CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Issac Delgado
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City/Place:
Havana
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Country:
Cuba
Life
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Bio:
Without “son”, there would be no “salsa”. Issac Delgado is one of the greatest salseros of all time. A good “salsero” (salsa singer) carries the root of “son” deep in their heart.
Issac Delgado, “El Chevere de la Salsa”, releases the long awaited Salsa album, “Lluvia y Fuego”—the 17th solo recording of a long discography. This new recording, a modern throwback, is distinguished by its rich compositions and arrangements written by the artist himself in collaboration with Jesus Cruz and Yusef Diaz. The Cuban vocalist sprinkles his album with vocal and instrumental special guests such as Gilberto Santa Rosa, Alain Pérez, Alexander Abreu, Pedrito Martínez, and Samuel Formell, among others. “Lluvia y Fuego”, offers the listener a smorgasbord of diverse sounds, passionate lyrics and the lush feelings of bolero, salsa and son.
Born in Havana to a tailor father, and an actress-dancer-singer mother, Issac trained on violincello at the Almadeo Roldan Conservatory before transitioning to vocal training with one of the best vocal teachers in Cuba, Marian DeGonish. Soon after, he enrolled in the professional musicians school, Ignacio Cervantes. He became an active member of well-known salsa bands within the vast Cuban musical landscape such as Orquesta de Pacho Alonso and the progressive NG La Banda. NG La Banda was a salsa orchestra led by José Luis Cortes, and was the band that gave birth to “timba”, a genre within salsa music featuring faster tempos and more focus on timbales and percussion. Timba was the first new popular Cuban music genre in a generation, and lead vocalist Issac was on the cutting edge of Cuban dance music becoming one it’s best composers and melodic improvisers.
Issac’s solo career began in the 90’s with the debut album entitled Dando La Hora followed by Con Ganas under the musical direction and collaboration of pianist, Gonzalo Rubalcaba. After the success of his solo debut, he garnered iconic status in the salsa and timba scenes of Latin America, stocking his bands with great improvisers and sophisticated jazz musicians. His sensuous and velvety voice gave his bands a distinct sound, and the unique arrangements characterized his performances and recordings. He had a string of hits such as the popular Sanduguita, Necesito Una Amiga and No Me Mires a Los Ojos which came from well-known recordings like En Primera Plana and Así Soy. His loving latin tribute to Nat Cole’s most popular songs were recorded on an album entitled Love and includes a classic duet with Freddy Cole on the famous tune Quizas, Quizas, Quizas.
Prolific creative energy gave way to releases such as Made in Havana and Supercubano as wells as collabs with many illustrious artists including a maxi-single with La India (Que No Se Te Olvide); world tours with Celia Cruz; productions with famed producer, Sergio George;concert with Cachao;recordings with Ana Belén (Dos), Haila (Pensamiento), Cheo Feliciano (Amigo), Víctor Manuel (La Que Mas Te Duele), José Alberto “El Canario”, Pedrito Martínez (Habana Dreams), Alexander Abreu (Comentarios), Descemer Bueno (La Vida Es Buena), Gente de Zona (Somos Cubanos / Bailando), Pablo Milanés (Versos En EL Cielo), Los Van Van (Cubanos), and youngsters like Tony Succar (Sentimiento Original), to name just a few. Most recently, the smash duet with Gilberto Santa Rosa (El Que Siempre Soño) from Lluvia Y Fuego has become an anthem for dreamers around the world.
Issac is an artist truly loved by his people. He is respected by musicians and bandleaders worldwide, and is known for his charisma and humble ways. Having played on world class stages and collaborated with big names in the Latin and international music world, Issac keeps his classic-modern Cuban essence intact. Citing distinctive syncopation, Issac pays homage to Spanish and African cultures with his own individual brand of Afro-Cuban music, bringing deep-rooted sentiment to modern Cuban music.
As Issac would say: “Vaya que chévere”!
Sin son, no hay salsa, algo que Issac Delgado tiene mas que claro. ¡Un buen salsero, es un sonero de corazón!
