Salsa music has evolved
greatly from the "son" to today. Even today
this afro-cuban rhythm continues evolving. Sergio George
is one of todays most influential and dynamic innovators.
He has worked with some of salsa's most elite and with
salsa's newest and most loved faces. Among the artists he
has done arrangements and productions for are: Tito
Puente, Oscar DeLeon, Orquesta De La Luz, Conjunto
Classico, Tito Nieves, India, Marc Anthony, Victor
Manuelle, Jerry Rivera, Yolandita Monje, Frankie Negron,
and DLG. I had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. George to
discuss his unique work.
He describes his style of salsa as "a fusion of
basically a lot of different styles of music." These
different styles of music are what he grew up listening
to in East Harlem in New York City. Although he is of
puertorican descent, he also experienced a lot of
afro-american music and culture. "I grew up
listening to Fania's music and black music. I was into
the spinners, James Brown but also Joe Batan and Willie
Colon. I have a love for both and there is not one that I
prefer over the other." Sergio George's salsa
reflects influences from hard core salsa, soul music,
R&B, and hip-hop.
Victor Hugo: Some musicologists have critized your work
and called it"poorly played cuban songos." How
do you respond to that?
Sergio George: Well, at least they're talking (laughs). I
have spokento cuban musicians and the funny thing is that
if you ask them who they admire the most outside of Cuba,
they will mention Sergio George. I hung out with Chapotin
y sus Estrellas and they were like: "We need a
picture with you because everyone loves you in
Cuba". So you have hard core cuban salseros admiring
my work. Meanwhile, you got people saying "that's a
cuban wannabe." And I don"t understand that but
everyone is entitled to their opinion. In a conversation
with Isaac Delgado he said to me: "We know your
influence is a bit cuban but you're adding something
different and the cubans are aware of it." I am
influenced by their work but I'm not trying to rip them
off. I love what they are doing but I also love where I
am from. I take these elements and some bomba and plena
elements too. If they want to call my stuff watered down
cuban music well that's fine. I could do hard core cuban
music if I wanted but that's not where I am from and I
have to be true to my roots.
VH: Some people say that your music is to noisy. Like for
example Victor Manuelle's "Dile A Ella". I find
this interesting becausethese are the same people longing
for "the good old days" where the big band
sound was popular. What pushes you towards that sound?
SG: I grew up around that sound. I mean Ray Barretto had
a swinging big band. Tito Puente, I played with him when
I was 18 and he had a very organized big band. I like the
Willie Colon and Ray Barretto sound. I even like some of
the lesser known groups like Orquesta Colon, and Johnny
Colon and the bugaloo blues. I really believe that is the
essence of the music and it's where the word salsa came
about with the New York sound and the puertorican sound.
I love that sound and I feel people still want to hear
that.
VH: You mentioned the birth of the term
"salsa." What is your opinionwith respect to
the use of the term? As you know, Tito Puente says it's
food not music and others say it's afro-cuban music re-named.
SG: It's a marketing tool. Good or bad, you have to call
it something. If not "salsa" then what would it
be called? Guaracha? I wouldn't call what I do guaracha.
I wouldn't call itson or mambo either so what would you
call it? Salsa is a good word because the music is just
that, a mixture , a "sofrito" of different
things. The word doesn't bother me.
VH: Earlier you said you respect the recent cuban
innovations. I find them interesting too. In a recent
interview Isidro Infante said to me that it is ironic
that they are more open minded with their music and
accept more anglo influences, despite their communist
background, than we do here in the US. What's your
opinion on that?
SG: It's ironic but they can afford to take more chances.
They don't have the economic worry. They can afford to be
"free" and experiment because they are
subsidized by the state and do not depend on sales as
much. Here musicians are more apprehensive because sales
are vital to pay the bills and the rent. There is more
risk in change for the musicians here than in Cuba.
VH: You experiment a lot with reggae, specially with DLG.
What kind of feedback do you get from reggae fans and
other non-hispanic groups?
