Angel canales

Ángel Luis Canales (Santurce, June 29, 1950), is a Puerto Rican salsa singer, based in New York. He is one of the old salsa singers still surviving, among whose hits are "Nostalgia", "Sol de mi vida", "Perico Macoña", Lejos de ti", "A long time ago", and his famous version of the bolero "Dos Gardenias".

Biography

She was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. At eight years old he moved with his family to New York where he lived in East Harlem. He received great musical influence from a young age, being the music of Cortijo and his Combo and that of Ismael Rivera the ones that marked him the most as a musician.

He started out as a timbalero in a band led by guitarist Luis Torres. In Ray Jay's orchestra he debuted as a singer when he had to replace the vocalist. He later joined the group of Mark Dimond, former pianist for Willie Colón. The group later changed their name to "Ángel Canales y Sabor".

With this orchestra they made the hits "Sabor de los Rumberos Nuevos", "Lejos de ti" and "Perico Macoña". He is recognized for his interpretation of the bolero & # 34; Dos gardenias & # 34;.

Because of the way he distributes the structure of the choruses of his songs (generally, he uses two choruses with different lyrics in the montuno), his attitude on stage and the peculiar timbre of his voice, Ángel Canales is called &# 34;The Different".

Biography and trajectory

Ángel Luis Canales was born on June 29, 1950 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. His parents Ángel Luis Canales Sr. and Ana Ilda Canales brought him to El Barrio del Alto Manhattan, New York, at the age of 8. During his childhood he listened to the music of Rafael Cortijo with Ismael Rivera, the song Jíbara (peasant) and the romantic singers of the fifty favorites in his house. In New York, the sounds changed, his new friends did not speak Spanish and at school Elvis Presley and Motown were heard. Then came the boogaloo explosion. When his friends and Canales himself turn to rediscover Latin music through the & # 39; tumbao & # 39; of young groups such as Willie Colón, Johnny Colón, Pete Rodríguez and the Lebrón Brothers.

In school he wasn't very good with books in general, but he always excelled in the machine shop. So he decides to apply to work in a jewelry store, recommended by a professor who highly esteemed him. He first entered as a messenger. Then, looking curiously at the art of diamond cutters, he learned how to polish, cut and mount them, which ultimately became his true profession for his lifetime.

In the late sixties he is drafted into the army. Upon his return, he found that some of his childhood friends had become musicians, among them Antonio Tapia, Luis Rivera and Johnny Torres. All of them gathered in a modest band led by a black American pianist who called himself Markolino (Mark Dimond). An extravagant character, who liked to compose, arrange and play the piano in a very unique and advanced way for the salsa singers of the seventies.

Canales arrives at the moment that Markolino signs with the Fania label, and at the suggestion of his compadre Johnny Torres goes to the studio to put his voice on various tracks of songs he had never heard before. From all this improvisation, the LP “Brujería” arises, where the shy voice of Canales begins to stand out on the songs: El Barrio, Yo no tengo Pena, Brujería, Tiene Sabor, Mariquita and Aguardiente.

Between 1970 and 1974 Markolino, Angel Canales and their musician friends survive playing the repertoire of this singular LP, at weddings and dances, until Markolino disappears from the map due to personal problems. It was rumored that he had died, but then Hector Lavoe, Frankie Dante and Chivirico Dávila revived him in the recordings of “Rompe Saragüey (75)”, “Porque Adoré (76)” and “El Quinto de Beethoven (76)”. Later, he disappeared again and miraculously revives in the recording of Larry Harlow, in Miami in 1988 "Mortifica".

Meanwhile, Angel Canales, supported by the majority of the vacant musicians, decides to start a new stage, where he would not only contribute the money from his work, but also compositions and leadership. He appears on the 1975 LP “Canales y la Orquesta Sabor”, produced for the Alegre label by Joe Cain. Two Colombian pianists stood out in this production: Edy Martinez, from Pasto, responsible for all the arrangements, and Joe Madrid, from the coast, performing all the solos.

The radio was in an uproar when “Lejos de ti” began to play, a vocal hybrid combining Hector Lavoe, Juan Legido, Marco Antonio Muñiz and even Fernando Alvarez, with the personal timbre of the diamond cutter.

There were not a few negative reviews that rained down around this enigmatic singer who was self-financing and never looked for “la payola” to promote his records. But this was just the beginning, Canales imposed a new style in salsa clothing, his shaved head, choreography and above all his powerful orchestra full of informal musicians to which he added the most eccentric and aggressive jazz artists in the city. free to improvise over some complicated mambos that came from a baritone sax, a soaring trumpet and two sour trombones. It was the Jazzy sound that sounded happy and easygoing, ahead of its time. It was “The feeling of a Latino in New York”!!!...

Jealously watched over and blocked by the most important salsa promoters in the city, who saw Canales as too independent a being who paid his musicians the highest salaries, in 1977 Canales had the opportunity to discover his acceptance outside of the "innards of the monster". A businessman sends him an advance of five thousand dollars, air ticket and lodging at the Hilton in Panama so that he can perform for the first time in Latin America with the entire band. The success was resounding, hence the tribute of Angel Canales to his "Sovereign Panama".

The other three Canales' only trips abroad have been to Caracas (Venezuela) in 1982 at El Poliedro; Managed by Izzi Zanabria (Fania All Stars Master of Ceremonies) and Ralph Mercado, another presentation in Cali (Colombia) and another in Lima (Peru) in the 1990s.

Between 1975 and 1987 Canales recorded 9 long-playing albums. He reappears and briefly signs with Chino Rodríguez, who took him to New York in 1993 after a 90-day promotional campaign where Angel Canales relaunched at Club Broadway with his original band. Club Broadway was owned by Ralph Mercado, the club was packed with fans and a line formed around the entrance to get in and see the legendary singer, Chino Rodríguez had quoted that he was planning a world tour for Angel Canales however after Following a disagreement with Mr. Rodríguez, Rodríguez's relationship as an agent of Canales was severed. A few years passed and Angel Canales, in 1996, timidly made a couple of recordings produced in Miami: “Niña Melé” and “Sólo sé que tiene nombre de mujer”.

Angel Canales has been one of the few vocalists who has had the luxury of performing without promoters and itineraries. A luxury granted to him by his true profession as a diamond cutter.

Little is known about the current fate of Angel Canales, but it is rumored that his distance from the stage is partly due to the disease that has afflicted his joints for several years.

Discography

• 1971 - Brujeria.
• 1975 - Sabor.
• 1976 - The Saint John.
• 1977 - More Sabor. (It is the "Brujeria" job, reissued with this name and where credit is omitted to Markolino Dimond as leader. Only credit is given as a composer)
• 1978 - Live at Roseland.
• 1979 - Latin feeling in New York.
• 1981 - The Different.
• 1982 - Different Shades of Thought. (In some countries it was published under the name "A You".)
• 1985 - It's Time.
• 1985 - Nobody Knows My Suffering.
• 1991 - And His Living Salsa.
• 1991 - Live the Different.
• 2002 - History of a Legend.
• 2002 - Millonarios de la Salsa.
• Best