Mambo In The City Salsa Podcast
Get ready to move and groove as Mambo In the City Salsa Podcast takes you on a rhythmic journey through the captivating world of Salsa in the heart of New York City!
This podcast is not your ordinary salsa experience—it's a lively, informative, and entertaining monthly show that will have you tapping your feet and swaying your hips.
Hosted by the talented concert photographer Adrian Montanez, Mambo In the City Salsa Podcast is your ticket to discovering the rich history, vibrant music, and incredible artists that have shaped the Salsa scene in the Big Apple.
From salsa music reviews that will have you itching to hit the dance floor to exclusive artist interviews that unveil the stories behind the music, this podcast goes beyond the surface to bring you an in-depth exploration of the Salsa world.
But wait, there's more!
Mambo In the City Salsa Podcast isn't just about talking—it's about experiencing the music firsthand.
Through Adrian's concert blogs, you'll feel like you're right there, grooving to the infectious rhythms, and soaking up the electrifying energy of live performances.
But it doesn't stop there.
This podcast is all about community, celebrating the Latin music culture, and bringing people together. Mambo In the City invites you to be a part of the Salsa family and join the conversation.
Connect with like-minded music lovers, share your thoughts, and stay up to date with the latest happenings in the Salsa world by subscribing to their website, MambointheCity.com.
So, whether you're a seasoned Salsa enthusiast or someone looking to dip their toes into this captivating genre, Mambo In the City Salsa Podcast promises to educate, entertain, and get you grooving like never before. Don't miss out on the fun—tune in, subscribe, and let the Salsa adventure begin! #Salsa #Mambo #SalsaPodcast
Mambo In The City Salsa Podcast
🎙️ Episode 47: Salsa Chronicles: My Time with Fania Legend Pete 'El Conde' Rodriguez
🎙️ Welcome to another exhilarating episode of the Mambo in the City Salsa Podcast! Get ready to journey back in time with me as we flip through the golden pages of the Copacabana and dive into the enchanting world of salsa. This time, our spotlight is on none other than the Fania Legend himself – Pete El Conde Rodriguez!
🕰️ Join me on a nostalgic ride as I recount the unforgettable moment of meeting Pete El Conde in the south Bronx back in 1995. Picture the energy, the rhythm, and the magic that unfolded as I connected with the salsa royalty in the heart of it all later having an opportunity meet some incredible musicians and later, dare to play a song or 2 in his band!
🔥 Expect stories that will transport you to a time when the salsa scene was at its peak, and the Copacabana 57th street was the epicenter of it all. Get ready for a salsa-infused adventure that will have you tapping your feet and yearning for the golden days of this iconic era!
Tune in and let the Mambo in the City Salsa Podcast whisk you away to a world where the rhythm is infectious, the memories are unforgettable, and the Icons of salsa live forever! 🌟💃🎶
Mambo in the City Salsa Podcast is sponsored by
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts!
Please visit: LehmanCenter.org for upcoming Salsa Concerts!
Andi Montañez, Toda una Vida. Andi Montañez, Toda una Vida.
Speaker 2:Andi. Montañez Toda una Vida.
Speaker 4:Andi Montañez, Toda una Vida. Andi Montañez, Toda una Vida. Peterl Conde Rodriguez watching him and share Feliciano sing Sonero de Bailadores with Peter Poynt and Giovanni Hidalgo. Sonero de Bailadores. Sonero de Bailadores.
