Gilberto Santa Rosa puts the ‘cards on the table’ in his recent premiere: I think that if I hadn’t come across salsa I would be a bolero player

If he and salsa hadn’t met, music would still be a part of his life. Perhaps through bolero, another of the genres that have been in his musical proposal. However, the sauce is for Gilberto Santa Rosa an inheritance that she received in her grandmother’s life, when she was at home and that they enjoyed in her native Puerto Rico.

The Sauce Knight has come to Ecuador, specifically to Guayaquil, to present cards on the table, its recent premiere which is a composition by the Cuban singer Mucho Manolo that he adopted with the special musical arrangement by Ramón Sánchez. The song marks the prelude to the launch of his new record production which, according to the singer, will be released in the first half of 2022.

cards on the table was released under the record label B2B Music and with a music video filmed in Miami (United States) under the direction of José Trujillo, Santa Rosa talks in this single about the courage to accept feelings towards a person and share them without fear of rejection.

From his first concert as a child, improvised in the living room of a school friend’s house, to the big stages where he now performs, Santa Rosa has also experienced the transformation of the music industry. Since the vinyl records were heard, through the cassette, the CD and now on the intangible, but powerful digital platforms, the musician assures that his voice will continue to be heard until life allows him to do so voluntarily and responsibly. .

How was this production born that was originally conceived in the urban genre?

The original idea is from its original author and performer who is an urban artist called Mucho Manolo, so I met him in Puerto Rico and he invited me to be part of his production, where I sang another song with him, but since he let me listen to the rest of the material he had, I always liked it cards on the table and I remember saying to him: ‘that’s something I could sing’. When the moment came when we decided to make a new production, it was the first one I chose, why? Because it gave me the opportunity to express my idea that I have always had of going between the traditional and the modern, of doing something new, I I had made an album before that very traditional one and then I decided to give it that touch.

How do you manage to imbue it with its essence in such a way that the song sounds completely new?

Well, I think it has a lot to do with the years of experience, with the knowledge you have of your own style, that I, well, modesty aside, I learned and I think I know how to choose the things that Gilberto Santa Rosa can sing. I have produced for other people and I have had the care and also have the ability to separate what is good for me. And it’s a good thing because sometimes songs arrive that you feel are natural hits, but you have to make some adjustments and you see and say: that’s very good, but I can’t sing it, and that’s why I think I can choose things that I can interpret well and I can holy rose them

Your first musical moments were with some improvised instruments with your friends from the neighborhood, how were they?

They were a lot of fun, my first encounter with real music was at school with a classmate who played the guitar, so it wasn’t really salsa, and it wasn’t salsa for two reasons: the first because what I played with him were boleros and the second because the genre was not yet called salsa. But the atmosphere of live music was in my grandmother’s house, because in my house, my parents listened to all kinds of music, but my grandmother was the salsera, and there I began to search for her in the records and listen to the greats and I was leaning towards that music, when I was noticing that I had the ability to learn things quickly, to sing and even to improvise, until we finally reached the age of 11, which was when we began to hit the paint cans and boats of garbage and to the neighbor’s car to create music. We were a few who had the restlessness, of those few only my compadre and I continued the race.

If you and salsa hadn’t met, what would you be doing now? Would you still be in music?

Yes, I would be safe singing boleritos and I don’t mean that disparagingly. I rediscovered boleros many years later when I released a boleros album, because they were the ones I sang at first, but orchestras always caught my attention. So what did we do, we crossed the repertoire (with his friend), he taught me the boleros of Los Panchos, Julio Jaramillo, Olimpo Cárdenas, Felipe Rodríguez and I had to teach him the boleros of the orchestras. I think that if he hadn’t crossed paths with salsa, he would have been a bolero player, but it was impossible not to cross paths because it was a time when salsa was living its moment.

Debut and second batch is the name of your new album, what are you going to surprise us with?

First I’ll explain the name, because there are new songs and versions, as in the case of cards on the table, then they are going to listen to songs for the first time in my voice and they are going to listen to versions, some of those versions are songs that I recorded with other artists in a collaboration and they seemed excellent to me, only that now the promotion lasts less and I wanted to give them a new air.

Speaking of the dissemination of their productions, before the vinyl record was released, then came the cassettes, the CDs, until reaching the platforms of streaming, How have you experienced this process and change?

The blessing that I have had is that I recorded in all those formats. It’s different, I think that a combination of the two things is more effective if we analyze super hits like Gasoline, Slowly, I don’t know tomorrow, or Live the life they were the combination of the traditional radio, television, which is even I don’t know here, but in Puerto Rico in the towns there was a man who dedicated himself to making promotions with a loudspeaker and you were in the town listening, and that’s cash.

Today, on that device (cell phone) that you have there and that I also have, a lot of music plays that it is difficult for you to focus on just one, you like this one and after half an hour you like another one and at the end of the day you would have You have to be a fan of a certain artist to give the repetition that the media used to give you, and I think that the combination of both is the most effective. Nowadays, a song lasts you a month, and maybe a month and a half. It surprises me, I don’t criticize it, it just surprises me, urban music is the king of the scene, they have a song practically monthly, before we used to release a song and it lasted possibly three months and if you were lucky enough to be a super hit it lasted six and then the record company told you: no, don’t put up with it, don’t release the record yet. Now everything is different, but people got used to consuming it that way.

You have said that your grandchildren are your recharge of energy, what is Gilberto Santa Rosa like when he is not on tour, in the studio or on stage?

My family for me is the center of what I do, I have the great experience of being a grandfather, unfortunately two of my granddaughters live outside of Puerto Rico, therefore I have to be using these devices (cell phone) to be able to be in contact and my eldest grandson, who is 8 years old, I am a totally pampering grandfather and I try to be a father, my children are all grown up now, but I have always tried to maintain my family unit and I have a very nice relationship with my wife, very solid. As I am not a man of parties, I already went to all the parties that I had to go to, I like meetings at home, with the same friends, who are the same people with whom we always talk about the same things, and we laugh at the same thing and argue about the same thing. I’ve always been like this, my hectic life was given to me by my job, there are people who like to party, and that’s fine, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like parties or dance.

And when you are at family gatherings, do you listen to music by Gilberto Santa Rosa or do you prefer to play songs by your colleagues?

Sometimes, curiously, my wife always puts them on and I always change them, not because I don’t like it. I like the music that I have made, what happens is that I don’t know, I feel strange. When I travel, sometimes I like to listen to music that I recorded a long time ago, and I come across things that sometimes I don’t even remember. But in my house there is always music.

If music has been part of your life since childhood, have you ever thought about retiring from the stage?

I don’t have a retirement date, what I wouldn’t like is for it to be an obligation, neither economic nor artistic, and I talk to you about it because it would make me very sad to have to go on stage out of obligation and not have the resource as I have seen some colleagues who unfortunately continue to push the car and there is no more gasoline and it is very sad to hear them. Anyone has a disease and a bad night, too, but when it’s already a matter of losing the resource and you want to continue, that’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t know, there are people who can last a lifetime singing well, and the public continues to support them. I hope to have that mental clarity to say: Gilberto up to here, but if I can I will continue as far as I can.

Mental clarity is often lost and leads artists to clash as has happened with Residente and J Balvin. Do you think this type of situation is correct?

I’m not in the habit of interfering in controversies, neither mine nor anyone else’s, I don’t like it. They are both great artists, if there is any animosity I hope it can be rectified, they have their audience, they have their success. I take distance from that and my respect for both of them and hopefully they can get through all this. (AND)