Upon turning 76 years old on May 6, 2006, Fernando Luis Marín Rosario, best known as Willie Rosario, continues captivating dancers the world over with the irresistible taste and feel of his band.

The combination of his trumpets and baritone saxophone resounds, like an echo, the rich legacy of the Mambo era and the days of the Palladium in which Machito y Los Dos Titos (Puente and Rodriguez) competed for top billing in the famous club located on Broadway at 53rd Street, in New York.

When his shift finished at the radio station WADO, where he produced and livened up a Latin Jazz show during which he interviewed people such as Tito Rodríguez and La Lupe, Rosario went to the Palladium to listen and dance to the rhythm of the great orchestras.

His dream was to direct his own orquestra and reproduce in his records the crushing heaviness and swing of the mambo. And he achieved this after working with Aldemaro Romero, Herbie Mann, Johnny Seguí and other bands.

In this way, one can appreciate the record “El Bravo de Siempre”, edited in 1968 by Inca Records, with Panamanian Miguel Barcasnegras, as the lead vocal. The salsa singer, nicknamed Meñique due to his small stature, shared the vocals of this LP with Troyland, an African-American singer who interpreted the bolero, “By the Time I Get To Phoenix” and a version of “Black Magic” in Latin Jazz.

Nowadays, Meñique is a salsa legend that has not lost his vocal resources. His path was brilliantly paved alongside Kako, Tito Puente, Charlie Palmieri and los Pleneros de la 21.

“El Bravo De Siempre“ is one of the best-developed recordings. Meñique pieced together almost all of the clips of the sequence. The gift he has for composition, tongue twisters, his natural command of the reveille of guaguancó and his skill at singing salsa, challenging the metric of the montuno, are evident in this recording.

For lovers of the chachachá, he invited them to dance with “Bésame la Bembita” by Bobby Capó and for those who love the guaguancó and the son montuno, he drove them mad with “El Bravo De Siempre”, “La Cuesta De La Fama”, “La Esencia Del Guaguancó” and “Campanero”, chronicles inspired by Tite Curet Alonso in the anonymous protagonists of urban salsa, whose social narrative Rosario also focused on in “The Reality” by the Puerto Rican Justy Barreto.

Besides the hit “La Cuesta De La Fama” (“The Cost of Fame”), another hit from “El Bravo de Siempre” that impressed Meñique is the guaguancó “Superman”, that has once again gained popularity with the return of the man of steel to the big screen.

In this age, characters from fantasy films, the comics and cartoons have inspired numerous compositions, such as the Batman Theme that Bobby Valentín put in his first record with Fania as well as the hits of Gulliver, King Kong, El Súper Ratón and Magoo’s Boogaloo, recorded by Ismael Rivera.

Rosario made “Superman” an Arango rumba that he discovered in the repertoire of Patato and Totico, and which was recorded with the intention of capturing the attention of the children of that time.

The lyrics speak about comic book characters. In that time, the kids knew who you were talking about, Rosario stated when discussing the hit “Superman”.

In 1962, Willie Rosario debuted as leader with the LP El Bravo Soy Yo. Six years later, backed by Meñique, the King of Rhythm stated with indisputable authority that he is “El Bravo De Siempre”, an assertion substantiated by the elaboration of the masterful arrangements of Héctor de León, Charlie Palmieri and Louie Ramírez.

Credits
Singers - Meñique and Troylang
Producer - Willie Rosario
Arrangements - Héctor de León, Charlie Palmieri and Louie Ramírez

Written by Jaime Torres Torres



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