Salsa stars to gather in New York to honor Cheo Feliciano

Source by Ruth E. Hernandez Beltran.

Latin music stars will gather at New York's Madison Square Garden on Friday to honor Puerto Rican salsa and bolero singer Cheo Feliciano, who died in a car accident in April.

"Cheo was one of the 'last of the Mohicans' and a very talented one," Willie Colon, who shared the stage many times with Feliciano as members of the legendary Estrellas de Fania band, told Efe.

"His death hurt me a lot, it was a shock," the trombone player, singer and composer, one of the stars who will participate in the Oc. 24 homage, said.

The 79-year-old Feliciano, known for his rendering of standards such as "Triste problema," "Amada mia," "Pa'que afinquen" and "Anacahona," among other hits, was killed on April 17 when the car he was driving swerved and crashed into a concrete pole.

The Madison Square Garden stage where Feliciano himself performed will be taken by Colon, Gilberto Santa Rosa, la India, Oscar D'Leon, Tito Nieves, Jose Alberto "El Canario", Raulin Rosendo and Sergio George with the Los Salsa Giants band for a show titled "La Salsa Vive" (Salsa Lives On) to highlight Feliciano's five-decade music career.

Colon, who will travel from Los Angeles where he is to perform on Oct. 23, recalled Feliciano, whose career began in New York with the Joe Cuba orchestra, as a man "of good humor and an incredible personality."

"When I was with Estrellas de Fania, the thing I liked most was to perform along with Cheo, to see him, to be able to work with him," Colon said. "He was a fast thinker, both in English and Spanish, and had a wonderful philosophy of life. People enjoyed being around him and wherever he went things would lighten up."

"All the songs he sang would come out in a unique expression. He had a peculiar syncopation, a way to shape phrases, he was a brilliant character," Colon said.

Gilberto Santa Rosa, known as "El Caballero de la Salsa," remembers of Feliciano mostly for "his humility and comradeship."

"He never made a distinction between the star level he was in, and us, the generation coming up behind him," Santa Rosa said.

"From the first time I met him, he always treated me as an equal and I never saw him keeping his distance," Santa Rosa said. EFE