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Live Music

Lalo Rodriguez

His love of music began when he sang in the traditional patron saint festivals in Puerto Rico, and on television and radio when he was nine years old. The first recording of his professional career came seven years later.

According to the artist, the story behind this transition was unforgettable: “Between the age of 12 to about 15 and a half, more or less, I sang with a salsa band called Tempo Moderno. In 1973 we shared the stage with the orchestra of Eddie Palmieri. I summoned the courage to speak with the maestro and asked him to listen to me sing “Sabroso guaguancó”, a song that he had recorded in the 60’s. He listened and left. Six months passed and Palmieri returned to Puerto Rico to look for me. We made an agreement. I had a new audition and thus was born Lalo Rodriguez, although at that time I was known as Lolo. My name is Ubaldo. It was Palmieri, when he brought me into his orchestra, baptized me as Lalo”.

His first LP (long play) recording was in 1973 at age 16, with the Eddie Palmieri orchestra. That album was entitled The Sun of The Latin Music and won him his first Grammy. A year later, he recorded the song Un Puesto Vacante which appeared on his second album with Palmieri, Unfinished Masterpiece and is a good example of his style of salsa.

In 1980 Rodriguez decided to launch himself into the pop music world as a soloist. Simplemente Lalo, was his first LP album. Later, in 1982, he produced his album, Nuevamente Lalo and his string of hits continued with “Niño, el hombre que es soñador es loco”, in 1985, with a philosiphical theme that later inspired the production of his album, Punto y coma.

It was not until 1988 that Rodriguez realized his next album release, Un nuevo despertar, which marked his return to the artistic scene after four years without without a recording. His single, “Ven, devórame otra vez”, became a major hit, reaching the top of the charts in Panamá, Perú, Colombia, Venezuela and Spain. In that last country, his recording reached platinum and gold for sales of more 200,000 copies.

In Puerto Rico, Rodriguez realized the highest selling album in 1988 with “Un Nuevo Despertar”, reaching gold. In 1989 he received three important awards by the prestigeous Billboard magazine: Vocalist of the Year in the Tropical Music category; Song of the Year for “Ven, devórame otra vez”, and Best Record Production of the Year for his album, “Un nuevo despertar”.

At the very beginning of the 1990’s, Rodriguez performed several sold-out concerts in various venues throughout Spain; in La Coruña, Vigo, Bilbao and Madrid. It is notable that during those concerts he had the famous jazz musician, Quincy Jones, among his fans in the audience.

Lalo Rodriguez Receives His Star

The popular Puertorican Salsero and winner of the first American Grammy in the 70’s when he was only 16 years old, is celebrating a double celebration this year, 20 years for his hit “ Ven Devorame Otra Vez “ from the Dominican composer Palmer Hernandez, and he just received his star in the Celia Cruz Park, also from this great success he was honored to be the international Godfather to the Cuban March in New Jersey. The Artist feels happy for the recognition in a moment of his life where he feels renovated in all aspects, professional, personal , and spiritual

Son Del Caribe

Son Del Caribe, an 11-piece eleven piece Salsa orchestra out of Cincinnati, presents the authentic style of big-band Salsa of the 1970's, incorporating repertoire from such Salsa greats as Willie Colon, Gran Combo, Hector Lavoe and Celia Cruz.

Son Del Caribe’s dedication to the authenticity of traditional, improvisational Salsa has made them a favorite of the Latino community, interacting with the crowd and inspiring spontaneous sing-along. Specializing in LIVE performance, each one is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Lyrics are often changed to fit what is happening in the moment in "soneos" as would be done in traditional classic Salsa of the 70's. Salsa lovers who attend never know when the musicians might unexpectedly join the crowd to dance, invite a visiting artist to the stage, or add a trombone, percussion or piano solo. Son Del Caribe may throw a merengue, cumbia or cha cha cha in for a crowd pleaser, but their specialty is TRUE and traditional SALSA.

The Salsa Chicago Mambo All-stars Latin Orchestra

The "Salsa Chicago Mambo All-stars Latin Orchestra" was started in 2006 by Chicago Salsa Instructor, and back up vocalist Miguel Mendez, Chicago Pianist, Composer & Musical Director, Eliezer “Pepe” Armijos, and the one and only, Lead Sonero, Mr. Freddy Kenton.

Eliezer “Pepe” Armijos started his musical career in his teen years as a guitarist in his native Ecuador. From there he came to Chicago where he learned to play Timbales and became one of Chicago’s most recognized Timbaleros. But he still wasn’t done, he decided he wanted to play the piano and for the last 12 years the Piano has been his area of concentration.

Freddy Kenton is a musical Icon in his own as a lead vocalist. At the young age of 17 while living in the Dominican Republic, he joined Johnny Ventura's band, and performed with Tito Rodriguez' and Rafael Lobasta.

Freddy has produced dozens of cds and travels back and fourth between the Dominican Republic, New York and other U. S. cities including Puerto Rico sharing his music and on stage antics.

Miguel Mendez is one of Chicago’s most recognized Salsa dance Instructors with over 15 years of teaching experience and has taught tens of thousands of Chicagoans how to dance. For the last year, Miguel has been honing his vocal abilities as a background singer with the SalsaChicago Mambo All-stars.

The SalsaChicago Mambo All-stars play a vast repertoire of music including Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Mambo, Latin Jazz, Boleros, Cha Cha Cha, Guajira, Cumbia and more.

Tropicoso Orchestra

Cincinnati's premier latin ensemble, Tropicoso, has been together for over eight years. They specialize in performing high-energy hits from some of today's most popular latin ensembles along with their own compositions.

Recipients of the 2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards' "Best World/Ethnic/Reggae" award and the 2003 Cammy award for "Best World Beat Band", Tropicoso's long running Monday night gig at the Mad Frog was listed at number 22 in Cincinnati Magazine's "Best of the City" article of December 2004. They most recently took home their second Cincinnati Entertainment Award in 2006.

Tropicoso released their first CD "Un Cuento" in 2005, and are currently writing and recording for their next project.

Cincinnati's own 9 piece Latin band Tropicoso has been burning up dance floors across the area for over 9 years. Playing traditional and contemporary Salsa and Merengue, Tropicoso quickly became one of the areas most poular Latin groups. In 2005, Tropicoso released their first full lengh recording entitled, "Un Cuento" featuring 10 of the groups original compositions with hot percussion, horns and smooth vocals from Cincinnait's own "Latin Diva", Carmen Vélez. Like clockwork, dance enthusiasts have been coming to the groups "home" at the legendary Mad Frog (Mt. Auburn) for Latin Night with Tropicoso every Monday since the bands inception. The weekly Monday night mainstay attracts large and diverse crowd's every week by featuring free dance lessons, a great dance floor, and the hot sounds of Tropicoso.