MUSICAL INFLUENCES and OBJECTIVES

My influences are many - including classical music.  But some popular songs I’ve always liked are ‘’JURAME’’, “LA BIKINA”,‘’SABOR A MI’’, ‘’TE QUIERO’’, ‘’ESTA TARDE VI LLOVER’’, NEW YORK, NEW YORK “-  just to name a few. And I've always admired composers like Nino Bravo, Maria Grever, Cole Porter, Consuelo Velazquez, and Armando Manzanero, among many others. These are composers who have written songs with substance and depth - lyrically and musically.

Basically, my aim as a songwriter has been to continue writing in those traditional styles generally - especially boleros. In the contemporary Latin popular music scene, I understand boleros are considered “old fashioned”. Today,they are not often played on prime time Latin radio programming. Maybe for that reason, unfortunately, few boleros are being written.

As far as contemporary popular music in general is concerned, it has been observed that whatever is coarse, is coarsening; whatever is lewd or debased, is debasing; and whatever is degrading or desensitizing, desensitizes us as listeners, whether we realize it or not. Because of this, many Latinos and Anglos have chosen to turn off their radios.  I think it is often not a question of the musical styles, but of the content.