PEPE ARÉVALO – EN

Pepe Arevalo
(The lion of salsa)

Pianist and bandleader, more bohemian than dancer.

“The name was given to him by Guillermo Ochoa and Lourdes Guerrero, at a party”.
I am not a musician of abundant record productions, but he has participated in some 34 films with themes such as “Falsaria” (Oye, Salomé), “Pedro Navajas” and “Urge” and “Caballo viejo”, to name a few. for television and live performances.
At the age of 7 he was already playing the guitar. At the age of 11 he started piano lessons and everything was going well until he confessed to his father his desire to dedicate himself to music and the answer was negative except for one condition.
“He told me to study a career first, even if it was short and I opted for Commerce, but I began to starve until I returned to my vocation.”
At the age of 16 he started in radio with a program for children called ‘La legión de los ‘madrugadores’ in XEB ‘El buen tono’.
He was a disciple of Rubén González and Enrique Jarrín. He was pianist of Toña La Negra, Daniel Santos, Fernando Fernández, Pepe Jara.
He was one of the architects of the movement La Rumba es Cultura, in the 70’s, which basically consisted of meetings of intellectuals at Bar León.
He played eight times before the kings of Morocco, Hasan II and Mohamed VI, who liked to celebrate the end of the year listening to son montuno, Cuban rumba and danzón.
He has also been acclaimed throughout Latin America, as well as in Africa, the United States, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland and the United Kingdom, among other countries.
He took his music to the prisons of Mexico. He visited prisoners in Lecumberri, Santa Martha Acatitla, Almoloya de Juárez, Islas Marías, among others.