Luis Felipe Gonzalez’s father Pascual was a great musician, composer and serenader dedicated to the music popular in Latin America. He bequeathed all his musical heritage and his artistic influence to Luis Felipe and his brother Nelson. Luis Felipe sang with his father’s quartet and composed romantic songs on the guitar from an early age.
Luis Felipe was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 31, 1949. At the age of four he began in the world of music playing the ‘cuatro‘. The Cuatro guitar is used throughout Latin America, but it acquires an important role in the musical ensembles of countries such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, where it is part of folklore and accompanies popular dances and songs. Here you can see it played.
He made his mark in New York in 1967 with the song “Kikiriwí” and later at the Cali Festival in Colombia in 1972 with the signature festival song ‘Payaso‘. Today’s song Llorandote (Crying to You) I have always enjoyed listening to since I came to Colombia in 2009. It has a fantastic melody and rhythm, and Luis Felipe’s voice raises the bar from this just being another Salsa track. This is the more traditional and distinguished Salsa which I prefer over the modern material.
(A crude English translation follows)
I have cried the unspeakable
For being the owner of your love
And to make a dream come true
It seems impossible
I think you so infallible
Like the god of passion
You live in my heart
cute meadow lily
And came to know about it
only the day of passion
give me a kiss of love
angel of my future
And don’t let me die
Between bitterness and pain
In 1979 he toured abroad, making many presentations and recording a new album in Los Angeles, California, a place where Luis Felipe also deepened his knowledge of folk music and the harp. He also made a recording of an album with the tenor Placido Domingo. In September 2008, maestro González celebrated 45 years of artistic life, with 105 albums and more than a thousand songs in his musical arsenal.
References:
1. Biografía de Luis Felipe González – Buena Música
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Leave a Reply