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Kito V​é​lez y sus Estrellas

by Kito Vélez y sus Estrellas

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1.
2.
El Coquero 02:37
3.
No Que Va 02:19
4.
Que Chevere 02:44
5.
Que Mania 02:25
6.
El Peaton 02:20
7.
8.
Doña Rosa 02:24
9.
10.
El Leon 02:35
11.
12.
Que Lengua 02:31

about

Trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Rogelio “Kito” Vélez was born in the southwestern harbor town of Guanica, Puerto Rico, on January 14, 1923. It’s no hyperbole when those in the know say that Vélez was one of the greatest, most prolific, and legendary Puerto Rican trumpet players of the 1950’s and 60’s, despite not always attaining the same level of public recognition as his contemporaries who were orchestra leaders and singers. With his inimitable trumpet style, prodigious arranging skills, and agreeable disposition, Vélez was highly sought after by musicians and record labels alike, managing to leave an indelible mark on an entire era, helping to usher in the transformation of Puerto Rican dance music that led to the salsa explosion of the 1970s. Self-taught and a natural talent like few others in his peer group, he brought the heavenly tone of his instrument to the fore, all the while seamlessly integrating it with the brass section in exciting ways that had not been tried previously. Though he was not a showy soloist, Kito could blow a mean bar now and then and he seemed to complete every band with his magical presence.

Moving to Mayagüez from Guanica at a young age, Vélez played in military and municipal bands as well as briefly joining Los Ases Del Ritmo before relocating to San Juan and entering the lucrative hotel ballroom circuit with César Concepción and his orchestra. Kito is however best known for his crucial contribution to the sound of the original Cortijo Y Su Combo, where he was lead trumpet and arranger from its inception in 1954 until its initial breakup in 1962 when singer Ismael “Maelo” Rivera was arrested for drug possession in Panama. The distinctive brass sound and rhythmic clarity of the band was engineered through Kito’s sophisticated yet natural sounding arrangements, many created by the trumpeter from scratch. Kito would collect basic song ideas from Maelo, band leader and percussionist Rafael Cortijo, pianist and musical director Rafael Ithier and bassist Miguel Cruz, and then figure out the best way to orchestrate them for the band. Vélez also composed several popular tunes for Cortijo Y Su Combo, and historians agree he was an integral ingredient in the chemistry of the group, helping propel them to stardom in the second half of the 1950’s.

With Rivera’s legal troubles and Cortijo being unwilling to replace him (and moving to the United states), Ithier, Vélez and most of the rest of Cortijo’s band became El Gran Combo, initially backing Dominican vocalist Joseíto Mateo for their first album and then continuing with various singers over the decades, including Daniel Vázquez, Pellín Rodríguez, Chiquitín García and Andy Montañez. Vélez was with El Gran Combo for a brief but busy two year stint, recording and arranging on their first four albums. In 1964 he composed and recorded probably his biggest hit song, “Ojos Chinos,” which has become a global salsa standard and one of the band’s signature tunes.

With that success, though, he no doubt grew tired of always being second to Ithier and having to arrange fellow band members’ songs, so he decided to strike out on his own as an orchestra leader forming Kito Vélez Y Sus Estrellas. When Vélez left El Gran Combo, Ithier admitted that his own early attempts at writing similarly sophisticated arrangements failed, and he was likely concerned that Kito’s new all star band was going to give him stiff competition. Of course El Gran Combo went on to international fame and eventually Ithier became a skilled arranger. On the other hand, Kito Vélez was able to maintain his orchestra for only a relatively short time.

Going into the newly established Ochoa Recording Studios in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 25 and 26, 1964, Kito and his eleven-piece orchestra cut a dozen tunes to two-track tape for what would become Ansonia Records’ “Kito Vélez Y Sus Estrellas, Volume 1,” remastered June 4, and released November 17, 1964. Before the LP was issued, however, Ansonia chose six tracks from the sessions to release as three singles on both 78 and 45 RPM. While other musicians aside from Vélez are not listed, we do know that the lead vocals were handled by Venezuelan singer-songwriter Pedro “El Guajiro” González (aka “Mister Guapachá”), who had previously worked in Venezuela with various tropical band leaders including Pedro J. Belisario, Willy Gamboa, and Porfi Jiménez, as well as Pupi Y Su Charanga and Los Condes. In contrast to the double saxophone and triple trumpet configuration of the bands Kito had previously been a part of, Las Estrellas were trumpet led in a “sonora” style (like La Sonora Matancera), with no other brass or woodwinds, making the sound harder-edged and closer to his primary instrument like never before. The rhythm section consisted of conga, bongo and bell, timbal, güiro, bass and piano.

