Jose Vazquez-Cofresi is an American

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

of Puerto Rican &

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

. He is also called ''Manos de Hierro'', literally translated ‘Iron Hands’, a name given to him by a salsa bass player. Throughout his career as a

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, he has played a wide variety of

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

styles. The first composition by Vazquez-Cofresi that was featured in a movie is ''Sentencia'', featured in the

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

movie ''The Big Shot Caller'' (2008). One of his most famous compositions is ''Aña Pa Mi Tambor'', recorded by

La Excelencia La Excelencia is an eleven piece salsa dura band from New York City founded in 2005 by percussionists Julian Silva and Jose Vazquez-Cofresi. The band's music has a salsa dura style, with themes incorporating immigration, poverty, and discriminat ...

in 2009 that was featured on ''ZIN 33'' for Zumba Fitness and

So You Think You Can Dance Canada ''So You Think You Can Dance Canada'' is a dance competition and reality show that aired on CTV. Based on the original American TV show ''So You Think You Can Dance'', the Canadian series showcased the best in Canadian dancing talent. Each seas ...

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

started using ''La Economia'', another composition written by Vazquez-Cofresi for salsa dance touchdowns made by American Football star Victor Cruz while playing for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. Vazquez-Cofresi has also been quoted and featured in various publications about the History of Salsa and his major impact in the

salsa dura Salsa dura, also known as salsa brava or salsa gorda, is a style of salsa music developed in the 1970s with an emphasis on the instrumental part of the music (piano, bass, horns, percussion, etc.) over the lead vocals. The genre originated in New Yo ...

musical style and movement.

Life and career

Early years

Vazquez-Cofresi was born in

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

while his father was stationed at

Keesler Air-Force base Keesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city along the Gulf Coast in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler Jr., a Mississippi nat ...

. The last name Cofresi was once spelled ''Kupferschein'', a

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...

family from

Trieste, Italy Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

given the rank of

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...

and hereinafter referred to as, ''von Kupferschein''. Vazquez-Cofresi is related to the famous Puerto Rican Pirate,

Roberto Cofresi The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

through his brother Juan Francisco Cofresi Ramirez de Arellano and his grandfather; Sgt. Gilberto Cofresi was an American war hero and the recipient of the

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

. As a child, Vazquez-Cofresi's mother danced traditional music from Puerto Rico and his father organized cultural activities on the military base. Vazquez-Cofresi's father moved from state to state and as a teenager the family finally settled in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

around 1991. It was there that Vazquez-Cofresi would be mentored by percussionist ''William “Chilly Willy” Mena''. Under Mena, he received musical training in

son cubano Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are th ...

and

Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...

that would prepare him for a professional career in music.

Beginnings as a musician

With the skills learned from Mena, Vazquez-Cofresi would form his first band, ''Latin Sounds'' along with his sister and

Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (AJHF) was founded in 1978, and opened a museum on September 18, 1993, with a mission "to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and dis ...

Legend Bo Berry in Birmingham, Alabama. While attending

John Carroll Catholic High School (Birmingham, Alabama) John Carroll Catholic High School is a co-educational private school in Birmingham, Alabama, United States and is one of six Catholic high schools serving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama. Background One of the first project ...

, Vazquez-Cofresi was part of the school band. One day the high school percussion section was invited to attend Percussive Arts Society musicians clinic where Lalo Davila a professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Middle Tennessee State University was explaining

Latin Percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abakua ...

. Davila who plays timbales asked if anyone played congas, Vazquez-Cofresi raised his hand and was invited to jam on stage. After the performance, Davila and others offered several music scholarships, one of these offers would take Vazquez-Cofresi to Louisiana. In 1996, Vazquez-Cofresi moved to

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

and created plus lead his second band, ''Los Calientes Del Son'' which included musicians attending

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. The band would eventually record ''A Mi Pueblo'' in 1999 and catch the ear of Fania Recording Artist;

Chino Rodriguez Chino Rodriguez (b February 2, 1954 - d November 5, 2022) is an American musician and impresario specializing in Latin music, salsa and Latin jazz. Biography Chino was born James Mui in New York City on February 2, 1954, in the Little Italy/Ch ...

. Rodriguez would offer the band to the creator of the

Fania All-Stars The Fania All-Stars is a musical group formed in 1968 as a showcase for the musicians on Fania Records, the leading salsa music record label of the time. History Beginnings In 1964, Fania Records was founded in New York City by Jerry Masucci, ...

and

Fania Records Fania Records is a New York–based record label founded by Dominican-born composer and bandleader Johnny Pacheco and his Brooklyn-born Italian-American ex-New York City Police Officer turned lawyer Jerry Masucci in 1964. The label took its nam ...

Johnny Pacheco Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco (25 March 1935 – 15 February 2021), known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer who in the 1970s became one of the leading exponents of salsa as well in t ...

and composer, producer; Herman Rodriguez-Bajandas. In 2001, with a promise to sign a salsa CD recording deal with

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

, Vazquez-Cofresi along with other musicians from Los Calientes Del Son would move to New York City.

