“It’s all about making music in Miami, and a homage to my city¨, says Toto González, aka, Mr. Pauer, acclaimed Latin-Grammy nominated DJ/Musician/Producer. ¨Orange is the Florida fruit, and it’s a complete entity, but when you open it up, you see that there’s lots of individual pieces that make it up”, he continues to explain, as he describes why and how he gave the title to his latest recording.
This makes perfect sense, as each of the thirteen musicians that collaborate on Orange are Miami-based, but they all hail from different lands, and the album is recorded in four languages: Portuguese, Creole, Spanish and English. “Orange is also a color that inspires peace, happiness and creativity”, he adds. And indeed, the collaborations for the album were truly intuitive and inspired, as each of the 13 invited artists personally chose the song he or she wished to work with from about 80 tracks that González had created.
It’s a natural progression for the genre that González created as Mr. Pauer: electrópico, tasty tropical beats rooted in all the marvelous musics that are born in the lands of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn – from merengue to souk to other rhythms, says González, that brought by historial circumstances to the Caribbean islands gave birth to genres such as reggae, salsa, dancehall.
“The most important thing”, says González, “is to not have any barriers, mentioning that he grew up listening to rock, grunge and heavy metal, and some of this too has created the subtext for his music, and one suspects, the base of his fierce live drumming.
Creating electrópico has also been a shift to the tropical grooves that he remembers nostalgically as all immigrants living in the U.S.A. do, he says, “These are memories tied to traditional music in Venezuela, and music from my country from the 80´s and 90´s. It’s a more internal connection that ties me to my people and my family memories”.
Mr. Pauer will perform in Chicago as part of the Inaugural Global Peace Picnic, but although he will not bring the full band and collaborating musicians to Humboldt Park, he promises a set that has all the elements of the live show, with sampling of the collaborators on Orange. “It’ll be a set full of sabrosura, with a lot of cumbia, and a lot of onda!”.
Mr. Pauer will perform at the Inaugural Global Peace Picnic in Humboldt Park Sunday September 20. Check his newest album, Orange, which was released yesterday!
Check Catalina’s show Beat Latino! Also airs Fridays at 1pm and Sundays at 11am on Vocalo.