Vélez and his Estrellas went back into the studio at Ochoa on December 15 and 16, 1964 and cut twelve more tunes, but this time the mix was more balanced, having a fuller spectrum of sound instead of the hard left and right channel mix of their first sessions. Ansonia then released it as a second volume in 1965, and it’s assumed both albums were popular in their time, having reached audiences in the US, Mexico, Colombia and Peru through various manufacturing and distribution deals. We know from the studio cue sheet and Ansonia’s ledger that the band on the second volume consisted of eight musicians and two vocalists aside from Guajiro. One of the additional singers was Ignacio “Nacho” Sanabria, who sang “coro” (chorus) and played güiro (small hand percussion). The other was Miguel Clemente, who sang coro. Nacho Sanabria became a famous salsa bandleader in his own right, cutting many records over a three decade career and playing conga as well as singing. Clemente was lead singer on several cult salsa albums in the early 1970s. It’s probably safe to say that the configuration on volume one was probably the same, since two was cut such a short time after.

Much like his former groups Cortijo Y Su Combo and El Gran Combo, Kito Vélez Y Sus Estrellas played a wide variety of styles, genres and tempos for their audiences to dance to. Volume 1 showcases a bewildering array of Caribbean modes, from the slow form of Dominican merengue called the “salve” that opens the record, to “El Coquero” (the song of the coconut vendor) on the next cut, done in a super-fast pachanga style, imported from New York via Havana. They also cover the spicy double entendre guaracha of Cuba, the classic mid-paced merengue, a hybrid “guapachá pachanga” (a mix of guaracha and cha cha chá with pachanga) and of course, the Afro-Puerto Rican bomba (as well as a variant they called “Yambué” featuring the yubá rhythm on congas). While Kito handles composition on the hot and driving merengue “Qué Chévere”, three are credited to Rafael Cepeda Atiles, one of Puerto Rico’s towering figures of Afro Boricua musical expression, especially in the bomba and plena genres, and a patriarch of the Cepeda family of musicians, dancers and composers. It should also be noted that one of the most exciting tracks on the record, and a favorite of salsa collectors everywhere (especially Colombians), is the guaracha “El León” by Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso, arguably Puerto Rico’s most famous salsa lyricist. Since it is generally acknowledged that his first big hit composition was the guaguancó “Efectivamente” for Joe Quijano in 1964, “El León” may suffer in the shade thrown by Quijano, but all the same it is a great example of his early body of work. The sonic tone of the album over all is one of celebration and dance, but, as evidenced in “El León”, some of the lyrics reveal satirical or critical content often at odds with the jaunty sound of the recording. But this is the case with most Caribbean dance music, which exhibits a genius ability to hide a deeper message with a more serious, salacious or dark subtext within a brightly colored exterior that impels the feet to move and the waist to gyrate.

It is interesting to note that although Ansonia gave Kito Vélez Y Sus Estrellas a double volume shot at stardom with high quality production values on these releases, Vélez was never again featured as a band leader on a full length release again, nor was Guajiro González heard from thereafter. Vélez was featured on two subsequent compilations in the 1960s, credited once as La Sonora de Kito Vélez on the New York based Seeco subsidiary Tropical, and on obscure Puerto Rican label USA Records as “Quito” Vélez, but these were just a few cuts that had been released as singles and were added to tracks by other artists on the record, and thus did not constitute an actual entire long playing album by his orchestra. In 1967 he joined Puerto Rican mambo saxophonist and arranger Ray Santos for an all-star “descarga” (jam session) recording called “Los Mejores Músicos de Puerto Rico” for the Gema label, where he rejoined some of his former Cortijo and Gran Combo bandmates. Vélez was not heard from again until the early 1970s when he started working with his nephew Nelson Feliciano, a young trumpet player, and his orchestra. The pair cut two highly sought after salsa records in 1973, affectionately dubbing their trumpet section the “Guanica Brass,” with Vélez arranging and composing a number of the tunes. From this association with Harvey Averne’s Coco Records, Kito was able to work on several other significant projects, the cult record “Canto A Borinquen” by doomed child salsa star Miguelito (1973), and the miraculous reunion album, “Juntos Otra Vez” (1976), with his original bandmates in Cortijo Y Su Combo. After that, Kito mostly stuck to arranging and composing, working with the orchestras of percussionist Johnny “El Bravo López” and pianist Luis “Wito” Vélez. In the 1980s Kito contributed to another Cortijo-related group, El Combo de Ayer, working on three albums before retiring.

Maestro Vélez died on January 31, 1990, in his native Puerto Rico, relatively forgotten except among Puerto Rican musicians and hardcore Colombian salsa fans. There is a small but vocal contingent of Puerto Ricans lobbying to have a statue or plaque commemorating Kito in his home town of Guanica, a well-deserved gesture of recognition, which, if it comes to pass, is better late than never. In the meantime we are fortunate to have two beautiful volumes of Kito Vélez Y Sus Estrellas in the Ansonia Records catalog to preserve the trumpet man’s mid-1960’s renaissance for posterity.

-Pablo Yglesias

credits

released November 17, 1964

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