Tocada y Fuga, a musical masterpiece performance by Sergio Arau, is a fascinating and audacious fusion of classical melodies with innovative and thought-provoking lyrics. In addition to being a gifted musical artist, Arau, a self described multi-undisciplined artist is also a cartoonist, painter, musician, and filmmaker.

Audiences will not only enjoy the most famous melodies of classical music, you will also learn that Lazlo De La Vega Morris Balam Klaus Vitelliy Pavón, today known as Sergio Arau, is the author of the lyrics of these well-known melodies. 

In Arau’s musical realm, Beethoven’s “For Elise” is actually “Paralyze” and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” is “La Hago de los Bisnes”” As is often the case, when trying to agree on the fair percentages of copyright, the lawyers did not understand each other and the musicians released their music without the lyrics. Tocada y Fuga, a story of betrayal and justice, will leave you stunned and spinning with its multiple rhythms – from Ska to Salsa through Blues and Punk.

Tocada y Fuga at The Paramount on Thursday September 13 at 8:00 PM

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Salsa producer and percussionist Willy Calderon dreams of winning a Grammy. The Los Angeles-born and raised musician just submitted his latest record The L.A. Impromptu to the Recording Academy for consideration in the Best Tropical Latin Album category.

The independently produced album is the first record by Willy Calderon & the L.A. Impromptu Orchestra, a band that brings together Southern California-based tropical talent like Grammy Award winner Luis Conte, Brigido “Macondo” Chaverra and Alberto Salas. The ensemble mixes salsa with jazz, son and other popular genres. 

“L.A. Impromptu was born from my heart, my home, my passion,” says the 31-year-old, L.A.-based percussionist. “I was inspired to create a band that would showcase all the talented artists on the west coast.” He adds, “I wanted this album to represent the best of Los Angeles and to remain a legacy of this period of time in music, of L.A, and of quality production and passion.”

Calderon recruited many other salseros from L.A., the U.S. and around the world, such as the also-Grammy Award winners Alex Acuña, Tony Succar and Luisito Quintero and Grammy Award-nominated artist Alberto Salas. 

The album consists of 12 tracks including “Mister Magic,” “Ifa,” “Gimme Some Money,” “Fiesta en Shibuya” and “La Tiene Que Pagar” and “Why? Why Not!”

The more than 30 featured musicians on the record include Roberto Quintero, Eliel Lazo, Adonis Panter Calderon, Oscar Ivan Lozano, John Egizi, Diego Camacho, Green Grizz, Hugo Motta, Ostual Serna, Kiwzo Fumero, Lito Hernandez, Jonathan Pintoff, Joe Motter, Luis Manuel Vadel, Anthony Ambriz, Luis Eric Gonzalez, Edgar Cruz, David Gomez Herrera, Pedro Ramirez, Jaime Andres “Gato” Salazar, Edwin Blas, Carlos Centeno, Andres De Cali, Mahesh Balasooriya and Steve Giraldo “Mofongo.” 

Calderon also features a Hollywood star lending his voice to the record. An introduction to L.A. Impromptu is narrated by actor Bill Pullman, who co-starred in the blockbuster film Independence Day as the United States president and also appeared in the BBC series Torchwood.

Calderon will find out if he nabs a Grammy nod for L.A. Impromptu when the Academy announces nominations for the 64th edition of the coveted award on Nov. 23.

In addition to being available as a CD, L.A. Impromptu can be streamed on Spotify and Amazon Music.

(Don’t miss Latin Heat’s exclusive interview with Willy Calderon later this week.)

Featured Photo: Willy Calderon (Credit: The Herrera Agency)

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Considered one of the top-selling tropical/salsa singers of all time, the multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner will launch the Marc Anthony Tour Aug. 27 in San Antonio, Texas. He’s reportedly the first artist to perform at the AT&T Center since the venue shuttered early in the pandemic in March of 2020.

San Antonio will be the first stop of the artist’s tour, visiting 23 American and Canadian cities through the end of this year.

The “Vivir mi vida” singer will then visit Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Charlotte, Uncasville, New York City, Chicago, Kansas City, Tulsa, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Ontario, Phoenix, Fort Myers, Orlando, Miami. He’ll cross into Canada to perform in two cities, Montreal and Toronto, before coming back for two performances in California, first in San Jose and then Los Angeles, where he’ll end the portion of his American tour Dec. 18. 

