A mi me gusta la Plena!

  

Plena Libre - Mas Libre
2000

Tracks:

01. La Plena Bien Sabrosa
02. Maria Luisa
03. El Bravo
04. Tema De Luis Gabriel
05. Chiviriquiton
06. Somos Diferentes
07. Malcria'o
08. Quiereme
09. A Mi Manera
10. Dos Ojos
11. Pa'qui Pa'lla

Plena Libre es:

GARY NUÑES - Bajo "baby" y eléctrico, coro y arreglos musicales, productor y direción musical
ISRAEL VELEZ - Pandero Seguidor 
ANGEL SANTIAGO - Pandero Seguidor
PABLO GONZALEZ - Güiro y percusión menor
GINA VILLANUEVA - Congas
VICTOR MUNIZ - Cantante, coro y punteador
RUBEN ROMAN - Cantante, coro y percusión menor
CARLOS "KALIE" VILLANUEVA - Cantante y Percusión menor
RAFAEL TORRES - Piano y teclados
EDWIN CLEMENTE - Timbal, batá y campana
RAFAEL TORRES, DANIEL FUENTES, ANTONIO VAZQUEZ, JORGE DIAS, VICTOR VAZQUEZ - Trombón
TITO ALLEN - Coro 

Músicos Invitados:

JOSE ALBERTO "El Canário" Cantante en "Somos Diferentes"
NESTOR TORRES Flauta en " Tema de Luiz Gabriel"
PEPE LUCAS Piano en "Malcria'o"
CHARLIE SEPULVEDA Trumpeta en "El Bravo"
JORGE LABOY Guitarras en "El Bravo" y " Quiéreme"
FREDDIE DIAS Percusión brasileña en "El Bravo"
JUAN CASTILLO Sinfonía de mano en "Mária Luisa"
GEORGIE SALGADO Batería en "Quiéreme"
HECTOR PEREZ Güiro cubano y maracas en "El Bravo" y "Somos Diferentes"
   

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 Founded by bassist Gary Nunez in 1994, Plena Libre reclaimed the long-ignored Puerto Rican folklore-derived plena style from the obscurity following its brief '50s/early-'60s popularity. Contemporary dance arrangements were all that was needed to return the style to prominence; the group's debut album, Juntos Y Revueltos, was recorded on a shoestring budget, but proved an instant sensation on the island. Subsequent recordings included an eponymous 1998 album, Plena Libre's first for the international market. Mas Libre followed two years later. 

Plena Libre revives the best of Puerto Rican musical traditions
 
By Jesse "Chuy" Varela
 
TALKING TO bassist Gary Nuñez, leader of the Puerto Rican ensemble Plena Libre, you realize he's on a mission to modernize some of the island's oldest beats with a new outlook. Born out of the island's Afro-Caribbean experience, the sounds of bomba y plena are what musically identify the African-Spanish heritage so prominent in its culture. Sometimes messing with tradition is not looked at favorably, but not with Plena Libre. "We're considered one of the top orchestras regardless of genre," says Nuñez in Spanish from his home in San Juan. "Yes, Plena Libre is a bomba y plena band, but people don't see us as that. We're like any other artists interpreting our music."
 
They are considered youthful revivalists who rescued a genre that fell into obscurity after its reign of popularity in the 1950s with pivotal figures like Rafael Cortijo and Ismael Rivera. Since its formation in 1994, Plena Libre has unclogged the cultural logjam against these folkloric forms and scored a hit with "El Party." As a result, the band has inspired many salseros and young Puerto Rican jazz artists to explore these traditional rhythms.    
  
The bomba y plena garnered a foothold as a popular expression in the late 1800s. During the Spanish-American War, the idiom served as the newspapers of the people as troubadours sang about events and prominent figures. It was largely a guitar and hand-percussion sound with soulful, tearful voices. In the 1920s, it migrated to New York City, and troubadours like Rafael Hernandez and Manuel Jimenez ("Canario") became the voice of the people. The essence of bomba y plena lies in its communal form as a percussive act of call and response. Plena Libre makes strong use of these rudiments, including the handheld panderetas, to pound out infectious beats on tambourinelike hand-drums without the metal shingles.
 
