fernandéz
Musical Director, Arranger, Keyboards, Latin percussion, Coro
Multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, musical director and arranger, David Fernandéz relies on his almost encyclopedic knowledge of the classics for his creative arrangements. He has performed with Marc Anthony, the Joe Cuba Sextet, Willie Villegas as well as Pedro Guzman, Angel "Cuco" Peña, Andy Montañez, El Topo, Ismael Miranda and Ismael Rivera, Jr. to name a few. His arrangements can be heard over the hit children's show, Dora The Explorer, Willie Villegas' "Dancer's Paradise" as well as on Chembo Corniel's recent Latin jazz recording, "Portrait in Rhythms." Born into a musical family in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn New York, David was a child prodigy who began playing bongos professionally at the age of nine. His father was a guitarist and singer with his own trio group, Los Bohemios while his older brother played trombone with various salsa bands of the 60s and 70s. David played bongos and timbales before studying piano and jazz arranging at 15. He performed with the Youngstown State University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of the late Anthony Leonardi. At the Youngstown State University of Ohio he studied jazz arranging with Sam D'Angelo. He returned to New York to study jazz piano with the late Jaki Byard later learning salsa piano and music production with Ricky Gonzalez.
Fernandéz redefined the "jibaro" bongo style of playing during his time with Pedro Guzman's Jibaro Jazz while defining the salsa style of percussion on congas and timbales.
After leading a 10-piece orchestra playing Latin music throughout Youngstown, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA. while also playing with various other jazz artists including Bob Mintzer, John Faddis, and the late Nick Brignola, David Fernandez worked in Puerto Rico for six years before touring St. Croix as pianist with the r&b band "Tough Enough." Fernandéz returns to his native New York hometown where he is the musical director of Zon del Barrio; La TromBanda and Akunbé.
Sammy Rosa
Lead Vocals, Coro
Born in Gary, Indiana under the sign of Cancer, Sammy Rosa relocated with his family to Puerto Rico by the time he was seven years old. Music was always around him and a source of joy and inspiration leading the young sonero to join a merengue band, Nelson y Su Sabor Dominicano, by the time he hit 18. He performed in town fairs and nightclubs in Puerto Rico before moving back to New York in 1981 where he was recruited by La Rosa Orchestra as Lead Singer.
Since then, Sammy Rosa has performed and collaborated with Mimi Ibarra, Yolandita Rivera (Sonora Ponceña), Giro, Nino Segarra , Willie Gonzalez and Papo Pepin.
As lead vocalist he has performed for Brenda K. Starr, Tito Puente Jr., Conjunto Classico, Grupo Imagen, Grupo Melao, La Rosa Orchestra.
He has toured around the country performing at various colleges and universities. He has appeared around New York's most prestigious night clubs such as Cobacabana, Club Broadway, Latin Quarter; China Club; SOBs, El Flamingo, Westgate, Wild Palm.
At present Sammy sings back up for Choco Orta, Luisito Rey, and the Newyorican Power Orchestra. Today, Sammy Rosa, our original sonero who helped us to train his replacement, is back with Zon del Barrio as lead.
Ruben Lopez
Bass
A powerhouse player, Ruben Lopez has performed for the cream of the crop of musicians both in Puerto Rico and in Nueva York. The first call bassist while on the island, Lopez performed for Cortijo y su Bonche as well as the legendary Tommy Olivencia orchestra.
Ruben got his inspiration from his mother who liked to sing and had perfect pitch. She taught him the songs of her parents and he points to her as muse and mentor for his primary musical training.
His father had a store where all the musicians of the town would come to hang out attracting major celebrities such as Perez Prado.
Ruben Lopez started playing guitar on his own. He received an electric guitar as a gift from his father, teaching himself and learning from friends. He played rock music in several of the bands he first started with before he began playing bass. Ruben Lopez began formal study of the bass as a young man at Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico founded by Pablo Casals. He studied with bassist, Don Manuel Berdeguer. He remained at the Conservatory for four years under the bassist’ tutelege. He studied harmony with Amaury Veray and solfegio with Nelly Justicia.
One of the first professional groups he played with was headed by the bongo player formerly with
Cortijo y su Combo by the last name of Chacon. Luis “Perico” Ortiz, Reynaldo Jorge and Wilfredo de la Torre all made up part of this initial ensemble.
