Wito Rodriguez, a Chicago born Puerto Rican, has followed the musical field as a street singer and musician since childhood. In his teens, he started off playing in a small group as a guitar player in the rock and roll scene.
He left Chicago in 1967 to live in the “Isla” de Puerto Rico, where he studied in Spanish schools and continued his musical career. He started looking into his roots and found that his most loved music was Latin music. His first opportunity in a “salsa” orchestra was with a great percussionist called “Chacon”. Wito learned all his Latin “ritmos” and the differences in percussion instruments and specialized himself in the maracas.
In the year 1971, Wito returned to Chicago and there he joined the salsa orchestra called “Orchestra La Justicia”. There he was able to play along side of the salsa greats which are today called the salsa “Fania All Stars”.
Like all other American men he wanted to be part of the American heritage and join the United States Army. This however did not stop Wito in pursuing his musical career. During his tour of military service in Europe, Wito put together several small orchestras of his own. Two were “El Conjunto Sabor” and “La Sonora Antillana”. These orchestras accompanied a few artists from the US and Puerto Rico like Adalberto Santiago, Ismael Miranda, Tito Allen, Santitos Colon, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez and the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. Wito also spent a great deal of his time taking singing lessons with opera singer Barbara Sutton, who was also living in Europe.
After being discharged from the military, Wito joined and co-leaded the great Orchestra Conexion Latina. With Orchestra Conexion Latina, Wito recorded two CD’s, “Calorcito” and “Un Poco Loco”. Wito also recorded two songs with the great Peter Herbolzheimer, combination and brass big band, for a German TV SWF production.
In the year 1988, Wito decided to form his own orchestra in the plan of expanding the musical scene in Europe. At this time he formed “Wito Rodriguez and Orchestra” and “Wito Con Cache”.
Wito decided to return to the United States where he would ultimately finish his Army career. He found himself with a new scene and started building a new big band sound. During this time he formed Wito Rodriguez Salsa Jazz Orchestra together with musical director and arranger, Gino Picart (trumpet player) who lives in Florida. Wito wanted to be known in the USA like in Europe where he lived 20 years. Wito just finished recording his third CD which was released Jan 2015 called “Que Mundo Maravilloso” “What a Wonderful World”. You will hear his best work in this recording. Wito now lives in Pennsylvania and travels to his Orchestra gigs when contracted. Wito has now recorded another CD in Caracas Venezuela with great Venezuelan musicians called Como El Viento which will be released April 2016. In this CD Wito sings beautiful songs from Cano Robles, Luis Garcia, Pedro Gazmey, and great Tite Curet Alonso with arrangements from Luis Garcia, Oscar Hernandez and Jose Gazmey. Wito has now established himself in the USA after living in Europe for many years and has brought his CD called “Que Mundo Maravilloso” . Now Wito joins the SALSA scene in USA, Caribbean, South America and Central America with his latest 3 singles that will be part of his new CD “Como El Viento”.
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