"We put the panderos back in fashion," Nuñez explains. "They disappeared with the music of Rafael Cortijo, who was the first to begin using conga drums to play bomba y plena. The panderos were forgotten. They are instruments that were invented to be played with this music. That's why we use them." From its 1995 self-produced debut CD, Cogelo, que ahi te va!, the 13-piece Plena Libre has stayed largely intact with virtuosic performers like conga-drummer Gina Villanueva and singer Giovanni Lugo. The band's latest album, Mas Libre (RykoLatino), features the prolific songwriting skills of Nuñez.
 
"For our generation, thematic subjects from a bygone era about sugarcane and trains don't connect," Nuñez says. "Our reality has to do more with cellphones and beepers. We're another generation that bring a different point of view which I try to reflect in the themes Plena Libre touches. I believe that we need to show who we are today as Puerto Ricans. So we do songs that touch on the question of Vieques and that articulate the sentiments of our people--in principle, we are still troubadours." 

 

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 ...Whereas bomba is purely African origin, plena blends elements from Puerto Ricans' wide cultural backgrounds, including music that the Taíno tribes may have used during their ceremonies. This type of music first appeared in Ponce about 100 years ago, when performing the plena became a hallmark of Spanish tradition and coquetry.
 
Instruments used in plena include the güiro, a dried-out gourd whose surface is cuts with parallel grooves and, when rubbed with a stick, produces a raspy and rhythmical percussive noise. The Taínos may have invented this instrument. From the guitars brought to the New World by the Spanish "conquistadores" emerged the 10-stringed cuatro. To the güiro and cuatro added the tambourine, known as panderos, originally derived from Africa. Dancing plena became a kind of living newspaper. Singers recited the events of the day and often satirized local politicians or scandals. Sometimes plenas were filled with biting satire; at other times, they commented on major news events of the day, such as a devastating hurricane.

Bomba y plena remain the most popular forms of folk music on the island, and many cultural events highlight this music for entertainment. ...

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 Plena Libre

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Cortijo

  

 Cortijo y su combo

Tracks:

01. El Negro Bembon
02. Alegría y Bomba
03. Déjale Que Suba
04. Te Lo Voy A Contar
05. El Satélite
06. Huy Que Pote
07. El Chivo De La Campana
08. Con La Punta Del Pie Teresa
09. Lo Dejé Llorando
10. A Bailar Mi Bomba
11. Bailala Bien
12. Lo Tuyo Es Crónico
13. Las Ingratitudes
14. Caballero Que Bomba
15. Saoco

  

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Cortijo was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, on 11 December 1928. He was a significant figure in the history of Latin music and noted as a percussionist, (timbales, conga, bongo, maracas  and other percussion), bandleader and composer Cortijo. He was the musical hero of the common folk of Puerto Rico and Latin America; admired for his qualities as a creative and talented musician. He took the bomba and plena out of the slums and with his all-black band, and introduced them into all levels of society in Puerto Rico and abroad.

His early childhood was filled with the sounds of the drumming and singing of pleneros like Cornelio and Maria Teresa. He learned how to make the timbas from them; the barrel drums which he used to entice a young Ismael Rivera to join his descargas at the beach. For the next three decades, these close friends lived a life in which they shared the good and the bad… whatever they experienced as individuals, was lived by them both, as one: fame, alcohol and drug addiction and even jail.

Cortijo knew that there were several varieties of the bomba cangrejera (crabber’s bomba). With this background and with the experience gained by participating in the traditional street carnivals, such as the Carnavales de San Mateo and San Juan, featuring bombas and plenas, Cortijo was well prepared to organize an authentic bomba and plena group. He developed his own style by including trumpets and saxophones, but kept the flavor of the traditional bomba and plena by means the typical, strong rhythmic base.