Speaker 4:So this is 1994 here and I'm a sophomore in high school and I remember they had the Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade over by Yankee Stadium and I went to check it out. And as I'm walking through the crowd, I see a large crowd forming around this one gentleman, and as I get closer, who was Peterl Conde Rodriguez. I'll never forget he had the biggest smile ever. I remember him posing for photos and taking autographs and just talking to his fans. As I got closer I kept on thinking about my grandfather because this was one of his favorite singers in front of me. So what am I gonna say? When it was finally my turn, I reached in for the handshake and said you're my grandfather's favorite singer and we're also from Ponce. I don't remember what Pete said at that point because it was really, really loud, but I remember he had a really big smile on his face and, like a brother, he gave me the biggest hug and he also gave me his autograph. I'll never forget it. And not only that, I couldn't wait to get home to my grandfather and tell him who I just met. And it was just like that, although it was a little too ironic because him a week before having shown me one of his favorite singers and then me walking down the streets here in the Bronx and actually meeting him. Very ironic, in the years coming I had learned how to dance and there was one night the crowd I was going out and hanging out with, who had put me on to clubs one day, decided they were not going out. So that's when I started hanging out by myself and I ended up I brought way to to see Peter Conde Rodriguez perform. During this time I didn't know Peter Conde Rodriguez's music. I didn't know that he was one of the compadres, I didn't know that he recorded with Barreto and Telia Cruz and I had no idea, which is a good thing and a bad thing, because obviously a bad thing if you hear a song that he's performing, you don't know what it is and it's just you're hearing it for the first time. Which is also a good thing, because now you're getting introduced to the music and can appreciate you know the performance even more.
Speaker 4:One thing I'll never forget about Broadway too, was watching those dancers from the coursework area in the Palladium era. I remember seeing Freddie Rios there. There were times where a lot of the times, since I was so young, I try to ask some of the ladies to dance, the better dancers. I'm gonna get like a big fat. No, I would get a no and they would tell me to stand there and watch. And you know, I watched the footwork, I watched what they were doing and I also I would pan the club to see what was going on. And when I saw that night Peter Conde Rodriguez walk over toward the bar, I said this is a great time to go tell him I love the performance. Why not?
Speaker 4:One thing's for sure I never miss Peter Conde Rodriguez at the Copacabana on 57th street. Whether it was the Tuesday after work party or the big nights on Saturdays. I never miss Peter Conde at the Copacabana. And there was a particular musician that stood out to me on stage and his name was Harry Adolno. And not saying that he didn't have some killer people on that stage, because he always did, but Harry was responsible for taking me under his wing and I became like a bad boy, or I would just you know he would teach me stuff about team ball, as because, again, I love team ball.
Speaker 4:But, um, I had started classes with Harry, I don't know. And I also started classes with a gentleman named Louis Campana Hernandez, who used to be the bongo player for Pico and the homeriggas, and it was pretty simple Musician walks off stage and you say you know who gives classes here, and the same era Etta, no, I'll go on. And that class hello weekend you know and you, you.
Speaker 4:It's cool because you walk over to the musician hey look, I love the way you perform. I know I would love to learn how to play this, this, this here's my number, call me. And before you know it, he's sitting in the room and you get in lessons from you know somebody who Just performed at the Copa Cabana, which is pretty cool. Now, as much as I love to dance, as as time progressed I was glued to that stage whenever Peter Conde performed. I Was just watching everything going on in that band because there was so much from his, from his dancing, his performance To the Maracayos, him playing Guido, and One night he, you know, at the end of a song called tambo la gente, peter Tambo, he takes an incredible bongo solo. I'm like this man does everything Y además de todo, et chevere some of my favorite songs that Peter Conde will perform. Do second, use it Catalina, la, oh, la sense. It will one call sonero Bob, illa fue primoso cantal, and the list goes on and on.
Speaker 4:By this time, as a dancer, I had a CP when he was here, because I love the music. I remember seeing him at Battery Park. Also, clubs that don't even exist anymore in the Bronx, here, lq's, le Pulee, of course, the Copa, and one time at Ralph Mercado's South Street seaport Put we can date parade parties, not to mention Madison's regarding with the funny all-stars. So by 1998 I'm hanging out with Harry, I don't know, and he's playing with everybody. He's playing with Richard Bobby Cruz, he's playing with Ruben Blatt is, and, and Willy Cologne, traveling around the world, is playing with Frank A Luis, doing a lot of coverages here and, and a lot of times I would also hang out with Louis Campana. There was one Tuesday night at a club I don't remember I don't remember the name of the club because Still, small clubs in New York don't last anymore, if you notice, like why is it that the clubs always disappear? They're like temporary storefronts. But anyway, it was a small club, it's like a whole new wall, and that was the night I was granted an opportunity To sit in and play the last song of the night, which was usually do second dulce, and I never forget I sat down, you know, grab Louis Campana's bongos and I was.
