Gilberto Santa Rosa Highlights Musical Bonds between Cuba and Puerto Rico

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 7 (acn) National and international media reproduced on Thursday the words of Puerto Rican singer Gilberto Santa Rosa, who highlighted the musical relationship existing between Cuba and Puerto Rico, despite the U.S. blockade.

In a message posted on the Internet, Santa Rosa said that artists of his country such as Lucecita Benitez, Danny Rivera and Andy Montañez, were the first to visit Cuba in the 1960s and build, through culture, a bridge of communication between the two nations, CUbasi reported on Thursday.
"For us salsa performers Cuban music has been our raw material,' said the interpreter of popular songs like Que alguien me diga, Vivir sin ella and Qué manera de quererte.
According to Santa Rosa, the Cuban son rhythm is the father of salsa, since the latter developed in New York has Cuban sound foundations in its various expressions.
El Caballero de la Salsa (The Gentleman of Salsa), as the interpreter is also called, praised the figure of late Cuban maestro Arsenio Rodriguez, who in his opinion emerges in the midst of important names for establishing the first music group with conga and bongo drums to give more strength and danceable sense to the traditional son rhythm.
He also recalled that several years ago Puerto Rican dance music orchestras like El Gran Combo, La Sonora Ponceña and the Pan-American Orchestra, among others, mixed Cuban music in their repertoires.
Thus -asserted Santa Rosa, Cuban son was always present in Puerto Rico and many artists, kept recording salsa versions of Cuban son rhythms.
Considered one of today's most important salsa performers, the Puerto Rican singer has an extensive discography in which versions of songs like Un montón de estrellas, by Cuban Polo Montañez, stand out.
In addition, his most recent album, Necesito un bolero (2014), is dedicated to Cuban son rhythm, and four of its 13 songs were written by Cuban authors, among them Juan Jose Hernandez, Tony Avila and Alexis Valdes.