Move to New York City

Once Vazquez-Cofresi decided to move the band to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he had to hire new musicians and shorten the name to ''Los Calientes'' per the label's recommendations. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, the music scene in New York City was affected to the point that the label decided to invest in smaller acts that performed

reggaetón Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

. The band's album was shelved until 2004 when the contract ended with the label. Around the same year, Vazquez-Cofresi was working at

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

and playing music on the side. It was there that he would be introduced to lead-vocalist

Edwin Perez (singer) The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (died ...

who worked on a different floor for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Perez would assist Vazquez-Cofresi and other founding members to reach the next level in their musical careers. In 2005, Vazquez-Cofresi, Perez and other founding members would form Vazquez-Cofresi's third band,

. The band would eventually record three albums that would give the group national and international success. By 2012, La Excelencia ended, but Perez had other plans and spoke to Vazquez-Cofresi about reorganizing another band out of the former members of La Excelencia.

The Rebirth and Other Artist

In 2013, Perez and Vazquez-Cofresi founded Orquesta SCC. The band would tour extensively in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and abroad plus release its first album named ''Renacimiento''. By 2014, the band would release a free DVD named *. In 2015, Vazquez-Cofresi would also work with former La Exclencia musician, Yuniel Jimenez on his solo album; ''Hay Gente pa' To'', tour with DLG and perform on the Orquesta SCC single ''No Puedo Respirar''.

Present

Since 1995, Vazquez-Cofresi has managed, booked and promoted multiple artist as well as his own projects on a national and international platform. In 2019, Vazquez-Cofresi created ''Fama Management'' and signed three acts; Orquesta SCC, Yuniel Jimenez and

. Vazquez-Cofresi also continues to be active performing, recording and touring with various artists. He also gives percussion clinics and lectures on Salsa Music History with the

National Council for the Traditional Arts The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) is a private, non-profit arts organization based in the United States that promotes the traditional arts. It organizes the National Folk Festival. It is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryl ...

around the United States.

Songwriting and recordings

Notable songs

* " Dale (Dale Rumbero)" ( Los Calientes Del Son) * "

Quisiera Tenerte Quisiera may refer to: *''Quisiera'', 1989 album by Emmanuel **the song from the album *"Quisiera", 1994 song by Ricardo Montaner *"Quisiera", 1998 by Juan Luis Guerra from the album '' Ni es lo mismo ni es igual'' *"Quisiera", 2003 song by Kiru ...

" ( Los Calientes Del Son) * " La Salsa y el Guaguanco" (

) * " Deja de Criticar" (

) * " Aña Pa' Mi Tambor" (

) * " La Economía" (

) * "

A Mi Estilo A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...

" (Orquesta SCC) * "

Basta Ya Basta may refer to: Places * Basta, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia * Basta, Greece, now Kryoneri * Basta, Shetland, Scotland * Basta, Jordan ** Basta (archaeological site), prehistoric archaeological site * Bașta, Romania, a village in Secuieni, ...

" (Orquesta SCC)

Notable albums

* "

A Mi Pueblo A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

" (by ''Los Calientes Del Son''

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Books * ''999'' (anthology) or ''999: ...

*'' Salsa Con Conciencia'' (by ''La Excelencia'' 006 *'' Mi Tumbao Social'' (by ''La Excelencia''

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight 9 * ...

*''

Ecos Del Barrio The Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source real-time operating system intended for embedded systems and applications which need only one Process (computing), process with Thread (c ...

'' (by ''La Excelencia''

012 012 may refer to: * Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car * The dialing code for Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassie ...

*''

Renacimiento Renacimiento is a sector or neighborhood in the city of Santo Domingo in the Distrito Nacional of the Dominican Republic. Renacimiento is in particular populated by individuals from the upper and upper middle class In sociology, the upper mi ...

'' (by ''Orquesta SCC''

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

Film, television and radio

*''

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

'' TV Soap opera (ABC Television, 2008) *''

So You Think You Can Dance Canada (season 2) Season 2 of ''So You Think You Can Dance Canada'' is a dance reality show and competition that airs on CTV. It is hosted by '' ETalk'' correspondent and former ''MuchMusic'' VJ Leah Miller. The series is based on the original American TV seri ...

'' TV Show (CTV Television Network, Week 2, Season 2 (September 1, 2009) *''La Excelencia at the Barbican'' TV Concert (BBC Television, 2011) *''ZIN 33'' DVD (Zumba Fitness, 2011) *''Los Reyes de la Salsa Dura'' DVD (Salsa Dura Entertainment, 2014) *''

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and ...

'' TV Series (HBO, Season 5, 2014)

Performing and recording as a sideman

Tito Puente Jr. * ''(Live Performance & Touring)'' Carolina la O * ''(Live Performance & Touring)'' Yuniel Jimenez * '' Hay Gente Pa' To''' ( Yuniel Jimenez Records, 2015) * ''(Live Performance & Touring)'' Edwin Perez Band * ''(Live Performance & Touring as a Special Guest)''

Dark Latin Groove Dark Latin Groove (DLG) is a salsa band that mixes salsa, reggae and hip-hop. The group was brought together in New York by producer Sergio George (who also signed them to his record company Sir George Records) and included Huey Dunbar, Fraganc ...

* ''(Live Performance & Touring)''

References

External links

"Listing of Jose Vazquez-Cofresi compositions"

Photographs and Sound
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vazquez-Cofresi, Jose 1975 births Living people Jazz fusion musicians Musicians from New York City American people of Italian descent American people of Puerto Rican descent American salsa musicians Record producers from New York (state) American music industry executives Fania Records artists Latin music record producers Latin music composers