This is the first part of an interview of Ricky Gonzalez, on August 14, 2004, on the day following his performance at the Jazz in Marciac festival in the Southwest of France, along with Ray Barretto's Latin world ensemble. This first part focuses on his new album Oasis, which will be available on August 23, 2004. Ricky is an incredibly humble man, smart and thoughtful, very articulate, and a passionate artist. It was a pleasure to talk with him about his music, about music in general, and even about politics!
El Rico: So Ricky, can you tell me about your new album?
Ricky Gonzalez: For me, it's been something I have wanted to do for a long time. It's been in the works, over the course of about 20 years or so. I have been wanting to express myself as an artist, but my work as a producer has kind of taken precedence over those things.
To me it's just another form of self-expression, in the same way playing the piano, or writing an arrangement is a form of expression. Every production I've ever done for any artist, whoever it was, Tito Nieves, or Los Soneros del Barrio, or Gilberto Santa Rosa, whatever production I've ever done, I've always considered it mine as well, it's always something that I've put myself into. So this is just an extension of that, only this time the artist is Ricky Gonzalez, and I'm looking for ways to help him express his art the same way I did with all my other clients in the past. So it was a natural thing for me to do.
It's just taken this long, because like I said, you earn a living back home by producing other people and by writing for other people and that takes up a lot of your time.
El Rico: But there is one difference though, with this album, is that you wrote some of the songs. Have you written songs before?
Ricky Gonzalez: I have written songs before, but I am not a prolific writer by any means. As a composer, it's something that takes more effort for me, than say, writing music, something that's more of a challenge for me. Which is actually the reason for my doing it. I wanted to chanllenge myself as a composer, as a poet, as a writer, a lyricist. And it was also important from the point of self-expression, once again. I believe that artists, if they can, should delve into songwriting. I think that it's another way to communicate to the public, to the audience. And I just wanted to challenge myself in regard to that.
Again, it's something that I've done, but never as a full-blown writer. On this particular project, I wrote half of the compositions. Of the 10 songs, I wrote 5 of them. And it took some effort, a different mindset. I had to take myself out of the pianist's mode, and out of the arranger's mode, and get into simply being a poet, and did a lot of reading. I read a lot of (Pablo) Neruda, I read a lot of Borges, and I also put myself of that mindset, of being a lyricist, a poet, and telling a good story, in a clever way, hopefully (laughs). But yeah, that's what that was about, and I plan to do a lot more songwriting in the future, not just for myself, but for others.
El Rico: So tell us about Oasis, the name of the album, and what it represents for you.
Ricky Gonzalez: Well, first and foremost, I was looking for, once the album was close to completion, and the concept was already there, and I got a real feel for what was being expressed on this record, because you know, you develop a child but you don't know what that child is going to turn into until he's developped a little bit. Well, by the time this record was close to completion, in concept anyway, I was looking for something to call it. Sometimes artists call their record, they entitle their record one of the names of the better songs on the album. I didn't want to go that route. I wanted to be a little more creative, give it a little bit more thought.
And so the first thing that came to mind was that I wanted to have a word that was multilingual. I wanted it to be one word, or one phrase that could be understood in English, in Spanish, possibly in French or some other language. I wanted it to be more universal, easy to accept, to digest as a word, as something to be able to remember. So once I was looking for that, I was also looking for a word that described what the project meant to me. And what the project means to me is what an oasis is: an oasis is something beautiful, or at the very least interesting, in the middle of chaos, or in the middle of unpleasantness, or in the middle of a stressful world. And so when you see the artwork in the actual CD, you'll see that it reflects that, that we live in stressful times, in a fast paced society, but that this music can transport you to a sunny calm, tropical, pleasant experience. And so I felt that the word oasis was the best word to capture that feeling.
El Rico: In this album, what's the variety of styles that you cover?
Ricky Gonzalez: Well, there are a couple of styles that are currently popular, in NY and certain parts of the US, and Puerto Rico, that haven't reached Europe just yet, but they're wildly popular. One being a style called reggaeton, which is kind of a combination of dance-hall reggae rhythms, with tropical and hip-hop influences, and rap. Reggaeton is really popular right now, and it's also something I listen to at home, well you can't help but listen to it now, because it's all over the radio, and it's probably the most popular and biggest rising art forms right now, at least in the NY area, and Puerto Rico.
