El Pito y otros exitos: Alfredo "Sabor" Linares

Latin Beat Magazine, Oct, 2005 by Roberto Ernesto Gyemant

Cali, Colombia. The framed flyer on his wall acknowledges his role as accompanying pianist for the "#1 tango show from Argentina." Another notes his participation in the departmental band of Cauca Valley called "Big Band Música Jazz," a 20-piece monster including seven saxes, five trumpets, four trombones--and led by the aforesaid pianist/arranger. He released ten LPs under his own name, appeared on perhaps 20 and produced just as many. His rarer LPs, in excellent condition, can sell for upwards of $200 on Ebay.

The current mild-mannered pianist for crooner José Luis Rodríguez "El Puma" and one-time musical director of Billo's Caracas Boys is none other than Alfredito "Sabor" Linares, "Alfredito el Bravo." He is the author and creator of some of the most swinging montunos you may never have heard. Alfredito's story takes us, in the early 1970s, from the barrios of Lima, Perú, to Cali, Colombia, where he would go on to record some of Cali's favorite anthems, including Cachumbembe, Tiahuanaco and Mambo Rock. Beginning in the mid '70s he had a long and stellar career in Venezuela, where he shone as artist and producer for groups such as Grupo Mango, La Salsa Mayor and La Gran Banda de Venezuela, continuing into the mid '90s with Colombian groups such as Conjunto Renacer, La Cali Charanga, Los Del Caney, Grupo Calima, Lucho Puerto Rico & Conjunto Son del Barrio, Orquesta Matecaña, and Daisy & Grupo Los Conquistadores.

This isn't about Cuba or Nueva York. This is about Perú, Colombia, Venezuela and Panamá in the 1960s and '70s. This is about "the other" salsa.

This article is dedicated to the great Max Salazar and to Lise Waxer, QEPD.

Robert Ernesto Gyemant: Maestro, what are your parent's names, and when were you born?

Alfredo Linares: I was born on January 27, 1944 in Lima, Perú to Angel Mariano Linares Salas and Aurora Saucedo Veneces.

REG: And when did your interest in music begin?

AL: My father tuned pianos, and handled the technical part, piano refurbishing. We had eighteen pianos in the house. So, starting from there, because I watched him tune pianos, I wanted to do it, too.

REG: And did his work pay well?

AL: Well, we were really born into poverty, in a working class neighborhood, because my father came from Arequipa ... he was a chakra, that's what they called people from the countryside, and he came to Lima. My mother was from the north, in Trujillo, and she also came to Lima searching for a better life, like the song says, "Las locas ilusiones me sacaron de mi pueblo."

REG: Tell me about your musical education.

AL: I was always around music. At ten years old, I was already going to a radio station to accompany the local musicians on piano. From the age of ten I studied at the Conservatory of Lima, until I was about seventeen.

REG: Was tropical music big in Perú in the "50s?

AL: That was the era of the sonoras in Peru; we had Sonora Sensación, Sonora de Lucho Macedo, Sonora Antillana, de Ñico Estrada ... All the Peruvian sonoras were like a replica of Sonora Matancera. A lot of tropical artists came to Lima: Armando Boza came from Panamá, even Benny Moré came with Pérez Prado to the Hotel Bolívar, one of the best locations in Perú.

Folkloric music was abundant, from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and even Mexico; those were all branches that we were absorbing. But because we had the influence from Cuba, we were already playing "salsa." The government of Velasco Alvarado was one of the few governments in the region that had open contacts with Cuba after 1960, so Cuban music and musicians came and stayed in Lima.

REG: But it wasn't called "salsa" then.

AL: No, logically, it was a genre at that time; we're talking about the guaracha. What they call salsa today. It had its own names--a guaracha, a son montuno, right?

REG: What was the first montuno you heard?

AL: Perú had close ties with Cuba, so we heard Cuban music since we were children. What's more, I worked in the same nightclub as Mané Nieto, a Panamanian pianist for Armando Boza's orchestra. So I assimilated what I could by watching him. I sat down and started transcribing what I saw, what I heard ... and I memorized it. I was already fourteen, fifteen years old.

REG: When did you begin to play for Ñico Estrada?

AL: Probably when I was around 17. Ñico always had that affinity towards guaracha. We toured at a national level, and we were booked twice in Argentina, where we played with Tito Rodríguez. I accompanied a lot of people in Lima, like El Negrito del Batey (Alberto Beltrán), Rolando Laserie, Bienvenido Granda, Daniel Santos. I also recorded with Leo Marini and Nelson Pinedo.

REG: Let's talk a little about jazz in Perú. Who were the best Peruvian jazz players of your era?

AL: On piano there were Fernando "El Chato" Alcazar and Jaime Delgado Aparicio, who was already out of this world. He went to the Berklee School of Music.

REG: You also recorded with Nilo Espinoza.

AL: Right, he played sax on El Combo de Pepe. Nilo also played flute. Another great from that era was Mario Escobar, a Chilean saxophone player, also out of this world, a virtuoso.