from left to right: Pancho Tekila (La Pulqueria / Guitar), Roman Rojas (Singer/Songwriter/Producer), Jordi (La Pulqueria / Guitarrist)
While they were promoting their new record “17″ in New York City, I had the chance to sit down and interview Warner Latina’s Grammy nominated Mexican rock band Motel. They were the most Grammy nominated alternative rock band for the Latin Grammys in 2007
I met up with Warner Music Latina’s recoding artist Motel for their first interview with Life In Music V-Cast. They passed through NYC to promote their new album “17″ due to be released on January 29th. Motel were the most nominated alternative act for the Latin Grammy in 2007.
From Left to right: Rubén Puente, Emil Guillermo “Billy” Méndez, RR Media Music Producer Roman Rojas, Rodrigo Dávila, José “Pepe” Damián
Please note that this is the spanish version of the interview.
Luisito Quintero was born in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was surrounded by Afro-Venezuelan and Afro-Cuban rhythm and music. His father, a respected percussionist in his native country, tutored and encouraged Luisito on timbales through his adolescent years. Luisito comes from a long line of outstanding musicians which includes his Uncle, Carlos Nene Quintero and cousin Robert Quintero. Luisito studied at the respected Orquesta Simfonica de Venezuela (The Symphonic Orchestra of Venezuela), and his percussion technique soon garnered attention from his colleagues. He joined the popular music ensembles Grupo Guaco and Oscar D’Leon, where he enjoyed widespread worldwide exposure. Besides being known for his skillful timbale work, Luisito also plays congas, bongos, drum set, djembe, dundun and a wide variety of assorted percussion instruments. His technique on all of these instruments is masterful and unparalleled. Luisito has worked with , Jack De Johnette, David Sanborn, George Benson ,Joe Sampler, Bill Cosby, the late Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Richard Bona, Ravi Coltrane, Claudia Acuna, Giovanni Hidalgo, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Willie Colon and countless other high-profile music acts. Quintero is comfortable working in any genre of music from Symphonic to Jazz and from Latin to House. One of his most recent projects finds him as musical director for Louie Vega and the Elements of Life Band as well as extensive work with Jack DeJohnette’s Latin Project. He is also co-musical director and percussionist for Kevin Jones and Tenth World. He is one of the most sought after percussionist in the country at this time and will continue to build his legend as time goes on. Luisito is also a skilled clinician who shares his limitless knowledge of music to younger percussionists around the world. Today, he is an established and respected musician, teacher, band director, and master.
Click here to listen to the podcast interview of Luisito Quintero.
Is really mind blowing how artists are promoting upcoming music these days.On this video, Bono himself sings one of the songs from The Joshua Tree sessions that never made it onto the album. He sings it to his own track Wave of Sorrow at somebody’s home, very intimate and informal. What better way to announce your next song? He even tells us what the song is about, explains every lyric of the song while he sings it.This has got to be one of the most exciting periods in the history of music, I have to say that I am very happy to be alive.
That’s right, Radiohead has become their own label and in the process so far they’ve sold 1.2 million albums in one week. Here is the article from Mashable.
I sat down and received an incredible music sermon from music veteran Ann Ruckert. She shared with me what it means to be a musician, and how we are able to change people’s lives and our own through music.
Ann Ruckert has produced, played and / or sung on over 3,000 commercially released recordings. Ann has worked with Michel LeGrand, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Merry Clayton, Sarah Dash, Quincy Jones. T Rex, and Strawbs. Musical coordinator / contractor for major motion pictures and TV soundtracks including Housesitter with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn; Boys on the Side with Whoopie Goldberg; and Lovesickwith Dudley Moore.
Internationally known as a musician’s musician, Ann studied orchestration and composition at Juilliard and London’s Royal Academy of Music, as well as privately with Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, Helen Jordan and David Sorin Collyer. She continued her studies in ethnomusicology at New York University graduate school.
She is continuing her work as an award winning studio musician, projects coordinator, and freelance A&R person.
She is also the Co-founder of theJazz Foundation of America, with pianists Dr. Billy Taylor and Herb Storfer, and Board of Directors.
Ann was also a Governor, Trustee, Vice President of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the New York chapter; Chair of Education Committee; 4-year member of TV committee for the Grammy Awards Show, from 1982-2003.
This is really incredible news.
I’ve been informed by Miguel Angel Moro of Appleweblog that October is Hispanic heritage month at all Apples stores. To celebrate the month Apple is putting together a series of concerts with Latin icons such as Juan Luis Guerra. Click on this link to find out about the upcoming series of Apple instore concerts.
This shows you the interest and commitment that Apple is showingto become a real player in the new business model of the music industry.
My very first significant musical experience at five years old was being introduced to the legendary Beatles record Abbey Road. So, as a Beatles fan I have to blog about this. Martin Scorsese and Bob Dylan are teaming up to work on a documentary about the life of George Harrison. The film will go into production this year, I can’t wait to see it. Here is the article from Rolling Stone.
Starbucks will be giving away 50 million free digital songs to promote their wireless i-Tunes music service. Want to find out more? Click right here.
Cheaper than i-Tunes, but does that mean better? Judge for yourself, here is an excerpt from the Ars Technica article:
Amazon has launched a public beta of its long-anticipated digital music download store, offering more than 2 million songs as MP3 files. Those who have been paying attention to the digital music business can probably guess what’s included: tracks from EMI and Universal Music Group, music from another 20,000 independent labels, and $0.99 downloads. We’ve been shopping the store all morning to get a sense of how strong the launch really is, and here’s what we found.
Cyloop.com has just lunched a social music network where artists and fans are going to be able to interact with one another. Miami based agency La Comunidad is in charge of the advertising campaign. Here is the piece from Marketing y Medios.
Steve Jobs does it again. On October 2nd starting in New York and Seattle you’ll be able to walk into a Starbucks store and wirelessly download songs from the i-Tunes catalog into your i-Pod touch or i-Phone. And that’s without having to pay a WI-FI connection fee, nice! This has got to be one of the most amazing periods in our history when it comes to the distribution of media. Here is another blow to the old system of selling music.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a study slamming the RIAA for their campaign to stop P2P networks and has reached the conclusion that “suing music fans is no answer to the P2P dilemma.” Very interesting article from Ars Technica.
Lately when I walk in the Virgin Mega Store in Union Square, New York City I always notice that they have premium CD’s and DVD’s for sale at $10 a piece. Another sign of the times, a sign that the record industry is loosing ground to the internet revolution. Here is an article from Digital Music News that further confirms what’s happening.