Speaker 4:I was sitting down next to Harry, I don't know, looking up at Harry. Harry was a tall but he was a big guy and he's looking at, looking down at me, like bro, you made it. He's like like you graduated. He's like you're gonna be alright, bro, you're gonna be alright. So all of a sudden, bright, look up, I'm sitting there with the bongos, I'm shitting a brick. And now me, and peak on the lock, eyes Right, and I'm like bro, you did it now. And and peak on this. You know he's, he's pretty much telling me Palante, he's not, he's not shying away from don't fuck up here. He's saying it's time to play, let's play.
Speaker 4:And it was almost like in slow motion because All those years seeing Pete at the Copa and all these clubs, I already knew how he counted in the band. He was stomping the band and I'll never forget it. He counted in the band and he stomped on the floor that one. So he goes into the song and I had never sat next to a musician in my my whole life, bro, you know, especially not the great Harry.
Speaker 4:I don't know here, and, and you know I didn't realize that you can get so over drawn by who's next to you and by the bass and by the piano, and it was just like you are. It's like getting your ass kicked in a boxing fight. You know you're drowning here and Pete singing away and and I'm just like I'm trying to enjoy this moment I'm excited and my hands are killing me because I don't know technique, you know, I'm just, it's about the experience. At that point I. But at one point I just looked up and just took in who was in front of me, which is the great Peter Cundillia, the member of the Fania Harry, I don't know, and just the moment of playing in a band With, with an icon and you know what bro?
Speaker 4:to me, the fact that Harry provided some opportunity there to get your feet wet With it with an icon like that, was so much and it's something I'll never forget and something I I appreciate to this day. You know, I lost Harry a Couple years back and you know, those are the things that, aside from his friendship, that I'll never forget about. And, like I mentioned, you're gonna hear a lot of stories about me and Harry, but that's just one of them, you know. But again, gotta thank Peter Cundillia and gotta thank Harry.
Speaker 4:I don't know, because that was a moment in my life that you know, I'll never, ever and I can talk to my nephews about, which is pretty cool, and just like that. Another Tuesday came and I was at the Copacabana early, ready to see my boy, peter Cundillia's. The only difference is that now I'm, you know, I'm getting more familiar with the musicians, so now I'm invited down to the dressing room where they rehearse and they tune up and and Peter Cundill will show up and He'd sit there with the musicians amongst the musicians and he would give these stories, bro, that I wish I would have recorded them because they were so memorable and and it was about the Fania and it was about, you know, arranges and musicians back in those days and his experiences as a young singer, and just story after story, and Pete wouldn't stop between the stories, he went from story to story and All the musicians. It was like you couldn't hear a pin drop in the room Because everybody loved to hear him tell these tales. You know about Apollo sound and, just like I said, his time with the Fania, and I was there, you know, as a young man, and just remembering or just watching Pete and all these guys around him cracking up, and just you know, and then it was time to go up, you know, and play on stage and then you got to see the man in Action, whether it was, like I said, his dancing, you know, see, that's up there, emilo's up there, you know, his daughter and his son, tremendous Musicos, because to this day those, those two on stage, are absolutely untouchable. Just think about the school that they come from. It's funny.
Speaker 4:I was talking to see that the other night and I said, well, it gets to school so fast. You know, such good times go so fast and A lot of times I love when I see she's here on stage because she has that, that flavor. It was like it's like handed down to her. You know, her brother, tremendous musical director, trumpetita, you know, see that with the Mambo legends, you know, just made that band, just took it to another level. So if you ever hear see that Rodriguez is performing, you know, definitely take advantage. A lot of times she played la malqueta and Spanish Harlem and she killed it. So and over years I've had some great moments with that.
