Bolero Music at RAG
Music rarely heard in this area is coming to The Roxbury Arts Group on Saturday, June 2, at 8 pm when Trio Los Platinos, masters of the great tradition of Puerto Rican bolero music, appear.
Audiences are in for a real treat with
this opportunity to hear the great harmonies, brilliant guitars and gentle
rhythms of this haunting and romantic music. Trio Los Platinos are one of
the few remaining authentic Puerto Rican bolero trios in this area, and generally
recognized to be among the best. All seats are $10. Information and reservations
at (607) 326-7908.
As is usual with traditional bolero groups, the Trio is actually performing as a quartet, consisting of Ray Vasques on lead vocals and maracas, Julito Cuevas, second vocals and rhythm guitar, Julio Melendez, third vocals and lead guitar and Piry Quiñones on timbales and bongos. Trio Los Platinos has been together for over 40 years with just two changes in personnel, both of which happened over 20 years ago. Born in Puerto Rico, they came to New York quite young, where they met and started the group in order to perform and carry on the tradition of the music they love: authentic bolero music.
Over the course of those 40 years they have played at almost all of the nightclubs, restaurants and other venues where the public enjoys listening to and/or dancing to this traditional music of Puerto Rico. They have appeared several times at the annual "La Fiesta Folklorica Puertorriquena" in Central Park, New York, as well as at Hostos College. They have appeared on TV shows on Spanish language stations, and have won awards from various organizations as well as from "Vanidades" magazine."
It is generally acknowledged that the bolero is a musical genre born in Cuba in the 19th century and a descendant from the Cuban "canción", or song. Several other styles or genres are similarly related, such as trovador songs and habaneras. The bolero quickly spread not only to Puerto Rico but throughout large parts of Latin America.
In recent years, established and market-conscious performers like Luis Miguel and Ana Gabriel, in Mexico, and Gloria Estefan in the U.S., have returned to the bolero, Before them, Peruvian Tania Libertad, settled in Mexico, drew a mass following with her renditions of boleros.
Just as it derived from other genres that preceded it, the bolero evolved into or influenced the development of subsequent forms. A natural line of evolution leads from the bolero to the Cuban fílin ("feeling"), a blend of ballad, bolero, and jazz. The Dominican bachata likely derives from the bolero. What is more, the English-speaking world was not exempt from being influenced by the bolero. As an example, it has been said that the beguine was the U.S.’s answer to the bolero, although the beguine comes from Martinique. In any case, it is not hard to relate the typical sound of a bolero to the music of “Begin the Beguine” or of “Night and Day”, big-band tunes composed at a time when the bolero had already grown into a similar format. The lyrics of the first of these hint at the source of their inspiration: "When they begin the beguine/ It brings back the sound of music so tender/ It brings back a night of tropical splendor/ It brings back a memory ever green...." Similarly on the other side of the ocean: fans of the Beatles may scoff at the notion that Paul McCartney wrote boleros, but they would be hard-pressed to categorize the music of “Yesterday” in terms other than a bolero.