San Juan

A pianist and a new orchestra

Before El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico took its name, pianist Rafael Ithier had worked with Rafael Cortijo’s orchestra. Ithier was born in San Juan; in 1962 he brought musicians together in a new group after Cortijo’s band broke up.

Their first dance was at the Rock’n Roll Club in Bayamón, a neighbouring city in the San Juan metropolitan area. Ithier played piano. The orchestra went on to build a long recording career, taking its Puerto Rican dance repertoire far beyond that first engagement.

Among its later songs, “Azuquita pa’l café” was written by Perín Vázquez and sung by Jerry Rivas. Its everyday image of sweetening coffee became the title of a salsa recording. The album El Gran Combo in Alaska places that song far from San Juan in its title, even as the orchestra’s pianist and founder came from the Puerto Rican capital.