Singer/Songwriter Rique Colón blends from Latin and Afro-Caribbean rhythms to craft a new style he calls chanova.

10 MP3 Songs
LATIN: Latin Pop, WORLD: World Fusion



Details:
-Album 'Sentido Tropical' Finalist for Best Latin Album - Independent Music Awards, 6th Edition 2007.

-'Sentido Tropical' selected #7 in the Top 20 Albums of 2006 by the National Foundation of the Popular Culture in Puerto Rico (FNCP)

Rique Colón: âNew perspective of contemporary music in Puerto Ricoâ

As a necessity to reunite a feel of unity and reaffirmation of his roots in the Caribbean realities, Rique Colón, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, brings us his first production Sentido Tropical.

According to Rique: âthe experience of living out of your country transforms you automatically as a cultural ambassador, it is at that moment that you redefine your identity and how much you know about your country.â This is why Sentido Tropical is also a tribute of his experiences as a traveler, not only from the countryside to the west coast of his native island, but also his studies at Boston, and his cultural adventures in north and south America.

In South America the singer-songwriter undertook a trekker journey with his guitar and other instruments he was learning in the path, such as berimbau and charango. This journey gave him the opportunity to present his compositions around Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, in which he had the opportunity to participate on a guitar workshop with Marco Pereira and learn the capoeira angola in Salvador, Bahia.

In Boston, Massachusetts, Rique completed a second bachelorâs degree in Professional Music at Berklee College of Music after studying classical guitar from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Germán. This experience connected him with important figures in the music scene and challenged his discipline in performance, arranging and composition.

âTo be surrounded with such great musicians from different cultures really kicked in my creativity into a new levelâ Rique recalls. Precisely the chanova emerges from this experiences and relation, not only with his professors and colleagues but with his friends and families that own an exquisite taste and love for music.

Through his chanova, Rique Colón expresses his positive vision and a social-humanistic perspective of the world that surrounds him, all of them framed in a message of respect for nature, fresh and profound melodies, truly present in his ten songs of his recent production. âIâve learned about live always appealing to nature. This is the music of our senses that enriches our lives. Nature is music.â

In Sentido Tropical, the 26 year old singer-songwriter reunited musicians from the excellence of Aldemar Valentin (jazz arranger and bassist), Uziel Colón (pianist from Egui Castrilloâs band), Fernando Mattina (jazz guitar player), Néstor Toro (saxophonist and flautist), Luis Javier Santiago (hand percussionist), Paoli Mejías (hand percussionist) and Nomar Negroni (drummer of Negroniâs Trio); in which the last two musicians where nominated to a Latin Grammy in the Latin Jazz category in 2005.

This production was achieved in San Juan, Puerto Rico under the technical assistance of Francisco âKikoâ Hurtado de Mendoza and the production of Rique Colón himself.

With no doubt, Sentido Tropical will be a juvenile and fresh alternative for a selected public in search of new sounds and representations truly worthy to appreciate.