El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico: the greatest salsa show on earth! Celebrating 40 years as a group with a new 2-CD live recording on BMG, El Gran Combo continues on its mission of performing world-class dance music

Latin Beat Magazine, Sept, 2002 by Jesse Varela

THE FOUNDING OF AN INSTITUTION

"Robert Roena, Miguel Cruz and the others in the band came looking for me. I didn't want to start a group. My intention was to finish my studies in accounting and perhaps study law. But after three to four weeks the boys in the band convinced me and who would think we would last 40 years," recalls Ithier.

It was Rafael Alvarez Guedes who christened the group El Gran Combo when members reunited for sessions with Joseito Mateo from Dominican Republic for the album Meneame Los Mangos on Gema Records. They stayed together and debuted as a band at the Rock and Roll Club in Bayamon, P.R. with Ithier as its captain. The crew included: Chiqui Rivera (vocals), Eddie Pérez (sax), Héctor Santos (sax), Kito Velez (trumpet), Martin Quiñones (conga), Miguel Cruz (bass) and Roberto Roena (bongó). Within the year, singer Andy (Junior) Montañez joined the group after the departure of Chiqui Rivera and they were on their way.

The buzz was flying in anticipation of their first recording in 1962 but as late would have it, it was released two days prior to the assassination of President John E Kennedy in 1963 and distribution to Puerto Rico and the United States was postponed. But it did begin to gain steam throughout Latin America and México, and when distribution opened up, the album took off. They were offered a TV contract on the daily "Show Del Medio Dia." It brought them wide exposure and increased demand for their music live and on record. "That was an era when television had more impact. To please that public, aside from playing we added choreography and performed other distinct genres of music."

They toured to NYC, the Dominican Republic, Panamá, Colombia and Venezuela and gleaned experience along the way. The popularity of albums such as Acángana, Ojos Chinos-Jala Jala, El Caballo Pelotero and others kept the group on top. They took the songs of Rafael Hernández, Pedro Flores and Manuel Jiménez and arranged them to a unique salsa beat. The diverse repertoire of merengue, guaracha, bolero, bomba, plena, pachanga, jala jala and boogaloo excited audiences everywhere.

"Essentially we are a dance band, and born as such," summarizes Ithier. That's how we've maintained ourselves. When we started we had to play boleros, merengues, danzones, paso dobles and other dance forms. Now salsa dominates what we do. That's what people want and ask for the most. We're in an era where it's the style that hits--that people want. But we've always played everything. At dances, not necessarily on records, we still play boleros, merengues, guarachas and whatever people ask for."

In the late 1960s, the group underwent personnel changes as Roberto Roena and trumpeter Ellas Lopes left EGC to form the Apollo Sound. Yet the group kept thriving and establishing its identity; it amassed gold records for Acángana and Boogaloo Con El Gran Combo. It won the coveted "Agueybana de Oro" in Puerto Rico for best band of 1969. But when Gema Records didn't renew their contract it threw the group into a slump.