He began playing the Hotel and Tourist circuit in P.R. When he saw the orchestra of Tommy Olivencia play in the hotels, he was inspired. Olivencia had hits all over the radio and Ruben yearned to play with him when a mutual friend introduced him to Olivencia. Ruben Lopez played with Olivencia for five straight years recording the orginal version of Chamaco Ramirez’ “TrucuTru” on Juntos de Nuevo. Lopez returned back to the hotel scene. He performed on the Chuchu Avellanet show and met Mandi Vizoso playing in his big band and accompanying Latin artists that came to Puerto Rico such as Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez,Vitin Aviles, Roberto Ledesma and many more. Ruben Lopez spent 20 years on P.R.television and with the Vizoso band accompanying Ednita Nazario, Nydia
Caro, Charytin Goyco, Iris Chacon, Danny Rivera, Lucecita Benitez, Nelson Ned, Lolita Flores, Sofie, “El Puma” and many more. He was on dozens of recordings for jingles and commercials. He also performed with Cab Calloway in St.Thomas and for Rita Moreno in Puerto Rico. He also performed and toured with Rafael Cortijo y su Bonche.
He has played with Marco Antonio Muñiz, with trios, big bands and symphonies. He also recorded two salsa themes with guitarist José Feliciano. Today, Ruben Lopez resides in New York with his two sons who play brass instruments. He is a dynamic addition to Zon del Barrio.
Eduardo “Tito” Gonzalez
Bongos
Eduardo “Tito” Gonzalez was born in P.R. in Toa Baja. His brother played timbales and bongo and that got young Tito interested in the music. Growing up on the Island, he heard the “salsa dura” of Willie Rosario, El Gran Combo,Tommy Olivencia, Larry Harlow, and many others. He picked up his brother’s bongos when he was only eight years old. His brother, also self-taught, schooled him on the basics the recordings taught him technique and style. Roberto Roena, Papi Fuentes, Endel Dueño, Monolito Gonzalez and others were the first bongo players he emulated and admired. He started playing professionally at ten, with the bandleader asking his mother’s permission for the young musician to go out and play with the band. As a very young man, he began playing with Osvaldo Valentin, Bobby’s brother, recording for Borinquen Records before Tito came to New York to make his permanent home. It was in New York that he began to play with all the bands coming from Puerto Rico, i.e. Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz, Ismael Miranda, Cano Estremera, Hector Tricoche,
Nino Segarra, Paquito Guzman,and all of the singers with Roberto Roena and his Apollo Sound.Tito even played in the early days with
Victor Manuel when he was first recording. The list of bands and musicians he’s played with is a who’s who in salsa music.
Tito plays congas and timbales, but the bongos is his instrumet of choice. He recalls one memorable
evening in Carnegie Hall where he was playing w/ Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz alternating with La Sonora Ponceña. They began to play “La Zafra” and everyone in the percussion section took a solo. Harry Adorno was on timbales and Papo Pepin in the conga chair. During the moña (brass counterpoint during the improvisational mambo section) as it came close to his solo, Bobby Cruz turned to him and told him to get up from the chair and stand in front of the orchestra. A spotlight appeared on him and he played that bell with the stick so intensely that he got a standing ovation. After their performance, the trumpet player, Piro Rodriguez told Tito,“Now that was an incredible solo. I blow my brains out and you, with a bell and a stick, get a standing ovation.” Today, Tito still gets standing ovations with his performances with Zon del Barrio.
Nelson Mathew Gonzalez
Timbales
Sixteen year old Mathew is already a professional musician and dancer. Raised in a musical family where his grandfather, Benny Ayala is a seasoned plenero, composer, folklorist and maskmaker, little Mathew was weaned on the Afro-Caribbean beats of Boricua roots music.
He is a member of Danza Fiesta, a theatrical dance troupe led by Gilda Rivera Pantojas and also performs with Los Pleneros de la 21. He is now a member of Zon del Barrio as dancer and percussionist.
Special Guest Artist Presently Performing with Zon del Barrio
Sammy Ayala
Singer/Songwriter
Original member of Cortijo y Su Combo
The most consistent figure on Puerto Rico’s musical journey from folk to popular, Sammy Ayala, born Carlos Samuel Ayala Román February 17, 1933 in Santurce, has been an integral presence from Rafael Cortijo’s Combo to Jesus Cepeda’s Grupo ABC.
Currently in New York after a 30 year absence, Sammy Ayala is a member of New York’s Zon del Barrio performing and recording three tunes on our debut cd: Cortijo’s Tribe / La Tribu de Cortijo. Septegenarian Sammy Ayala interprets the music from Puerto Rico’s golden age between the 50s and 60s when the percussion master, Rafael Cortijo blazed new musical as well as racial and economic trails appearing with his all black orchestra on Puerto Rican television, radio and film during 1954 until 1962.
