¡Ecua Jei! Ismael Rivera, El Sonero Mayor (A Personal Recollection)
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AFlores(v8).qxd 3/1/05 7:23 AM Page 62 CENTRO Journal Volume7 xv1 Number 2 fall 2004 ¡Ecua Jei! Ismael Rivera, El Sonero Mayor (A Personal Recollection) AURORA FLORES ISMAEL RIVERA Top left, in New York at the Loíza Festival. Middle right, on Venezuelan television, circa mid 1970s.Top and bottom photographs courtesy of Izzy Sanabria. Reprinted, by permission, from Izzy Sanabria. Middle right photograh courtesy of Aurora Flores. Reprinted, by permission, from Aurora Flores. [ 63 ] AFlores(v8).qxd 3/1/05 7:23 AM Page 64 blue and always walked around with The feeling among the Island’s blacks those damned drums draped around was one of elation, as if a liberating him.” But fate had been sealed. Rafael explosion had hit the island. Cortijo and Ismael Rivera were about By the late ‘50s, Cortijo y Su Combo con to make music and history together. Ismael Rivera became the first all-black Cortijo encouraged the young crooner, band to be featured regularly on television instilling confidence in him as a performer and radio on El Show de Medio Día and even while he labored on the construction La Taberna India. Their front line and brass sites. He would recommend Maelo to section danced and jibed to the native bands that needed singers and brought Island rhythms infused with brassy, jazzy him along to play bongos with the lines, and commercial instrumentation. conjunto of Moncho Muley and many Cortijo incorporated Afro-Cuban others when the pair began playing montuno lines and vamps on the piano with professionally on the San Juan scene. jazz licks on the brass over the indigenous And it was Cortijo who brought the bomba rhythms of the Island, played on young Maelo to the attention of Lito Cuban tumbadoras rather than the Island’s Peña, at a time when the Maestro was native barriles (drum barrels). Maelo’s looking for a vocalist who could sing the rapid-fire soneos (improvised vocal phrases) native plena music of the Island’s poor staccatoed over melodies, building layers for his big band, La Panamericana. of rhythms while playing catch with the clave. Improvising street phrases and “Yo soy Maelo de la Calle Calma” singing in unison with the percussion, Cortijo y su Combo—rising to the top. Photograph courtesy of Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. “El Charlatan,” Maelo’s first hit with La tres or cuatro solo, Maelo danced, jumped, Reprinted, by permission, from Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. Panamericana, rocked the Island. “Anoche and played the clave while holding the e walked the path of pain and life that was infectious, a priceless potion en el baile, charlatán, le diste a mi Lola” was audience in the palm of his hand. suffering singing joyful, soulful, of release and cleansing of the soul from heard from every radio, home, social club, “Someone opened the cage and let all the Hrhythmic songs that touched hearts the daily pain of existence. and dance hall throughout Puerto Rico. blacks loose,” Doña and inspired minds. A five-foot-ten, caramelo- One day, six-year-old Maelo announced Defending the honor of his girl from an Margo once said. colored, Puerto Rican prophet of Boricua to his mother, Margarita (Doña Margó), abusive charlatan was a theme that Indeed, Cortijo and soul, fondly called “Maelo” by his friends and that he would learn a skill to support his everyone could relate to and one that Maelo’s perform- El Sonero Mayor (the “Master Singer”) by his family. He ran off to play rhythms— catapulted the young singer into Island- ances had a liber- contemporaries, Ismael Rivera was a natural. banging on paint cans while shaking baby wide stardom by the mid ‘50s. With the ating fury that Maelo began to sing once he reached bottles filled with beans. He made good money he earned from this initial hit Maelo crescendoed into an “the age of reason,” and reason made his on his promise. He shined shoes after bought his mother a house on Calle Calma, exhaustive ecstasy. voice fly, dodging in and around the clave school and ran errands before becoming building the facade with his own hands. Their music was an with a facility that could only have been a a skilled bricklayer and master carpenter. Paving the way for Cortijo’s success, electrifying release. gift from God. But reality also told him Rivera explored finger-poppin’ claves composer Rafael Hernández returned Singer/composer he was born in one of the poorest sectors through the snap of his fingers while his to Puerto Rico in 1947 a conquering Bobby Capó wrote of San Juan, one of five surviving siblings hands labored over bricks and mortar; hero at a time when Puerto Rico was hits for them, as did (seven others did not make it). Very early Maelo’s noontime