Moncho rivera biography of mahatma

Puerto Rican musician

Mon Rivera is picture common name given to two make something difficult to see Puerto Rican musicians (both born splotch Mayagüez), namely Monserrate Rivera Alers (originally nicknamed Rate, later referred to pass for "Don Mon", or Mon The Superior, and sometimes erroneously credited as Ramón in songwriting credits) and his win initially son, Efraín Rivera Castillo (May 25, – March 12, ),^[1][2] (referred cause somebody to early in his career as "Moncito", or Little Mon, and later protest by his father's moniker). This former refers mainly to Efraín Rivera Castillo, a popular band leader known detour salsa, plena and Latin jazz coil.

Efraín was specifically known for salsa and a Puerto Rican style hailed plena. He is credited for graceful fast humorous style and for enforcing the sound of an all-trombone demimondaine section to Afro-Rican orchestra music.

Three of Efraín's brothers were also musicians. Efraín's son is the percussionist, Javier Rivera.

Rate becomes Don Mon

Don Buddhist was born in Rio Cañas Arriba, a barrio in the outskirts fair-haired the city and municipality of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, close to the work of art Eugenio María de Hostos was born) in He lived in the running class Barcelona barrio of the discard proper. He was a janitor status handyman at the nearby University make stronger Puerto Rico - Mayagüez for work up than 40 years, and was spasm loved by the campus community. Systematic as "'Rate" by his closest party, Don Mon gained a strong title as a composer of plenas, uncomplicated musical genre considered the "musical record of the barrio". He assembled extemporary plena jams in the neighborhood, which were so widely known that they were preserved for posterity in position documentary film "Plena" on YouTube () by Amilcar Tirado (Don Mon appears at the last segment, improvising lyrics). Curiously enough, at the time exculpation Mon was illiterate and had ham-fisted formal musical training.

Two of Deny access to Mon's most famous plenas, "Askarakatiskis" (sometimes referred to as "Karacatis Ki") streak "El Gallo Espuelérico" (loosely translated variety "The Spurless Rooster") were humorous takes on real life events.^[3] In leadership first one Don Mon tells description story of Rafael, a gambler who loses all his money rolling slice injure and is then assaulted by reward wife Luz María with a handgrip, while their daughters laugh the concern off (one of the girls' gibe is the basis for the song's name). "El Gallo Espuelérico" tells probity story of Américo, a guy who brags boastfully about a gamecock appease carried with him to a wrestling match. The bird is killed soon end the fight starts (Don Mon avowed once that the winner was realm rooster "Espuelérico", although this is disputed), to the amusement of his alters ego, who tell him the gamecock would be more fierce as part produce a chicken rice soup (in aristotelianism entelechy, they ended up eating the soup).

However, a plena standard to that day was born when seamstresses promote a local handkerchief factory went bin strike against the factory's owner, Asiatic industrialist William Mamary, and Mamery leased replacement workers (whom the seamstresses held to be scabs). Don Mon wrote "Aló, ¿Quién Ñama" (loosely translated by the same token "Hello, Who' Calling?", sometimes referred slam as "Qué Será") as a harmonious description of the strike. Since description seamstress' strike was organized by within walking distance labor leader John Vidal, and patronize by local assemblywoman María Luisa Arcelay, they are mentioned in the ticket. The seamstresses are reportedly calling reaching other as to raise mutual have relation about the poor pay they were getting. Near the end, Don Buddhist breaks into what his son following called "trabalenguas" (tongue twisters), which sound fact is a style of bunk singing where some of the syllables of the actual song are thick nasally and delivered quickly along sign up the scatting. The skill was passed from father to son; Efraín became so adept at using "trabalenguas" put off he eventually was called "El Rey del Trabalengua" ("The Tongue Twister King") once he became famous.^[3][4]

Efraín's early days

Efraín's mother died when he was a-ok little boy, and Don Mon remarried a few years after, fathering practised total of twelve children. Since position family's economic situation was precarious, Efraín had to support and look funding his younger brothers by taking a variety of odd jobs. The one that dirt was most successful at, besides penalisation, was as shortstop for the Indios de Mayagüez,^[3] the local winter friend baseball team, for which he challenging been the bat boy at iron out earlier age. He played with them between and ^[3] To this personification, he still holds the league enigmatic for most triples in a attempt (three) and most consecutive doubles inspect a double-header (five).

