Jennifer Lopez/Marc Anthony biopic about Hector Lavoe

When I was out Sunday night, the DJ played Lavoe's "Todopoderoso" and a crowd of 20-and-under-Latinas [uhm, maybe we should de-index that] (there for a birthday party, I think) cheered. It's a good song too.

I thought this movie would be out by now.

Puerto Rico's voice of salsa, lost but found

Lewis Beale
New York Times News Service
Aug. 16, 2006 12:00 AM

Among the many films competing for attention at next month's Toronto International Film Festival will be one whose subject, the charismatic salsa singer Hector Lavoe, all but demanded big screen treatment.

Considered by many to represent the very soul of the Puerto Rican people - his nickname was "La Voz" ("The Voice") - Lavoe teetered between high drama and full-blown tragedy. He was renowned for his intuitive connection to the audience. Yet he was also a drug addict whose final years were beset by his mother-in-law's murder and the accidental shooting death of a son, the destruction of his house in a fire and his own suicide attempt. Lavoe died in 1993, at 46, from cardiac arrest, possibly from complications of AIDS.

"He is almost a sacrificial lamb, that one guy who would represent legions of fans but lived the most painful life imaginable," said the singer Marc Anthony, who portrays Lavoe in the new film, "El Cantante" ("The Singer"). "That's just what he was born to be."
Anthony came to the project through Jennifer Lopez, who has since become his wife. Five years ago she was looking for projects for her new company, Nuyorican Productions, and i

l%giately [sic] responded to a screenplay about Lavoe's life sent to her by his widow, Nilda, known as Puchi, who has since died.

"At that time I knew of him, but not much about him," said the Bronx-born Lopez in a recent telephone interview. As she began doing research, she was particularly struck by Lavoe's skill as a sonero, a salsa singer who improvises verses. "He was one of the best soneros that ever lived," she said. "He was a voice of the people, a jibaro, a boy from the sticks. People identified with him."

Lopez quickly realized that the screenplay would need a rewrite by someone familiar with his music and milieu, and that the lead required a singer and actor whose chops were strong enough to compare with the legend's.

For the former she eventually settled on Leon Ichaso, the Cuban-American director of "Pinero" and other films, who was attracted to the project because, in his view, it promised to recapture the lost energy of the '60s and '70s salsa boom. "The film revives the dead, keeps history on track," he said in an interview.

When it came to finding someone for the role of Lavoe, Anthony, already a Latin superstar with major crossover appeal, was Lopez's only choice. "When I first got the script, I was like, 'Nobody can play this but Marc Anthony,' " she said. "He wore glasses, was thin, is Puerto Rican, just like Hector. I called him and said I'm doing this project, and he said, 'Hector Lavoe, he's my idol.' So he's been on the project almost as long as I have."

Anthony, 38, recalled growing up with Lavoe's music in New York. "He was our Bob Dylan," he said in a phone interview. "He spoke the language of the people. He wasn't refined, was from the streets. He understood what it was like to be Puerto Rican in this country, to be lucky yet destructive at the same time."

Lavoe, who was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1946 and came to New York when he was 17, arrived on the mainland at an opportune moment. The civil rights movement was heating up and inspiring Puerto Ricans. That led to "a creative and revolutionary time," Ichaso said, when artists like Lavoe were "taking the music to the streets."

At the same time Puerto Ricans who were born or grew up on the U.S. mainland were incorporating jazz, rock and other idioms into traditional Latin musical forms. So when Lavoe hooked up with the jazz trombonist and band leader Willie Colon, their first collaboration, the 1967 album "El Malo" ("The Bad Guy"), featured jazz, mambo, salsa and Latin rock styles known as boogaloo and shing-a-ling. It was an immediate success and cemented a partnership that continued intermittently into the '80s.

"Hector was basically a hick from Puerto Rico, and he wanted to come to New York and be part of this 'West Side Story' kind of thing," Colon said. "I was raised by my grandmom in the South Bronx, who told me, 'Don't forget you're Puerto Rican.' He taught me Spanish, I taught him English."

More important, Colon's sophisticated arrangements, coupled with Lavoe's unforgettably nasal voice and his ability to improvise at the drop of a hat - "Even in conversation, he could rhyme the last thing you said," Colon said - created a style that proved irresistible to Spanish-speaking audiences.

"Hector was the face and voice of Puerto Rico," said Bruce Polin of the Latin music Web site descarga.com. "His voice is wonderful, but not necessarily beautiful in the conventional sense. He's nasal and laid back, but he has a real vulnerability. He was also known as a great improviser, a talent widely regarded in salsa. He'd customize songs to the audience and surroundings."

Yet instant success also led to major problems. Lavoe soon became a drug addict notorious for his failure to show up on time for concerts. Even so, he continued to be adored by audiences.

"People relate to iconic figures who are deeply flawed, and Hector's well-documented weaknesses showed he was like us," Polin aid. "His drug abuse, inability to show up for performances on time, his personal tragedies - these made him seem like regular people and drove his audience to root that much harder for him. If you put down Hector, you were putting down the whole of Puerto Rico, of humanity."

Until physical problems debilitated him, Lavoe continued to perform internationally and record groundbreaking albums, including his 1975 solo debut, "La Voz." And his legend has only grown since his death. Lavoe's music has been sampled by a number of reggaeton artists and rappers, several of whom have shown up at awards ceremonies wearing T-shirts bearing his likeness. A 1999 off-Broadway show, "Quien Mato a Hector Lavoe?" ("Who Killed Hector Lavoe?") celebrated his music, and the recent CD release of classic albums from the Fania label is bringing his work to a new generation of listeners. There is also a Spanish-language film project about Lavoe's life called "The Singer," which has been filming in Puerto Rico with Raul Carbonell in the title role.

If "El Cantante" is well received in Toronto - and lands a solid theatrical distributor - it may round out Lavoe's career by connecting him with those beyond his Latin fans. Lopez, who plays Puchi in the film, said that will happen, as it finds its way to "the people who would see 'Ray,' 'Walk the Line' or 'Selena.' "

"It's the story about a relevant artist who touched people with his music, and led this tragic life."

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/0816cantante0816.html