Issac Delgado via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other...
- Steps from Issac Delgado:
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
- Steps forward by: The Matrix
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Issac Delgado
- City: Havana
- Country: Cuba
My Life & Work
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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: amsala@gmail.com
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Twitter: issacdelgado
- ▶ Instagram: issacdelgadoofficial
- ▶ Website: http://issacdelgado.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8KYqW2ZScmVV7ZQNrgjaOQ
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCc3M9kemNFmlIKTkhaKgrcw
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/74QZy4tcjEtvSkXnBxZo78
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/1sr0n0CCMNaeCYWbNO7O2u
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/2OA6qsXCj07gt7lmhgFunv
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/0osNPSLgqMihcwRKoqToba
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/5OL31LlbUSHcMzJeqE0acq
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/5i8j55ot3XvADl3dbIAueJ
Clips (more may be added)
The world's artistry via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other ...
... a project conceived and built in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia, Brazil initially for the discoverability of this singular region's dispossessed genius.
All explained in the window immediately below. Followed — beneath this window — by scores of magnificent artists, each leading to myriads more artists/categories. Inside this window also may be found our Brazilian record store radio, named by British journal The Guardian as one of 10 of the Best Radio Stations Around the World!
IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles -- jungle and desert and dense urban centers -- both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. It absorbed over ten times the number of African slaves taken to the United States of America, and much of its aboriginal population was absorbed into the general population-at-large. Its people have lived under oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption, with elements of these still strongly entrenched today.
But!
Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.
For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...
Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.
Raimundo Sodré, in a conversation ranging from New Orleans to Harlem and the South Side of Chicago ... through Appalachia and Irish villages and Russian shtetls and the unofficial symbol of Brazil's Bahian-born national music (the pandeiro) almost certainly having arrived in Brazil in the hands of Sephardic Jews (including conversos) fleeing the Inquisition, once remarked: "Where there's misery, there's music!"
A pandeirista on the roof. And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.