So the album touches on that a little bit, but I believe it also has a decent balance, between traditional hard salsa and the more commercial pop salsa. And having influences of the other things that are part of my life, things like hip-hop, R&B, and pop music, kind of all sneak themselves into the project.
Another way in that the project is very diverse, is that I have multiple singers on it, I have mostly guests, friends of mine who throughout my career have been a part of my life, and part of what I do. Among them is Frankie Vasquez, he sings on a song, and has been very helpful to me, in getting the word out on my CD. Herman Olivera is also singing on one track.
A really good friend of mine did a favor for me, Jose Alberto "El Canario", and he took part in the project as well, you know, on a very special composition of mine, that I wrote, dedicating it to salseros dominicanos, to Dominican salseros who have contributed to salsa music, people like Johnny Pacheco, and Jose Alberto. And I wanted to pay my respects to those people like Juan Luis Guerra people who have covered salsa and other tropical musics that are from Santo Domingo, as well as to the people of Santa Domingo. So I have written a song in honor of that and Jose was kind enough to sing it for me, and Johnny Pacheco was kind enough to play the flute on it as well, and so that was a lot of fun. To me, it brought together 3 generations of Dominican salseros, because I did my little thing there too with them.
El Rico: Do you feel that Dominican salseros are not very well known?
Ricky Gonzalez: I think that for the most part, Dominican people are known for the tropical rhythms of merengue, but we're not really associated with the music salsa. Salsa is usually associated with Cuba, or Porto Rico, or NY by way of PR. And so I think that Dominicans do represent a fair part of the contributions made within Latin music, and particularly within salsa. So I just wanted to pay hommage to that.
Also there are several songs that I pay hommage to the things that are important to me, things that I feel I have something to say about, something to comment on.
I wrote a song dedicated to New York (NY), to the city of NY, and to the struggle that NY has been through in the last few years, from 9/11 and beyond, through the economy, through whatever hardships NYers have gone thgough in the last couple of years. Herman Olivera sang it beautifully, a composition of mine, that pretty much covers the way I feel about NY, you know, it's a love letter to NY.
I also have Jimmy Sabater from Son Boricua fame, from Joe Cuba fame, and obviously on his own, a very talented artist, something of a father figure to me. He's been in my life for a long time, and has been a big influence in my playing, believe it or not. Because he's the one who's made me sit and listen to Noro Morales, Peruchin, and all the pianists that made up my musical development. He had a lot to do with that. He sang on this project. I wanted to do a bolero, I wanted to feature him on his standard, what's become a standard in his repertoire, to be with you, that he did with Joe Cuba, but I wanted to do a new treatment on it, I wanted it to be with a symphonic orchestra. And so I wrote an arrangement for a rather large orchestra, and conducted, and had him sing. He sang it beautifully, he did a medley of a well-known song called La Puerta, a popular song, and To Be With You, and he sang it beautifully.
I also did my fair share of singing on the record, which is another thing that people don't know me for.
El Rico: So is that on the song by Alejandro Sanz?
Ricky Gonzalez: Correct, that would be me. There is also a song in English, it's a popular song in the R&B field in the United States by Bobby Caldwell, and it's called "What you Won't Do For Love". It's a very popular song, it's become classic repertoire for R&B artists, it's been around for at least two decades. It's never been done in this way, because the treatment was a salsa treatment for the most part, very pop and R&B oriented, heavily influenced by that, and I also threw a bit of hip-hop in there, there's a rap in there, there's a very interesting blend of things in there, and yes, I do sing on that song.
The singing is something that people don't realize that I do. I was singing before I played the piano. I've been singing for a long time, but never as far anyone in my field knows. And so it's going to be a surprise to a lot of people that I do some singing as well. To me I just consider it another form of expression. It's just part of what I do. And people don't necessarily know everything about a person until they actually come out and do it. Then it's kind of either a shock like "he can't do that", or "Wow, I didn't know he could do that". And so we'll have to wait and see.