Issac Delgado, “El Chevere de la Salsa”, regresa a la escena musical de la salsa de Cuba y del mundo, con su nuevo álbum “Lluvia y Fuego”, fonograma que destaca por sus composiciones, en su mayoría del propio artista en coautoría con Jesús Cruz y en coproducción musical con Yusef Díaz y nuevamente la colaboración de artistas como Gilberto Santa Rosa, Alain Pérez, Alexander Abreu, Pedrito Martínez, Ángel Bonne, Samuel Formell, Luis Quintero, y César López, “Lluvia y Fuego”, propone un recorrido por diversas sonoridades de la música cubana. Entonaciones propias del “feeling”, el bolero, y obviamente, la salsa y el son.
“Lluvia y Fuego”, su producción discográfica # 17, recopila sus experiencias durante un periodo viviendo fuera de su Isla, durante el cual continuó nutriéndose de elementos sonoros y vivencias en España y los Estados Unidos. Ese retorno a sus raíces, a sus calles habaneras, a su gente, fue bienvenido con algarabía por su público posicionando a Issac nuevamente, como uno de los principales precursores y más populares intérpretes de la escena musical bailable.
Nacido en La Habana, Issac formó parte de destacadas agrupaciones dentro del panorama musical cubano, tales como la Orquesta de Pacho Alonso y NG La Banda, ambas orquestas de gran renombre en el panorama la mayor de las Antillas. NG La Banda, orquesta liderada por José Luis Cortes alias “El Tosco”, flautista de formación y un jazzman a respetar, fue la cuna de lo que hoy se conoce como “timba”. “Nací en La Habana, soy Habanero…” cantaba Issac con NG La Banda, tema titulado “Los Sitios Enteros” que rinde homenaje a las barriadas habaneras, acercando a Issac a cada rincón y corazón de su público, de su pueblo.
En 1990 fundo su propia agrupación, lanzo su primera producción discográfica “Dando La Hora” bajo la dirección musical del pianista, Gonzalo Rubalcaba (Irakere). Rápidamente alcanzo gran popularidad tras su debut como solista y se convierte en un ícono de los géneros de salsa y timba, tocando fibras con su voz aterciopelada y ese sonido tan peculiar que lo caracteriza. El considera que su música no es solo música cubana, sino que es “afrocubana”, orgulloso de sus raíces y esa sincretizacion cultural tan peculiar y especial que se vive y respira en la Cuba actual.
A lo largo de su carrera Issac ha colaborado con destacadas figuras como Celia Cruz, Sergio George, Cachao, Ana Belén, Cheo Feliciano, Víctor Manuel, Gilberto Santa Rosa, José Alberto “El Canario”, Freddy Cole, Pedrito Martínez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Alexander Abreu, Descemer Bueno, Gente de Zona, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez y Los Van Van, entre otros.
Músico del pueblo, amado por todos por su carisma y sencillez, hace fiel tributo a su apodo. Un hombre “chévere”, buena gente, sonriente, humilde de corazón, humano y familiar, que a pesar de haber tocado en los escenarios más importantes del mundo y colaborado con grandes nombres de la música latina e internacional, mantiene su esencia intacta, es cubano 100%, donde quiera que vaya.
“Vaya que chévere”, anuncia el sonero y salsero donde quiera que se presenta, como si fuera un pregón típico de sus calles habaneras, como un presagio que rima con Issac Delgado.
Contact Information
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Management/Booking:
Artist Representation
Anna M. Sala
AMS Artists in collaboration with AB Artists
Office: +212 581-0612
Cell: +646 621-1104
Email: [email protected]
Clips (more may be added)
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
Wolfram Mathematics
This technological matrix originating in Bahia, Brazil and positioning creators around the world within reach of each other and the entire planet is able to do so because it is small-world (see Wolfram).
Bahia itself, final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place on earth throughout all of human history, refuge for Lusitanian Sephardim fleeing the Inquisition, Indigenous both apart and subsumed into a sociocultural matrix comprised of these three peoples and more, is small-world.
Human society, the billions of us, is small-world. Neural structures for human memory are small-world...
In small worlds great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"I'm truly thankful ... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
—Nduduzo Makhathini (JOHANNESBURG): piano, Blue Note recording artist
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
Dear friends & colleagues,

Having arrived in Salvador 13 years earlier, I opened a record shop in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for Bahian musicians, many of them magisterial but unknown.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Bahians and other Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix (people who have passed are not removed), then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Recent access to this matrix and Bahia are from these places (a single marker can denote multiple accesses).
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL