Libre

In October 1974 Manny Oquendo and Andy González established Libre, also known as Manny Oquendo’s Libre. Oquendo, born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, USA, to Puerto Rican parents, served as leader while handling timbales, bongo, güiro, other percussion, chorus and arrangements; González, born in 1951 in Manhattan, New York, USA, played bass, claves, other percussion, chorus and contributed arrangements. The pair had first collaborated in Eddie Palmieri’s band before parting ways with its leader over irreconcilable differences and forming Libre on the principle that the group, whose name means “free,” would draw from Afro-Cuban roots yet expand them into a freer, jazzier, more urban sound that rejected what the founders viewed as the cold, unemotional and mechanical sound of most recorded salsa. Libre adopted the trombones-and-flute “trombanga” frontline that Oquendo had helped Palmieri develop during his tenure with La Perfecta in the 1960s.

Oquendo’s immersion in Latin music began early: during the 1930s his family lived above Almacenes Hernández, then one of the leading record stores in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem). As a child he absorbed Machito’s original Afro-Cubans and began collecting 78 rpm discs of Cuban music. At age thirteen he took up timbales and worked with Charlie Valero in 1946, Los Hermanos Mercado and El Boy. In 1947 he played alongside the legendary Chano Pozo; the following year he replaced Tito Puente in José Curbelo’s band. Throughout the mambo era of the 1950s he performed with Tito Rodríguez and Puente. While both musicians accompanied Vicentico Valdés in the late 1950s, Oquendo introduced Palmieri to emerging Cuban repertoire; in 1962 he became a founder member of Palmieri’s Conjunto La Perfecta and stayed until 1967, continuing to work with Palmieri until Libre’s formation. Additional credits include Pupi Campo, Noro Morales, Miguelito Valdés, Johnny Pacheco’s charanga band, Charlie Palmieri, Larry Harlow and Israel “Cachao” López.

González began violin lessons in grade school, switched to bass in junior high and formed a Latin jazz quintet with his older brother Jerry González, who played conga, trumpet, flügelhorn and chorus while leading the group. González started gigging with dance bands at age thirteen. His recording debut came in 1967 with Monguito Santamaría (Mongo Santamaría’s son) on On Top; after two years and another album he joined Ray Barretto’s band from 1969 to 1971, taking six months to work with Dizzy Gillespie. From 1971 to 1974 he performed with Eddie Palmieri. Session work encompasses Justo Betancourt, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Rodríguez, Willie Colón, Machito, Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill, Charlie Palmieri, Roberto Torres, Don Gonzalo Fernández, Virgilio Marti and Rubén Blades; in jazz and fusion contexts he has appeared with Kenny Dorham, Clifford Thornton, Hank Jones, the Jazz Composers Orchestra, Kip Hanrahan, Jaco Pastorius, Astor Piazzolla, J.C. Heard, Paul Simon and Jerry’s Fort Apache Band, which performed in London in November 1990. González once told Larry Birnbaum in 1989, “I’ve studied the whole history of Cuban music through recordings, and I’ve talked to quite a few people who are knowledgeable about that music and those periods… Afro Cuban music history has a line to it, just like jazz… Things change over the years, but I think you’ve got to keep the link to the past.”

Jerry González, also a founder member of Libre, co-founded the Latin Jazz Quintet in 1964, performed with Monguito Santamaría, toured with the Beach Boys on trumpet, and worked with Kenny Dorham, Dizzy Gillespie for six months, Orquesta Flamboyán for two years, the Clifford Thornton Quintet, Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Eddie Palmieri on conga for two-and-a-half years, Jeremy Steig, Larry Young, George Benson, Justo Betancourt, Totico and Kip Hanrahan. His solo debut arrived with the notable Ya Yo Me Cure in 1980. He formed the Fort Apache Band and recorded its first album, The River Is Deep, at the Berlin Jazz Festival in November 1982, the same event at which Libre appeared. He left Libre at the end of the 1980s to concentrate on band leading, releasing Obatalá and Rumba Para Monk in 1989; the Fort Apache Band made its UK debut with an outstanding performance at London’s Empire Ballroom in November 1990.

