When Richard Bravo attends the Latin Grammy Awards in Seville, Spain on Thursday (Nov. 16), the ceremony will probably be a considerably bittersweet second. Nominated for the primary time for his personal work along with his expensive good friend Camilo Valencia, for his or her instrumental album Made In Miami, the Venezuelan drummer and percussionist — a three-time-Latin Grammy winner — couldn’t be extra proud. However he should journey with out the composer and fundamental architect of the album: After present process a 3rd coronary heart transplant, Valencia died on Sept. 6, only a few days earlier than the nominations have been introduced.
“It made me very completely happy” to obtain the nomination, Bravo tells Billboard Español, saying that he discovered from pals who despatched him screenshots through which his and Valencia’s names appeared. “I used to be in Europe and I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t imagine this!’
“The primary particular person I considered was Camilo,” provides the artist, who’s at present on tour with Juanes and also will carry out with the Latin Grammys band on the awards present. “I stated, ‘Wow, all the trouble on this document and all of the sacrifice, the time, the vitality, the cash, every thing, and it occurred.’”
Valencia, an award-winning Miami-based multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer born in Cuba, labored all through his profession with stars like Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin, Shakira, José Feliciano and lots of others. He was additionally the musical director of TV reveals similar to La Voz Children, A Oscuras Pero Encendidos and Viva El Sueño, and created numerous jingles for commercials with Bravo and Carlos Oliva.
“Right here in Miami, not a day goes by that I activate the radio or the TV and one thing that he did doesn’t come out,” says his brother, bassist Rafael Valencia, additionally an skilled musician who labored on the album and obtained a nomination for greatest association for “Songo Bop,” his solely tune on Made In Miami.
He says that, earlier than he was hospitalized, Camilo went to his home for lunch and instructed him that they’d submitted Made In Miami for the Latin Grammy nomination for greatest instrumental album, and that additionally they despatched his tune for the most effective association class. “I believed, ‘Why!?’ I appreciated his preparations higher,” he recollects with amusing, earlier than including with emotion: “That was a present that Camilo gave me earlier than he left.”
Nominations have been introduced on Sept. 19, 13 days after his loss of life on account of sudden issues. He was about to show 64.
Camilo Valencia and Richard Bravo.
Made In Miami is the one album of his personal that Camilo Valencia bought to document. Comprised of 11 songs, the challenge pays tribute to the cultural range of his adoptive Miami, fusing parts of pop, jazz, funk, R&B, bebop, songo, salsa, samba and Afro-Cuban. Famend musicians from Arturo Sandoval and Ed Calle, to Milton Salcedo, Philip Lassiter and Luis Enrique, participated within the album. The entire songs, apart from “Songo Bop,” have been written by Valencia over the course of 20 years.
It began with the primary coronary heart transplant, says Bravo, his good friend for over 30 years: “I instructed him, ‘Camilo — as a result of he at all times had music in his head — why don’t you make use of your time within the hospital, when you get well, and begin writing songs?’ The primary one he wrote was referred to as ‘CCU,’ which is the hospital’s cardio unit, and that’s the way it began. Little by little he wrote the songs, and in recent times we began recording all the album.”
Along with “CCU (Coronary Care Unit),” which opens Made In Miami, there are songs like “Hurricane Jiménez,” devoted to his heart specialist, and “One Coronary heart at a Time,” devoted to his second donor, “a teen from Puerto Rico who was murdered by robbers to steal his automobile,” says his brother Rafael. However there are additionally titles that pay tribute to the household, similar to “Café Union,” which is called after the restaurant his father owned in Cuba, and “Papadin,” a tune in honor of Bravo’s father, with whom Valencia was additionally shut.
Household is a vital ingredient that’s additionally very current musically on the album. “It’s very particular, as a result of not solely are all of the Valencias, however all of the Bravos right here,” explains Bravo. “There’s my brother, my son and my nephew, who recorded the identical tune [‘Papadin’],” in addition to Rafael and his son Ralfy.
When speaking about his emotions the day of the nomination, Bravo recollects that he at all times thought that he and Valencia would journey to Seville collectively. “I believed he was going to depart the hospital,” he says. “He did it 3 times [before], and I believed it was going to occur.”
Valencia is survived by his son Eric, his brother Rafael, his sisters Barbara and Maria, and a big prolonged household. In his honor, a lot of them will attend the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony.
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