By Jose Luis Benavides (Gozamos)
Thanks for your time Antonio. If you don’t mind I’d like to start off by getting to know you. Where you from? How old are you? and what’s one of your first memories of music?
I’m Puerto Rican. Born in “El Barrio”, NYC and raised in the South Bronx.
First memories of music were in my home and from neighbors and the community as a whole. There was always music playing in my home. My mother played records while she cooked, cleaned and even when we were just lounging. She mostly played traditional Puerto Rican music, Classic Salsa, Boleros (Daniel Santo, Los Angeles Negro, etc) and what I call ‘Jibaro’ music which is played by a guitar called a Cuatro (4 string guitar – I love the sound of it). In Puerto Rico, back in the day, they’d used these songs to tell stories of events that were happening in other villages. My brother used to also play all of the cool stuff like Osibisa, War, etc and some Rock including Santana when he first came out.