Viva Velarde: San Francisco Bay Area Salsa pioneer Benny Velarde celebrates the release of a landmark tribute album reflecting a 50-plus year career

Latin Beat Magazine, Dec, 2002 by Jesse Varela

Nobody has done more to cultivate appreciation for salsa and Latin jazz music in the Bay Area than percussionist-bandleader Bayardo "Benny" Velarde. Since arriving in San Francisco in 1945 from Panama, he has helped Afro-Latin dance music evolve by making his bands the training ground for generations of the region's brightest musical talents. Now members of his Super Combo, many of whom have played with him for over 20 years, are honoring him with a tribute album called Viva Velarde.

"What makes it so nice is that this album was initiated by the guys that work with me," says Velarde from his home in Pacifica. "They wanted to do this as a tribute to me before I died. People like Anthony Blea wanted to donate their talent to honor me. Ubiquity, a company in L.A., found a tune I did in 1965 called Wobble Cha that they're releasing in a collection. All these things are coming together and I'm very pleased."

In 1997, Benny Velarde was diagnosed with throat cancer. As a consequence, his vocal chords were removed. He now speaks through a voice box, but his accent and cadence are still intact. On Sunday, September 29, he celebrated a record-release party at El Rio in San Francisco. At 73, he hasn't made an album since 1974, but thanks to producer Ross C. Wilson--who also plays trumpet and trombone with Velarde--and the good folks at Disher Music & Sound in the city, this tribute project came to fruition to celebrate his musical legacy.

A graduate of Mission High School, he chose the timbal as his instrument in his late teens. Inspired by the Cuban music he heard on the radio growing up in Panama, he skipped college and joined the musicians union in 1950. Playing in the Mexican orchestras that introduced Afro-Cuban music and dance to a generation of young Latinos around Oakland, it was the influence of Tito Puente that motivated him to go to New York City to study and absorb the vibrancy of the Palladium Ballroom era.

"I played at Sweet's Ballroom with the orchestra of Merced Gallegos as a substitute. I was never really part of his band. I was with Chico Ochoa at the Sand's Ballroom where we played "tardeadas." I also worked with Carlos Federico at the California Hotel. In late 1951, I moved to New York and lived there for one year. I returned in November of 1952, and the very next day got a call from Cai Tjader to join his group."

He became a founding member of the legendary Cai Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet. Tjader also had been bitten by the Afro-Cuban music at the Palladium and came back to cross-pollinate mambo grooves with the cool jazz that distinguished the West Coast scene. The initial group included the Durán brothers--Manny (piano) and Carlos (bass)--plus Edgar Rosales (conga) and Benny (timbal/bong0). It was an acclaimed small group credited with popularizing Latin jazz by fusing North American standards with Afro-Cuban beats.

"I was with Cal from 1952-56, and recorded eight LPs with him. Even after he re-organized, we remained lifelong friends. Cal was ahead of his time and did a lotto advance the Latin jazz movement. Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Mario Bauzá ignited it, but nationally, Cal took jazz and mixed it with Latin rhythms in a way that made it take off."

With the Tjader experience under his belt, Velarde formed a sextet with vibes. At the time, the only other group doing Latin music in the Bay Area was the Escovedo Brothers band. There weren't many places to play, but Velarde got lucky and met the owners--Roy Cortez and Ross Schwartz--of the Copacabana nightclub in North Beach in San Francisco. Located at the entrance to the Broadway tunnel, Benny started playing there in 1957 with basically the first Cal Tjader Quintet minus Tjader. Velarde worked continuously there until 1959, when he went to Cuba to get married.

"My ex-wife was a dancer and she and her sister used to tour. That's how we met. They came here to work at the Sinaloa Club in SE They were called Los Caramelos Cubanos (The Cuban Lollipops). They also joined me for an after-hours show at a club called The Streets of Paris. They had to continue their tour to South America until she decided to quit the group.

"That's when I went to Cuba, got married and brought her back. Her name was Yolanda Macias and I wrote the song Yolanda Pachanga for her."

When Velarde returned, things changed. Manny Durán took another gig and split up the combo. The owners told Velarde that if he put together a band, they would hire him. He brought in another Cai Tjader-style band, featuring Lionel Samuels on vibes and gradually began to integrate horns. From 1960 to 1969, Velarde worked four nights a week (Thursdays through Sundays) and made the Copa the "in spot" for Latin music.

"Since I knew so many guys in New York City I started booking them into the club. I booked Tito Puente, Tito Rodríguez, Sonora Matancera (with Celia Cruz and Celio González), Charlie Palmieri & La Duboney, Lobo y Melón from México, Joe Loco and many others."

Velarde enjoyed immense success at the Copa as a bandleader. In 1962, he recorded his first album, ¡Ay Que Rico!, for Fantasy Records. With arrangements by Félix "Pupi" Legarreta and vocals by Puerto Rican-born Tito Garcia, he garnered national attention with his pachanga grooves. Talking to Velarde, you realize there's still so much to cover about his 50-plus years as a bandleader in the Bay Area. The exciting moments and episodes are etched in his memory and he speaks of them with enthusiasm and passion. The song list of the Viva Velarde CD is a mini-chronicle of his career and the tunes that kept the Bay Area dancing--Yolanda Pachanga, Viva Cepeda, Baila Mi Guaguancó, Tranquilízate, Tenderly and El Divorcio. Viva Velarde is the lone original composed by John Calloway.