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."
Esa Eres Tu
El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Recuerdo el embrujo
Que dejaste en mi
Ocurrio ese dia
Ese dia bonito, ese dia divino en que te conoci
Y aunque no es con dolor
Que te tienes que ir
Siento la misma pena
La misma agonia que senti ese dia por estar sin ti
Por estar sin ti
Por estar sin ti
Y es que estar sin ti aunque sea un momento
Me roba el aliento, me mata el dolor
Y es que asi en mi vida todo el sentimiento, todo mi ser fue solo por una razon
Y esa eres tu
Tan solo tu
Y esa eras tu, tu, tu
Tan solo tu
Tan solo tu le das luz a mi vida
Tan solo tu eres mi unica ilusion
Tan solo tu eres mi prenda querida
No son palabras que habran mi corazon
Ojos grandes como el sol
Que iluminan mi alma
Labios llenos de amor
Rebosante pasión y en mi corazon
Han dejado su amor, han dejado su amor
Y aunque no es con dolor
Ni por falta de amor
Que te tienes que ir
Siento la misma pena
La misma agonia que senti ese dia por estar sin ti
Por estar sin ti
Por estar sin ti
The lyrics of El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico's song Esa Eres Tu express a deep sense of loss and longing for someone who has left. The singer reminisces about the enchantment and magic that this person brought into their life when they first met, and how they now feel empty and breathless without them.
The lyrics also highlight the fact that the singer is not letting go of their love for this person, even though they are no longer together. They feel the same pain and agony as they did on the day they first met, and being without them even for a moment takes away their breath and kills the pain.
The song portrays a strong emotional connection between two people and how their lives were intertwined to an extent that the singer's entire being is defined by this person. The lyrics express a deep sense of love and longing for this person, who brought light and passion into their life, and who is now gone, leaving a void that cannot be filled.
Line by Line Meaning
Ahora que tu te has ido
Now that you've gone
Recuerdo el embrujo
I remember the spell
Que dejaste en mi
That you left on me
Ocurrio ese dia
It happened that day
Ese dia bonito, ese dia divino en que te conoci
That beautiful, divine day when I met you
Y aunque no es con dolor
And although it's not with pain
Ni por falta de amor
Nor for lack of love
Que te tienes que ir
That you have to go
Siento la misma pena
I feel the same sorrow
La misma agonia que senti ese dia por estar sin ti
The same agony that I felt that day for being without you
Y es que estar sin ti aunque sea un momento
And it's that being without you even for a moment
Me roba el aliento, me mata el dolor
It takes my breath away, it kills the pain
Y es que asi en mi vida todo el sentimiento, todo mi ser fue solo por una razon
And so in my life, all the feeling, my entire being was only for one reason
Y esa eres tu
And that reason is you
Tan solo tu
Only you
Y esa eras tu, tu, tu
And that was you, you, you
Tan solo tu le das luz a mi vida
Only you give light to my life
Tan solo tu eres mi unica ilusion
Only you are my only hope
Tan solo tu eres mi prenda querida
Only you are my beloved jewel
No son palabras que habran mi corazon
These are not words that open my heart
Ojos grandes como el sol
Eyes big as the sun
Que iluminan mi alma
That light up my soul
Labios llenos de amor
Lips full of love
Rebosante pasión y en mi corazon
Overflowing passion and in my heart
Han dejado su amor, han dejado su amor
They left their love, they left their love
Contributed by Wyatt Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.