Alfredo De La Fé

An exclusive interview with SalsaPower (Translated from the original Spanish Version)

by 

Versión en Español

Check out Alfredo's last CD
Latitudes

Jacira: Welcome back to the United States! How does it feel to be back?

Alfredo: Great! Super! I'm back home in my house after 20 years, it's wonderful! Very special!

Jacira: How was your arrival... how did it happen?

Alfredo: Before I answer that, I want to thank you for the support I received from the readers of SalsaPower in order to get back home. I am doing what I want to; I am doing community work as well as working with Promesa, a rehabilitation center for addicts. I am also working as a drug counselor. I'm writing a proposal to do a series of concerts to raise money that would support programs for drug addicts in the five boroughs (Manhattan, Statan Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx) .

Jacira: Lots of people are interested in knowing what you have been doing during the years you were away. Can you tell us a little bit about what you were up to?

Alfredo: I was in Colombia, a wonderful country that received me with open arms. It has a lot of problems, but I love Colombia. I was there for 14 years and then I moved to Italy. Since 1991 I had been spending a lot of time in Europe. Salsa there is all the craze. The future of Salsa is in Europe. But New York is home... it is where my family is and the United States is the best country on earth. In 1997 I moved to Italy. Things went very well for me there. People in Europe love our music and that is a source of nourishment for my soul that gives me the drive to play it for them.

I would also like to mention that for many years I was lost... It began before going to Colombia, in New York. I began to play professionally at age 12 and I began to do drugs at age 12. If you were a musician and didn't do drugs, you were nobody. It was in vogue back then. I began to play professionally and they invited me to do drugs and I did them.

I suffered a lot as a result of the drugs. I am very fortunate that I had the ability to get out. I've been drug free for 16 years and I will never do them again! I am happy that I no longer use them. I want to tell young people that you can live very well without consuming drugs. That is the message I want to get across to the young people who read SalsaPower.

Jacira: We appreciate your candor and honesty. I know you have worked for years to fight drug addiction and to help others overcome this disease. That is why the readers of SalsaPower supported you and wrote letters explaining that you deserved another chance. (More than 300 letters from the SalsaPower readers around the world were sent!)

But now, getting back to the music, we were talking about your time in Italy. Who were your musicians there?

Alfredo: The group there was very special. There were people from many different countries. It gave the group a very unique flavor but more importantly, we were like a wonderful family with this group. We all cared for each other a lot and that made it very special.

The group was: César Correa, pianist, - Perú, ...a musical genius who has a wonderful future ahead of him. The Timbale player, a Columbian named Rodrigo Rodríguez... Dudú Penz, bass player - Brazil; Luis Aballe, Congas - Cuba; Alejandro Paneta, Bongó - Argentina; Carlos Iararragorri, Keyboards, Tres - Cuba; Carmine Pagano, Trombone - Italia; Leonardo Gobin, 1st Trombone - Cuba; Elvio Ghilliordini, Flute - Italy; Ruth Mery Carvajal, Vocalist - Colombia; Armando Miranda, Lead Vocalist - Cuba.

Jacira: What are your plans for the immediate future?

Alfredo: I'm putting together my band here in NY. We are going to revolutionize Salsa. There are some great musicians here in NY but they need a bit of "stage" ...the visual part is lacking ...I want to add that dimension to salsa.

Jacira: Who are the musicians who are playing with you now?

Alfredo: I have some really great musicians! Johnny Rivero, who played with Pappo Lucca and the Sonora Ponceña, Tony Escapa, Israel Tanenbaum, there are two trombones, José Dávila who played with me in Italy for a long time, Luis Bonilla, 2nd Trombone - Lid Ferrer - a new singer and a new flautist. What is important is a lot of show on stage! That's what's missing in Salsa today!

I would also like to mention that we are very proud and honored to be sponsored by LATIN PERCUSSION.

Jacira: Can we still say that yours is a Charanga band?

Alfredo: No. It's not Charanga at all. It is salsa, but it could sound like a charanga band at any given time just as well as sounding like a Big Band at any given time or like a smaller conjunto. Charanga is a beautiful and divine kind of music and I love it, but it will have to undergo a big change to be able to recapture the "boom" it had years ago. There are some excellent Charanga groups but it is not the kind of music I want to be doing now.

Jacira: What do you think of the music that is coming out of Cuba today?

Alfredo: Most of it I don't care for very much, but there are some really good groups. I absolutely love Los Van Van... they are one of the few groups who work with our musical roots and they don't get too far away from them and I love that. Cuban music has a huge potential and they don't have any need to be copying American music or mixing it with Reggae or Rap.

Jacira: Do you like Timba?

Alfredo: No, not at all.

Jacira: Would you go back to Cuba someday?

Alfredo: Sure, why not?

Jacira: Is there a specific artist you would like to meet on stage to jam with?

Alfredo: There are many! Arturo Sandoval, who is my friend, ...Gloria Estéfan, I admire what she has done. I am a very fortunate person, and I have lots of faith. The proof of that is that I am home again. Life gives me everything that I want, just at the right time.

Jacira: Many years ago you played with a phenomenal Quintet that included Tito Puente, Patato, Jorge Dalto and Michael Viñas. You had a version of "Bacalao con pan" that was excellent. How did this group come about and what happened to them?

Alfredo: It was formed by coincidence... We used to go to the schools inthe mornings to do seminars on percussion and then in the afternoon we'd give a concert for the folks at those schools. It began as an effort to educate people and we began to play more and more, and then it sort of became Tito's Latin Jazz Ensemble. That was a very cool time!

Jacira: If I was to open up your car right now, what CDs would I find?

Alfredo: Miles Davis, lots of old Cuban music, New York salsa from the 60s and 70s which is when I became a musician.

Jacira: What kind of music is your favorite?

Alfredo: Jazz. I am also doing a Latin jazz sextet with my new group.

Jacira: What is your favorite group of all times?

Alfredo: I don't have a favorite! One that I have always liked is the Sonora Ponceña. It's very difficult to say! El Gran Combo, too!

Jacira: What is your favorite non-salsa group?

Alfredo: MILES DAVIS!

Jacira: Are you going to come out with a new CD?

Alfredo: That is also in the works. I am going to finish a Latin Pop CD that I recorded in Italy before returning. We will probably mix it in Miami. I feel the need to always invent something new, and I continue to seek out my creativity. The album still needs a few things, but it shouldn't take too long. It will be called, RELEASE YOURSELF.

Jacira: Are you going out on tour? What do we have to do to get you to come to all the SalsaCities on SalsaPower around the world?

Alfredo: Hire me! But seriously, it is going to take a bit of time. The group will be ready the first week in November. We will be in SOBs, Babalús, (both in NY), Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Ángeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle. In the meantime, you can find me as a Special Invited Guest at SOBS in NY.

(Note: See the Official Alfredo De La Fe Website for the complete list of where he will be playing).

Jacira: Do you have anything you'd like to say to the lovers of Afro-Cuban music on SalsaPower?

Alfredo: I'd like to thank everyone for supporting our music. Salsa is the best in the world! Tell them to expect a revolution in the Salsa world from Alfredo De La Fé!

26 de septiembre, 2002

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Esta página fue actualizada el día 03-Jan-2008