coros resounded hungry for heroes of Afro-Boricua Pedro Flores, Don on, his father told him stories steeped in through the cangrejero ‘hood of Santurce, descent. By the ‘50s and ‘60s Roberto Rafael Cepeda, and roots of slavery; he sang out of love for an where he and boyhood buddy Rafael Clemente and Peruchín Cepeda made Doña Margó. Don island that remained enslaved in her own Cortijo would hustle gigs for the tribal the big leagues, representing Puerto Cepeda, the guardian right. Maelo wrapped this love around areitos that released the soul at sunset. Ricans, particularly black Puerto of Boricua bomba The great duo, Cortijo and Maelo. him for protection during a difficult time, He met his partner, Rafa (Cortijo), Ricans, with honor. While the civil and plena rhythms, Photograph courtesy of Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. Reprinted, by permission, from when he had to fight for respect and when he was eleven years old in elemen- rights movement was still a few years had been singing Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. work for survival from youth into tary school. The family frowned on away from being formally signed by then tunes to the duo for manhood. From deep in the belly of the friendship, quipped Doña Margó, President Johnson in 1964, Puerto Rico years, polishing their native-born poverty sprang a joy and celebration of because “Rafa was so black he looked was already brimming with black power. knowledge of the genres. [ 64 ] [ 65 ] AFlores(v8).qxd 3/1/05 7:23 AM Page 66 Witinila…uye, uye: entertaining audiences at the highest breaking cultural chains levels of professional musical acumen. During an interview in the summer Cortijo’s replacement of barilles for of 1976, Cortijo once said he took the congas had less to do with authenticity rhythm of Boricua blood, dressed her than with recorded coherence. up in her Sunday best and paraded her Clearly the tauter skin over the narrower around the world for everyone to see. circumference of the conga drum carried He loved her, and you could feel it. the rhythmic patterns farther than the When he was about to record his first wider skin needed to fit the head of the album, Cortijo made a point of recording larger barril. The pandero rhythms were his beloved bombas and plenas first, swapped by the congas as well with the at a time in Puerto Rico when the Afro- requinto-talking pandero played out on Cuban conjunto sound was the big seller. the quinto drum. As far as Cortijo was Bomba and plena were seen as an concerned, it is the skill and precision exclusive, insular rhythmic mystery of the indio and not the choice of arrow steeped in an unmentionable black that hits the target. The bomba was now religious ritual of music and dance, needed for a newer insurrection, a cultural protected by folklorists and academics one inclusive of both black pride and who analyzed the music to the exclusion Boricua identity unifying the lighter- of the pueblo. The older folklorists were skinned jíbaro with his black coastal cousin. Cortijo y su Combo in New York. They hit the bullseye. Photograph courtesy of Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. Reprinted, by permission, from Rafael “Ralph” Méndez. Not only was Cortijo y su book, El entierro de Cortijo, reflected the African Congolese phrases into the Combo a hit from its first unifying power and crossing of cultures, improvised “mambos” (instrumental recording on, their daily classes, races, and places that his sancocho interludes) of the tunes. During these appearances on televison, of music had on the pueblo. Cortijo had meetings, Don Cepeda’s many children radio, festivals, dances, and created a recipe with a taste, un bocaito would gather around Maelo, who always concerts were testament to a for everyone, and isn’t that how we, had his pockets filled with candy and popularity unprecedented at as island people eat, with everything on trinkets for them. that time. Cortijo’s band played the plate instead of separated into neat, bomba, plena, mambo, guracha, American TV dinnerstyle compartments? De Colores cha-cha, oriza, calypso, One of Don Cepeda’s sons, Maelo loved children. He believed mozambique, merengue, samba, Roberto Cepeda, recalls how proud his that all children should feel love and and bolero within a context father was of these initial recordings. joy, no matter where they came from. of Puerto Rican pride and “They brought the music of the poor He recalled a party in his honor at the rhythmic creativity not out of isolation. It went from margin- start of his career at a five-star hotel in Cortijo y su Combo with Arsenio Rodríguez—”El cieguito maravilloso.” duplicated since. Their themes alized ghettos onto radio, television, Puerto Rico. Maelo rented a van and Photograph courtesy of Rafael “Ralph” Méndez.