Ricky Gonzalez: for the love of music

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2005 by Rudy Mangual

As director of one of the hottest salsa bands of these times (Los Soneros del Barrio J, as director of a smaller band for tres player Nelson González, as a member of the internationally famed Marc Anthony band and as one of the top Latin music producers in the business, multi-instrumentalist/composer Ricky González finally found time to complete his first solo project. The following is a post-midnight interview with the tireless musician.

Rudy Mangual: Where are you originally from?

Ricky González: I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and raised in the Bronx, New York City.

RM: At what age did your music education begin?

RG: I started playing the trap drums around three years old. There was a drum set at my house, which belonged to one of my uncles, and I played it every day from morning till night.

RM: Your parents must have loved you for that!

RG: Actually, they were very encouraging of my efforts. They have always been supportive of whatever I've done since my childhood, and even now. We were a poor family, so there was no chance of being able to buy any other musical instruments. The drums were there and so I learned to play them.

RM: You taught yourself how to play the drums?

RG: I'm self-taught in every instrument I play. At age 14, I started to learn the piano because I wanted to start composing my own music and of course needed an instrument that had harmony involved in it. So within a year I taught myself to read and write musical charts as well as to play the piano. It wasn't until I got to college that I took some formal musical courses in orchestration and jazz composition and so on.

RM: What college did you attend?

RG: I attended Juilliard School of Music, but graduated from City College of New York. I switched from Juilliard to City College because at the time Juilliard wasn't offering the courses that I was interested in, such as jazz studies and more ethnic musical forms. City College was really into all the cultural movements of music as well as everything else from classical to jazz.

RM: What were your early musical influences in New York City?

RG: I would have to say Earth, Wind & Fire and other groups like that, but the more I got into the piano, the more I turned towards jazz. I listened to everyone from Ahmad Jamal to Bob James, Oscar Peterson to Bud Powell. I also listened to all the master horn players--Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. I was a real jazz-head!

RM: When did you start working professionally as a musician?

RG: I started working with local garage-type bands as early as my teen years, but my first high-profile gigs were with the Ray Barretto band and Johnny Colón's group at age fifteen. Prior to working with Barretto, I had enjoyed an amazing Latin musical education from vocalist/percussionist Jimmy Sabater, who is like a second father to me. He turned me on to many of the traditional Latin music piano masters like Noro Morales, Perúchín and Luis "Lilí," Martínez, among others. He also introduced me to many of the artists and musicians that later on I worked with, such as Ray Barretto and Johnny Pacheco.

RM: Speaking of Jimmy Sabater, did you enjoy the original sound and style of the Joe Cuba Sextet?

RG: I did, it was very interesting, especially the whole boogaloo period of the band. The combination of traditional Latin music with what at the time was known as soul music was truly happening. The combination of Latin compositions with English lyrics was unprecedented. This music spoke to the African Americanas well as to the Latino community. Also great was the fact that at a time when Tito Puente, Machito and Tito Rodríguez were directing big band orchestras, there was Joe Cuba with a simple sextet with no horns swinging like mad and making great music.

RM: Is this the case where less is better, musically speaking?

RG: The smaller unit you work with, the tighter musically it has to be, because there's no room for mistakes. If anything goes wrong, it's very noticeable. This is what separates the boys from the men. Each one of those musicians has to be at the top of his/her game. That's why the ultimate musical unit has to be the jazz trio, where three musicians interact with each other, making great music and improvising freely.

RM: Getting back to Ray Barretto, how long did you remain with his band?

RG: Eight years. Barretto was very supportive of his young musicians. In my case, he encouraged me to write arrangements for the band as well as to take long solos, stretching whenever possible. I ended up sometimes taking 15-minute solos, and that's how I improved my playing throughout the years. Also with Barretto's band, not only did we play salsa around town and abroad but also got to play jazz at many jazz festivals, and afforded the opportunity to interact with many great jazz musicians.

RM: Why did you leave Barretto's banal?

RG: I left in good terms with Barretto, but simply left to dedicate one hundred percent to my career as a producer and arranger, which was something that was beginning to happen for me at the time. I was getting more and more arrangement work as well as opportunities for collaborating with many different artists. A turning point perhaps was an event I did called "Latin Pianos In Concert," which featured pianist Michel Camilo, Eddie Palmieri and myself. After that concert, I decided to focus on developing myself as a solo artist as well as continuing to play and work with everyone else in the business. Since then, I have worked with everyone from Tito Nieves to Gilberto Santa Rosa. I grew up reading album covers and most of the musician heroes I admired as a young man I've been fortunate enough to work with to some degree throughout my career.