All three musicians—Oquendo and the González brothers—appeared with the short-lived Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevayorquino on the pioneering Concepts In Unity (1975) and Lo Dice Todo (1977), both issued by Salsoul Records. Shortly after the first Grupo Folklorico album, Libre signed with Salsoul and released four albums on the label between 1976 and 1981. On the debut, Con Salsa… Con Ritmo Vol. 1, the band delivered rugged, jazzy interpretations of “Bamboleate” and “No Critiques,” two songs Oquendo had first recorded with Palmieri in the 1960s, and included a moving version of Rafael Hernández’s 1929 classic “Lamento Borincano (El Jibarito).” The 1978 follow-up, Tiene Calidad – Con Salsa… Con Ritmo Vol. 2, offered a charanga-style treatment of Ignacio Piñeiro’s 1928 classic “Suavecito.” Los Lideres De La Salsa (1979) compiled tracks from the first two Libre albums, added “La Salsa” performed by Grupo Folklorico with lead vocals by former big-band leader Marcelino Guerra, and introduced three new tracks, two featuring Cuban violinist Alfredo De La Fé. Herman Olivera made his recording debut on Increible (1981), sharing leads with Tony “Pupy Cantor” Torres, a member since 1975; Olivera replaced co-lead singer Héctor “Tempo” Alomar, who had joined in 1975 and later recorded with Nestor Torres, Charanga América, Johnny “Dandy” Rodríguez and Grupo ABC. Libre moved to the Montuno label for Ritmo, Sonido Y Estilo (1983), which included an outstanding version of Manuel “Canario” Jiménez’s plena “Elena, Elena” and a swinging reading of the Ñico Saquito co-written classic “Que Humanidad.” Torres departed to become co-lead vocalist with Willie Rosario’s band for a brief stint.

Olivera left in 1991 to join Cruz Control, the outfit co-led by percussionist Ray Cruz and pianist Sergio Rivera, and was replaced by Frankie Vásquez, born 6 January 1958 in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Vásquez had previously worked with Fuego ’77, Sonido Taibori, Orquesta Calidad, Osvaldo “Chi Hua Hua” Martínez’s Orquesta Metropolitana, Wayne Gorbea and Javier Vázquez, as well as Henry Fiol, Junior González and Frankie Morales. Libre’s trombone section has featured the late Barry Rogers and Jose Rodrigues, both longtime Palmieri sidemen; Angel “Papo” Vásquez, Jimmy Bosch, a longtime Ray Barretto compatriot, Reinaldo Jorge; and jazz players Ed Byrne, Dan Reagan and Steve Turre, who also plays conch shell. Jazz fusioneer Dave Valentin appeared on flute on all but one of the band’s first five albums. New York-born pianist Oscar Hernández performed on the first four releases and guested on one track of Ritmo, Sonido Y Estilo; the remaining tracks featured ex-Típica 73 and Los Kimbos member Joe Mannozzi. Hernández’s résumé includes Joey Pastrana, Ismael Miranda, Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros, Roberto Torres, Felix “Pupi” Legaretta, Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez, Ray Barretto and Rubén Blades. Increasingly active as a producer, he oversaw Azucar A Granel! (1988) by Camilo Azuquita, Twice As Good! (1988) by Rafael de Jesús, and Carabalí (1988) and Carabalí II (1991). The London Latin scene responded strongly to Carabalí’s first release, resulting in a five-night residency at the Bass Clef, a nine-date UK tour and a return to the Bass Clef, all in April 1989, with Hernández serving as keyboardist and musical director.

Libre continues to perform regularly, touring the USA, Latin America, Africa and Europe, and appeared in Leon Ichaso’s 1985 film Crossover Dreams starring Rubén Blades. In May 1989 Carlos Agudelo observed in his Billboard “Latin Notas” column: “The fact that Libre has been without a recording contract for several years calls attention to the intelligence and priorities of the Latin recording business in this country.” The band returned to the studio in 1991; its personnel performed on “Descarga De Turre,” a track from Steve Turre’s Right There.