New York-born Puerto Rican Marc Anthony has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide and won three Grammys and six Latin Grammys. He has 26 Billboard chart hits like “Vivir Mi Vida” which has more than one billion views on YouTube and “Flor Pálida” with more than 142 million plays on Spotify. The singer also holds the Guinness World Record for best-selling tropical/salsa artist and the most number-one albums on the Billboard Tropical Albums year-end charts, an honor he shares with Romeo Santos and Eddie Santiago. 

The Boricua superstar was named after the Mexican balladeer Marco Antonio Muñíz. While a global salsa icon for a long list of Spanish-language hits, he started his recording career singing English, performing a dance music genre known as freestyle. That changed when he switched to salsa in 1993 and put out three commercially successful salsa albums in four years, Otra Nota, Todo a su Tiempo, and Contra la Corriente. 

But he also found success in the mainstream American market. Marc Anthony’s eponymous English-language album debut went triple-platinum in the U.S., becoming part of the nation’s so-called “Latin boom” in music during the waning years of the past millennium. 

Marc Anthony has received a total of 29 Premio Lo Nuestro awards, the ASCAP Founders Award, 12 Billboard Latin Music Awards and three Billboard Awards.

The singer also turned to acting in the mid-1990s. His film credits include Big Night, Bringing Out the Dead, In the Time of the Butterflies, Man On Fire. He played Puerto Rican salsa legend Héctor Lavoe in the 2007 biopic El Cantante. Additionally, he performed on Broadway, starring opposite Rubén Blades and Ednita Nazario in Paul Simon’s The Capeman in 1998.

In In the Heights, Marc Anthony has a small role. He plays Gapo, the alcoholic father of Sonny, the cousin of central character Usnavi, played by Anthony Ramos. The salsa legend is also part of the soundtrack. He lends his vocals to the song “Home all summer,” written by Lin Manuel Miranda and also featuring vocals by Ramos and Leslie Grace, who plays Nina.

Featured Photo: Marc Anthony in concert in New York last year (Credit: Magnus)

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Latin music icon, pioneer, and trailblazer Johnny Pacheco has sadly died due to complications of pneumonia on February 15, 2021, in New Jersey.

Pacheco was the prolific musical talent, whose monumental professional musical career has spanned nearly seven decades, as a musician, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He is also known as the co-founder and musical director for Fania Records in 1963, alongside lawyer and promoter Jerry Masucci, to promote Latino music.

Pacheco, born Juan Azarias Pacheco Knipping, on March 25, 1935, in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. From a young age, Pacheco showed a natural talent for music. In 1946, the eleven-year-old Pacheco and his family moved to New York City. He continued his music education, becoming self-taught in multiple instruments and studying at the world-renounced music academy Juilliard for percussion.

In the 1950s, Pacheco performed percussion with a variety of New York City based orchestras, including the orchestras of the world-famous bandleaders Xavier Cugat and Tito Puente. Towards the end of the 1950s, in 1958, Pacheco was recruited by the Jazz bandleader and “Giant of the Keyboards” Charlie Palmieri, to perform on the Latin Jazz album, Easy Does It.

The 1960s was a groundbreaking decade for Pacheco. As a bandleader, Pacheco released multiple records under Alleger Records, finding initial success in 1960, with helping to popularize the newest dance craze in New York City, the Pachanga. This launched Pacheco into international stardom. His band made history in 1962, by becoming the first Latin band to head headline at the famous Apollo Theatre.

With Fania Records, Pacheco continued to develop his signature musical sound and uplift the careers of many of the most famous and talented Latin musicians in the 1960s and 1970s, most notably Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, and “The Queen of Salsa” and “The Queen of Latin Music” Celia Cruz. To highlight the massive talent on the Fania Records roadster, the Fania All-Stars were formed in 1968. They played around the world, most notably Zaire 74, a three-day music festival in Zaire, Africa.

When developing Salsa, Pacheco explained in the documentary, Latino Music USA, “It was Cuban music that we took and we changed the arrangements, being that most of the guys were born here [in America], or were brought up on New York, we had the rock influence, the jazz influence, and we changed the approach.” He further added, “Now, what happened was, people would confuse [the sound of] the mambo, cha-cha-cha, and guaracha. So, what we did was put the music under one roof and called it Salsa”.   

Pacheco’s contribution to Latino music in America through many contemporary Latino musical talents, including singer/songwriter Marc Anthony. Anthony loving referred to Pacheco as the “Maestro of maestros”.

Featured Photo: Frans Schellenkens/Redferns

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