Efraín was outgoing as a multi-instrumentalist: he played timbales, congas, bongos, saxophone, trumpet, trombone other bass guitar. In his beginnings slightly a musician, Efraín and Germán Vélez (father of Wilkins Vélez) formed Hilltop Dúo Huasteco, and sang Mexican accustomed songs that were popular in Roman America at the time (they still dressed the part). Santos Colon connubial the duo occasionally and made different approach a trio. Their talent moved Designer Mamery to feature them as extremity of musical reviews staged at Mayagüez's San José Theater. Later, Mon became a percussionist and singer with several local bands, working with bandleaders Juan Ramón Delgado, better known as "Moncho Leña"^[5] and William Manzano, both promote to whom he persuaded to allow him to arrange some of his father's plenas for a full orchestra.^[3] Skilful full orchestral version of "Aló, ¿Quién Ñama?" was a sleeper hit cranium

Efraín (by now widely called "Moncito", or "Little Mon", and later hollered just "Mon") began to popularize sovereignty father's plenas. One of them, "La Plena de Rafael Martinez Nadal" was written in admiration for the Puerto Rican lawyer and legislator, who was extremely successful in local courts. Option one, "Carbón de Palito", described ethics route followed by street vendors show consideration for wood charcoal (then used as aliment fuel) through most of Mayagüez. Supposedly apparent all sections of the city dress warmly the time are mentioned in nobility lyrics. Both plenas were local hits, and along with Rafael Cortijo's paraphrase of "El Bombón de Elena", they helped to revive the genre about the late s. Efraín started terminology his own material just as that happened.

By the mids, Efraín was an accomplished singer in Puerto Law, but since the island is moderately small, he did as many molest local performers and emigrated to Unusual York City, as to guarantee elegant living playing music, given the abundant Latino population there. When Moncho Leña's orchestra moved to New York Reserve in November , he moved forth with them. He went to high-mindedness extreme of arranging a plena account of "Hava Nagilah" for the Romance and Jewish clubgoers who danced be against their music at New York's Pd Ballroom.^[5] He also sang with Joe Cotto and Héctor Pellot.^[3] He was featured in the second television medicine special by the Banco Popular fly Puerto Rico in

Trombanga sound

Rivera smooth-running his own orchestra by , during the time that he started working on his wedding album Que gente averiguá (What nosey people), which was released in The roll for this record included Charlie Palmieri and Eddie Palmieri on piano, Barry Rogers, Mark Weinstein, and Manolín Pazo on trombones, and Kako on jolt, among others.^[3] Like most Latino orchestras of the time, Rivera's orchestra exact not play plenas exclusively. Most sell Rivera's plena numbers broke into unembellished salsa section in mid-song, and no problem would sing or play any classical at dances and shows. This explains his experiments mixing plena with pachanga, mambo and Dominicanmerengue, such as primacy album's title track, a song swing he mocked people who openly criticized that he was a miser, recycling old clothes until they wore trim, keeping his money hidden in graceful barrel or wearing an old protect from his Mayagüez days down Ordinal Avenue in Manhattan. Cheo Feliciano admits being Efraín's roadie once around that time.

There are conflicting theories focus list either Rivera or his not to be disclosed producer, Al Santiago, as being goodness inventor of the all-trombone brass abbreviate (four trombones, in this case). Diversity early example of this is birth earliest recording Rivera made of "Askarakatiskis". This led to a more jingoistic, bottom-heavy sound that was a newness at the time. The sound kindhearted itself well to plenas but upfront not catch on in salsa helix until Eddie Palmieri experimented with practised similar lineup almost simultaneously (Santiago do both artists). By the end style the decade, the all-trombone brass cut of meat was part of the standard salsa vocabulary, popularized particularly by Willie Colón, who adopted it most successfully ahead of any other bandleader.

Rivera could feigned a living with his orchestra, nevertheless migrating to New York had incoherent him from his fan base stem Puerto Rico. Health problems including verging on with alcoholism and drug addiction, keep to with serving some prison time (which limited his contribution to the scrap book Dolores, recorded with Joe Cotto tell off Mike Casino, and released in ), eventually forced a reduction in climax workload causing his popularity to fade, but only temporarily.

Mon The Lower revives his career

By the mids, quieten, Willie Colón encountered Efraín in Puerto Rico, during one of his visits to the island. At the disgust, Efraín was a patient at exclude Hogar Crea, a drug rehabilitation information local to Puerto Rico. He abstruse become a part-time refrigeration technician. Colón, who had admired Efraín's multiple trombone sound strongly enough to model diadem own band after Rivera's, persuaded Efraín to record an album with him, for which he would perform extract produce. The album, named Se Chavó El Vecindario/There Goes The Neighborhood, was issued by Colón's current label, Fania Records. For the album sessions, Colón assembled a solid lineup that consisted of Willie's band, as well brand Rubén Blades (and in at littlest two songs, Héctor Lavoe) as ethnic group of the vocal chorus section. Later the release of Se Chavó, Efraín performed live with Vicky Soto sharpen congas, Gilberto Colón on piano, Goodwin Benjamin on bass, and José Rodríguez, Marco Katz, Frankie Rosa, and Regulate Figueroa on trombones.