In 1953, Cortijo's Combo was the first all-Black band to have band members book rooms at five-star tourist hotels. Featured as the house band for the Island's daily television variety show, Coritjo y Su Combo was the first all-black orchestra on television in the Americas 10 years before the Civil Rights Act was even signed into Congress in the U.S. Cortijo’s innovations transformed the folkloric bomba, forming and becoming part of what has come to be known as salsa. Cortijo also raised the pay scale for percussionists, being the first to pay them at the same level as other musicians. He also freed musicians from the music stands displaying a dancing brass along with the vocal front line. Cortijo y su Combo defined a nation through music.
Ayala recalls those heddy days of 1954 when Cortijo’s brother Gilberto, Sammy’s compadre, recommended the young soldier, shipped home from Korea, to sing with the band that would change the sound of Latin music. Sammy was a baladeer having studied vocals and piano at “La Escuela Libre” in Santurce. Influenced by the music of Los Panchos and Bobby Capó. However, with Cortijo y su Combo, Sammy played güiro (scratching gourd), coro and established a signature falsetto “ah, ah, ah” prevalent throughout Cortijo recordings.
He traveled with Cortijo y su Combo throughout Aruba and Curazao alternating with calypso bands at Caribbean festivals where Sammy’s “compradre,” Ismael Rivera, would ocassionally sing in English. They went on to perform in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, California, Connecticut, Panama, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and many more until 1962 when the group disbanded.
Cortijo’s popularity came from his mixture of the Cuban dance montunos with the native Puertorican rhythms of plena and bomba. That mixed with the varied rhythms of guarachas, mozambique, samba, merengue, and boogalu, made Cortijo’s sound an explosive, exhilarating experience that truly embraced the poetic concept of Puerto Rico and Cuba as two wings of one bird.
“I was at the band meeting in 1962 when it was decided to form another ‘combo’ away from Cortijo and I was the first one to abandon that idea.” Sammy confesses. “It was not the time to do this when Cortijo had shared so much with us and created the platform for our success. I could not pay him back this way by turning my back on him when he needed us most.”
Throughout Cortijo’s manifestations, Ayala remained loyal to the percussive genius embracing Roberto Roena in 1959 when he replaced Roy Rosario. Sammy remained with Cortijo during the recording of “Los Internacionales” in 1962 when Rafa’s Combo sported a new musical team, and Sammy joined Ismael Rivera and his Cachimbos in the mid 60s before returning to Rafael Cortijo y su Bonche during the ‘70s. Sammy Ayala stood firm alongside Cortijo until the Maestro’s last recording, El Sueño del Maestro where Sammy records “second voice” on a bolero on the 1980 recording.
Meanwhile, Ayala has composed several hits such as “Lo Deje Llorando” interpreted by both Ismael Rivera and Hector LaVoe; “Dios Los Cría y Ellos Se Junta;” “Como Son Las Cosas” (bomba) and “Para Mi Gente” (plena) on the reunion record Juntos Otra Vez over the Coco label.
During Cortijo’s turbulent times in 1962, Sammy returned to school studying accounting and receiving a vocational certificate before enlisting in the Merchant Marines. He formed his own quintet recording the hit tune “La Picua” before it was popularized by Marvin Santiago. Ayala then went on to sing with Pepito Anengue, Liselia Sanjurjo and Nacho Sanabria. By 1965, Ayala returned to Cortijo when the bandleader, with the help of Tito Puente, put together an orchestra and a recording, “Bienvenidos,” to welcome Ismael Rivera who had just spent more than four years in a federal penetentiary in Lexington Kentucky.
Sammy Ayala left the music scene the following year in 1966 for the Merchant Marines travelling for two years before returning to Puerto Rico only to leave for New York and the music scene there. He joined the Gilberto Cruz Sextet where he is first recorded as a soloist on the Lp, “Yes I Will” in 1969 also featuring one of Ayala’s bombas, “Trata de Querer,” over Tico.
He joins the Joe Acosta Orchestra before getting the call from his compadre, Ismael Rivera to join his band, Los Cachimbos recording another one of his compositions: “Parece Que le Gusta” over Vaya Records. But Cortijo called him back to the Island where, by 1978, Ayala joins the maestro’s “Bonche.”
After a stint as a public servant for the Puerto Rico Lottery, Ayala forms Grupo Musical Bombazo 80 where his recording is filled with his own compositions featuring “Que He De Hacer,” “Seguiré Mi Camino,” “Cuide A La Comay” (bomba), “Señor Alcalde” (bomba), “Todo Cambio,” “No Te Confundas,” “Me Voy Queriéndote,” among others.
