Latino Music Cafe

The Legend of Roberto Roena - Part 2

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by Hector Aviles in Latino Music

In Part 1, I gave you a brief history of Roberto Roena’s career, from his beginning with Rafael Cortijo’s Combo, through his participation in El Gran Combo, and the formation of his band the Apollo Sound. Roena distinguished himself for his showmanship, having started his career as a dancer with his brother and his uncle, Anibal Vazquez, when spotted by Cortijo who recruited him to play bongoes and dance in front when playing the cowbell.  Since then, Roberto Roena always looked for ways to put a show that will keep fans coming back for more Salsa.

So that you get a taste for Roberto Roena’s dancing skills, here is a video in which Roena and his uncle Anibal Vazquez dance to the music of Coro Miyare.

My Favorite Roberto Roena Music:

Showmanship aside, the Apollo Sound of Roberto Roena was a Salsa institution on itself. From his early Apollo Sound albums, Tu Loco Loco, y Yo Tranquilo was probably his biggest hit. The tune was very catchy and became part of the popular vernacular in Puerto Rico and other places. But for very personal reasons, my favorite from those early days was Chotorro, from his 2nd album. I have two sisters, one older, one younger, and me in the middle. I was round 10 or 11 years old when Chotorro came out, and my little sister was about 5 or 6. As anyone that has seen the Bill Cosby Himself special knows, the smallest sibling is “the informer”. My little sister was no exception. So one day we were in the car, driving home from my grandma’s house, when my little sister began ratting me to my mom about something, and Chotorro happened to be playing on the car radio. I had a ball singing along “chotorro todo lo dice, chotorro todo lo habla, chotorro todo lo cuenta…., mexcla de chota y cotorro.” and obviously, my sister sensing the mockery, began to cry. From there on, everytime my little sister felt like ratting me out, I felt like singing Chotorro. However, as a 10 year old those days, I did not quite get the whole meaning of the song correctly. When it says “…iba yo con mi pollito, en la guagua antes de ayer…” I literally imagined Piro Mantilla (Roberto Roena’s singer) sitting on the bus holding a cage with a chicken inside. And of course, I couldn’t understand what was so bad about someone telling his wife they saw him carrying a chicken in a cage on the bus, unless it was stolen or something! What a vivid imagination!

Here is a video of the song during Roberto Roena’s Apollo Sound 25th Anniversay concert singing Piro Mantilla (but with less voice).

 
The Roena name stuck with me since then, but it didn’t resurface in full force until 3 albums later, when in Apollo Sound 5 the hit “Cui Cui” filled the radio stations. I had to have that LP. And when I did, I was already familiar with “Ponte Duro”, from the Fania All Stars “in the Cheetah” albums. I also liked “Que Se Sepa”, “Avisale a mi Contrario”, and “Aquellos Que Dicen”. After listening to the LP, I felt back then, as I still feel now, that overall, it wasn’t that strong of an album. Ponte Duro wasn’t a song I listen a lot, becuase it was mostly a “descarga” and those day, although I could appreciate a good descarga, I prefered songs that carry a tune.

But Apollo Sound 6 turned the corner for Roberto Roena, as this was a more complete Salsa recording. It had not one or two, but 4 Salsa mega-hits in the old Tito Rodriguez song “El Que se Fue”, “Traicion”, from the late Puerto Rican composer Pedro Flores archives “Parece Mentira”, and yes, another descarga song “Herencia Rumbera”. In the latter, Endel Dueño’s timbales solo was so amizingly fast, that you could hear it over and over again. Eventully I would learn that Tito Puente didn’t become a legend just by being fast, but also by being rhythmic. But musically, the album sounded much stronger. Beside Elias Lopes coming back to help out Gunda Merced on arrangements, Roena also used as arranger a raising star in Fania by the name of Luis “Perico” Ortiz. Six of the 9 album cuts were hits, with Sammy Gonzalez and Tito Cruz delivering good soneos, and Mario Roman in piano, Endel in timbales, Dario Morales (my neighbor next door) helping out Mario Alvarez Cora on trumpet, and Miguel Rodriguez on sax & flaute, made the Apollo a solid salsa band. Back then, it was hard to imagine Roena topping this album with his next one. But he did.

Roberto Roena Lucky 7

“Lucky 7″ must have been one of the best selling Salsa albums of the time. It contained one of the first   “mainstream” songs, which I’m defining as liked by salseros as well as by non-salsa listeners alike, in “Mi Desengaño”. I had friends that were pure “rockeros” who loved this “Mi Desengaño”. Overall, the album had about 6 good songs, with 4 or 5 of them become mega-hits. I don’t know how many millions of times I danced the merengue “Mala Maña” in the many “party de marquesina” (party in the garage), which were a comon practice in Puerto Rico during the 1970’s. For those of you who didn’t live those days, all I can say is, you have no idea what a good thing you missed! For us in high school during those years, this was pure heaven. But don’t get me started on that. “Lucky 7″ was the 1st album in which Ruben Blades wrote a song for Roena “Que Me Castigue Dios”, in which Blades does a spoken humorous didicatory at the end of the song.

Could Roberto Roena top the success of “Lucky 7″? He tried very hard with his next 3 albums, but couldn’t do it. “La Octava Maravilla” was an excellent follow-up, containing one of my favorite Roberto Roena salsa songs “Rico Guaguancó”. But it wasn’t as well rounded in quality as “Lucky 7″. Rubén Blades gave Roena another two good salsa songs with “Para Ser Rumbero”, in which he again does a small cameo singing, and “Amistad Barata”. Both became hits, but not mega-hits. These with “Caminalo y no lo Corras” which I personally didn’t care much for, were the albums hits. So good try but no cigar.

Apollo Sound 9 followed the same fate as “La Octava Maravilla”. A couple of good salsa songs in “La Distancia” and “Marejada Feliz”, but not much more to back it up. Rubén Blades again contributed with the song “Nadie Sabe”, but I think nobody knew it was in the album.

Apollo Sound X “El Progreso” was actually the best overall album of these last three, as it had serveral hits although no mega-hit. Roberto Carlos’ title song “El Progreso” was the most played single, but also good are “Regaño al Corazón”, “Guaguancó del Adios”, and “Lo Que Dios me Dio” sung by Apollo Sound old faithful Tito Cruz, and “El Progreso” and “Lamento de Concepción” sung by newcomer Carlos Santos. I like the album “El Progreso”, although none of its songs were a big “home run”.

From this point on, Roberto Roena’s albums were less and less memorable. Eventually Roena got into tax trouble with the government and was away form music for a while. He made a decent comeback recruiting his ex-singer Papo Sanchez and Pupi Cantor to record “El Pueblo Pide Que Toquen”, and then doing a reunion concert celebrating 25 years in the Centro de Bellas Artes in Puerto Rico, with all his singers and some guest ones as well.

Perhaps an appropiate highlight of that concert is this video clip of Gilberto Santa Rosa doing and improvisational homage to Roberto Roena in the middle of “El Que se Fue”.

Summary:

The Apollo Sound had a distinctive sound, led by Roberto Roena’s aggressive bongo cuts and solid cowbell. Roena also knew how to find the right songs that would resonate with the Salsa public.

The above discography of Roberto Roena, along as his participation as a key member of the Fania All Stars assured him a legendary status among musicians of Salsa. From the boy dancer to a septuagenarian performer, Roberto Roena has written many pages in the history of Latin music.

Tags: Apollo Sound, Elias Lopes, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Music Latin, music salsa, ruben blades, salsa