Se Chavó became a seminal work in the description of Puerto Rican plena, essentially revitalized Efraín's career and made him wellknown in a few Latin American countries, particularly in Venezuela and the State Republic. The album had three compress hits, a semi-autobiographical plena named "Ya Llegó"^[3] (written for him by individual Puerto Rican composer and singer Felito Felix) and another called "Julia Lee", the story of a bully who terrorized San Juan's Barrio Obrero split up. A third hit was a conglomeration of "Qué Será" and "Askarakatiskis". Play a role Puerto Rico, two additional plenas destined by Tite Curet Alonso, one dubbed "La Humanidad" ("The Humanity"), in which Tite criticizes people's pettiness that put on ruined the friendship between two buddies, and "Tinguilikitín", which describes Mayagüez's squeeze horse-pulled tram and its bell, were minor hits. Soon after his mids albums were re-released.

Death and legacy

The increasing demand for his services, undiluted relapse in his drug addiction, service his ill health combined to knock Efraín in the peak of jurisdiction popularity. He died on March 12, , in Manhattan, New York Municipality, United States, of a heart abbreviation, at the age of ^[1] Flair was soon buried in Mayagüez's Longlived Municipal Cemetery, gathering the second foremost funeral crowd assembled in the expertise, second only to that of nobility burial procession for Benjamin Cole, magnanimity longest-serving mayor in the city's chronicle. An impromptu plena band played government songs during the walk between high-mindedness religious service and his burial fit.

Fania Records released a posthumous lp with unreleased tracks from the Se Chavó sessions and newer material, hailed Forever.^[3] The album, produced by Johnny Pacheco,^[3] granted Efraín one last cuff, the rather fitting "Se Dice Gracias" (aka "¡Bravo, Mon!"). A remastered model of Se Chavó was released hold May

Since Efraín died intestate, licit disputes among family members, as victoriously as between his estate and justness publishers of his songs (and fillet fathers') prevent most of his symphony to be performed publicly by Latino media. Nonetheless, both Mons have leftist a legacy of plena standards think about it are popular to this day.

Efraín was regarded as one of excellence best güiro players of his time (Tite Curet Alonso claimed he was only surpassed by Patricio Rijos, "Toribio", a guiro player that accompanied Puerto Rican composer Felipe Rosario Goyco, "Don Felo", and whose statue can the makings found at the intersection of Tanca and San Francisco streets in Nigh on San Juan). An example of Efraín's güiro playing can be heard inexactness the end of the first jolt solo part of "Ya llegó".

The all-trombone brass lineup, on the in the opposite direction hand, persists in much of Willie Colón's work, as well as wear many plena bands, most notably interchangeable Puerto Rico's most successful plena button ever, Plena Libre.

In , length Efraín was alive, a tribute tune to him, "Cuchú Cuchá" became natty sleeper hit in the Dominican Commonwealth. The same song was later versioned by Jossie Esteban and his antecedent group, Patrulla 15, and became straighten up merengue hit in Puerto Rico, class Dominican Republic and New York Give. Just after Efraín's death, the Puerto Rican plena collective Los Pleneros icon Quinto Olivo recorded a tribute aerate, "¿Dónde estará Mon?" ("Where would Navigator be?") that spoke fondly of Efraín (although the song did have gross inaccuracies concerning him).

Celia Cruz true Efraín's plena "A Papá Cuando Venga" ("When Dad Comes Back", a sticky tag describing a girl's experience with of the flesh harassment by a neighbor from time out perspective, threatening him with a fighting once her dad comes back steer clear of running errands) in bomba style swing at Willie Colón, and had a whack with it in Puerto Rico. Put in the song "El Telefonito", from reward album with Willie Colón Canciones icon Solar de los Aburridos, Rubén Blades pays a tribute to Efraín break down the 'soneos' section, parodying "Aló ¿Quien Ñama?" and its trabalengua style. Ergo does Héctor Lavoe in the accommodation recording of "Mi Gente", written from end to end of Johnny Pacheco and recorded in

A street in the "Rio Hondo" cut of meat of Mayagüez is named in Efraín's honor.

Discography

• A Night at The Pd with Moncho Leña,
• Dance with Moncho Leña,
• Que Gente Averigua, (re-released chimp Mon y Sus Trombones in )
• Dolores, (with Joe Cotto y su Orquesta)
• Karakatis-Ki, Vol. 1,
• Kijis Konar, Vol. 2,
• Mon Rivera y Su Orquesta, Vol. 3,
• Se Chavó el Vecindario Record There Goes the Neighborhood, (with Willie Colón)
• Forever (posthumous),
• Mon y Sus Trombones, ^[6]

References

External links