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."
El Aguacero
El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Era una tarde gris cuando empezo a caer
El aguacero aquel que te trajo hasta mi
Era una tarde gris y la lluvia cayó
Y como se mojo lo que sentia por ti
Yo me arrastraba por las cunetas mis sentimientos
El aguacero iba socabando mis ilusiones perdidas
Y en la cuneta el agua arrastraba una parte de mi vida
Y caminan los amantes bajo el aguacero muy enamorados
Y yo sufriendo en silencio porque noe estas a mi lado y sufro
Cada gota de lluvia caida (en una tarde gris)
Se ha llevado un poco de tu amor
Debajo del aguacero pero las lágrimas no se notan
Y mi corazón se muere lentamente gota a gota
Cada gota de lluvia caida (en una tarde gris)
Se ha llevado un poco de tu amor
Oyeme Jerry el aguacero ¿Que pasa
Charlie? ¿Que esta cayendo? Es un diluvio
Gota a gota trae recuerdos de su amor. Y es
cuando la lluvia cae
Agua
Eres lluvia que me causa penas y dolores
La lluvia que cae del cielo
La que cae a borbotones y me mata
Cada gota de lluvia caida (en una tarde gris)
Se ha llevado un poco de tu amor
Es que el cielo se esta nublando
Tambien mi vista se nubla
Y yo no se si es la lluvia
O soy yo el que estoy llorando por ella
Lluvia cruel
The song "El Aguacero" by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico speaks about the pain and suffering caused by an intense rainstorm. The lyrics describe a grey afternoon when the rain started to fall heavily, bringing someone special to the singer's life. Despite this, the rain also washed away the singer's feelings for this person, causing him emotional turmoil. The singer feels as though his feelings and sufferings have been carried away by the rainwater, leaving him with a sense of loss.
The lyrics also feature the imagery of lovers walking in the rain while the singer suffers in silence because his love interest is not with him, and his heart is slowly dying. The rain becomes a symbol of the pain and sorrow that the singer is experiencing, as every drop of rain seems to carry away his memories of his lost love.
Overall, "El Aguacero" reflects how the forces of nature can affect our emotional well-being and serve as a metaphor for the ups and downs of love.
Line by Line Meaning
Lluvia cruel
The rain represents the pain and suffering caused by lost love
Era una tarde gris cuando empezo a caer
On a dreary afternoon, the rain started to fall
El aguacero aquel que te trajo hasta mi
The same rain that brought you to me
Era una tarde gris y la lluvia cayó
The rain fell on a grey and depressing day
Y como se mojo lo que sentia por ti
The rain washed away the feelings I had for you
Yo me arrastraba por las cunetas mis sentimientos
My feelings were all over the place
Y mis sufrimientos se iban alejando
My suffering was slowly fading away
El aguacero iba socabando mis ilusiones perdidas
The rain was eroding my lost dreams and hopes
Y en la cuneta el agua arrastraba una parte de mi vida
The water in the ditch represented the part of my life that was being washed away
Y caminan los amantes bajo el aguacero muy enamorados
Lovers walk together in the rain, deeply in love
Y yo sufriendo en silencio porque noe estas a mi lado y sufro
I suffer in silence because you're not here with me
Cada gota de lluvia caida (en una tarde gris)
Each raindrop that fell (on a dreary afternoon)
Se ha llevado un poco de tu amor
Carried away a piece of your love
Debajo del aguacero pero las lágrimas no se notan
Under the rain, but the tears are not visible
Y mi corazón se muere lentamente gota a gota
My heart is dying slowly, one drop at a time
Oyeme Jerry el aguacero ¿Que pasa
Listen Jerry, what's happening with this rain?
Charlie? ¿Que esta cayendo? Es un diluvio
What's falling? It's a flood
Gota a gota trae recuerdos de su amor. Y es cuando la lluvia cae
Each drop brings back memories of your love, and it's when the rain falls
Agua
Water (repeated for emphasis)
Eres lluvia que me causa penas y dolores
You are the rain that causes me pain and suffering
La lluvia que cae del cielo
The rain that falls from the sky
La que cae a borbotones y me mata
The one that falls in torrents and kills me
Es que el cielo se esta nublando
The sky is becoming cloudy
Tambien mi vista se nubla
My vision is becoming cloudy too
Y yo no se si es la lluvia
And I don't know if it's the rain
O soy yo el que estoy llorando por ella
Or if it's me crying for her
Contributed by Xavier R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.