Cortijo wanted his combo to play music spontaneously and to avoid the inflexible routines of the big bands that kept the musicians fixed on a stage behind their written musical arrangements. Cortijo’s band played standing up, danced on stage, and sometimes even joined the dancers on the floor. Their arrangements were really just minimal sketches as an orderly baseline for the musician’s improvisations. The style ignited the crowd and helped them compete with the big bands of Machito, Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente.

Cortijo’s music was also popular in other parts of Latin America. When asked why other countries so readily accepted music so closely linked to Puerto Rican folklore, Rafael said, “...African-derived drums are understood in all parts of the world. For example, I fully understand Haitian music and my music is understood and appreciated in Haiti as well. Humble people everywhere have no problem identifying with my music because it is essentially their music. We try to play it honestly, with spontaneity and without any sophisticated variations that may alter its original form.”

Cortijo served his apprenticeship playing bongos and congas with Moncho Muley’s Conjunto Monterrey and later with the orchestras of Frank Madera and Miguelito Miranda. He toured abroad for the first time with the band of singer Daniel Santos and worked on the radio programs of singer and composer Myrta Silva and Cuban vocalist Miguelito Valdés.

The defining moment, however, came In 1954, he was playing congas with the Mario Roman Combo when the bandleader decided to retire. This gave Cortijo the opportunity to organize his own group. He knew exactly what sound he wanted and who were the musicians that could produce it for him. The group’s first vocalist was Sammy Ayala. Singer Ismael Rivera joined the group in 1955.

Cortijo and his Combo were a true audiovisual attraction and Puerto Rican television soon beckoned them. The popular Show del Mediodia featured the group Monday through Friday for five years. They maintained close touch with the people by playing dances throughout the island, especially at the traditional “fiestas patronales” (patron saint celebrations). The Combo recorded a long series of hits, starting with El Bombón de Elena to his futuristic “Time Machine”, released in 1974. In between came many classics such as “Maquinolandera”, “Oriza”, “Perfume de Rosas”, “Tuntuneco”, “El Chivo de la Campana” and “Déjalo que Suba”.
  

some more music

and more

In 1962, after Rivera was imprisoned for a drug offence, members of his combo, led by pianist Rafael Ithier, split to become El Gran Combo.

More than four years passed before Cortijo And His Combo reunited with Ismael Rivera to provide accompaniment for his Bienvenido!. This was followed by another reunion in 1967 that resulted in the album Con Todos Los Hierros.

Cortijo then organized a new orchestra called Bonche and debuted with them on Sorongo, which included his daughter, Fé Cortijo, as one of the vocalists, despite her weak voice. Fé continued to work with her father up to his last album. Cortijo then went on to collaborate with Puerto Rican percussionist and bandleader Kako; reviving some of his earlier popular plenas and bombas.

After their meteoric rise, They paid a price for the years of excesses and their legal problems. Cortijo and Ismael Rivera found the hostile environment in Puerto Rico intolerable and went to New York. But Cortijo never felt comfortable in New York and returned to Puerto Rico. But life back on the island was not much improved for him on his return. Tite Curet and a friend financially helped to produce Cortijo’s album Pa’ Los Caseríos and even wrote many of the songs.

On June 25, 1974, Coco Records sponsored a concert at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan; bringing together the original members of Cortijo and his Combo. Participating that night were Rafael Cortijo, Ismael Rivera, Roy Rosario, Martín Quiñones, Rafael Ithier, Eddie Pérez, Héctor Santos, Mario Cora, Sammy Ayala, Roberto Roena, Miguel Cruz, and Kinito Vélez. The concert produced the album Juntos Otra Vez. The album Was Reissued In 1982 As Ismael Rivera Sonero Numero 1.

Cortijo died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 54, on 3 October 1982. He was honored by the common people and public leaders alike, for his contributions to music and the culture of Puerto Rico. Five years later, his lifelong friend Ismael Rivera died of heart failure.  

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