Groupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino




Ensemble will present:
 “The Music of Arsenio Rodriguez”


Geodesic Management is thrilled to announce the signing, and return, of one of the most important alliances in Latin Music; GRUPO FOLKLÓRICO y EXPERIMENTAL NUEVAYORQUINO.  Their 2011/2012 tour will pay homage to a true musical genius, the legendary ARSENIO RODRIGUEZ, considered by many musicologists to be the greatest composer/musician of Afro-Cuban music of the 20th century. This concert is dedicated to Arsenio Rodriguez’s memory and will feature compositions not heard in many years.

Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino was an idea created at the Gildersleeve Avenue home of Andy and Jerry Gonzalez in the Bronx in the early ‘70s the group became the fifteen-piece ensemble known as Grupo Folklórico.  The sound captured the cultural melting pot of New York like no other orchestra of the day.  A favorite at university campuses, festivals and arts centers, they performed at the Smithsonian Institute, Lincoln Center and President Carter’s Inaugural Ball among many others.  The group became a major cult band as a result of their performances and two seminal recordings from the mid-‘70s, produced by René Lopez and Andy Kaufman, Concepts in Unity and Lo Dice Todo (We Say It All),    

The members of GRUPO FOLKLÓRICO y EXPERIMENTAL NUEVAYORQUINO are: Andy Gonzalez (bass/leader); Charlie Santiago (timbales, bongos, percussion); Jerry Gonzalez (trumpet, percussion); Oscar Hernandez (piano); Nelson Gonzalez (tres guitar); Gene Golden (congas, bata drums, percussion); Reynaldo Jorge (trombone); Eddy Zervigon (flute); Jorge Luis Maldonado (vocals); Pedro “Pedrito” Martinez (vocals, bata drums, percussion); Eddie Venegas (trombone, violin); Abraham Rodriguez (vocals, bata drums, percussion); Tony Rosa (congas, bata drums, percussion); Guido Gonzalez (trumpet); and René Lopez, Jr. (percussion)

Arsenio Rodriguez (1911-1970), one of Cuban music’s most important figures, was a prolific composer, master of the tres (Cuban guitar), percussionist and band leader.  Considered a central figure in the creation of modern day Salsa, he is credited with over 1000 compositions performed and recorded by a veritable “who's who” of Latin music world-wide.  Blinded at age seven by a horse’s kick to his head, he began playing a variety of instruments.  He began composing in his teens, and the first recordings of his compositions emerged in 1937.  In a career spanning the mid-‘30s through 1970, he recorded prolifically.  In 1953 he relocated to New York and performed mainly in New York, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles until his death in Los Angeles in 1970.