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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGEORGE, Sergio(b c.1961, East Harlem, NYC, USA) Salsa producer, arranger, musical director, keyboardist, composer. He grew up in East Harlem listening to black R&B and the 'raw street New York salsa sound', and endeavours to fuse these influences into a creative and evolving modern salsa sound. He studied at the City University of NY (CUNY) and joined Conjunto Cache late '70s, worked on their three LPs Por Primera Vez '79, Rosa Records Presents Conjunto Cache '83 and La Buena Vida '87; gigged with Tito Puente '80, wrote arrangements and toured Europe with Machito; worked on other NYC salsa sessions including playing piano on Conjunto Clásico's Felicitaciones '80, piano and all arrangements on Chocolate En Sexteto '83, Rompiendo Hielo! '84 and Chocolate y Amigos '95 (the latter recorded in the '80s) by Alfredo 'Chocolate' Armenteros, co-lead vocals, arrangements, keyboards and production on Reencuentro '88 by Grupo Baruc, keyboards and arrangements on Salsa Ritmo Caliente '88 and Vol. 2 '91, piano and one arr. on B&B Records Presenta A José Bello '89. George became staff producer/music director/arranger for Ralph Mercado's major RMM label '88-94, working on albums by many of the label's leading artists including Tito Nieves, Cheo Feliciano, José Alberto, Marc Anthony and La India, as well as the all-star Familia RMM. (Isidro Infante, prolific and multi-talented leader of La Elite, became RMM's director of A&R in the wake of George's departure.) George formed a production company Sir George Entertainment, Inc. and studio Sir Sound Recording; first release was the hip success Victor Manuelle '96 on Sony Tropical, the highly regarded young sonero's third album, followed by the fusion album BLG (Black Latin Group); first release on the Sir George label (distributed by Sony) was DLG (Dark Latin Groove) '96 (Grammy nomination), a seamless fusion of salsa, hip-hop and ragga with 21-year-old singer Huey Dunbar (who'd sung chorus on La India's Dicen Que Soy '94, produced by Sir George, and toured with her band) and rapper-toaster James 'Da Barba' De Jesús (who performed on Tito Nieves's hit 'You Bring Me Joy' from Rompeceabeza/The Puzzle '93). The Sir George/Sony followup was solo debut Electric Lady '96 by Nora Shoji, ex-lead singer of the Japanese salsa band Orquesta de la Luz. |