Gilberto Santa Rosa Visits Ritmo September 20th

This Sunday on Ritmo, DJ C-Town and DJ Media Mail present a two-hour special built around a conversation with Gilberto Santa Rosa recorded in July in Santurce, Puerto Rico. El Caballero de la Salsa has given virtually only Spanish interviews throughout his career, and this is perhaps the longest interview he’s given almost entirely in English. He talks about discovering salsa at the movies at eleven years old, cutting his first record at fourteen next to the great Cuban arranger René Hernández, being talked out of accepting the best job he’d ever been offered, and the six-bar soneo nobody else in Willie Rosario’s band wanted to sing. This interview airs just six weeks after the fortieth anniversary of his first night as a bandleader in 1986. Featuring music from Santa Rosa’s early days with Mario Ortiz and Orquesta La Grande through highlights from his famed solo career. Sunday, September 20, 12–2pm ET on eastvillageradio.com.