spotlight
CARLOS OLIVA
“LOS SOBRINOS DEL JUEZ”
“THE JUDGE’S NEPHEWS”
Performing LIVE at Viva Tampa Bay Hispanic Heritage Festival
Sunday, October 18th @ Ybor City Centennial Park
Tell us how you got started as a musician
Since I was a kid I always liked music. Lived glued to the radio and tv
listening to all the popular bands
and singers of the time, like Beny
More, Rolando Laserie, Pacho Alonso, and all the famous personalities
of the years 1956 to 1960. I had my
own conga drums and bongos and
played along with the radio, which
made me very familiar with the arrangements and the songs.
What type of music do you perform,
and who have you performed with?
Now after I came from Cuba (1961),
with all that musical background I
face the era of Rock and Roll and
Pop music in the USA, and started
mixing both musical cultures for
the benefit of the audiences that I
played for in restaurants and halls
that were going through the same
cultural shock and for my own benefit. That is how The Miami Sound
is initiated. Other groups and musicians with the same interests , like
Willy Chirino, Frankie Marcos,
Gustavo Rojas, just to mention a
few were also following the same
musical trend.
Please tell us about you familia and
where you are from
My mother was a good singer, (never professional) and that’s where I
got the musical inclination along
with my brother Javier Oliva who
was also part of my band and a
great singer himself. I always lived
in Sancti Spiritus. Never went to
Havana and never performed professionally in Cuba. Only at local
school events, church, etc…It all
started here in USA, in Miami, to be
more specific.
What in your opinion has been your
greatest achievement in your life as a
musician?
I have had a long career in the music business and have been rewarded with many wonderful things.
At age 21 I went to NY as part of a
great Cuban orchestra director, Julio Gutierrez and lived there for 4
years. At the age of 27 was already
performing in Vegas with my trio.
Besides being one or the originators
of the Miami Sound, I produced
artist like Miami Sound Machine,
(Gloria Estefan’s first three albums),
Group Clouds, Written and recorded many hit songs, I had my own
This Issue of Latin Times Magazine is sponsored by
tv show in WPBT for two seasons
called (The Miami Sound) Had a
gold record in Brazil in 1997 with
the song “Macarena” and lately I
was honored with a star in the Calle
Ocho Walk of Fame for all the contribution to our culture and to our
community
What can your fans expect from you
next!?
Our latest song…Nada como Miami, written in collaboration with
my friend Jorge Luis Piloto is being
played everywhere and it is a tribute
to this city that has embraced all of
the immigrants from all over latin
America. We are very proud of it.
We hear you will be performing in the
Tampa Bay area in October as part of
the Tampa Bay’s Hispanic Heritage
celebration
Ye! We are very excited about performing for the audiences of the
Tampa Bay area during the Hispanic
Heritage Week and looking forward
to bring our music to everyone that
will come to spend some time with
us on that day. It will be a lot of fun.
Guaranteed!!!
25