SG: I have gotten a lot of
feedback from the american crowd. DLG is seen as the new
wave of latin music. With their new album, I tooka cuban
approach. I was carefree. I said "let me not worry
aboutselling a record and let me just JAM!" I wanted
to have fun. I did a reggae cut, a dance cut, and I just
HAD FUN! I did what I felt.
VH: Your "coro" arrangements are unique and
great! What is your formula?
SG: Well I put myself in the listeners view. I want to
sing with the band. I find it boring to listen to the
same coro over and over again. I can't listen to that
because I'll turn it off.I want another coro to come in
and then another one and rise until I reach a climax. You
want to feel it, and every time it changes you want to be
at the next level of climax. I invision the
crowdwatching, and I'm in that crowd as a listener not a
musician, and I ask myself what do I want to hear?
VH: You mentioned bomba and plena before, I would like to
know how did you decide to produce Yolandita Monje's
album with bomba y plena?
SG: Well it wasn't totally my idea they (they being WEA
Latina) approached me about the producing the album and I
said SURE and I asked her "What do you want to
do?" She said "Well I want to do like 3 songs
of bomba/plena and the rest salsa. I told her if you're
going to do it then do it right and do the whole thing
bomba y plena with maybe one or two songs that are
different. Then I did research on the music because I had
never done it before. I had done arrangements with
elements of it but that's not the same. I recruited
people who knew about the matter and asked them questions
(I interjected and mentioned Yomo Toro) yeahYomo and La
Familia Cepeda who were influential in the project. I
flew them in from Puerto Rico and they gave me tapes and
answered some of my questions. I studied the music for
about two months before I even started recording so I can
understand the music. This way I could know what I can do
with it, that hasn't been done, and where I'd like to see
it go. It was a very challenging record for me. Also a
good one for me. One of thesongs "Susubir",
which I wrote along with another puertorican writer, has
become a standard. It's weird but I have never before
done bomba y plena and this project has been receiving
compliments from established "pleneros".
VH: In the past the elders listened to Tito Puente and
Machito while
the youth listened to Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe.
Today, the older crowd listens to Willie Colon and the
youth listens to you. What do you think about yesterday's
salsa vs today's?
SG: I get a lot of fan mail and e-mail from kids all over
the place:
Peru, Panama, US, etc. so there is a market I am
reaching. I was in their shoes when I grew up. I didn't
want to listen to TITO PUENTE! I wanted to hear WILLIE
and BUGALOO!! I came to appreciate Machito and Tito as an
adult when I understood their work. As an adult I love
Machito and Tito but as a teenager I wanted bugaloo. I
now understand how Willie felt when he was being attacked
by his predecessors. People said "Que es eso, that's
out of clave, it's not mambo or guaracha, WHAT IS
THAT!"He was attacked heavily. Today those same
people attack my stuff,"What is that, it's not
salsa, it has rap, WHAT IS THAT!!" Thesepeople now
praise Willie Colon. Honestly, 20 years from now people
will say "Hey Sergio George that's where it's
at!"
VH: What about people who label your music as commercial?
SG: Commercial, what is commercial? I do music to be
heard. I don't do it for myself to listen at home and say
"Wow what a great chordor what a great
arrangement" but nobody listens to it. I do musicto
reach others. I do it so that people can say "WOW I
like thatsong!!" That's what we are all in it for.
They want to call it commercial no problem. I just want
to reach THE MASSES!!
Speaking to Sergio George
was a great pleasure. It was very easy to interview him
because he is very willing and eager to explain his work
in salsa. He is very passionate about salsa. I continued
to speak to him for a while longer about other aspects of
salsa and our mutual friendship with Los Hermanos Colon.
I learned a lot from Mr. George. Hopefully he can
continue to produce great music for us to enjoy! I wish
him the best of luck with his most recent endeavor with
Servando and Florentino.
If you would like to be
interviewed for Salsaweb Magazine please e-mail Marla Friedler
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