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."
No Hay Manera
El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Conocí a esta chica
Con respeto la invito a bailar
Y me dejó esperando sin llamar
Ahí no termina el cuento.
Después viene y me llama arrepentida
Y me dice... y yo no sé cuantas mentiras.
Y de nuevo la vuelvo a invitar
Y plantado me vuelve a dejar!
No hay manera ni forma de entender
Lo que guarda en el alma una mujer.
Así van las cosas
Por más que uno cree que aprendió,
Que en el mundo todo ya lo vio.
Algo te sorprende.
Esta chica de la que te estoy hablando
Cuentan mis amigos que anda pregonando
Que se siente muy triste y herida
Porque yo ay, que la eché de mi vida.
ESTRIBILLO
Dicen que sí, y están pensando que no.
Dicen que no, resulta entonces que sí.
Se siente uno confundido mi amigo.
Y no se sabe que hacer.
Por más que uno se esfuerza por entenderlas
De nada vale. No hay nada que ver.
Cuando tu menos te lo esperas
Ellas a ti, a ti te pueden sorprender.
The lyrics in El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico's song No Hay Manera describe the frustration and confusion that can arise when dealing with a woman's unpredictable behavior. The singer meets a girl and invites her to dance, but she leaves him waiting and never calls. The girl eventually apologizes and comes back into the singer's life, only to reject him again. The singer reflects that there is no way to truly understand what a woman is thinking and feeling.
The chorus emphasizes the confusion and contradictions that come with trying to understand women. They may say one thing but mean another, leaving men feeling uncertain about what to do or how to act. Despite their efforts to understand women, the singer acknowledges that sometimes they are surprised by their decisions and actions.
The lyrics of No Hay Manera highlight the complexity of human relationships and the difficulties of communication and understanding. The song also emphasizes the importance of respecting others and being honest and open about one's feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
Me voy, me voy
I'm leaving, I'm leaving
Conocí a esta chica
I met this girl
Con respeto la invito a bailar
With respect, I invited her to dance
Y me dejó esperando sin llamar
And she left me waiting without calling
Ahí no termina el cuento.
That's not the end of the story.
Después viene y me llama arrepentida
Later she comes and calls me repentant
Y me dice... y yo no sé cuantas mentiras.
And she tells me... and I don't know how many lies.
Y de nuevo la vuelvo a invitar
And again I invite her
Y plantado me vuelve a dejar!
And she leaves me standing again!
No hay manera ni forma de entender
There is no way to understand
Lo que guarda en el alma una mujer.
What a woman holds in her soul.
Así van las cosas
That's how things go
Por más que uno cree que aprendió,
No matter how much one thinks they learned,
Que en el mundo todo ya lo vio.
That they've seen everything in the world.
Algo te sorprende.
Something surprises you.
Esta chica de la que te estoy hablando
This girl that I'm talking about
Cuentan mis amigos que anda pregonando
My friends say she's going around proclaiming
Que se siente muy triste y herida
That she feels very sad and hurt
Porque yo ay, que la eché de mi vida.
Because I, oh, kicked her out of my life.
Dicen que sí, y están pensando que no.
They say yes, but they are thinking no.
Dicen que no, resulta entonces que sí.
They say no, but it turns out to be yes.
Se siente uno confundido mi amigo.
One feels confused, my friend.
Y no se sabe que hacer.
And you don't know what to do.
Por más que uno se esfuerza por entenderlas
No matter how hard one tries to understand them
De nada vale. No hay nada que ver.
It's no use. There's nothing to see.
Cuando tu menos te lo esperas
When you least expect it
Ellas a ti, a ti te pueden sorprender.
They can surprise you.
Contributed by Alaina E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.