Speaker 4:We will go dancing and a lot of times we dance at the Copa. I remember the first time I dance or I was so nervous, you know, and she's a really good dancer. So and I'm not intimidated, see that in case you're listening, saying I'm waiting, waiting for the next, the next round. I remember seeing Peter come the last time at the Copa and After the performance I went around the stage to help him come down and grab my hand and we shook hands and you know he got serious on me. He says we asked me polka dot, oca te? He says pretty much, said no, no, that's all you know, that's all to say practical. You know he gave me that bit of advice and something I'll never forget, you know, and that was the last time I saw him, sally.
Speaker 4:He passed away in December of 2000 and I was traveling with Harry Adolno to a gig with lucito carillon and the singer Pedro Jesus or we're in a van or some somebody's card. You know, musicians always travel with somebody. So we heading upstate and it was snowing and Harry got the call and you started crying and you know I, you know it's a. It was a big loss, you know, for those guys. Again, pete treated everybody in a way where you, you felt like a son. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:At his funeral, what can I do? I knelt in front of him and I thanked him For every opportunity and believing in me and giving me a chance and letting me be one of his biggest fans. You know, I won't my mom your anything. My mom, my mom has always been such a big Ray Burrito fan and we got there kind of early and we're leaving the the funeral home and who is walking into the funeral home? Mano dura, ray Burrito. And I couldn't believe it. You know, he was so genuine and he took off his glove and he shook my mom's hand and shook my hand.
Speaker 4:And the moment felt like when you see One of your favorite movies or have you seen a movie that you love over and over again and all the, all the great actors are part of that movie and then one of the main characters of the movie just shows up in real life in front of you and it just represented the finding. I was like look at this brand. I heard that maybe five minutes later, celia Cruz had also gone to pay her respects to the late great Pico and the other kids which I'm man. Can you imagine meeting Celia Cruz? And that's crazy.
Speaker 4:Like I said in the beginning of the podcast, be billy, record on and Peter cool. He's a somebody I'll never forget. So, guys, remember to download his music, look at those album covers. He has some tremendous album covers with Pacheco and Celia Cruz and we were reto and the final all stars, you know, and go see the lineage, see the Rodriguez, her brother, you know, that's so you keep the music alive, like my man, dj bro. We will say they used to bring in Peter Quinn just to pay Maracas, and guys like, how we say, try not to miss the legends, because those performances are once in a lifetime.
Speaker 1:By Andy crisp, lemon College Information. You will let us see it 189608885. And in the box office, the lemon center. No bias Passar la historia Venas Her part of the celebration. The Andy Is so exitosa. Carrera de más Is a center, I know.
Speaker 4:Is a trajectory. I'm A To I Go, I, I, I. That's right, folks, that's it the.
Speaker 4:Lemon center. Don't the Also have my India For Mother's Day? They also have that. I'm seeing you Big anniversary concert. Limon Center Is the official sponsor of the Mom when the city starts the podcast. Please. The Lemon center For more information On the website. All the concerts are right there. They have a really big freestyle concert coming up March 16th. It's called freestyle for ever 16.
Speaker 4:Tk A, george Cynthia Coro, two Without Hats Come on, bro, I love freestyle music. I remember playing handball at Orchard Beach to some damn freestyles, and now I get to hear it live and concert. No, no, no, no. These freestyle legends, they like the Fania, they like the Fania freestyle. You know TKA Lotter in Love, george Lamont Girl in the Battle of the Heart. You get to see it live and sing along with the freestyle legends. I will be at the Andy Montinghass Concert. I'll be in the hallway there when you walk in, big smile on my face, giving out some stickers for the Mambo City podcast and meeting some of you guys who listen to the podcast, very excited for that as well. And so, yeah, it's going to be a good time. Bueno, gente, hasta ahí llegaron mis recuerdos. I want to thank everyone for joining me in this trip down memory lane my time with one of the most iconic voices of the Fania All-Stars, pirol Condejo-Riguez. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time on the Mambo in the City. Souths of podcast.
Speaker 2:We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time on the Mambo in the City Souths of podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time on the Mambo in the City Souths of podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time on the Mambo in the City Souths of podcast.
