Hector Lavoe Story COPYRIGHTED © 2007 BY IZZY SANABRIA The Hector Lavoe story contains all the elements of a dramatic motion picture. There is poverty, broken home, limited education, world-wide successful singing career, drug abuse and the tragedies which started with the loss of his mother when he was a young child, and needed her most, followed by his brothers death from a drug overdose on the streets of New York. Lavoe is one of the most interesting and complex Latin music performers; a man of basically simple values who has lived a roller coaster life of wondrous career highs and devastating personal tragic lows. Lavoe s intense need for recognition and the motivational factors that drove him are clues to the events that determined his life s path. Lavoe s burning ambition and quest for recognition was so intense that the swore to let nothing stop him from attaining it. "I want to be known all over the world," is something he often candidly admitted. "Identity to me, is more important than anything else. I have something to prove! To better understand Lavoe, the artist, the man and his life, we must examine the various aspects of his background (people, things and events) during his early formative years, that influenced his life and helped mold the Hector Lavoe we know today. To do this we have to start at the very beginning. Hector Lavoe was born on September 30, 1946 to Pachita and Luis Perez in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Hector comes from a musical family that he says were also a bit wacky. His grandfather Don Juan Martinez sang controversies which often went from vocal conflict to physical confrontations. An uncle that was considered one of Ponce s best Tres players, spent most of his time playing "serenatas" around town and accumulating enemies. His mother Pachita also sang and according to the family and townspeople, sang beautifully. His father Luis supported his wife and eight children by singing and playing guitar with trios and big bands. It was Mr. Perez s influence that spurred six year old Hector to sit by the radio and shout out "jibaro" songs along with his then favorite singer, Chuito El De Bayamon. For a few years, Hector was tutored daily by his father until he was enrolled in the Juan Morell Campos School of Music (Two of his classmates also destined for fame were Papo Lucca and Jose Febles). Hector started out playing the saxophone but soon lost interest because he felt he wasn t good enough. He would have taken more of an interest if he could have only played as good as (child prodigy) Papo Lucca played the piano. His father sent him off to school against his will and after six months of playing hockey, Hector was expelled. One day his father asked him what lesson he was going to and Hector replied, "the one at 12 noon!" With that reply, as Hector tells it, "Fuuaaacata! He gave me a tremendous whack and said How can you go to a lesson when you were thrown out? So he forced me to go back to school." By 1960, at the age of 14, Lavoe was earning $18 a night singing with a ten-piece band. Hector felt he wasn t accomplishing anything and dropped out of school. "I was always getting into trouble, so when I was 17, I decided to go to New York to earn a lot of money. Having made up his mind, Hector enthusiastically announced his plans to his father, but instead of giving him his blessings, Don Luis strongly objected to Hector s plans and desperately tried to discourage him. "New York is not for you, remember what happened to your brother. I absolutely forbid you to go." He also presented his argument in such a way as to make it seem that if Hector insisted on leaving, he obviously didnt love his father, family or Puerto Rico. Despite his father s objections, on May 3,1963, Lavoe boarded a plane to New York to pursue his dream of attaining fame and fortune. On the jet and for many years after, Lavoe was haunted by the threatening and hurtful last words of his father, "If you go to New York, forget you have a father!" Hector realized that he had to prove himself, so right then and there, he made himself a promise that became his lifes quest and for many years provided him with the motivation needed to succeed. His goal was to earn a lot of money even if it meant working in a factory so that someday he could return to Ponce a rich man. His main purpose was to gain his fathers respect by becoming a successful person that his father would be proud of. Awaiting Hector s arrival in New York was his sister Priscilla. When she saw his 102 pound, 5ft 8inchs scrawny physique, Priscillas first thought was to feed him but Hector wasn t interested in food. The first thing he wanted to do was see El Barrio, that mecca of New York Puerto Rican culture that he had heard so much about. A look of disappointment soon swept across his face as they drove through the streets of Spanish Harlem. Hector was shocked and greatly disappointed as the reality of garbage strewn streets and six story weather-beaten brick tenement buildings quickly wiped away the preconceived vision she had of fancy Cadillacs, tall marble skyscrapers and tree lined streets. He found his sisters Bryant Avenue apartment in The Bronx to be much better. A week after arriving in New York, he was visited by Roberto Garcia, a musician and childhood friend who invited him to the rehearsal of a sextet that was being formed. At the rehearsal, the sextet was playing the romantic bolero Tus Ojos, which the vocalist was singing badly. As a good will gesture, Lavoe volunteered to show the vocalist how it was supposed to sound. After hearing Hector sing a few stanzas, the musicians looked at each other realizing that Hector was just what the group needed and they immediately offered him the job as vocalist. The job only paid $20 for three nights work, but it was a start and the first step that put Lavoes career in motion. Once Lavoe was heard, other jobs with better known groups quickly followed. He sang with Orquesta New York, then spent a year as vocalist with Kako and his All-Stars. He also worked for two weeks with Johnny Pacheco before being introduced to Willie Colon in February 1967. This was to become a historical meeting, which would launch the careers of two of Salsas brightest stars. http://www.salsamagazine.com/ Less