Angel Canales

Angel Canales has pushed the boundaries of Latin music across more than thirty years. Born in Puerto Rico, he relocated to Brooklyn, NY, at age ten and quickly developed a fiercely energetic approach to performance. His powerful singing was supported by elite Latin players including trombonists John Toerres and Ricardo Martinez, conga player Antonio Tapia, and bongo player Louie Rivera, allowing his ensemble Sabor con Angel Canales to produce some of the most aggressive Latin jazz heard in New York throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A critic once characterized the sound as “heavy metal Latin Bronx style.”

Canales released his first solo album, El Sentimento del Latino en Nueva York, in 1979 and maintained an ambivalent connection to the industry. Discouraged by limited radio exposure and the rising dominance of the romantica style within salsa during the 1980s, he dissolved the band in 1990 and discarded his musical charts into the sea. After settling in Miami and launching a prosperous diamond-cutting enterprise, he soon felt the pull of performance again. Rejoining his former timbale player Victor Perez in 1993, Canales returned to the road in 1995.

His passion for music began in childhood upon hearing Ismael Rivera sing with Rafael Cortiyo's Combo. He first worked as a timbale player in several groups directed by guitarist Luis Torres before making his vocal debut with the Ray Jay Orchestra. In 1971 he appeared on record for the initial time as lead singer of Sabor, the band fronted by ex-Willie Colón pianist Mark “Markolino” Dimond. That project, originally issued as Brujeria '71, reappeared in 1977 under Canales’ name as Mas Sabor. Following Dimond’s exit from the lineup in 1975, Canales took over direction of the group.