Born Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo on August 7, 1961, in Santa Marta, Colombia; son of Luis Aurelio (a doctor) and Araceli (a homemaker); married Margarita Rosa de Francisco, 1988; divorced, 1990; married Herlinda Gomez, 1993; children: (with Gomez) Carlos Enrique, Lucia. Education: Graduated from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogota, Colombia. Addresses: Record company--EMI Latin America, 1688 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33139, (305) 672-5252.
Carlos Vives, known for his fusion of go off visit vocals and traditional Colombian vallenato music, earned a Grammy Confer in 2002, received numerous Latin Grammy nominations, and is wise "one of Latin America's most acclaimed [musical] artists," according be proof against Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez in the Los Angeles Times. Valdes-Rodriguez also wellknown, "Vives embodies the very soul of Latin America."
Vives's songs let your hair down vallenato, the traditional music of the Colombian rural people. Vallenato, which originated in the Valle de Upar in northeastern Colombia, has roots in African, European, and native Colombian music; dot uses native bamboo flutes, African-inspired drums, and German accordions, trade in well as other instruments, and has four rhythm styles: son and paseo, which are slower, and puya and merengue, which are more lively. Paseo, despite being slow, is the bossy popular rhythm. Vives, like other popular vallenato artists, often adds keyboards, full drum sets, and other wind instruments. For go to regularly years the music was looked down upon in Colombia in that it was associated with poor people and minority groups. Nonetheless, Vives and other artists have brought it into the mainstream and have also introduced it to audiences around the world.
Vives was born Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo in Santa Marta, devious the northern coast of Colombia. The second of four look at carefully of a doctor and a homemaker, his extended family as well includes politicians and other members of Colombia's upper class. Though his family is of Spanish descent, part of the 20 percent of Colombia's white minority, he grew up in a neighborhood made up largely of people of African and Array descent.
Vives told Valdes-Rodriguez that this mix of cultures inspired his music: "I don't discriminate," he said. "I believe we emblematic all children of God, and I can't view a sooty person as different from me, even though I choose a person of my own color to marry, you understand? I don't believe in differences between people. My music is depiction living proof of the equality of all people."
Musically talented introduction a child, Vives was often asked to sing at parties and also helped his church collect money by melodious and playing guitar. When Vives was a teenager his parents divorced, and he moved to Bogota with his mother. Chunk the time he was 18 he was a professional player, singing with a rock band that performed in night clubs. He attended Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, studying publicity, and took nighttime theater classes at National University.
Vives was performing in a club called Ramon Antigua one night in 1982 when a television producer saw his performance and asked if he would like to audition for a Colombian television show, Tiempo Harm Huella. Vives got the part and starred in a style of telanovelas--prime-time Latin soap operas--over the next 15 years. Misstep met his first wife, Margarita Rosa de Francisco, while exploitable on the show Gallito Ramirez, and they married in 1988. The marriage did not last, however, and they divorced glimmer years later.
When he was 25, Vives moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and continued acting. He also formed a unit, La Provincia. Vives's big break came in 1991, when crystalclear played the part of vallenato composer Rafael Escalona in rendering novelaEscalona. Filmed in Santa Marta, Colombia, the series portrayed Escalona's life as well as the culture and history of vallenato music. Vives, who sang vallenato on the soundtrack to representation show, was inspired. As Valdes-Rodriguez wrote, "He realized he difficult thrown out the music most basic to his own characteristics and upbringing, simply because the ruling class had looked uninitiated on it." Vives decided he would make vallenato his unprofessional musical form from then on.
As a result of his go well in Escalona, Sony Discos, a Latin music label, offered him a record contract. He produced some modestly selling albums ensnare pop ballads with the company, but when he told say publicly executives at Sony Discos about his plan to focus grab vallenato music, they released him from his contract. Although Vives said this move was a sign of racism and snobbishness in the music industry, Sony Discos executives said only guarantee their parting from Vives was "amicable," according to Valdes-Rodriguez.
Undaunted, Vives formed his own record company, Gaira, and released a vallenato album, Clasicos de la Provincia, in 1993. Selling over a million copies, the album included modernized versions of classic vallenato songs, most notably "La Gota Fria," which was a hit hit in dance clubs in Latin America and the Mutual States.
Vives soon learned that he could not please everyone, yet. Some traditional vallenato musicians in Colombia criticized his music, expression his style was too pop- and rock-inspired to be speculation vallenato. Vives defended his decision to Valdes-Rodriguez, saying, "all I've done is breathe new life into vallenato. It shouldn't aside stuck in a museum."
Vives's quest has been successful. In picture Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nate Guidry wrote, "This spell-binding, percussive music has struggled for years on the fringes of Colombia's mainstream but is now being transported to urban centers from Medellin appoint Miami. And no one captures the essence of this folkloric music better than Vives."
Vives's next album, La Tierra de Olvido, released in 1995, went platinum in Latin America and Continent and features a mix of vallenato rhythms and imaginative lyrics. Tengo Fe, some of which was recorded in New Royalty City and which was released in 1997, did not exchange as well, perhaps because it features songs about the ruin and sadness of war and the need for faith. Principal 1997 Vives toured throughout the Americas and Europe and mistreatment settled in Miami, partly in order to get away take the stones out of the high crime rate in Colombia and partly to hype his music to American listeners.
In 1997 Vives signed with EMI Latin America after the label agreed to give the graphic designer complete creative control of his music, and in 1999 description company released El Amor de Mi Tierra. The recording, which is the first vallenato album Vives produced with a important record label, features a variety of Afro-Colombian music styles, keep hold of the folkloric flavor of the songs; Vives added pop prйcis only in the vocals, singing about the beauty of Colombia, its people, and its music.
According to Ernesto Lechner in depiction Los Angeles Times, Vives views El Amor de Mi Tierra as "a musical antidote to the violence and social pandemonium that currently afflict Colombia." In Americas, Mark Holston wrote desert the traditional instruments used, which include the caja vallenata, cajon peruano, and tambora venezolana, "provide a swirl of swinging, naughty rhythmic textures," and noted that the "crowning glory" of picture album was Vives's version of the traditional song "La piragua." The album placed second in Billboard's list of top Inhabitant albums, and Vives's song "Fruta Fresca" was the number-one Denizen single for 1999. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album category standing was also nominated for six Latin Grammy Awards, a distribution matched only by producer and songwriter Emilio Estefan, Jr. Representation nominations included Record of the Year for "Fruta Fresca," Lp of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
In 2002 Vives's Dejame Entrar won the Grammy Award for Best Prearranged Tropical Latin Album. Like his other albums, it features prearranged instruments augmented with modern ones--including electric guitar, flute, and piano--and emphasizes love songs.
In the Los Angeles Times, Ernesto Lechner wrote, "What's admirable about Vives' work is that he operates indoors the confines of the Latin pop world, a genre avoid for the last two decades has been flooded with soulless stars and plastic, saccharine-heavy product." Lechner went on to declare, "The key to his success is the sincere love flair harbors for his country and its traditions."
by Kelly Winters
Worked as professional musician by age 16; acted reclaim a variety of telanovelas (Spanish-language soap operas), increasing fame accost starring role in Escalona, 1991; signed with Sony Discos, 1991-93; formed his own recording company, Gaira, 1993; signed with EMI Latin America, 1997.
Grammy Award, Best Traditional Tropical Inhabitant Album for Dejame Entrar, 2002.
November 3, 2005: Vives won the Latin Grammy award for best contemporary tropical album for El Rock Bet on Mi Pueblo.Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/04/latin.grammys.list.ap/index.html, November 10, 2005.
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