By 1985, Sammy Ayala becomes a part of Jesus Cepeda’s grupo ABC, (Arte Boricua Cultural) where he records “La Historia Se Repite,” and “Amor de Mascarada” featuring two of Sammy’s compositions “Que Lastima” and “Que He de Hacer.”
On October 6, 1996, the 23rd Festival of Bomba & Plena is dedicated to the soft spoken singer. Ayala records two Cds the following year with Plenarium over Tropix Music Records where his catchy “Levántate Juana,” is featured over the recording titled: Agúzate y Gózatelo: Navidad con Plenarium.
By 1998 “Los Hijos de los Celebres” is formed featuring the sons of Ismael Rivera, Andy Montañez, and Pellin Rodríguez singing one of Sammy’s tunes: El Que lo Hereda No Lo Hurta.”
Sammy Ayala has fathered four children: Carlos Samuel, Lourdes Caridad, Nayda Esther & Carlos Luís, and is immensely proud of his 13 grandchildren. Enjoying his golden years, Sammy Ayala is savoring the fruits of his numerous labors while drinking the milk of his music on the stage of life.
Yomo Toro
King of the Cuatro
Date of Birth:
26 July 1933, Guánica, Puerto Rico
Birth Name:
Víctor Guillermo Toro Vega Ramos Rodríguez Acosta Born in Ensenada, Puerto Rico as the son of an amateur guitarist,Yomo Toro grew to have a five-decade career as one of New York City's best respected Latin musicians. Toro's instrument of choice was the cuatro, a Puerto Rican 10-string guitar-like instrument descended from the Spanish Vilhuela.
After first landing in New York in 1953 with his band, Los 4 Aces, Yomo embarked on a series of tours of the Caribbean, finally settling for good in the Tremont section of the Bronx in 1956. He played with Trio Los Panchos in the early '60s and recorded four albums with them, including one featuring Eydie Gormé.Soon after that he began recording with the legendary Fania label, eventually joining their world-famous house band, the Fania All-Stars. During the late '60s and early '70s he hosted a tv show called the Yomo Toro Show on New York's Channel 41.The show, which featured interviews and entertainment from a host of Latin personalities, was on for seven years. 1969 was an especially fruitful year for Toro. He recorded Tribute to Arsenio with the Larry Harlow Orchestra -- an incredibly influential salsa album.Toro also got to hook up with some legends in 1970 when he recorded the classic Asalto Navideño with Willie
Colon and Hector Lavoe, combining the new sounds of NewYork salsa with traditional Puerto Rican
Christmas music.The album was, and continues to be, one of Fania's best-selling products of all time.
In the '70s, '80s and '90s Toro's career continued non-stop. He appeared on over 150 albums, recording over 20 solo albums for Fania, Island, Rounder and Green Linnet Records. He broke back into television and film, playing on commercials for several major international companies and working on the soundtracks for several films, including Crossover Dreams with Ruben Blades and Woody Allen's Bananas. He broke out into many different genres, recording with Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Rondstadt and David Byrne. In 1994, Yomo began playing in the Latin Legends with Larry Harlow and Aldaberto Santiago. Today, his rapid fire guitar strains are heard over Zon del Barrio’s debut CD where Yomo soars on solos that let him stretch and expand his virtuosity on strings.
Oreste Abrantes
Tumbadoras
The teenaged percussionist first started showing signs of his rhythmic virtuosity when he was still a baby boy. His mother recalls how he would beat rhythms and patterns on anything his little hands would touch. She started buying him toy drums, however, he rejected the toys and cried for real drums until she had to buy real percussion instruments for him to play on.
Oreste went on to devour every salsa music recording he got his hands on. By the time he was 5 years old, his mother entered him in a competition sponsored by Univision where he came in 2nd place, between two adults, playing congas. He takes his music seriously and has been studying percussion and music theory at the age of seven at the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Spanish Harlem. He was part of a percussion trio of children who opened for Salsa singing giant, Gilberto Santa Rosa at Carnegie Hall when he was merely 9 years old. He appears on television playing alongside Tito Puente when he was eleven on an episode of Nickelodeon's Gula Gula Island. He is a part of Boys & Girls Harbor Youth Ensemble and appears in the PBS documentary "Mi Mambo". Today, Oreste proudly sits in the conga chair of Zon del Barrio and will be recording with us on our upcoming CD to be released in 2008. YEAH KIDD!