El Rico: So this project is a personal project,
Ricky Gonzalez: Very personal!
El Rico: It's your first solo album, you're putting things into it that you can only put in an album that you're doing under your name. Is this project a step towards a career as a solo artist, or is it a one-time project?
Ricky Gonzalez: It is very much is a step towards a career as a solo artist, but also keep in mind that it's something that I've wanted to do since I was a teenager. I mean, I have been working on this project, I can say, for most of my life. It's just that the steps that I've taken have been very slow, because the other part of my career has been so successful, and I've been very blessed with being able to work as much as I have, and with as many people as I have. The difficult part about that is that it takes a of your time, and so a lot of the creative energy, that normally I would have put into my own expression, I put into other productions. And I intend to continue being a producer for other people, and express myself as an arranger, as a composer, and I definitely want to continue producing other people, other artists, because I do love that as well.
But I think that this was a push for me, this first step is kind of a motivation for me to continue in that direction, for myself as well, and I honestly believe that I can probably put more energy and effort into something that is my own expression, because it's something that you have in your heart, you know exactly what it is that you're going for, and so who better to communicate it to as an artist than the producer, who is the same artist: the communication is instant, and so yeah, it's definitely just the first step towards a career as a soloist, but I definitely want to continue that, it's not a fluke by any means (laughs).
I just would never lose what I've developed so far, as a producer for other people, because I really enjoy it. There are some artists that I particularly enjoy working with, I want to continue the relationship, I love studio work, I live in the studio practically, and I can't imagine not doing that for the rest of my life, and you can't always work on your own stuff. So I would like to continue working as a producer, as an arranger, as a composer. But I most definitely want to continue what I'm doing as an artist, I plan on it anyway, that's the goal.
Cet entretien avec Ismael "Moncho" Rivera (au centre sur la photo), le neveu de Ismael Rivera, a été fait le dimanche 21 mars 2004 à Carolina, Porto Rico, lors du Jour National de la Salsa (Dia Nacional de la Salsa). Il m'avait été présenté par le célèbre percussioniste portoricain Sammy Garcia (à gauche sur la photo).
Camilo Azuquita est en ce moment-meme l'invité de Radio Latina avec Roberto Burgos (Radio Latina) et José "El Loco". Voici l'entretien conduit le 21 mars 2004 avec lui, lors du Jour National de la Salsa à Carolina, Porto Rico, juste après sa prestation avec La Tipica 73 dirigée par Sonny Bravo.
El Rico : Thank you very much for accepting this interview.
My grandmother used to play piano in church. There were four of us in the house: my sister, my two cousins and I. She wanted to teach us to play piano. So she bought a piano, she had a really old book from Jamaica - you know, in Cuba, you cannot get those books easily -, and I remember the pages had tape on them. It was from [the time] when she was a young girl. So we started learning from that book. And everybody got into it! When the piano got into the house, my mother, my uncle, everybody started to play the piano. But little by little, they dropped out. We, the kids, would run from school to the house to see who would get to the piano first, every day! And eventually, my sister didn't play as much [anymore], [nor did] my cousin, and I just fell in love with the piano. To me, every song was such a challenge. Every time I learned a song, it was like wow! and I would get even more involved in it. I had an infatuation with the piano.
I started writing, fairly easily, and one thing that I realized, is that I could write music, even when I couldn't read it back. That was the thing that I realized that it was more like a gift - it's talent of course - but it's also a gift. Even when I was going through High School, I would write very complicated stuff, I could not really read it back, but the trumpet player would read it, and it would be exactly what I wrote. So it was kind of easy for me to write music. It was always easy to sit down and write music. So you know, I was in Cuba, and there was a competition, it was my first time playing piano in public, it was hot. There were two bands competing, and I was the only little kid. So I started jumping and playing; and I really got the audience, you know.
El Rico : And for NY!
Avec Adrienne et Moana, nous avons eu un entretien très chaleureux le 12 avril 2003 à Morlaix avec Yuri Buenaventura. Merci à Sophie (Parc Expos de Langolvas), à Paco (Caramba Spectacles), et bien sur à Yuri de nous avoir offert cette précieuse opportunité! En attendant la transcription complète, en voici quelques extraits:
