El Gran Combo originated as an offshoot of the popular Puerto Rican band El Combo de Rafael Cortijo. Invited to start a new group with Joseito Mateo, a singer from the Dominican Republic, Ithier and six fellow musicians dropped out of Cortijo's band to start their new enterprise. The move shocked the Latin music world. "You were not supposed to leave Puerto Rico's favorite group like that," Ithier told Montreal's Gazette, "but the discipline was not very good anymore…. I did not want to be with a band that was not ready to work."
The new band was not lacking in discipline. Its members—including Rafael Alvarez Guedes (who chose the band's name), Eddie Pérez, Héctor Santos, Roberto Rohena, Rogelio Vélez, Martín Quiñones, and Miguel Cruz —prized teamwork and organization as much as they did musical talent. In 1962 the group recorded its first album, Meneame los Mangos (Shake My Mangos). The album was not a hit and the band was not an overnight sensation, but El Gran Combo were willing to work for their success.
It was three or four years before El Gran Combo reached that success, which arrived not long after the group recruited a promising young singer named Junior Montañhez (later known as Andy Montañez). With Montañez joining singer Pellin Rodriguez on vocals, the band turned out hit after hit—catchy dance tunes with such names as "El Menu," "Telefono," and "Goyito Sabater." The songwriting talent behind these and other hits was Perin Vazquez, whose lyrics told tales of everyday passions and universal longings. Working closely with Vazquez, Ithier created lively arrangements for piano, bass, trumpets, saxophone, congas, timbales, and bongos.
The group had released the album Acangana in 1963, just two days before the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Although distribution of the album was postponed because of the tragedy, the recording eventually reached gold-record status. In 1970 the band created EGC, an independent record label under which they released a number of albums, beginning with that year's recording, El Momo de Oro.
El Gran Combo gradually rose to become the first name in salsa within Puerto Rico, winning the island's prestigious Agueybana de Oro prize for the Best Band of 1969. Slowly, word about the band began to spread beyond the island's borders, and from 1971 to 1986 the band's international popularity was at its peak. During this time, El Gran Combo attracted a series of gifted young salsa performers—including singers Charlie Aponte, Johnny Ventura, Celia Cruz, and Jerry Rivas, and musicians Miguel Marrero, Milton Correa, Edwin Cortes, and Martin Quinones. In fact, so many exceptional salsa performers "graduated" from El Gran Combo that the band became affectionately known as the University of Salsa.
For many fans, El Gran Combo is synonymous with salsa—a musical genre that fuses Cuban and Puerto Rican sounds. Headed by three lead singers, El Gran Combo has always drawn dynamic energy from vocals. True to the salsa style, the group balances a vibrant horn section and a rhythmic percussion beat, tempered by the less-prominent bass and piano. One secret to El Gran Combo's long-lived success has been the group's ability to keep its music evolving and to remain open to new, fresh sounds. In 1971 the band added a trombone to its repertoire, played by Epifanio (Fanny) Ceballo. The recording De Punta a Punta, which won best album at Miami's Gold Record Festival, marked the debut of Ceballo, who remained with the band until his death in 1991.
More changes came for El Gran Combo in the mid-1970s, when Pellin Rodriguez left the band and was eventually replaced by the popular vocalist Charlie Aponte. By 1977 the vocalist Montañez also departed, joining the Venezuelan group La Dimensión Latina. Montañez's departure shocked and saddened fans, but his replacement, Jerry Rivas, soon won over audiences.
In 1984 El Gran Combo toured Alaska, where they produced Breaking the Ice—El Gran Combo en Alaska, which received a Grammy Award nomination. The band toured internationally throughout the 1980s and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1987 with a historic concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
Although many music critics thought El Gran Combo was past its peak by the 1990s, the band held on to its core group of devoted fans. "When they had singer Andy Montañez, they used to be the music machine of the Caribbean," Rudolph Mangual, publisher of the Los Angeles dance-music magazine Latin Beat, told the Los Angeles Times in 1996. "Obviously, they're way past their prime, but they're so good that they still matter…. [T]heir collective presence has a unique magnetism."
Although the band is an ensemble, one key figure stands out in El Gran Combo: Ithier, who has either outlasted or outlived the band's other cofounders. Many fans regard him as the group's heart and soul, yet Ithier has always emphasized the band's lack of hierarchy. "[El Gran Combo] has persevered because of its system," Ithier told Billboard magazine. "We share everything: our successes, our failures, our earnings. Everything is evenly distributed. And this is an incentive for the band. Everything we make, we divide."
Brujeria
El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Que me tiene arrebatao'?
Que me tiene medio loco
Que ya estoy enamorao'
Quizá serán sus ojitos
O tal vez su caminao'
O quizás esas cositas
Que tú me tienes temblando de noche y de día
Tú me hiciste brujería
Me quieres mandar pa' la tumba fría
Tú me hiciste brujería
Bruja, bruja, brujita
Tú me hiciste brujería
Brrr, demonio
Tú me hiciste brujería
Me echaste un no sé qué, en la comida
Tú me hiciste brujería
Siento una cosa fría
Tú me hiciste brujería
Que me va por aquí, se me sube por allá, si
Tú me hiciste brujería
Y vuelve
Tú me echaste brujería
Tú me hiciste brujería
Pero que anoche en la cama de una coconía
Tú me hiciste brujería
Que ya no puedo comer, no puedo dormir
Tú me hiciste brujería
Chacha eres bruja, marigua, María
Tú me hiciste brujería
Pero que Tony Fernandez todo lo sabía
Tú me hiciste brujería
Me tienes doblao' echo una porquería
Tú me hiciste brujería
Bruja, bruja, pero vampira, bruja
Tú me hiciste brujería
Tú me hiciste brujería
Oye echa pa'lla, chica, déjame quieto
Tú me hiciste brujería
The song "Brujeria" by El Gran Combo is an ode to a woman who has cast a spell on the singer. He begins by questioning what this woman has done to him that has left him obsessed and in love with her. He speculates that it might be her eyes, her walk, or the little things she has given him. It is clear that he is under her spell and cannot resist her.
As the song continues, he begins to describe the physical and emotional effects that the woman has had on him. He feels cold and shaky all over, unable to eat or sleep. He accuses her of trying to send him to an early grave, and becomes increasingly frantic in his obsession with her. The song ends with the singer pleading with the woman to leave him alone and let him be.
Overall, the song is a lively and upbeat expression of the intense, almost mystical power that love can exert over a person. The lyrics blend elements of passion, fear, and superstition in a way that makes the listener feel the full force of the singer's emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Que me habrá echao' esa chica
I wonder what that girl has done to me
Que me tiene arrebatao'
She's got me all wound up
Que me tiene medio loco
She's driving me crazy
Que ya estoy enamorao'
I'm already in love with her
Quizá serán sus ojitos
Maybe it's her eyes
O tal vez su caminao'
Or perhaps the way she walks
O quizás esas cositas
Or maybe those little things
Que en su casa ella me a da'o
That she gave me at her house
Que tú me tienes temblando de noche y de día
You've got me shaking day and night
Tú me hiciste brujería
You put a spell on me
Me quieres mandar pa' la tumba fría
You want to send me to an early grave
Bruja, bruja, brujita
Witch, witch, little witch
Brrr, demonio
Brrr, demon
Me echaste un no sé qué, en la comida
You put something in the food
Siento una cosa fría
I feel something cold
Que me va por aquí, se me sube por allá, si
That goes through me here, rises through me there, yes
Y vuelve
And it comes back
Tú me echaste brujería
You put a spell on me
Pero que anoche en la cama de una coconía
But last night in the bed of a coconut palm
Tú me hiciste brujería
You put a spell on me
Que ya no puedo comer, no puedo dormir
That I can't eat or sleep anymore
Chacha eres bruja, marigua, María
Girl, you're a witch, a sorceress, Maria
Pero que Tony Fernandez todo lo sabía
But Tony Fernandez knew everything
Me tienes doblao' echo una porquería
You've got me twisted, turned into a mess
Bruja, bruja, pero vampira, bruja
Witch, witch, but vampire, witch
Oye echa pa'lla, chica, déjame quieto
Hey girl, step back, leave me alone
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Sara Solange
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind